Rewarding players and privacy is rewarding

From non-intrusive in-game brand ad formats to rewarded play discussion led by Felix Braberg Co-founder, two & a half gamers explored the latest thinking in the rewarded space to better understand the innovations and requirements for monetization & retention.

Here’s a few highlights from what the publishers and partners had to say.

How to engage players immersively

From non-intrusive in-game brand ad formats to rewarded play the discussion explored the latest innovations and thinking in the rewarded space to show how to achieve incremental monetization and improve retention by valuing a player’s time and incentivising specific behaviours in-game.

Janos Perei, Head of Performance Marketing, SYBO

As Subway Surfer’s is an endless runner, we care deeply about recurring daily play time. We are looking at smarter ways to innovate with rewarded formats incorporating the mechanic into certain mission milestones relating to ad content and not just part of the daily ‘come back tomorrow’ reward to help drive engagement and retention.  SYBO believes user privacy is the future and players must be safeguarded well and so looking into alternative ad formats. 

Ultimately what we want is to create a premium experience for the users that makes sure there are relevant ads at the right time for the users that are nicely integrated into the flow as opposed to interrupting the game.

Ferran Puñet Soriano, Co-founder & Director of Monetisation & Product Strategy, Pnkfrg Studios

The important thing when it comes to reward systems linked to monetization is that you don’t over promise. It’s not about players getting rich, it’s about getting something back in exchange for effort and engaging with the game.

Jure Grahek, Head of Strategic Initiatives, ZBD

Our research shows when you gift players a little bit of money, they tend to play a lot more and in an ad monetization world, retention = money. We consistently see if developers give out 10 – 25% of their in-game ad revenue to players in return they see a 80% – 150% uplift in ARPDAU.

Adam Pattison, Product Director, AdInMo

We want to keep players in the game and innovate ad mechanics. One format we’re testing is to reward players with Bitcoin for the duration ads are in view and the time players are engaging, all redeemed without leaving the game. 

Navigating the Privacy Maze

The recent AdMob requirements and the upcoming Google Consent Mode have intensified privacy compliance challenges for game publishers. Regulators and platforms are pushing the industry towards a privacy-first approach with a focus on safe, high-quality advertising. 

Gus Viegas, VP of Marketing, Cosmic Lounge

It’s important for developers to understand implementing a CMP and passing the TC string is ultimately a backend thing. It’s not about a client facing pop-up but rather making sure brands and mediation platforms know you are GDPR compliant from a backend perspective – you’re doing it correctly by using a verified CMP. 

At first, you think about the negative i.e. the 15% of total revenue you will lose overnight if Google block your traffic Europe. But it also opens up new revenue and new opportunities for monetization including opening up demand brand advertisers.  

Božo Janković, Head of Ad Monetization, GameBiz Consulting

There is now lower risk to friction compared to a year ago because consumers are getting used to the consent implementation across different apps and games. Just like a couple of years ago when players had to get used to seeing ATT messages, the CMP and TCF is standardizing how the pop-up looks and this ultimately improves trust. 

Luca Da Vita, Account Executive, Usercentrics

The biggest question of course is why do developers have to invest when Google offers a solution for free? But developers quickly see that functionality such as A/B testing or custom banners are the motivation to implement a proper CMP.  Better opt-in rates between the free version and more sophisticated solutions may sound small % wise but they make a big difference in monetization.

John Rankin, CRO, AdInMo

The impact on the programmatic pipes of passing the TC string correctly is very quick – demand from higher paying brand advertisers becomes available. You can see this from AdInMo’s recent case study with Black Smoke Studio who implemented Usercentrics’ CMP and saw 377% increase in ARPDAU and positive results on all monetization metrics after just 4 weeks. Brand advertisers don’t put their money where they don’t think their audiences are going to be respected, they want to see the full chain. 

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