How can you keep players engaged without overwhelming them with ads?

As a person who used to play a lot of mobile games, the worst that could happen was being forced to watch an ad. However, games are incorporating a new strategy that involves giving the player a choice to watch an ad for in game credits. This is a very strong way to use ads to not only boost whatever company is being advertised but to boost your own game as well!

To maintain player engagement without overwhelming them with ads, game developers can adopt several strategies. These include offering opt-in ads for in-game rewards, interstitial ads during natural breaks, and rewarded video ads. In-game ads, when seamlessly integrated, enhance the player experience. Limiting ad frequency, providing ad-free options, and using targeted ads also help. Regular playtesting and feedback gathering, optimizing ad placement, and ensuring transparency about the ad strategy contribute to a balanced player experience. Prioritizing the overall user experience with engaging gameplay and responsive customer support can offset any negative perceptions related to ads, creating a win-win scenario.

Ads are something which is a benefit as well as a the most frustrating for a player. Ads should be more of a choice for the player as rewards would lure most of the gamers but and no ad game experience would catch most of the gamers attention

In my opinion rather than forcing ads. Offering user a choice between watch ad or make an in app purchase give user some control and understanding that user is opting to not pay so some ads or ok

That is certainly one way of doing it, but you can also put a subscription on your game, meaning when people buy that then they won’t have any ad running on the game. For example you can do $5 a month subscription, meaning they won’t have any ad for a month.

Key thoughts from my experience: On mobile the max money you get from the first presented ads to an new user. And it doesn’t make bigger sense from revenue to push an user watch 50 more ads for the day . 1-3 ads per day for one user of rewarded video is enough with some valuable complex (2-3 items)reward for gameplay. Next key point is to be focused to convert your non payer user to payer by providing a good personal offer for the user. And only when non payer user does not want to pay let’s carefully offer rewarded video , and in one week of playing it might be not skipped rewarded video. The last important point to decrease negative impact of ads , you should carefully find places for presentation.

Actually, it's not that complicated over here. Just make tests until you find the sweet spots. It's important to not stick with the sweet spots you found earlier. Challenge and re-test them once or twice a year.

To preserve player engagement and prevent ad overload, it's crucial to limit ad frequency and duration. Apply a frequency cap to restrict how often ads appear, preventing player frustration. Schedule ads during natural breaks in gameplay to minimize disruption. Keep ad durations concise (around 15-30 seconds) to maintain player interest. Ensure prompt rewards for rewarded video ads. Offer a skip option when possible, giving players control. Collect and act on player feedback, adjusting ad frequency and duration as needed. Consider providing a premium, ad-free game version for uninterrupted play, allowing players to choose their experience. These practices strike a balance between monetization and player satisfaction.

Implementing a solution that has sophisticated ad viewability measurement enables intelligent frequency capping, so instead of bombarding the Gamer with the same campaign over and over again, there is an opportunity to show relevant ads for several different products instead. On the demand side this attracts much more premium brands to invest, as their image recognition is closely tied to user perception and overexposure is the worst case, which can even lead to negative brand image effects.

Segmentation is the great mechanic to maximize your revenue not only for ads but also to personalize offers based on in app purchases. The simplest way might be using bigmac index per country . That is pretty simple way . Or try to find a third party solution like Wappier with machine learning backend .

Segmenting players helps tailor the gaming experience: 1. Player Behavior: Analyze how players engage with your game (casual, hardcore, competitive) and adjust challenges accordingly. 2. Demographics: Consider age, location, and gender for targeted content. 3. Spending Habits: Recognize paying players and provide special offers or benefits. 4. Skill Level: Adapt game difficulty to cater to both beginners and experts. 5. Game Progress: Customize content based on how far players have advanced in the game. 6. Play Style: Cater to different preferences, such as solo or multiplayer modes. 7. Feedback: Gather and implement player feedback to enhance the overall experience.

Audience segmentation is key for intelligent campaign strategy, the more information and granular targeting can be offered to advertisers, the higher the CPM will be. First party data that helps advertisers zoom in on their desired customers is an essential asset to attract higher marketing budgets and keep the advertisers coming back.

Being able to seperate your players and target your ads is an effective strategy when it comes to how a player might feel that a game has ads in the first place. If a player is able to be engaged in the ad with a genuine interest, it will be a win-win situation for everyone. Therefore, targeting your advertising and also providing a subscription that’ll turn off ads will be positive strategies.

In my experience segmentation is not as common practice as it talked about in the admon world. Geography, in-app purchase and LAT (limit ad tracking) are three major segmentation areas. I see that people are spending less and less time on the LAT side.

There’s other methods besides direct ads that can be used too such as sponsorships, partner brand collaborations, and advanced gamification tied to non-game enhancing in-app payments (consider how Fortnite sells skins and other visual elements to their players). Taking a look at Yu-Kai Chou’s advanced gamification principles can lead to many different ways to consider elements of the game or game loop that could be monetized that players would enjoy more than ads. However if ads are necessary then Yu-Kai’s Octalysis framework can still assist in gamifying the ads. As a whole studying gamification and talking to players can lead to alternative models besides ad based revenue.

As a gamer and a game developer, membership and premium ad ons are good for personalisation , just like in the real world. But it should not give a player advantage over the other players. Like in COD mobile premium players have access to legendary guns which is an advantage above the rest and ignores FAIR gameplay.

You will always always find at least one bug in one of the ad-networks' latest adapter versions. Be sure that you invest enough time to test all ad-networks' all ad types before every release.

Please test all your ads, both in staging and production, to avoid getting several thousand upvotes on the Sh*ttyMobileGameAds subreddit. Larger companies can afford entire teams dedicated to vetting adverts.

Sometimes it can be best to look elsewhere away from ads. While ads work great in the Mobile Gaming Industry space and there are lots of ways to balance an ad but at times the developer wants to create an experience that shouldn't be interrupted with ads such as a mobile indie horror title as an example. It helps that with projects like these to avoid using ads as it breaks the immersion that is so important to the players experience and perhaps it'd be better off selling the game for a dollar or two or give a free to play demo that allows players to experience the first hour of the game for free and then ask them to pay later if they want to finish the game. Ads while useful in many situations can be deemed destructive to the experience

Make the ads be part of the game. Usem them as a puzzle part, fun part or extra lvl part. Give a extra help (item or somethins) would be a plus.