In-game ads have become one of the monetization methods that have become widespread over the past few years. Until last year, it was primarily seen as a monetization method for smaller studios and hypercasual games, while larger developers have been taking advantage of strategies such as subscription and in-app purchase (IAP) models. However, things have changed rapidly and now a growing number of top grossing games have also begun to integrate ads to support their IAP-monetization.
With the growing popularity of in-game ads, developers started looking for new ways to encourage players to watch the ads. Thus, for the first time, we entered a period in which we started to earn temporary boosts, lives and tangible gifts by watching ads.
With the right integration methods and meaningful rewards, watching ads can make mutual gains for both players and developers. While players are offered an alternative for real-money payments, developers can earn income from non-spending players. Moreover, due to the fact that watching advertising is completely voluntary, the game experience is not interrupted and the audience does not feel “disturbed” due to the advertisements.
In the report that published by Game Refinery, incentivized videos are divided into four categories as tangible gifts, temporary boosts, revives/continues and skipping time.
Thanks to these innovative mechanics, developers aim to increase the click-rate for in-game ads. Also, players are willing to watch more ads if rewards grow after each consecutive video.
Even though monetization methods like offer walls and forced videos continue to be used, incentivized videos reveal new strategies for earning revenue from games. With the help of such methods, not only game monetization, but also advertising can gain a new dimension.
