Opinion: video advertising in games should not be abused
Video advertising in games should be used dosed,” warns Nick Hatter, creator of the giftgaming marketing platform, in his blog.
Many publishers believe that players love in-game video ads. In fact, Hutter is sure that this is not the case. Players love the free soft currency that can be obtained for the video, and the process of watching the videos itself turns them away. Moreover, the more ads there are in the game, the less likely a player is to commit an IAP, Hutter argues, since pop-ups and forced video viewing “blurs the feeling of a premium gaming experience.”
At the same time, Hutter, who is familiar with the problems of monetization of games, does not deny that advertising in shareware games is a matter of necessity. Developers need to make money on something, given that 98.65% of users are not spent on IAP.
However, there is a danger of being in a vicious circle: the fewer paying players, the more advertising and higher IAP – which scares paying players away and makes it necessary to use even more advertising…
How to get out of it? King, for example, solved the problem radically and refused to advertise in games. However, he left the IAP and, judging by the revenue, he did not lose. The example of Hipster Whale, which earned $1 million from video advertising, proves that the opposite strategy also bears fruit. In Crossy Road, it is impossible to influence the gameplay with payments – only the purchase of characters is paid. And in-game currency is mined by watching AI videos directly during the game.
What should developers do to, on the one hand, monetize the project, and on the other – not to scare away paying users? Hutter believes that the question remains open for now.
Other materials on the topic:Candy Crush Developer Gets Rid of In-Game Advertising
- Crossy Road earned more than $1 million from advertising
- Nick Hatter is the founder and CEO of the giftgaming platform, which allows companies to sell branded virtual currency and powerups in games.
