Mobile games are a universally popular and accessible form of leisure for modern people. Whether on the subway on your way to work, during a lunch break, or after an evening workout, you can always grab your smartphone and beat a couple of levels.

With an impressive variety of games available, competition is fierce. While players often wonder what to play next, game developers and marketers face a different challenge: how to effectively attract interested and high-value users.

The Power of In-App Advertising

In-app advertising is a highly effective and reliable source for achieving ambitious game developer goals. In this article, we’ll explore the capabilities of in-app traffic and how Bidease can help you maximize its potential based on your gaming project’s monetization model.

But first, let’s look at some numbers.

Impressive Reach

The app category has long been extremely popular among smartphone users. For example, in March 2022, the Apple App Store offered over 1 million gaming apps, while Google Play had over 477,000 in Q2 2022. Additionally, adjacent categories like Entertainment and Lifestyle provide opportunities to reach a broader audience.

According to Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report 2022, there were an estimated 267.5 million mobile gamers spending a total of $103.5 billion in 2022, accounting for 53% of the forecasted market size.

The Role of the Monetization Model

One reason mobile games are in high demand worldwide is their accessibility—they are often free to download, with in-app purchases available to enhance the gaming experience. Understanding your game’s monetization model is crucial for effective in-app promotion. Bidease deals with three primary models:

1. In-App Advertising
2. In-App Purchases
3. Hybrid Monetization (combining in-app advertising and purchases)

Importance of the Test Period

Regardless of the monetization model, promoting a gaming project starts with a test period. It’s essential to set up all necessary events in the advertiser’s mobile tracker before the test campaigns begin. A detailed user journey allows for better predictions, resulting in loyal, active users performing desired actions.

Before running test campaigns, we study and evaluate the advertiser’s audience, developing multiple creatives to test different hypotheses and approaches. We create a look-alike model based on the advertiser’s audience, run a test campaign, collect data, and develop a predictive model that accounts for user behavior.

For creatives, we prepare thoroughly, developing several versions of each ad to understand what triggers better responses. Interstitial Video and Playable Ads are particularly effective as they showcase gameplay and features or give an overview of the game’s plot.

A typical test campaign lasts up to two weeks, though the duration depends on how quickly the platform collects enough statistically significant data.

Benefits of Attribution Settings

After the test campaign, we develop predictive models based on audience behavior for all desired post-install events. Here’s how we set up and train predictive algorithms for different monetization models:

In-App Advertising Monetization

We train models for user return-related events, such as Retention Rate for Day 1, Day 7, Day 30, etc. Campaign performance improves by tracking events related to ad views during gaming sessions.

In-App Purchase Monetization

For purchase-oriented models, we consider all steps of the user journey from installation to subsequent purchases. The more events you set up, the better predictions and higher ROAS you achieve. Early-stage models focus on all purchase-related events and become more intelligent over time, factoring in nuances like high average check purchases and repeat purchases.

Hybrid Monetization

Hybrid models require a holistic approach, developing a metamodel that includes various scenarios. The algorithm creates forecasts for multiple events simultaneously.

Importance of Data and Continuous Optimization

Predictive algorithms need at least 500 to 1,000 events for each target action to train effectively. This condition applies to all mobile game monetization models. Continuous data collection and algorithm improvement ensure ongoing optimization of ad campaigns and performance metrics.

Conclusion

Mobile games are engaging, accessible, and immensely popular. However, simply creating a great product is often not enough. Effective promotion requires understanding the game’s monetization model and the behavioral patterns of its target audience.

Modern advertising technologies elevate in-app media buying, allowing you to leverage audience knowledge to benefit the product and optimize marketing budgets. By approaching promotion wisely, developers can engage as many relevant players as possible and achieve their goals.