Rewarded Ads – Striking The Balance In Mobile Gaming
Marketing has taken on a completely different format since the inception of mobile gaming. The broader fabric of the mobile gaming market has become much more nuanced. Instead of a conventional gaming model where you pay for the game as a one-off transaction and then play it until completion, mobile gaming has shifted this entire model on its head.
Rise Of Strategy Games
To understand how rewarded ads have become such a seminal part of mobile game design, we must first map their rise. Some believe that the rise of mobile strategy games started to find its feet in the early 2010s, and while this is true, the original foundation of these games dates back decades.
Online casino gaming has so many aspects that it is essentially the blueprint for mobile gaming ideas that have gone on to achieve global success over the last decade and a half. In poker, the rise of mobile gaming created an interesting dilemma for those behind the design of these games.
Other tech innovations that have permeated the world of poker have showcased that there is a market for poker to grow into the modern market, such as video poker, online poker, and crypto poker; they are just some of the more visible examples over the last half-century. However, for those who play poker on mobile devices, they have watched this entire market shift to mobile.
Bandwidth, streaming speed, in-game chats and latency are a different beast in the mobile gaming market. Once mobile poker became a permanent part of the online casino gaming world, it led to a raft of ideas integrating rewarded ads into poker and across the broader casino gaming market, too.
Power Of Incentivizing Adverts
We’ve seen rewarded ads find success in video console gaming, casino gaming, and across the mobile gaming sector. Rather than advertising a product or service, brands have swiftly moved into the social media age and leveraged platforms like Instagram to incentivize use and sign-ups, as you can see in the link below.
By incentivizing ads and offering rewards, this changes people’s approach to them. Instead of being a laborious process, you must sit through almost as a chore, rewarded ads provide an in-game bonus for those who select them. By selecting the ad, you get a game-based reward. It could be something like unlocking the next level, in-game currencies, skins, or clues; it all depends on the type of game.
When these adverts are leveraged in the right way, they can create a perfect scenario for all involved, which is an example we have already seen unfold in other industries. From the perspective of the person playing the game, they make positive connections with the concept of adverts, rather than actively looking to avoid them, but if there are too many, then this pendulum can quickly swing back the other way – so it is about leveraging adverts that are bespoke, sparse, but still do enough to generate revenue for the game.
Changing Face Of Mobile Gaming Ads
Adverts are the primary route for commercial revenue in gaming. Yes, some mobile games can generate enormous profits purely through their gaming model or visibility in the space. But even highly influential mobile games, which have transformed how the markets operate, have had to adjust to the changing face of adverts.
Games like Clash of Clans, League of Legends, and PUBG all have highly driven marketing teams that spend a lot of money to ensure their commercials reach every corner of the globe and connect with the market wherever it is. Clash of Clans, partnering with Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland, showcased how innovative these marketing ideas can get – and technology is adding yet another layer to this innovation.
Technology, particularly the rise of AI, has made it much easier for marketing departments to leverage AI tools and create ad ideas from simple prompts. Many marketing departments no longer require large-scale teams for writing, design, and developing marketing ideas. There’s now an increasing number of people using tools to design them from scratch.
Mastering video monetization has become an automated process thanks to the rise of AI. From a marketing perspective, it has enabled advertisers to develop AI-generated videos that create bespoke ads, whether for reward ads, banner ads, or social media marketing strategies.
Final Thoughts
When they first floated the idea of rewarded ads, it was met with skepticism and promise. Some in the industry believed that they would turn people away from games, that there wasn’t a market for selecting your ads, and that the real skill was to develop games with a seamless user experience, devoid of ads.
However, as we have showcased today, if the adverts are bespoke, not in your face, and offer a stepping stonestepping stone to an unlockable level in a game. There’s an appetite for them, and while this might change over the next decade or two, they have proven to be an excellent foundation for advertising, both in mobile gaming and across the industry.
Disclaimer
This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, marketing, or gaming advice. The performance of any rewarded ads in a mobile game may vary depending on multiple factors, including platform, audience, and implementation. Readers should conduct their own research before adopting any strategies discussed here.
References
- Hamari, J., & Keronen, L. (2017). Why do people play games? A meta-analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 37(3), 125–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2016.07.008
- Moshirnia, A., & Dehghani, M. (2020). Advertising in mobile games: A systematic review. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 20(2), 101–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/15252019.2020.1755912
- Vesa, M., & Hamari, J. (2018). In-game advertising effectiveness: The role of reward type. Computers in Human Behavior, 82, 178–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.01.012
- Zagal, J. P., & Deterding, S. (2018). The Gameful World: Approaches, Issues, Applications. MIT Press.