4 “Golden Rules” to Increase Revenue from Incentive Video Ads

The "dark horse" of motivational videos has gradually changed people's past negative impression of advertising. As a model that encourages users to actively watch advertisements, incentivized videos have become an indispensable commercialization method for games with their high eCPM. Their ability to improve user retention and in-app purchases to a certain extent has also made them an important means of game operation. However, rewarded video ads also have disadvantages - the initiative of whether to watch ads is given to players, which leads to the loss of many ad impressions and thus affects advertising revenue.

In the actual monetization process, the game homepage is one of the most common incentive video advertising scenarios, and most developers choose to set up an advertising entrance on the homepage. However, statistics from UPLTV show that there is a huge disparity in revenue from incentive video ads on the homepages of different games. So, how can we effectively increase the revenue of incentive video ads on the game homepage?

First of all, we need to understand why developers generally choose to set up advertising entrances on the game homepage? Although the ad placement settings for incentive videos are very flexible and varied, the advantages of using the game homepage as an advertising scene are also obvious. First of all, considering the coverage of ad spaces, the game homepage is the page that displays and covers the largest number of players. Setting the ad entrance on the homepage can greatly avoid ad display losses caused by players failing to find ad spaces.

Secondly, considering the reach rate of the ad space, the homepage is the page that most players stay on and click on most often. Since most game functions are set on the homepage, players have formed the habit of searching for and clicking on functions on the homepage over time, which also makes players more willing to interact with the homepage advertising space. In addition, considering the conversion effect of advertising and the player experience, reasonably embedding advertising in the form of game functions on the homepage can increase players' interest in the game.

The acceptance, experience and conversion of advertisements are relatively better. Combining the above three aspects, the game homepage has absolute advantages that other advertising scenarios cannot have at the same time, so setting up incentive video ads on the homepage has become a "standard feature".

When the scene and ad placement are determined, increasing ad penetration (i.e. the number of users who viewed the ad divided by the number of active users) is the key to improving eCPM. Under the same display conditions, the higher the penetration, the wider the audience the ad will cover and the higher the ad revenue will be. What specific actions need to be taken to increase the advertising penetration rate of incentive videos on the homepage? UPLTV provides the following four optimization "rules" for developers:

1. Optimize the ad slot entrance style: clear + eye-catching = deepen player memory

To increase the advertising penetration rate, we must first consider that the design of the ad slot entrance style must be eye-catching enough, because this directly affects the player's willingness to click on the ad. The optimization suggestions for the ad slot entrance style can be summarized as follows:

• The button style of the ad slot must match the theme and style of the game to maintain the overall harmony of the game screen;
• The size of the ad button should be consistent with the size of the game's commonly used function buttons. Implanting the ad as a game function will increase player acceptance.
• Special animations can be added to ad buttons to attract players’ attention. For example, animations such as countdown to claim time and progress bar can enhance players’ sense of urgency and stimulate them to click.

Two cases are provided for reference. In Game A (below), the ad slot entrance is gray and static, and is arranged near the secondary functions in the upper left corner of the game. The style does not fit the game screen well and is not obvious, making it difficult for people to quickly find the advertising entrance on the page.

The ad entrance of Game A is gray and static, not eye-catching enough

In Game B (below), the ad spot is located near the “Login Reward” function on the left. The style is consistent with the game interface and a flashing effect is added. In addition, the number 5 is marked to indicate the remaining number of ads for the day. This effectively increases the memory point of the ad spot, allowing players to clearly and intuitively find and remember the location of the ad spot.

Game B Advertisement position is dynamically presented to increase the memory point

2. Advertisement entrance location design: the main functional location is the "golden location"

The homepage of a game often has many functions, and it takes a lot of knowledge to decide where to place the ads. Generally speaking, near the main functions of the game homepage (such as "Login Rewards", "Settings", etc.) is an excellent location for setting up incentive video ads. Because the main functions of the game are most easily accessible to players, implanting advertisements as game functions near them can easily attract players' attention in a timely manner and cultivate players' clicking habits. However, if for some reason the ad slot can only be set as a secondary function, UPLTV also recommends that developers can add animations or obvious signs to the corresponding parent main function entrance to attract players to click and avoid the ad slot being hidden too deeply and ignored.

For example, in Game C (below), the incentive video is designed as a "double reward" function on the secondary function page, but a red exclamation mark with a luminous effect is added to the entrance of the function button of the previous level, which can obviously attract players to click the button and discover the advertising entrance.

Game C: Add obvious signs to the main function entrance on the homepage to attract players to discover the advertising space on the secondary function page

3. Advertising slot entry reward expression: clearly communicate the advertising reward rules to players

In fact, the first step to consider optimizing the advertising mechanism is to set reasonable incentive video advertising rewards, which is a necessary condition for increasing advertising revenue, including the content and amount of rewards. The reward content needs to be set according to the game type and advertising scenario. UPLTV recommends that the value of advertising rewards must be sufficiently attractive, which can encourage players to actively watch ads and even stimulate their willingness to make in-app purchases, thereby increasing the overall LTV; and the number of rewards can be adjusted according to the player's game progress, that is, the number of rewards increases accordingly as the level increases, so as to ensure that players can maintain their willingness to watch ads.

“Even good wine needs no bush.” When the advertising rewards are attractive enough, this information needs to be clearly communicated to players at the entrance of the ad slot, so that players can understand the rewards they will get for watching this video ad and clearly manage their expectations. Incentive videos must reward users. Only when users are satisfied with the reward content will they be willing to click on the ads. As for the reward expression of the ad slot entrance, there are two practical operations that can meet the requirements:

• Provide obvious advertising logo and reward content information at the entrance of the advertising space;
• Add a secondary confirmation pop-up window in the ad space to display the ad reward content;

Players need to fully understand the advertising rewards before clicking on ads in order to provide a better gaming experience and improve the actual conversion effect of the ads. By comparing the following actual cases, you can also feel the difference that "whether advertising rewards are clearly communicated" brings to the player experience. In Game D (below), there is only the word "AD" on the gift pack graphic of the ad slot, indicating that this is an incentivized video ad slot, but there is no way of knowing the reward after watching the ad, so the gift pack is not attractive to players. In addition, players are unable to know the conditions for obtaining the gift pack, the number of ads limited, the ad cooldown time, and other information. The rather vague ad reward rules will make some players choose to retain the click opportunity, resulting in the loss of ad display.

Game D: The ad slot only displays “AD”, and the reward rules are vague.

In Game B (below), the remaining number of times a player can receive the ad reward each day is indicated by a red number on the entrance to the ad slot. After clicking, a second pop-up window will inform the player of the reward content that can be obtained after watching the ad. After being fully informed of the reward content and rules, the player can choose whether to watch the ad. By providing a second confirmation opportunity, the player's right to choose to watch ads is further emphasized. It provides a better gaming experience and ensures that all advertising displays are based on the players' wishes, which to a large extent ensures the effective display and effective clicks of advertisements. On the contrary, if the rules are unclear or the ads are set up to induce clicks, which affects the gaming experience, then even if players watch the ads, it will be difficult to generate effective conversions, and they will be less likely to actively watch the ads in the future, which will have a negative impact on both game retention and advertising revenue.

Game B reconfirms and clearly displays the reward content

Therefore, whether from the perspective of advertising policy or actual advertising effectiveness, UPLTV recommends displaying clear advertising logos and reward content at the advertising entrance. As long as the reward content is attractive enough, players will voluntarily choose to watch ads in exchange for rewards and are willing to make more clicks.

4. Design of advertising limit: Find the best value based on game attributes and A/B testing

For different categories of games, user attributes vary greatly, and their tolerance for advertisements also varies. In order to maximize game revenue, developers need to decide whether to set the number of ad views and the upper limit based on the game attributes.

• For mid-to-heavy games, setting the number of ad views is a better option, which can effectively control the number of rewards non-paying players receive through ads, and will not threaten the gaming proficiency of paying players and affect the gaming ecosystem.
• For casual games, it is recommended to determine the optimal limit on the number of times users watch ads based on the actual difficulty of the game in conjunction with A/B testing. This can not only prevent users from becoming tired of ads, but also cultivate users' advertising habits, increase user revisit time, and further improve game retention and advertising revenue.
• For hyper-casual games, it is generally not recommended to set a cooldown time or limit the number of times for rewarded video ads. It can maintain the fast pace of hyper-casual games and make full use of players' fragmented time to maximize advertising revenue.

Final Thoughts

Advertising monetization is not about mechanically inserting advertisements into the game. An advertising mechanism based on better player experience can bring more lasting and substantial revenue to the game. Therefore, in the process of advertising monetization optimization, it is recommended that developers always put users first. If your game also has rewarded video ads on the homepage, but the revenue is not ideal, we strongly recommend that you try to adopt the four optimization directions recommended in this article to increase game revenue:

• Design a clearer and more eye-catching ad slot entrance style;
• Set the ad slot entrance near the main function button on the homepage;
• Provide sufficiently attractive advertising rewards and clearly communicate the reward mechanism to players;
• Set an upper limit on the number of advertisements based on the game attributes and in combination with A/B testing.

Author: Game Gyro

Source: Game Gyro ( shouyoushouce )