Video ad Monetization significantly dominates the Game World and are an imperative engagement strategy for developers and advertisers alike. A huge number of game players view these ads on different gaming mobile platforms (Web, Mobile-Web or Native Mobile), which makes this a perfect opportunity.
Both Rewarded vs. Non-Rewarded ads are used as tools to engage users, but their effectiveness hugely varies. Rewarded Ads have a high tendency for user engagement and are preferred to traditional non-rewarded ads. Let’s dig out which of these ads make higher contributions to IAP revenue models.
What are Rewarded and Non-Rewarded Video Ads?
Rewarded Video Ads, also known as incentivized ads, are offered to users in exchange for an in-game gifts or privileges. Users can view the ads in the middle of games at different levels and achieve maximum conversion.
On the other hand, Non-rewarded ads are typical advertisement banners and pop-ups that pop up at any time during the gameplay. These tend to promote different products or services, along with featuring call to action that appears without the user’s interest or consent.
Rewarded Vs. Non-Rewarded – Which Works Best?
Rewarded Video Ads:
- User-Centric Ads
This type of ads gives users a clear value proposition in exchange for 15- 30 seconds of Ad watching. In other words, the ads are watched at the user’s discretion which is a big thing for advertisers and game developers alike.
- Increased Engagement
By allowing a user to have premium game experience in exchange for watching a Reward Video Ad, users get to enjoy the game much better. These tends to increase attachment and build user engagement within the game.
- Cost-Effective
These ads are cost-effective for the advertisers and developers because rewards are only paid on successful engagement. The direct impact of higher engagement means lower eCPM (effective cost per mile) due to increased impressions.
- More Traffic
The rewarded video ads drive more traffic to the games as these offer user-specific ads of their interest. Thus, it brings re-engagement of users and helps advertisers cater to users’ interests in a better way, which is key to solving the age-old problem of user retention.
Non-Rewarded Video Ads
Non-Rewarded Ads are enforced advertisements. These ads don’t offer any incentive to users and pop-ups in the middle of the game or app can be quite intrusive, ruining the general user experience. Users will not genuinely engage with these types of ads, which also leads to poorer performance for the advertisers, hence directly impacting the publishers as well.
A comparative analysis of both types of ads show that Rewarded Ads create a better user experience, leave a longer impression on users and increase engagement. It benefits all the stakeholders – Advertiser, users, Game Publisher alike. Recent studies have concluded these ads offer a better user experience in the following ways:
- It empowers users with more control by allowing them to view ads by consent, rather than being enforced upon them.
- Users take advantage of special features and unlockables provided by the advertisers that they otherwise would have to pay.
- Most of these ads are placed at crucial moments during the gameplay, which creates an increased likelihood of the Ad engagement .
- Users get the reward instantly after watching the video ad, and it makes a positive impact about the advertisement because these ads offer benefits to users right when they need them.
- The right Ad placements doesn’t annoy users, and users remain more loyal to games and likely to engage more with in-app purchases.
- Users will engage with more ads to seek more rewards from playing games, which is a win-win for advertisers and publishers alike.
For Game Developers, rewarded ads bring higher revenue. We have experienced a better click-through rate (CTR), and the installation rate of apps with rewarded ads was recorded 75% higher than will provide a higher return on investment with these ads. Thus, it will bring more sales and a high impact on revenues for the publishers.
AppLixir Reward Video Ad Platform is here to walk you through the process of implementing the reward video ads model into your mobile game for increased user engagement along with a strong stream of revenue inflow.
