Mobile Game Ads: Effective Ways to Monetize Your Apps

There are over 2.2 billion active mobile gamers across the world.

As a mobile game developer, it’s clear there’s a vast market to be capitalized on. You have put your best efforts to work and developed a mobile game. Perhaps it’s already live on the various mobile app distribution platforms.

What are you waiting for?

Of course, you want gamers to download and play the game. Importantly, you want to make money and recoup your costs as well as make a tidy profit.

Running mobile game ads is one of your options but do you know how to best utilize it? Are there any other ways to monetize your app?

Read on for expert insight.

Running Mobile Game Ads

Download any random mobile game from your favorite app store and you’ll be bombarded with ads as soon as you start playing. Those are mobile games ads, which are the easiest and most popular way to monetize an app.

Do they work? Yes.

Do they deliver the highest return? This is debatable since these ads are well-known to lower gamer experience. No one wants to watch an ad every few seconds or minutes when all they want to do is get immersed in the game.

You can run these ads on your app as well, but be careful not to interfere with gamer experience. Don’t be aggressive with these ads and ensure they’re well integrated into the app.

The type of ads you choose to run has an impact as well. Small banner ads at the top or bottom of the app are the least intrusive while whole-screen ads that must run for a set period of time before the user can skip are the most intrusive.

Offer a Paid App

The vast majority of mobile app games are free. You can download them and play without paying a dime.

On the other hand, there are paid apps, which a user must purchase before they can gain access. The payment could be one-time or recurrent (subscription model).

There are pros and cons to the free gaming model vs paid or subscription models as GameMine explains, but it appears that most users prefer free games. This isn’t to say a premium app won’t make you money, but unless it’s a really exceptional game, not many users are going to part with their cash.

In-App Purchases

In app-purchases is an ideal option for developers who want to offer free games but don’t want to run in-app ads.

Implementing this model largely depends on the nature of the game. Users have to feel compelled to make a purchase when they want to overcome an obstacle or unlock a new feature. Generally, as the game’s difficulty increases, the more likely it is that a user will want to utilize the in-app purchase option.

Mobile Game Ads, Subscriptions, In-App Purchases, and More!

You want your app to make money, so you have to find the best way to monetize it. Deploying mobile game ads is the most common way to monetize, but you can also run a subscription service or offer in-app purchases, depending on the nature of your game.

Stay tuned to our blog for more gaming insights and advice.