Skip or not? Ways to get your customer’s attention on mobile.

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Multiplayer

6 min readApr 14, 2021

Virtual Entertainment is rapidly growing during the global “lockdown”s. People prefer to or haven’t been left any other option but to get socialized via the Internet more than before. The gaming industry is one of the most important instruments of socializing.

In previous years, gamers were seen as schoolyard outcasts, lone rangers who struggled to fit into the real world.

Real World? Yeah, the one getting surrounded by virtual assets nowadays. In this so-called “new normal” the old stereotypes are fading away — from older women to athletes, kids to accountants, everyone is enjoying playing games now.

With AI, AR, VR, the latest consoles, high-quality hardware & of course mobile devices, this world is becoming a gamer’s paradise. And the gamers community is expanding very fast.

According to Nielsen 82% of global consumers played video games & watched video game content during the height of the “pandemic lockdown”s. 🤯

Director of Google Global Gaming, Brent Dance also published a blog post that is related to new gamers.

According to his post:

More than 40% of new gamers say that they are likely to continue playing.
34% of the players who choose to watch in-game ads do so to receive boosters & power-ups.

Wait, What!!

Yes… They choose to watch in-game ads, it is the key dynamic of the mobile gaming industry.

Watch an AD, Get a Reward

In mobile gaming in-Game Advertising is one of the key features to monetize games for Game Studios or Publishers. The promise to players is that if players watch ads, they will receive something which has value in the game in return.

So, players want to acquire those said valuable things (can be anything) & game studios want to maximize their revenue. That’s why they optimize their in-game advertising performance all the time. They even test where/when players are ready to watch ads etc.

As a marketer, you may want to develop a digital marketing strategy (awareness stage) for your product or service to mobile users. Why not!

Which formats do players consume as mobile ads? Before taking that deep dive, let’s have a look at some general statistics:

The number of internet users in 2021, 4,66 billion.
% of users accessing the Internet via mobile devices, 92,8% of total internet users.
% of device ownership (Smartphones) (Age 16–64), 96,6%.
Average daily time spent with media (using internet) (all devices), 6 hours 54 minutes.
Average daily time spent using the Internet on mobile devices, 3 hours 39 minutes.
According to emarketer.com, 11% of this time is spent on mobile gaming.
21% of Android and 25% of iOS apps downloaded are games.
78% of gamers are Android users.
The number of active mobile gamers worldwide is over 2.2 billion.
57.9% of the games played are puzzle games.
Only 37% of mobile gamers are men. Yes, we are talking about a female-oriented world.

Source — 1: Digital 2021 Global Overview Report

Source — 2: TechJury

From the stats above, it is quite clear that mobile is one of the best ways to communicate with your leads.

So, back to the question, which mobile ad formats to use to reach your potential customers?

Mobile Advertising Formats

The term mobile advertising refers to any form of advertising that appears on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Depending on where specifically users will interact with your ads, it can be categorized as mobile web advertising or in-app ads. (Text-Based campaign via SMS is a part of Mobile Advertising)

Mobile Web Advertising

Advertising on these devices through banner advertisements that appear embedded on a mobile website. There is a big obstacle for mobile web advertising, ADBLOCK. That’s why you might not reach your potential customers via Mobile Web Advertising.

In-App Advertising

Even though “Nobody likes ads”, some advertising is more tolerable and even found attractive and likable than others. With this in mind, advertisers can focus on in-app ads to create better ad experiences, because in-app ads provide better UX. Being less distracting, highly interactive and better controlled; in-app advertising keeps attracting. Plus in-app ad fits nearly every vertical, from social media, news, and entertainment apps to shopping, education, fitness, healthcare, banking, messaging apps, games, and beyond.

Advertising in games

Rewarded Video
Playable Ads
Interstitials
Offerwall
Advergaming

Rewarded Video

Rewarded videos can be used for any app, but are most effective in mobile games with free-to-play elements. Rewarded videos are an ideal format for introducing players to premium content such as in-game currency or in-game items.

Some Rewarded Ads Placement Examples;

Playable Ads

Playable ad is a buzzword nowadays. This ad format is interactive & highly engaging. It is a game-based format. Mobile games can provide rewarded ads. Players are quite motivated to gain something, they tap a button & ahaa! they continue to play a game in an ad. This format is comparatively so much fun for players. You might think that playable ads are more suitable for mobile game marketing. Yes, indeed. However, this ad type is already gamified & we all know that gamification (another “buzzword”) is quite important for teaching something. Why not use them as a tool to nurture your leads? Playable ads will become the most useful instrument for the awareness stage of your buyer’s journey.

Some Examples;

Interstitials

Honestly, I do not like this ad format. Because it is quite annoying. When I surf between pages in an app or a game, suddenly they pop out. It is quite distracting, that’s why I always look for the X button. However, this is another format you may use as a marketer for brand awareness.

Some Examples;

Offerwall

An offerwall is a mobile advertising unit that presents an opportunity to earn rewards through engagement while unlocking a complementary revenue stream for app publishers. Publishers typically host offerwalls on their app’s store page and promote it via contextual messages at key moments in gameplay. As its name suggests, an offerwall is a list of opt-in “offers’’ which invite users to complete an objective in exchange for in-app currency. Objectives may include watching a short video, signing up for a free trial, reaching a certain level in a game, or purchasing a new product subscription.

An Example;

Advergaming

Embedded marketing in video gaming or mobile gaming. You can collaborate with a publisher or a game studio & they can add your promotional assets into their game as native game environment assets.

Plus, in the future, NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) can create a better value for Advergaming.