Simple Ad Monetization Hacks to Increase Your Mobile Game Revenue
Mastering Ad Monetization: 4 Tips to Supercharge Your Mobile Game App Revenue
In the mobile game industry, Ad Revenue has become just as important as in-app purchases for generating income. This is because it allows you to monetize users who do not make in-app purchases, ultimately increasing LTV (customer lifetime value).
The formula for calculating AD Revenue is as follows:
- AD Revenue = eCPM * Impression
As you can see, increasing eCPM or impressions can boost your Ad Revenue. Therefore, in this post, we will share valuable tips on improving eCPM and increasing impressions to amplify ad revenue.
(Please note that this post is intended for those with a basic understanding of ad monetization)
Optimizing Waterfall Mediation.
Waterfall mediation, a conventional method for setting up ad monetization, employs a yield optimization model that delivers ads from networks based on their historical eCPMs. The ad impressions waterfall from one ad network to the other from the highest expected CPM to the lowest for each ad request.
Recently, more networks have become available for Header Bidding, which makes waterfall mediation less impactful compared to the past. However, waterfall mediation continues to play a crucial role in ad monetization because there are still networks that yield better results when utilizing the waterfall approach or even lack support for Header Bidding.
So, what exactly does optimizing the waterfall entail?
Waterfall optimization involves fine-tuning by adjusting, reordering, or adding/removing line items’ eCPMs to maximize revenue. The driving force behind waterfall optimization is to amplify bidding competition. By encouraging more networks to compete for eCPM sections with high impressions, you can maximize your revenue. Therefore, to optimize your waterfall effectively, it’s crucial to know the status of your waterfall and constantly monitor the impression and revenue contribution of each line item.
Let’s analyze the ad impression data for the following line item eCPMs.
When the Y-axis represents eCPM and the X-axis represents Ad Impressions, which of the following three cases is the most ideal?
The answer is Case A.
In Case A, you can observe that the number of ad impressions is low at both high and low eCPM levels. However, there is a noticeable spike in Ad Impressions at the mid-range eCPM. This suggests that the waterfall status is somewhat stable, but there’s still potential for further optimization in this case.
Then, what about Cases B and C?
In Case B, we see a high number of ad impressions at low eCPM levels. This could be a red flag — if the line items are priced too low, there might not be enough ad fill and it may result in No Fill. Additionally, it’s possible that networks that could generate ad impressions at a mid-range price level aren’t being used to their full potential.
In Case C, it’s a different story. This case has a higher likelihood of success at higher eCPM levels. While it’s unfortunate how much revenue opportunities might have been missed so far, there’s still a silver lining. By adding line items with top eCPMs, there’s an opportunity to optimize and potentially increase revenues.
Utilizing Impression Level Revenue Data
Impression level revenue data (ILRD) refers to the revenue data mapped at the individual impression level for an ad campaign. In addition to revenue data, various data such as OS, ad unit, and ADID can be collected. By combining these data with game data accessible from the client side, you can gain more valuable insights.
For example, by integrating user stage information, you can find which stages generate the highest viewership for your ads. This allows you to analyze the revenue and eCPM associated with each stage. When combined with game data, you can pinpoint specific user groups that exhibit higher eCPMs. This information and insight enable you to implement targeted strategies, such as offering greater rewards and incentives to these valuable users, thereby encouraging them to engage with your ads actively.
Remember, Ad revenue has its own VIPs as well. Prioritize and provide special care to your high-quality users!
Try High eCPM
At high eCPMs, naturally, you don’t get many impressions. However, due to the higher eCPM, even with fewer impressions, it can still contribute significantly to your revenue.
There’s another reason for setting high eCPMs. High eCPM line items have the added benefit of increasing the bid prices from bidders (Header Bidders). So, unless it causes significant latency issues, consider adding high eCPM line items to your ad inventory.
What is high eCPM?
eCPM is influenced by a variety of factors, which means that what is considered a high eCPM can differ based on elements such as the country, game genre, and operating system (OS). To find the appropriate eCPM for your game, you can refer to the CPI(Cost Per Install) and IPM (Installs Per Thousand Impressions metrics per installation).
eCPM Formula: eCPM = CPI x IPM
With this formula, if you know the CPI and IPM of your game in a specific country, you can calculate the eCPM when your game is shown alongside other games’ inventory in that country.
It’s important to consider that there might be games with higher CPI and IPM than yours, which means you can expect a higher eCPM when other games buy inventory from your game.
Therefore, it’s a good strategy to set an eCPM that is slightly above the expected range of eCPM.
Stay Creative! Always Be Open to Trying New Tests
For effective ad monetization, creativity is key! Engage in a variety of tests and experiments. Explore all possibilities, like new ad formats, different ad placements, and exploring new networks. Especially, new ad formats can increase ARPDAU (average revenue per daily active user) by up to 10% or more just by integrating them.
The mediation platform you choose can have a significant impact on your ad revenue performance. So be sure to conduct various tests to find the optimal mediation that aligns with your company’s strategy.
Ad Monetization is easy to do, but hard to do well.
If you have any questions or need help with Ad monetization, feel free to reach out to us via the Contact below.
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- E-mail: help@supercent.io
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