Hi!
We’re finishing up our first game to go on the App store. We are planning to release two versions: a free ad-supported version, and a paid no-ads version.
My question is: why not show the iAd all the time? instead of just in menus and between levels?
I’ve searched and seen a lot of posts about Ad statistics. I realize ads during game play will -most likely- not be clicked, so the revenue will be much lower. However, they will be displayed constantly so impressions will be higher, am I right? (although they will not compensate the CPM revenue).
Bottom line is: is it too bad of an experience to the user to have the Ad constantly on the screen for a free ad-supported game?
The free version will be completely full, no limits. We’re just offering the full version at a low price for those who want to remove the ads.
I would love to hear your thoughts about this.
Thanks!
These are my thoughts on the matter:
If you have the real-estate on screen to leave the ads running while the main game is being played, then by all means put the ads in. I figure if my game is really truly fun, then my customers are more likely to buy my product because it’s good, plus they get the added bonus of having the ads removed upon purchasing a full version. Also when the iAd network really picks up in terms of unique ads being served, we might see some really neat ads. I am speaking in terms of the user wanting to click on one even if they are in the middle of the game. I wouldn’t miss out on any opportunity to generate revenue.
BUT, I would only put ads in my game if it did not hinder the user from fully experiencing what they might get by buying a full version product. And to tell you the truth, good developers will fully utilize all of the screen space for their game (given that mobile gaming screen space is small to begin with), pretty much making ad integration tough for anyone to implement. For them they have to find a way to incorporate the ads without slicing into gameplay. If you can accomplish that challenge, then I would say enjoy the fruits of making some extra money on the free version of your app.
With iAds abysmal fill rate you have absolutely zero chance of having an ad on screen at all times so don’t worry too much about it. And don’t forget, iAds are only US (or at least I’m only seeing US fills so far) so you are basically giving your app away fro any other countries until Apple starts rolling out to them.
Thank you very much for your thoughts. I totally agree with both.
Regarding iAd fill rate, we’re analyzing using Mobclix to fill them up, since we can use iAd as long as there is an Ad to serve, and if not, use any other ad network to fill the ads.
mobclix even offers that out of the box, to use iad and fill with its own in case of failure ( http://blog.mobclix.com/2010/06/28/mobclix-and-iad-ios-4-iphone-4-and-what-it-means-to-you/ )
saves you 1 implementation and messy double requests etc
Absolutely! That’s our idea.
It sounds like a nice feature.