The mobile game industry is getting more fierce every day, challenging game developers to cost-effectively grow and efficiently monetize their games. With that goal, Unity has analyzed various games and ads metrics to summarize the key benchmarks and insights that help game studios achieve efficiency in their monetization and UA strategy.
In this article, we highlighted some key findings and trends from the report composed by Unity. You can get access to the full report by Unity at the end of our article.
Prioritizing in-app purchases (IAP) in the first two weeks and segmenting non-converted users
The first two weeks after players install your game is a critical time to convert them into your app payers. Statistics show that 77% of players who decide to make an IAP will do this within the first 15 days.
After this period, you need to segment your users. For those who don’t make in-app purchases, tailor your in-game experience and turn to other alternative monetization strategies, like in-app ads or offerwalls.
Improve in-app advertising (IAA) with rewarded video placements
Many game studios choose to display in-app advertising as an efficient method of in-app advertising. That’s why Unity experts had researched the IAA placements that are most likely to engage your players, which are those between levels and in the lobby/pre-level. Rewarded ads located between levels were reported to be the placement players engaged with most in 55% of games.
If you want to leverage your IAA effectiveness, make sure that your ads are placed in highly visible areas of gameplay to capture as many viewers as possible.
Invest in offerswalls to boost retention rate
Offerwall ads function more like a marketplace within a game, listing multiple offers that players can complete in exchange for receiving an in-game reward, most often game currency.
The data reveals a substantial boost in user retention for those who engage with offerwalls. Users utilizing offerwalls exhibit a remarkable 5x increase in playtime from Day 7 to Day 120, significantly elevating your game’s Lifetime Value (LTV). Impressively, 14% of users converted through offerwalls are still actively playing at Day 90, surpassing the engagement of users converted through alternative methods, which stands below 3%.
Best offerwall tips:
- Make the entry point highly visible to most users
- Keep your offerwall offers fresh
- Ensure that the offerwall has the same branding as your app for a seamless experience
- Bear in mind that only Android allows for multi-reward offers.
Target geo based on genre preference to utilize UA campaigns
Even slight optimizations in your User Acquisition (UA) campaign can significantly enhance budget efficiency. A valuable optimization avenue is directing your campaign towards particular regions aligned with their genre inclinations.
Opting to target tier-2 regions, such as Australia, Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Sweden, and Singapore, known for their affinity to your game’s genre, can often outperform tier-1 countries like the U.S., Canada, and the UK, even with higher Return on Investment (ROI).
For example, Japan proves to be an excellent market for promoting sports games, with a Click-Through Rate (CTR) exceeding the tier-2 country average by 13%. Conversely, for racing or hypercasual games, the CTR is 7% below the average. In South Korea, trivia and hypercasual games enjoy a 4% CTR advantage over the average for these genres across tier-2 countries, while action games lag behind by 4%.
Convert users more effectively with custom store pages
Another method to leverage your marketing strategy is to utilize custom store pages. Enhance your user acquisition strategy by incorporating custom store pages (CSPs). These pages ensure a cohesive experience from ad to store, maintaining consistency in the user’s journey. Align the content of your CSPs with the highlighted features from your ads to boost conversions, maximizing the impact of your marketing budget.
These are the key highlights for the gaming growth and monetization in 2023 from Unity. Check out the full Unity Mobile Growth & Monetization Report 2023 here to gain more ideas about how you can bring your marketing strategy to the next level!
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