Building for Better Revenue
Monetization tips and strategies for growing your app
Ad Engagement and Why It Matters
ENGAGEMENT
Engagement is how much a user interacts with the ad. Greater engagement leads to clicks and conversions, which drives up revenue.
When ads are engaging, they complement the experience. Your audience will be more likely to take action on the ads you show, and you’re likely to earn more revenue. That’s why ad engagement, which is the number of actions that occur as a result of your ad, is so important for your success.
Audience Network shows your audience ads tailored to their interests, increasing the likelihood that they’ll take action on the ads. This creates a better experience for them and potentially higher revenue for you.
In this section, you are going to learn how to make ads as engaging as possible by choosing the right ad type, placement, and flow type to deliver a great experience. All of this can mean better outcomes from your ads.
Integrating Audience Network led to an immediate increase in revenue. It was like turning on a tap.
Nathaniel Barker
Director of Business Development, Kolibri Games
Learn How to Increase Engagement with the Right Flow Type in Your App
To optimize the performance of in-app ads, it’s crucial to consider not just design, but also when to show an ad within your user experience, also called the flow type. Think about the user mindset and journey through your app to find a natural place to show an ad.
First, you should figure out where in your app a user is most likely to be receptive to seeing an ad. These are usually at the natural breaks within your app.
Every app is different, and it’s important to find the flow type that best fits your app. These are the most common flows that we recommend for driving content and ad revenue. Learn more about flow types here.
FLOW TYPE
Flow Type is when an ad is shown in the user experience of your apps, such as after a level in game play.
First, you should figure out where in your app a user is most likely to be receptive to seeing an ad. These are usually at the natural breaks within your app.
Every app is different, and it’s important to find the flow type that best fits your app. These are the most common flows that we recommend for driving content and ad revenue. Learn more about flow types here.
Common Flow Types for Apps
In-Feed
IN-FEED
Ads appear as part of an app’s scrolling feed. If you’re a Facebook user, this is very similar to how ads appear in your mobile and desktop feeds today.
Ad Discovery
AD DISCOVERY
Users are presented with a customized button inviting them to discover new content. When they click on the button, they’re taken to a full-screen ad.
After Task or Level
AFTER TASK OR LEVEL
Ads are shown after the completion of a task or game level, or after other natural breaks in the user journey.
Left/Right Swipe
LEFT/RIGHT SWIPE
A left/right or right/left horizontal swipe functionality allows each new piece of content to be fully viewed by a person before they choose to select or swipe it away. This is similar to a scrolling feed, except the flow is left-to-right rather than top-to-bottom. This flow type helps keep people engaged and provides more screen real estate.
IN-FEED
Ads appear as part of an app’s scrolling feed. If you’re a Facebook user, this is very similar to how ads appear in your mobile and desktop feeds today.
AD DISCOVERY
Users are presented with a customized button inviting them to discover new content. When they click on the button, they’re taken to a full-screen ad.
AFTER TASK OR LEVEL
Ads are shown after the completion of a task or game level, or after other natural breaks in the user journey.
LEFT/RIGHT SWIPE
A left/right or right/left horizontal swipe functionality allows each new piece of content to be fully viewed by a person before they choose to select or swipe it away. This is similar to a scrolling feed, except the flow is left-to-right rather than top-to-bottom. This flow type helps keep people engaged and provides more screen real estate.
Before Task
BEFORE TASK
User-initiated placements where a person launches an action and a flow-breaking ad is inserted before it happens.
Between Tasks
BETWEEN TASKS
Ads are shown between two well-defined tasks, such as Game Levels.
Home Screen/Menu
HOME SCREEN/MENU
Ads are embedded in either an app’s home screen or one of its menus.
BEFORE TASK
User-initiated placements where a person launches an action and a flow-breaking ad is inserted before it happens.
BETWEEN TASKS
Ads are shown between two well-defined tasks, such as Game Levels.
HOME SCREEN/MENU
Ads are embedded in either an app’s home screen or one of its menus.
Next, you should design your ad placement to fit the look and feel of your app and its surrounding content. Visually, it’s important that an ad is clearly marked so you can avoid accidental clicks.
Reduce Ad Blindness and Prevent Accidental Clicks for Better Outcomes
What is Ad Blindness?
Ad blindness
refers to a phenomenon in which people consciously or unconsciously ignore ads more and more over time due to the increasing competition for people’s attention. We've found that if people don’t see the ads, click-through rates are lower, which hurts CPM rates. This is especially true of banner ads on mobile apps. Banners were designed for the desktop environment, and are not optimized for mobile screens. So on apps, they are less effective.
Your goal should be to drive users to consider all ads and actively choose to engage, rather than simply view them.
How Can You Prevent Accidental Ad Clicks?
If a user clicks on an ad when they didn’t mean to, it will take them away from your app and become a frustrating experience. Plus, they probably won’t take the action advertisers want them to, which means the ad is measured as less effective overall—which can impact your ad revenue.
In general, the quality of ad clicks is much more important than the number of people who click the ads.
In general, the quality of ad clicks is much more important than the number of people who click the ads.
Tips for avoiding accidental clicks:
Learn more about preventing accidental clicks here.
Rewarded Video and Playable Ads Can Provide Better User Engagement for Gaming Apps
When monetizing gaming apps, two of the most important ad types to use are rewarded video and playable ads.
Rewarded video
Rewarded Video offers game players something in exchange for watching the ad. By engaging people with an ad that they’ll have a payoff from, they’re more likely to watch and keep playing. Recent research has shown that nearly 4 in 5 developers using a hybrid approach to monetization said rewarded video is working most successfully.1
Learn More
Playable ads
Playable ads can help you get more app installs by letting people try your game before downloading. It’s an immersive, “try before you buy” format that engages people in a fun way.
Learn More
Actions You Should Take
Go through your app and determine optimal flow types to place your ads.
Sources
1 Mobile Games Monetization Research by Walnut Unlimited (commissioned by Facebook) quantitative research via 173 online interviews in US, EMEA and APAC, April 2019
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