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Posted 01 February 2013 - 10:46 PM
I want to make some financial plans for a project, not sure if its gonna be facebook or android yet.
I'm seeing many free android app games, indie or from some big companies, always have an ad box at the bottom of the UI.
Some of the games don't even have a cash shop.
Thus I am assuming they are monetizing mainly from the ads.
If I am correct,
1) how do I find these ads?
2) And how much per DAU / per click / per click+purchase would the ads bring in?
Posted 01 February 2013 - 10:58 PM
You would normally use an ad service such as AdMob, AirPush (Android Only) or TapJoy amongst many others. You might also consider AdWhirl, which utilises mulitple networks.
Don't expect much income from ads unless your app is reasonably popular, but you can find more specific numbers by looking at the websites of various services -- they all provide this sort of information up-front. How you choose to integrate the ads and the types of ads shown also play a huge part in the potential to earn an income.
Hope that's helpful! 
- Jason Astle-Adams.
From my blog: 20 ways to advertise your game | What next? Intermediate to advanced C++
How to make games WITHOUT programming | 4 reasons you aren't a successful indie developer
Posted 01 February 2013 - 11:45 PM
You would normally use an ad service such as AdMob, AirPush (Android Only) or TapJoy amongst many others. You might also consider AdWhirl, which utilises mulitple networks.
Don't expect much income from ads unless your app is reasonably popular, but you can find more specific numbers by looking at the websites of various services -- they all provide this sort of information up-front. How you choose to integrate the ads and the types of ads shown also play a huge part in the potential to earn an income.
Hope that's helpful!
I've looked into air push and tap joy, they dont really state clear of the rates. Even they do say something like how much $ click per thousand impressions, it doesn't give me an idea of actual numbers, even approximate would be great for making my financial plan.
About expectation, indeed I don't expect too much (do I? : D). Perhaps I should explain: I'm looking at 50,000~80,000 DAU (if facebook), and I'm figuring how long it takes to generate $5,000 from ads.
Posted 03 February 2013 - 04:36 PM
About expectation, indeed I don't expect too much (do I? : D). Perhaps I should explain: I'm looking at 50,000~80,000 DAU (if facebook), and I'm figuring how long it takes to generate $5,000 from ads.
Posted 03 February 2013 - 06:34 PM
About expectation, indeed I don't expect too much (do I? : D). Perhaps I should explain: I'm looking at 50,000~80,000 DAU (if facebook), and I'm figuring how long it takes to generate $5,000 from ads.
That is a very ambitious number. Many established brands struggle to hit that many DAU.
Hm, what would suggest that?
To me, take a look at this:
Look at the top DAU of 50,000 tier Facebook apps.
Among the games in this tier, I think my team can do better in terms of quality and marketing.
In fact i think most people here can.
Personally my ace card is that my team can release in 3 languages, and possibly multi-platform.
Do let me know if I'm still underestimating the quality of those success in the 50,000+ tier.
Posted 06 February 2013 - 12:00 AM
I think you're going to have to do some exploring and endure some trial and error to get the answers you seek. If you're gonna be putting out free apps, your choice of a mobile ad network is really REALLY important. Not a big fan of AdMob as I don't see the type of forward-looking innovation that developers are going to need to monetize their creations in the future. TapJoy is excellent (speaking from experience here), as is Airpush. I'm an Android develoepr and Airpush is an Android ad network, so if you take the Android route, check out Airpush. You'll do very well there. In the end, keep in mind that mobile ad networks are evolving quickly and there's a lot of competition in the space. Don't think you have to sign up for the ad networks you know of or those that have been around the longest. Everyone knows AdMob but why are these young ad networks gaining so much ground? I would argue that its because they're becoming more effective and helping developers earn more money. The young guns are where the action and the opportunities are - http://www.examiner.com/article/the-young-guns-of-mobile-advertising-proving-most-effective
Posted 06 February 2013 - 02:53 AM
I think you're going to have to do some exploring and endure some trial and error to get the answers you seek. If you're gonna be putting out free apps, your choice of a mobile ad network is really REALLY important. Not a big fan of AdMob as I don't see the type of forward-looking innovation that developers are going to need to monetize their creations in the future. TapJoy is excellent (speaking from experience here), as is Airpush. I'm an Android develoepr and Airpush is an Android ad network, so if you take the Android route, check out Airpush. You'll do very well there. In the end, keep in mind that mobile ad networks are evolving quickly and there's a lot of competition in the space. Don't think you have to sign up for the ad networks you know of or those that have been around the longest. Everyone knows AdMob but why are these young ad networks gaining so much ground? I would argue that its because they're becoming more effective and helping developers earn more money. The young guns are where the action and the opportunities are - http://www.examiner.com/article/the-young-guns-of-mobile-advertising-proving-most-effective
Very helpful information there.
This may be off this topic a bit, but mind elaborating a bit on "dont see the type of forward-looking innovation that developers are going to need to monetize their creation"?
I wish I don't need to go down this path, but as a starter who doesn't have a relevant degree or portfolio, I have to start to build team with small projects. In my case, a successful monetizable small project would be the only thing i can hold onto to convince others whom i recruit or round funds from. But yea, I wish I had the quality promise in my resume.
Posted 09 February 2013 - 10:49 PM
The problem with AdMob/AdSense is the complete lack of support, transparency, and human interaction in the event that your account is deemed to have violated Google's rules. I would strongly advise against use of AdMob.
Having looked into many ad servers over the past few years, I settled on Leadbolt and have been extremely satisfied with their advertising options, customer service, and earnings. I use Leadbolt in my HTML5 mobile games, but they support iOS/Android more prominently. I'm seeing CPM's ranging from $1.50 to $12.00 consistently.
Your choice will come down to personal preference and experience, ultimately. Experiment and see what works for you.
During the past year I've generated tens of thousands of dollars making games for the mobile web, so I wrote a book: Making Money With HTML5
Posted 11 February 2013 - 12:29 PM
The problem with AdMob/AdSense is the complete lack of support, transparency, and human interaction in the event that your account is deemed to have violated Google's rules. I would strongly advise against use of AdMob.
Having looked into many ad servers over the past few years, I settled on Leadbolt and have been extremely satisfied with their advertising options, customer service, and earnings. I use Leadbolt in my HTML5 mobile games, but they support iOS/Android more prominently. I'm seeing CPM's ranging from $1.50 to $12.00 consistently.
Your choice will come down to personal preference and experience, ultimately. Experiment and see what works for you.
Thanks for the information.
Mind if I ask briefly about the Google rule violation, what's that about?
Posted 11 February 2013 - 04:10 PM
Mind if I ask briefly about the Google rule violation, what's that about?
Well, I was banned from Google AdSense in this manner: http://www.truevalhalla.com/blog/banned-by-google-adsense-afterthoughts/
A very prominent HTML5 app developer I know (very legitimate, not shady at all) had his AdSense account closed a few weeks ago, costing him a lot of money. He used their ads completely within the bounds of Google's terms of use; he was making hundreds of dollars per month, and then had his account closed without warning, without discussion, without reason.
When it comes to AdSense and native apps, I don't know much about their practices, but if it's anything like the way they treat publishers on their desktop service you should think twice.
During the past year I've generated tens of thousands of dollars making games for the mobile web, so I wrote a book: Making Money With HTML5
Posted 11 February 2013 - 07:17 PM
Mind if I ask briefly about the Google rule violation, what's that about?
Well, I was banned from Google AdSense in this manner: http://www.truevalhalla.com/blog/banned-by-google-adsense-afterthoughts/
A very prominent HTML5 app developer I know (very legitimate, not shady at all) had his AdSense account closed a few weeks ago, costing him a lot of money. He used their ads completely within the bounds of Google's terms of use; he was making hundreds of dollars per month, and then had his account closed without warning, without discussion, without reason.
When it comes to AdSense and native apps, I don't know much about their practices, but if it's anything like the way they treat publishers on their desktop service you should think twice.
Wow thanks for the warning! That is terrible. I had higher expectations because I read this long ago:
"Working with Google+ was also hands-on according to Frankel, who praised the Google+ team for its support during the integration process. Frankel tells us that all games on Google+ are selectively screened, and new games are chosen for the social network after being reviewed by a Google+ team — which is what we’ve heard from other developers working with the platform team."
I thought they'd provide better support to devs in order to compete with Facebook. What a disappointment.
Posted 16 February 2013 - 04:47 PM
My advice would be to focus your plans on In-App Purchase. If you do it right you can improve both retention and monetization with a good in-game shopping experience.
See also these resources:
3 Reasons for Adding In-App Purchase by SOOMLA
Comparison for IAP vs. Ads by Flurry
Posted 21 February 2013 - 04:49 PM
My advice would be to focus your plans on In-App Purchase. If you do it right you can improve both retention and monetization with a good in-game shopping experience.
See also these resources:
3 Reasons for Adding In-App Purchase by SOOMLA
Comparison for IAP vs. Ads by Flurry
On that, would you think that sometimes social games today are going too far in their in app purchase?
In the sense of making the game pay-to-win, or just intentionally get players stalled somewhere down the road, to make them pay to progress.
Zynga lately announced about their up coming project, i think its a theme park ville somewhat, admitting that in the past they've been using that strategy to monetize their games, but are going to change this way of doing things, allowing free to play players to eventually gain access as much as paid players.
But that leads to a much deeper discussion of where to draw the line, which I am curious of you and everyone here's opinion.
