Many social game developers, big and small alike, are seeing great results in monetizing their games with virtual currency. Direct payments make up a large portion of all microtransactions but the reality is that many users are just not willing to pull out credit cards or simply don’t have them. Peanut Labs’ co-founder and COO, Noman Ali, explained that many games incorporate offers and see a lift of 10-15% in revenues but could be seeing greater revenues if they actually followed best practices when it comes to integration of offers within games. Read more after the jump.
The following are some steps publishers can take to increase their revenues and some results Peanut Labs found among their clients.
Customization
When integrating a monetization engine, users should look to customize the look and feel of their frame with provided tools that allow specification of colors. Many offer-monetization companies like Peanut Labs and Offerpal Media also offer XML and JSON Feeds that let you integrate offers the way you want. Customizing look and feel led to an average increase of 150-200% in revenues.
Getting the right person at the right time
Many publishers are aware of their ability to target online players with specific ad-promoting offers that reside outside of the iFrame are included within the canvas page. Publishers who used this saw a 3x increase in revenues.
Event based promotions
Well timed promotions synchronized with real-world events tend to do very well, as showcased by taking examples of two prominent events. On Valentine’s Day, publishers who participated saw uplift over 190% in revenue. Also publishers taking advantage of Mother’s Day, saw an uplift of over 250% in revenue. TrialPay released some pertinent information regarding their publishers and their increase in revenues the days following Mother’s Day that we recently covered.
In-game Promotions
Lastly, publishers are encouraged to use in-game promotions comprised of item and currency promotions. Item promotions, which involves promoting in game items via surveys/offers, reportedly boosted eCPM up to 350% for the length of the promotion Secondly, publishers should utilize currency promotions. Letting users earn twice as much virtual currency not only brought more users to the engine but also increased their engagement in the game itself. Revenue uplift here was over 250%.
The entire idea is to have your users spend enough time and invest in the game through microtransactions that they continue playing your game and invite their friends to join in. The aforementioned tips are courtesy of Peanut Labs and you can visit their website here.
