014: Game Monetisation - Our Best 5 Ways to Make Money with Games and the best way to Monetise Your Mobile Game.

So you’ve built your game, spent countless hours crafting each and every pixel, polished it to the end degree and now you’re ready to launch it to the world! But, just how are you going to make money from your brand new mobile game? You should be thinking about monetising your mobile game from the moment you start to build, and this can have a big effect on how you actually end up constructing your projects. As game designers and builders, it would be absolutely fantastic to serve up our games with no ads, but as small indies, we need to earn money! Ads are a necessity in our world unfortunately, but if done with the least amount of intrusiveness and a little thought towards our players, we can still monetise well. Let’s go over some of the popular monetisation methods open to us indie game developers today and ones we’ve used ourselves in our hyper casual / snackable games. Simple eCPM Equation eCPM = ( Cost Per Mile Historically ) How much per revenue per x1000 impressions Example: The eCPM is $5.00. For every x1000 times the ads are displayed, you receive $5.00 Interstitials Interstitials can be shown after game over, so for an endless running game these serve purpose from the off. Just how many game overs is acceptable? In theory you could show these after every single character death, but this obviously depends on how ‘brutally’ hard your game is. If your character dies often, your player is going to end up being bombarded with ads and this will almost certainly end in a game ‘delete’ from their device. As a rule of thumb, interstitials set at every 5 - 7 game overs is much more digestible and a little more friendly to the player. Banner Ads UI Screens -  A great way to monetise for both portrait and landscape games and typically set at the bottom of the screen. In Game -  Again, typically placed at the bottom of the screen for portrait games Most players, including ourselves find this method of advertisement the most unobtrusive and ‘comfortable’ just make sure you don’t unfairly place your in game play button too close to the banner placement! Players will feel cheated and you may well end up with another delete on your hands. Banners can be set at the top in a portrait game depending on what your gameplay is all about, for example, if you have a downwards scrolling or static play game. It’s possible to make banner placements on a landscape game as long as they don’t effect gameplay. When we’re thinking of ideas for a new project, being game developers of mainly casual, snackable games, we will always try to head for a portrait version if it fits, because of the great benefits banner ads offer. Rewarded Videos Players love rewarded videos because they offer complete choice and remind the player that they are in total control over whether they watch an ad or not. The option to watch a short video for the reward of double coins, or time, or an ‘instant’ character or world unlock, is utterly at their command. Most players will embrace that ‘get it now’ offer, where some will prefer the challenge of completing objectives of the game knowing they have done so without a quick fix. Rewarded videos can potentially increase retention in your game, players know there is a way to achieve game advancement without the grind of playing for weeks to get the same rewards. It can be the difference between getting bored with the grind and deleting, to unlocking a great new character or power up that refreshes the interest to play further into the game. In App Purchases These come in many forms, buying characters, coin packs, gem bundles, power ups or upgrades just to name a few. Offering your player the first couple of characters for example as a free reward for completing the first few levels or objectives in your game, can open up their curiosity to the rest of your In App Purchases. If they have enjoyed the experience of something new for free as a bonus, then they will see further offerings as a fair exchange for making a purchase and potentially that ‘feel good’ factor. It gives the player the chance to settle into your game before being bombarded with ‘buy now’ pop ups and the like. Sponsorships Although not too common in the realms of us Indie Dev’s, making partnership deals with Youtube or Instagram influencers can be a great way to leverage audiences and ultimately drive traffic to your games. Typically, these deals are secured on a revenue share basis where you’ll handle all the building and technical side and they take care of the marketing side. Often these can be instigated via simple DM’s and generally these influencers will be open to a conversation at the very least. It’s a good idea to have something pre-built to show them when crafting your pitch, as this can increase the excitement and make the project proposition a real thing. There’s also product placement, IP collaborations with famous brands and even celebrities to throw into the mix. However, there’s a ton more hoops to jump through to make a deal of this nature happen, but hey, thinking big never actually hurt anyone!   Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways:   1. Interstitial Ads - Full screen pop up ads typically shown on Game over screens. 2. Banner Ads - Ensure these do not interfere with the gameplay and/or UI buttons. 3. Rewarded Videos - Used to reward players by gifting Coins, Lives, Level Unlocks, Characters etc. 4. In App Purchases - For Hyper Casual games be sure to include a “Remove Ads” consumable IAP at least. 5. Sponsorship - Team up with Influencers or Brands for an Epic Partnership!   Visit us for the Full Show Notes & Links to all the Resources: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button. We’d also be forever grateful if you’d consider sparing just a quick minute to Leave us an Honest Rating & Review. We always read each and every one personally and it always makes our day! Thanks so much, Kevin & Jilly.   Say Hello & Connect with us: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com Facebook - Twitter - Instagram