Staying On Top Of Monetization: What We Learned From The Trenches
Published on 29 September 15
Ashley0
Everyone knows the story of the rare cases of game success in the app store right? Lone developer builds a ‘far-too-simple’ game in his basement or with a few friends, it goes viral and blows up. He monetizes all of the possible ways he can and becomes filthy rich.
The truth is that monetization is an art, with lots of moving pieces, analytics and challenges.
Sometimes ads don’t load, fill rates don’t match up, videos take 6 seconds (or more) to launch, and analytics are off. Today we’ve put together the top 3 ways you can build targeted data for a game app.
Targeted data is the key to monetization. So, let’s take the top 5 ways you can build it, and then serve ads that actually convert.
Challenge 1:
My network shows a 100% fill rate, but it’s only at 60%-70%
If the network is having trouble finding demand for your available ad impressions, you want to add more networks. Here’s a few things that you’ll benefit from when adding more networks to work with:
1. Fill rates influence eCPMs
A network will show a 100% fill rate, but what it typically means is We’ve filled everything we could. Knowing this means you may have way more to sell.
This is an essential data point when evaluating a network. If another network offers a better CPM or fill rate, it amortized across the total number of impressions delivered. If you calculate what you’re getting now, you’ll be able to see easily if you should change networks.
2. Fill rates fluctuate over time
Depending on your network, different things affect fill rates. Over all these are external (traffic volatility) and internal (network size). Yield management is where the focus should be. Meaning, study constantly how to maximize revenue across ad flow channels.
The problem here is that one network can perform very well for a time (weeks or months) and then the eCPM may drop. To get the same level of revenue, the developer should be ready to switch networks and priorities quickly.
3. Negative ad quality impact by fill rates
Every time you have any problem with the network, you’ve for to manage it. Good publishers understand the impression of the viewer is critical to the apps success. For example, if too much filling with unsold ads occur, it will negatively impact performance. Make sure your networks talk about this.
Challenge 2:
I’m spending too much time managing all of the networks
Regardless of your size or revenue, this will always be a challenge. Managing the monetization is like having a second business on top of your first one. Spending time managing the commercial agreements takes time, which equals money.
Normally things get set up like this:
1. Set all of the networks up manually.
2. Try to set them to change as little as possible.
3. Rotate networks frequently (every few hours) .
4. Create separate waterfall for each country.
Each country performs differently, so this last one is critical for maximum revenue.
This is impossible for a human to do, so these tools take care of it for you.
Instead of managing all of these relationships manually, you can work with a company like AdToApp to take this workload off of your hands.
Challenge 3:
I like my network performance but the payment threshold is too high and they pay slowly.
These two separate issues may actually be resolved again by a mediation company, as we mention above. But there are two main things to remember about deciding whether to leave a network because of this:
1. Networks Income generating Methods
Some networks use affiliates, and may be waiting on them to pass payments as well. If this is the case, it’s important you look at all of the other factors about the network. You may decide to deal with it.
2. Ad networks that pay based on simple clicks or page views will most likely have shorter payment periods. You can run into exceptions, and you may see some changes to the revenue share based on how they’re generating their income.
Over all, when working with a partner to select networks or have them served to you, keep these principles in mind.
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