Casual and Hyper-Casual Mobile Games Driving Shift Towards Immersive InGame Advertising

New paper reveals key mobile game developer monetization strategies for 2021

Immersive in-game advertising, where non-interruptive brands ads are seamlessly integrated into gameplay, is emerging as an important new monetization channel, with 46.3% of mobile game developers citing it as a key opportunity for 2021.

In a global mobile developer survey by InGamePlay brand advertising platform, AdInMo, confirms that In-App Purchases (65.8%) and in-game advertising (53.8%) are still the most popular forms of monetization, but it is immersive brand ads, also known as dynamic in-game advertising, which are expected to see the largest growth next year.

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While interstitials (33%) and rewarded videos (40%) are currently the most popular in-game ad formats, more than a quarter of developers (26.7%) are planning on trialling dynamic in-game advertising within the next six months. Casual and hyper-casual mobile games are driving this trend, with 62% of developers planning to integrate the new ad formats in 2021.

Developers of Free-to-Play games must consistently balance retention and a quality player experience with the need to monetize. The limitations of performance marketing ads, which force the player to leave the game, is driving developer to seek new non-interruptive ad formats. 75% of developers surveyed rated ‘does not interrupt gameplay’ as their top feature in a monetization platform, even higher than ease of SDK integration (66%).

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Kristan Rivers, CEO, AdInMo, said: “If gamers can’t or won’t actively spend on in-game content, advertising is the best method of generating revenue.

“Developers clearly hate having to interrupt the player experience or worse force players to leave the game. InGamePlay brand ads are click-free and allow developers to earn new revenues, advertisers to engage new mobile audiences and most importantly players to carry on playing.”

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