Like every year, 100,000 professionals of the mobile sector gathered in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress to discover the latest innovations in cellular networks, smartphones and mobile marketing. Numerous visitors were video game publishers. Q&A with Ahmed Chakroun Mobile and Rich Media Product Owner at Smart AdServer to learn more about games developers expectations and how they can deal with gaming apps monetization.
What's the gaming market's status?
According to the latest survey by Flurry, mobile games attract 11% of mobile users, which is higher than the time spent browsing the web (8%).
After a long period based on a Premium strategy, big hits such as Clash of Clans, AngryBirds, Candy Crush, Pokémon Go, or more recently Super Mario Run, have shown the industry that advertising could constitute the main revenue stream in the framework of a "freemium" approach. According to a survey by App Annie, the mobile game publisher's ARPU (Average revenue per user) is now over $10 in the United States, and can reach up to $30 on markets such as Japan.
What are the main challenges for game developers?
For many publishers, SSPs were a disappointment as revenues weren't as high as expected and didn't offer any flexibility. However, Smart AdServer's Full Stack solution allows publishers to benefit from our monetization offer, linked to almost a hundred mobile DSPs and numerous DMPs, and which offers fully transparent payout rates. For publishers who wish to build their own commercial offer, we provide a technology that helps address all possible levers (Programmatic, Deals, Direct, Mediation, Header Bidding...), all sales models (CPM, CPC, CPI...) while benefiting from an AppsFlyer, Kochava or Tune certification to quickly create an effective offer in terms of app downloads.
Can you give us some examples of the companies you work with?
We support companies such as Vidcoin and contribute to the success of their freemium strategy. Vidcoin works with very demanding premium mobile publishers who are willing to give up on a monetization solution if it doesn't meet their quality constraints or threatens the user's experience. By offering a Zero-latency video solution, available in programmatic, Vidcoin is able to meet 100% of its clients expectations.
