Video and playables ads have been leading mobile creatives’ trends for months, especially when it comes to mobile game user acquisition. That’s why Mapendo focused its latest product release on combining both video and playable ads, adding end cards too.
While mobile banners still play an essential role in app install campaigns and user acquisition for mobile games, Mapendo’s dynamic ad units have proved to be highly effective in user acquisition for mobile games and in yielding a positive ROAS.
Let’s take a look at some features of Mapendo’s stacked units and understand how they can help advertisers promote their mobile games successfully and profitably.
- Create high-impact ads
- Increase conversion rate and scale volumes
- Work with dynamic CPIs
- Optimize mobile games ROAS
- Reach post-IDFA audiences with SKOverlay
First of all, let’s see how Mapendo’s dynamic ad units work and what they look like in user acquisition campaigns for mobile games.
Our technology combines a video ad, either short-form (30 seconds) or long-form (45 seconds or more), with a playable ad. So, after watching the video, users can try the gameplay and see a preview of the promoted mobile game, before choosing whether or not to download it.
Secondly, after the playable ad, we add a static or dynamic end card, in order to maximize the ad’s impact by crafting a triple-page experience for target users. All assets are combined dynamically so that users can even skip the video and try the playable anyway.
Besides its high-impact, a key advantage of the triple page-experience is the in-depth analysis that our technology can do with it. Indeed, we can observe all three assets included in the stacked ad unit, assess their performance in terms of any metric we desire and test multiple different versions at the same time.
The first metric which always comes to mind when dealing with mobile games user acquisition is conversion rate, meaning the click-to-install rate. Video and playable ads are supposed to achieve higher conversion rates compared to mobile banners, helped by the higher CTRs.
Indeed, by showing engaging and attractive content, videos generate lots more clicks amongst users who are shown the video, as opposed to users who are shown a banner. Our dynamic ad units confirm such this, showing a CTR which is 30-50% higher than what banners can achieve.
Such achievement consequently affects conversion rates too, which are 6 times higher with video than they are with banners. Also worth noting is that each asset of the triple-page ad unit has a different conversion rate, which provides our technology with another dimension for optimization purposes.
Conversion rate and ROAS optimization provided by Mapendo’s dynamic ad units allow us to buy only traffic which brings value to mobile games developers. And this affects their CPIs too.
When dealing with user acquisition for mobile games, CPI is the main pricing model. CPI rates may change based on platform, GEOs and game categories, but game developers all look for the same goal: the CPI which leads to the highest possible ROAS.
By optimizing both conversion rates and ROAS we are able to provide game developers with competitive CPIs, even though video and playable ads have higher costs than banners. Also, when launching user acquisition campaigns for mobile games, we can adjust CPIs dynamically at any moment, based on ROAS performance.
As we mentioned ROAS, the core strength of our smart technology is indeed ROAS optimization. When it comes to mobile games user acquisition, we know ROAS is the most important metric to work on, and so we ask game developers for as much data about ROAS as they can provide.
Whether we integrate with their internal BI or we get data from offline reports, ROAS data are essential to our optimization purposes. Once we have such data, then we can test multiple combinations of ad units, by dynamically switching assets in real time.
Since each step of the stacked unit shows a different level of engagement, user LTV is also different from asset to asset and testing multiple combinations is necessary to achieve data-driven optimization. Our ML algorithms launch and analyze thousands of ad units versions and assess the triple-page combination which yields the highest possible ROAS.
The latest addition to our product for mobile games user acquisition is SKOverlay, designed specifically for iOS SKAdNetwork conversions.
SKOverlay is a small click-to-install banner which shows up at the bottom of another ad such as a video or a playable and allows users to download the app while watching the main ad. Ad rendering and integration are managed entirely by Apple.
We’ve implemented SKOverlay in our dynamic ad units and noted its relevant impact on conversion rates especially. By allowing users to download the app without being redirected to the app store and without leaving the publishing app increases the user experience.
Final thoughts
User acquisition for mobile games has gradually pivoted towards ROAS instead of volumes, and Mapendo’s latest product, dynamic ad units, points to that direction.
Our smart technology dynamically combines multiple ad formats such as videos, playable ads and end cards in order to maximize ROAS for game developers. SKOverlay makes it all more interesting when it comes to iOS users, by increasing conversion rates and engagement.
Don’t waste time and reach out to our sales team to try our dynamic ad units and grow your mobile games profitably.
