Google's Aunkur Arya Speaks About Mobile Game Monetization @ SGS

Last Friday Aunkur Arya, a veteran of AdMob and now Manager of Google’s Mobile Partnerships, participated in a panel about mobile game monetization with experts from Boku, Greystripe, Tapjoy and Zong at the Smartphone Games Summit.

Game developers were anxious to better understand their mobile monetization opportunities, learn about industry best practices and listen to the experts discuss the future of mobile game monetization. Here are a few insights from the panel discussion if you missed it:

• When asked whether developers should use in-app purchases or advertising, the panel agreed that each game is different and the user experience should be considered alongside with the monetization strategy.  Considering a hybrid approach with advertising, freemium upgrades and in-app purchases, will allow more engaging games to maximize revenue potential, but the hybrid approach is difficult to do well.
  
• For advertising, Michael Chang from Greystripe explained that brand advertisers have a lot of options for ad spend and want reach if they are going to invest in mobile. According to Chang, a growing game developer with 100,000 downloads will not grab the attention of brands.
  
• As a follow-up, Aunkur Arya explained that, “The macro trend is good. There are more and more brand advertisers realizing they can’t ignore the mobile game space.”
  
• With the mobile games market becoming increasingly crowded, Aunkur Arya pointed out that marketing is critical in order to break through the clutter and achieve strong ranking in app marketplaces.  He further noted that many developers find success by promoting new games throughout their existing portfolio of games with House Ads. These ads are easy to create in the developer's AdMob account and display in lieu of a portion of regular banner ads.
  
• The panel advised game developers to build in or use third party tools to analyze user behavior to drive improvements to games. Take advantage of the unique opportunity on mobile to constantly test, iterate and improve games.

Overall, it was a thoughtful discussion on mobile games and the key takeaway was that quality, engaging games built with a monetization strategy in mind will win.

Posted by Keri Buchanan, Google Mobile Ads Marketing Team

Google's Aunkur Arya Speaks About Mobile Game Monetization @ SGS
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