The Watch 2 Earn mechanic is an advertising mechanic that rewards players who engage with a video based ad. Watch 2 Earn within mobile applications is a great way for application developers to add a useful and valuable monetization stream into their game.
This added monetization stream is particularly useful at converting non paying users into a user who adds value back to the developer.
Watch 2 Earn Explanation
The way the mechanic works is pretty straight forward. As an application developer you provide your user with an opportunity to watch a short commercial or video ad. In exchange for the users watching that ad they receive a certain allotment of in game currency. This currency is awarded once they have completed watching the video ad.
Sourcing Video Ads
Similar to a banner advertising campaign within your app, maintaining an inventory of high value ads can be very costly and time consuming. In addition publishers often do not see the conversion rates unless their content and user base is in very high demand with advertisers. For this reason most app publishers will connect with a 3rd party service to act as the middle man provider of such ad creatives. These 3rd party services will sell slots to advertisers and in return pay you for inclusion of these ads. For smaller applications and teams using a 3rd party service is a very smart way to go.
Larger companies and teams may be able to see higher conversion rates if they source and provide their ads themselves. In order to accomplish this you need to have a team that can manage selling and working with advertisers to get their ad creatives setup. This approach allows larger companies to charge more appropriate fees to their premium content and limit middle man costs.
Video Ad Performance
Discussing ad performance in a watch 2 earn mechanic is very subjective. A lot of variables can influence the performance and conversion rates. Let’s take a few minutes and look at factors that can influence how your video ads perform.
Technical Performance
One of the first influencers in how your video ads convert is in the technical performance of the ad. For example - how quickly is the ad served to the user? Is the video ad of high or low quality (meaning pixelation)?
Target Audience
Your conversion rates will be greatly influenced by how well your ad fits your target audience. If you are running a first person shooter game targeting males aged 16 - 30 and end up running ads for retirement communities inside your game, it is very unlikely that you will have a strong conversion rate. For this reason it is critical to have a solid understanding of your user base and target demographic. Work with your ad provider to ensure that you are providing the most relevant ads to your target audience.
Depending on the size of your user base and flexibility of your ad provider, you may be able to offer segmented ads. If you have access to your user demographics in game, such as being able to tell the age, geography and sex of a player, you may be able to work with your ad provider to display more relevant ads to one player over another.
In App Placement
Similar to web content publishers, the location of the video ad within your app has a strong influence on your apps conversion rate. If you hide your video ads or make them hard to get to, your users will loose interest in engaging with the feature. By contrast if you blast your users base with constant dialogs forcing the view of the ads, you may make a quick short profit, but you will loose your user base and loose longer term value.
Frequency
How often a user sees an ad also has a strong influence on your conversion rates. If you allow your users to access the video ads at any time, then chances are that they majority of your video ad views will be users who are just passively watching the ads just to get their hands on your in game currency. This also opens yourself up to exploits as botters and scripters may find a way to automate this viewing without the user even being present.
A lot of app publishers will enforce a maximum number of views within a given time period. For example only 3 video ads can be watched per day or a only a certain number per play session, etc.
So then how much money - really?
It is true that the above factors will have great influence on your conversion rate. So we cannot provide an exact amount of what to expect from implementing watch 2 earn video ads. However industry developers report that watch 2 earn mechanics earn a significant amount more than standard image ads. However they earn much less then any in game direct currency that can be purchased.
Our best advice is to find a 3rd party publisher that best matches your target demographic and campaign management needs. Then work with your provider to fine tune the details. Try to target your users as closely as possible to the types of ads that will be relevant and useful to them. Engage with your users in a flow that makes sense in game while not presenting itself as spammy and annoying. As always analyze your results and fine tune your delivery over and over.
