Božo Janković

One of the last bastions of decent ad experience is going down. Google is launching "high-engagement" ads. ⚡ By default, new settings will automatically be enabled for all apps. Opt-out process is still unclear, with some information hinting that for those not using AdMob mediation, the only way to opt-out will be via dedicated account manager while those using AdMob mediation will be able to opt-out via AdMob dashboard controls. 🎮 What these new settings mean for publishers 👇 ⏩ ⌛ 1. Rewarded video ads will be skippable after up to 60 seconds (compared to up to 30 seconds so far). Only after the ad becomes skippable, the reward will be granted.2. Interstitial ads will be skippable after up to 15 seconds (compared to up to 5 seconds so far). 3. Rewarded video ads will be skippable after up to […]

Supercell launched Brawl Stars globally in December 2018. Now, finally, more than five and a half years later, a new game is coming out - Squad Busters. The news alone has attracted tremendous attention and buzz in the mobile video game industry. And for a good reason. Over the past 11 years, Supercell has generated over 19 billion USD thanks to its loyal p(l)ayer base. The question is: Could they have made more? We believe so, and that’s why we decided to chip in on numerous analyses of the already available Squad Busters games - but from a totally different perspective. Supercell is about to repeat itself as it did several times in the past and is about to miss out on a huge revenue opportunity that ads could present for this game. We do not doubt that the team […]

As I wrote in my previous articles (here and here), in May 2023. Google announced that they will stop showing ads to users in the EEA and UK regions unless the publishers implement a Google-certified CMP that would enable them to collect TCF 2.2 compliant consent. The deadline for implementation was 16th January 2024, which has recently passed but even though Google didn’t make any official statements, it seems that Google will only start to gradually enforce this policy from 1st February and will fully enforce it by the end of that month. In this article, we’ll cover how the top 100 grossing games responded to Google’s CMP requirements but will also include other games that we consider important to reflect on and try to highlight some best practices and other important aspects on this topic. Apart from that, we […]

eCPM is the most useless metric in ad monetization. Yet, it attracts the most attention among Ad Monetization Managers and senior staff in game development studios. Working in the mobile, free-to-play video games industry for over seven years now, some of the most common questions I’ve heard from colleagues working on ad monetization, leadership team members, and my clients concern eCPM. I heard that this game has $20 eCPM, and we only have $12. What are we/you doing wrong? Our game X has $10 eCPM, and our game Y has $6. Why are we not working more on achieving the same eCPM? In this piece, I will try to argue why eCPM is the trickiest and, hence, the most useless metric in ad monetization if it’s observed outside of the proper context. Read on if you want to learn about […]

Recently, there has been a lot of chatter in the industry about app open ads. I also couldn’t help but notice a decent amount of confusion when it comes to this particular ad format. This has partially been caused by Applovin’s recent announcement that they have enabled mediation for app open ads on their MAX mediation. Per their documentation, app open ads have been available since mid-September, and for the time being, it remains an invite-only feature. For this reason, I thought it would be worthwhile to share my experience and insights and hopefully shed some light on this topic. This short post will try to cover all the main characteristics of the app open ads, including the following aspects: What are app open ads Key attributes What does user experience look like What does the performance look like Are […]