Virtual Currency – Media Types for Online Games Applications
Adsmarket’s media activity with online games has been growing rapidly for the
past year. This is due to two main reasons:
1. Great growth in this online field & user’s awareness.
2. A combined synergy between these applications & Affiliates/Publishers.
I wanted to share with you a fast-growing media channel that you MUST use or at
least try, for your upcoming campaign – Virtual Currency. (If you don’t know much
about virtual currency yet, I won’t go into it here, but two sites I like explain it really
well. Click here or here.)
A lot of online games providers (either developers or publishers) have been offering
their users Virtual Currency because it is a simple and user-friendly way to spend
money online as a part of the gaming experience. It is also a very targeted media
source, as many affiliates and publishers offer Virtual Currency to their users via
social media applications, MMO applications, portals, etc.
Many of my clients are resistant to opening their campaign to Virtual Currency, but
once they understand the potential for them the reservations become a thing of the
past.
No matter what kind of games you are promoting; Skill games, Casual Games,
MMO, MMORPG, virtual currency is a proven source of positive ROI.
You guys think I am just trying sell something? From Google:
“Virtual Worlds Forecast to Grow at 23% through 2015 – Micro transactions
expected to grow to $17.3 billion by 2015.”
“While virtual goods have been driving revenues in Asia and Europe for
years, 2009 will be remembered as the year virtual goods-based businesses began to
scale in the United States. Virtual goods may be bringing the largest disruption
entertainment, communication, and e-commerce infrastructure companies have seen
for a long time.”
Now, tell me you don’t want some of that money in your pocket…
This is the perfect opportunity to be open to change, modify your business model, and make
more money! I’ve learned time and time again how dynamic the online advertising industry is,
and it certainly pays to be flexible. If you are not open to that, stop reading now. Otherwise,
let’s get down to business.
So, how can virtual currency contribute to your online campaigns? The answer is very simple:
The right attitude and good campaign management, starting with knowing how to evaluate
your revenue stream. To calculate this you will simply need the data below (and a bit more)
- Current number of active & paying users.
- Average amount a user spends per country/application/game.
- Amount paid to acquire new users – in terms of media buying & the above.
- Conversion ratio from a registered user to a paying user. (as a unit of time)
- Average user lifetime.
This data will show you a general picture regarding the revenue you are producing from the
campaign.
Case Study:
You have 10,000 registered users on your site, out of which 10% are a becoming paying
users spending $1.00 per month (after an average of two months from the day they
registered). Average user lifetime here is about 6 months.
If the above is correct, once the campaign is live two months from now, this site will
be generating 10K per month (not including media selling and other services etc) and
possibly more. What are our expenses using traditional media sources such as
Banners, Paid Search, or Pop up/under? Costs can average around $1.00, if not
more.This is the point where added value of Virtual Currency kicks in: higher
volumes with potential to increase your revenue.
Bottom Line: Using Virtual Currency will provide you around 5%-3% in
terms of paying users – however, you will also pay half, if not less, per user. -
That’s an additional 3K-5K per month!
Look at your Facebook profile; how many kisses have you sent lately? How many
vegetables are you growing? When was your last big win playing Texas holdem?
Many of us are already a part of the virtual currency wave as participants. Look
what may happen to Zynga! we can only learn and make more money!
Uzi Arbiv is a Senior Sales Representative at Adsmarket, specializing in the Online Games vertical.
If you are an advertiser and would like more information, please contact him at uziATadsmarket.com.