mNectar

Branch Metrics

Mobile game makers constantly strive to improve the results from their ads, and even small improvements to the percentages can mean big benefits to the bottom line. mNectar and Branch Metrics have partnered to provide deep-linked, playable mobile ads that can take you right back to where you were when you clicked on the ad, after you’ve tried out the game.

“Developers across our network see nearly 100 percent lift on both the conversion to register and the one month retention for users who originate from a contextual deep link,” explained Branch Metrics’ Cofounder Mada Seghete. “It’s the best way to welcome and delight users: by showing them what they expect to see.” Currently, mNectar’s advertisers are seeing user retention rates that are four times as effective as other forms of mobile advertising, such as interstitials, and twice as high as video ads.

The [a]listdaily spoke with mNectar CRO Daniel Cheng (pictured, left) and CEO Wally Nguyen (pictured, right) to find out more about this improvement to Playable ads.

What led you to create this new feature for Playable ads — was it feedback from advertisers, customers, or your own idea?

The idea came from a combination of advertiser feedback, emerging use cases for deep linking, and a well-timed introduction between mNectar CEO Wally Nguyen and Branch Metrics CEO Alex Austin. A partnership between Branch Metrics and mNectar was a no-brainer because deep linking adoption for mobile games has been relatively low compared to the rest of the mobile app ecosystem. Advertisers love the idea of improving the Playable ad experience by letting new users pick up where they left off after installing.

Are you seeing any differences in Playable ads between different types of games? In other words, do they work better for some types of games than others?

The great thing about Playable ads is that it’s an actual sample of what the user will experience after they download the game. Playable ads lead to higher retention and LTV rates, and are adaptable depending on the genre of game. Some games are easier to grasp than others, such as a casual versus a hardcore game. mNectar supports both by providing varying Playable session times. For example, a casual Playable can be understood with 30 seconds of play and a hardcore game may need 5-10 minutes. mNectar supports any length of time needed. In addition, we can drop users into a specific point of the game, so it’s easy to highlight different features and levels.

When will this improvement be available to advertisers Is it hard to implement for the advertisers?

Using deep links within our Playable ads is available now! It requires sharing an app build with mNectar for the Playable and integrating a Branch Metrics SDK for the Deep Link.

Do you expect these enhanced Playable ads to perform significantly better for advertisers, and if so, by how much?

Using deep links within Playable ads will not only lead to better performance, but an all around better user experience. Retention rates and LTV will increase since a user doesn’t have to re-do the advertised portion of the game they’ve already experienced. Since a user can now continue from where they left off during their Playable experience, they are far more likely to play deeper, be retained longer, and spend more. All of that benefits the advertiser.

Are you seeing any significant differences in the response to Playable ads between tablets and smartphones, or between different regions?

Mobile ads, including our Playable ads do perform slightly better on tablets, we believe given the time spent on each device. Users on their tablets are in their living room gaming, whereas smartphone users are more likely to be passing the time commuting or running errands.