Appington audio ads

Hey MMWA,

My name is David, and I’m a Business Manager with Appington.

As this is only my second post here, I’d like to apologize for what seems like a completely self-serving reason for signing up. I’ve actually been lurking these forums for a while on behalf of Appington, trying to gauge what developers are raving or complaining about, and also reading about what you guys are looking forward to in the future of mobile advertising.

Appington does audio ads on mobile games and apps, as shown here. Our engagement rates are as high as 17%, and usually range between 5-15%. We work with developers looking for installs or looking to monetize to reach goals quickly and efficiently.

Our ads never interrupt visual gameplay or usage, never use screen space, and can be run as complementary to other ad networks and ad mediums: banners, videos, what have you.

I’d like to hear from you developers, whether it be here, through PM, or email.

David
[email protected]
http://www.appington.com

Thanks for starting your own thread and the introduction.

I don’t believe audio adverts have been discussed here before, so this is certainly new territory for most people.

Can you share some examples/creatives with us so we know what we are getting into ?

How are your adverts monetized ? CPC, eCPM or CPA ? What would be a typical range of revenue for each ?

Hi mind,

I’d love to share.

We pay out per install. Every time a user installs another studio’s game that was advertised on your game, you get a share of that payout. Over the past year, we’ve averaged between $3 and $4 eCPM. On the other end, if you’re cross-promoting your game, we can come up with very competitive rates for CPI.

As far as creatives go, we can make them or you can. Right now we’ve been handling all the creatives for our partner developers. We use all kinds of voice talent: women/men, young/old, raspy/sweet, whatever fits in with the game being advertised. For example, we’ve been promoting a “build-a-zoo” game, so we could use the sound of a lion roaring, or a monkey "ah ah oh oh"ing. On top of being an extremely effective way to advertise, it’s also more fun for the user if done right.

Audio is the next level of leaving your user to play the game he or she wants to play, while also giving them option to engage with the ad. We’re trying to move away from the brute force ad approach that seems to pervade most of the industry.

David
[email protected]

Can you give us an idea of how often an advert is streamed out to the speakers for that $3-4 eCPM and how big the audio file size is ?

The frequency of impressions can be customized to whatever you deem appropriate. We have a standard, but that can be modified. Additionally, we have caps on the number of impressions per ad, so that a user won’t hear an ad for something they clearly don’t want over and over again.

The audio files are between 65-80 kb per impression.

We do the integration for you and deliver your code ready to go.

David
[email protected]

Well, that does not answer my question…

Reason I ask is that other advert companies will also quote high eCPMs. They will also tell you the advert default refresh is 30 seconds. You might be temped to link the two.

HOWEVER, you absolutely CANNOT achieve a $1-2 eCPM on 320x50 banner adverts on a 30 second refresh timer.

Our ads play at a three minute intervals, but can be fully customized based on preferences of the developer.

David
[email protected]
www.appington.com

I’m thinking this could be interesting as an interstitial format.

Take Angry Birds for example - you play one level, and then get shown a screen with your results, and a navigation menu. Currently Rovio displays a banner ad on this screen. But I imagine it could work just as well to remove that banner, and play an audio advert instead. Most people playing a game would have the sound turned on already, hence would hear the advert.

For this to work, the SDK would need these features:

  • Preloading of ads
  • Ability to start playback of preloaded ad on demand
  • Ability to stop playback on demand (in case the user continues to the next level before ad is finished)

Are these already included in the current SDK? Or is it more of an “infinite rotation” system, where ads keep playing at defined intervals?

I personally would be quite annoyed by this kind of ads in a game or a ‘normal’ app. The only case where it makes perfect sense is audio apps. It fits perfectly there as the main content app offers is delivered through audio already. It also solves problems ad-supported audio apps have that they can be actively used for hours having very little user’s attention to what is on the screen.

Happy Monday, guys.

david,

Our ads are fully customizable through the Appington SDK. If you want them to play only interstitially, that can be done with built in features. If you want them to play on an infinite loop, that can also be done. If you want them to play whenever something very specific happens, that can be done as well.

The infinite loop system was our first project, since it most resembles the current type of delivery of having banner after banner, with hopes that users will click at least one. Now, we’re working on making our delivery fully customizable in every imaginable way.

Max,

You hesitance to try audio ads is understandable, but users react favorably to audio ads compared to banners and other visuals, and we are always working to make the delivery less “annoying” and more seamless for the user’s attention span. If you are at all curious about how well this might work on your games, let us integrate it for you and deliver a wrapped SDK the next day, and you can decide if you wanna try it or not.

We’re new, but we know we have something that works so we want to walk publishers through every step of the process.

Again, feel free to contact me personally with questions, or whatever.

David
[email protected]
http://www.appington.com

Just a thought for developers: allow the user to choose between banner ads and audio ads :slight_smile:

I like this idea. Giving the user a choice would probably make them more receptive to whichever option they do choose.

Hey guys,

We’ve just updated our SDK and its out for release.

Email me if you would like to check it out.

David
[email protected]

Has anybody tried them ? Are they worth to try ?

Apparently they are closing down. Never mind.

Appington is shutting down | Appington Blog