 Creating your strategy

Refining and consolidating your strategy

Test your monetization knowledge!

Monetization Glossary.pdf

In this project, you will explore different ways to test, implement and iterate your strategy, how to track your success, and how to maximize your monetization and user acquisition opportunities. You will also have the opportunity to take a quiz to test and apply your Monetization knowledge.

Strategizing for success

About this course

Monetization and  User Acquisition foundations

Deeper Dive into Monetization

Free-to-play revenue tactics

Monetization solution providers

Deeper Dive into User Acquisition

Organic Marketing Channels

Paid Marketing Channels

Implementing performance-driven paid user acquisition

Next steps

Test your user acquisition knowledge! 

In this project, you will learn about the scope of the course and the fundamentals of monetization and user acquisition.

Welcome to the course

In this project, you will explore the how to identify the impact of monetization on player experience and various types of monetization you can consider for your game. You will also compare different types of revenue options, examine various monetization solution providers and consider how to select them.

Monetizing your game

In this project, you will explore user acquisition pricing models, organic and paid marketing channels, and how to create and implement a performance-driven paid UA.

Acquiring your users

Monetization and UA Strategy Checklist.pdf

Monetization Course Glossary.pdf

Qualitative Monetization Research - Sample Interview Questionnaire.pdf

This course is an engine-agnostic introduction to monetizing your free-to-play mobile game. You don't need any previous experience of monetization or user acquisition to complete this course.

Explore the fundamentals of monetization and user acquisition

Identify the key components of an effective monetization and user acquisition strategy

Review real-world case studies and reflect on your own circumstances and experience

Identify next steps in your monetization journey

You'll also have the opportunity to learn from the insights of Unity monetization experts throughout the course.

Growing your mobile game

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 In this quiz, you will be tested on your monetization knowledge. 
 

Monetization and User Acquisition

Creating your strategy 

Refining and consolidating your monetization strategy 

The objectives are to demonstrate your understanding of monetization strategy, ads and implementation, data collection, and performance evaluation.

 Which strategic approach to monetization best sets you up for success? 

 Build your game to completion, then implement ads and user acquisition 

Build your game, then focus on user growth, and then devise a monetization strategy 

Incorporate monetization natively into your game design from the beginning, 

As monetization requires a non-trivial amount of development resources, building it into the gameplay as much as possible will save significant resources down the road.

What is the purpose of incorporating ads into gameplay? 

To help advertisers promote their games or products 

Ads fund free content while still generating revenue for the content creator. At the same, someone has to be on the other side of this revenue generation, which is where advertisers come in to promote their games or products to an engaged audience.

In general, what is the LEAST ethical way to implement ads into a game?

Unintrusively into the core loop of the game, where ad engagement enhances the gameplay 

 In as many places as possible, in order to maximize revenue 

In as many places as possible before seeing a detrimental effect on player retention 

The more that ads feel like a natural part of playing the game, the better players will react to them. Overloading the game with ads could potentially result in a short-term revenue boost, but tend to anger players and cause them to leave your game for another. 

What is the most engaging ad format for mobile gamers? 

As rewarded video ads issue the gamer with a reward which they can subsequently use within the game they are already playing, there is a clear incentive and benefit for them to view that ad type. While banner ads and full screen interstitials may also be worthy formats for your ad strategy, they do not carry that same benefit.

What are the most common ways mobile games get monetized?

Premium pricing models tend to be utilized only for extremely high quality games, for which the user can justify paying for even when the vast majority of alternatives are free. Since most games are free-to-play, in-app ads and in-app purchases are the most common ways mobile games get monetized.

 Which of the following is the most effective strategy to balance ads and IAP in your game? 

 Deploy both methods in large quantities, to maximize monetization opportunity 

Segment users, and deploy IAP to predicted purchasers and ads to players unlikely to churn 

 Segment users, and deploy IAP to predicted purchasers and ads to everyone else 

Users likely to make in-app purchases are among your most valuable users, and therefore should have minimal friction in staying in your game to maximize purchase opportunities. At the same, ads are an excellent source of revenue for those unlikely to make purchases, but should be used with caution for those exhibiting signs of leaving your game all together.

What are ideal methods of collecting data to inform your monetization decisions? 

Studying monetization strategies from games similar to yours 

Learning Directly from your customers, and benefiting from the learning curve that other games have endured will help you shorten your own learning curve in maximizing revenue.

Which of the following is NOT a key metric in evaluating your monetization performance? 

Total playtime is a business metric more than a monetization metric, driven by other factors unrelated to monetization. eCPM, fill rate, player retention rate, and crash rates are more directly tied to monetization and are therefore more appropriate metrics for evaluating its efficacy.

Renata Delaney

To calculate your score, submit your answers to the quiz. A passing score will mark this quiz complete.

Test your monetization knowledge!

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