Community Ads

Solar2D Monetization (in-app purchases, ads, etc.)
#1

We all want more downloads and to get there we all need more exposure, so most (? a lot?) use the ad platforms. Obviously, placing ad components in our games will help to earn revenue but it won’t get downloads unless we advertise on those platforms.

I’ve thought for a long time that we should be helping each other, as a community, get downloads and the obvious way to do this would be to present an area/screen in our own apps which shows ads for other Corona community apps and games.

Of course, we would not have targeted demographics etc but I think a rotating list of ads presenting a simple link/popup to the relevant store would be enough.

In short, if we only had a place to provide the relevant information for ads then we could all decide to place an ad slot and help out our community.

Discussion on where the slot could be and it’s particular nature is of course encouraged as I’m sure there would be plenty of debate on the matter. On top of this, a code snippet to provide such placements would be useful.

As such, I’m working on a library to do just this and I suggest placing any ad images and links here - in this thread. I’ve not got many apps on the store, but my next will include this code and begin showing any ads placed here.

Once I have a public repo for the library, I will post it here.

The concept is to have all the logic in the library and make the API as easy to use (ini keeping with Corona!) as possible. It will handle display and downloading of assets. The key element will be a json file containing links to all the assets to be displayed in rotation. Pull Requests will be made to update the json file, which will be able to specify whether the ad content comes from a static folder in the repo or somewhere else.

#2

This sounds interesting. Being a business oriented person, I think there are a few things to consider.

First, who decides on what ads are shown? Someone with a kid friendly app might not want graphic or vulgar ads appearing in their games, nor would anyone want simply “bad looking ads” to appear in their game either.

So, there’d have to be some central authority who decides what ads are “good enough” for this, who are they suitable for, or simply let the developers decide for themselves. How would developers be prevented from having other apps promote theirs without advertising other developers’ apps in theirs?

Second, if the developers do decide for themselves, then why would someone with +50k downloads willingly promote a game with fewer than 100 downloads, for instance? What kind of measures would be taken to ensure that the heavy hitters would benefit from this as well and not just lift up the less known apps, or is that the main idea for this?

Third, for these larger apps, it’d mostly be about lifting smaller apps, but instead of it being free, it would take space from paid ads from ad networks, meaning the larger apps would also be losing revenue, or it would mean introducing ads to games where none exist, potentially annoying some users.

While my questions may sound negative, I want to stress that I am interested in the idea. Given the proper execution, it could be great!

 

#3

Doesn’t Google ban apps that promote other apps? Seems I remember that being something. Maybe I’m wrong about that.

Rob

#4

That is why I am working on a plugin for the cross-promotion portion ofTappx. It is very similar to the scheme you mentioned and I use it in my native apps. It is not a miracle but for me, it does produce better install rates than cross-promoting my apps. 

Anyway, I have the iOS version done just need to test it and submit it to the market place.

As Rob is correct. This only works because they look like ads. You can’t have a list of other people’s apps in your app. Apple will remove it from the store.

#5

Thanks guys for all these great points. I’ll try to respond to as many as I can right now:

  • The JSON block which will define the data for a particular ad will contain a filter element for age restriction. Anyone utilising the API would simply provide a config entry or start up parameter stating their app is for kids to restrict the list. The JSON could contain a category field as well. The list of categories would need to be small, I suspect.

  • The guidelines most relevant that I can find from Apple (sorry, not got to Google yet) are sections 3.2.1.i and 3.2.2.i. The overall concept, being that of cross-promotion within a very specific community, would be most easily paraphrased as “Apps from our friends”. Because of this the “ad slot” would not be a standard ad slot and would not be placed within the typical ad area - the developer using the API would not need to choose between displaying the ad network component vs. this one. It would most likely go onto a separate menu page specifically for this purpose. This API is to reduce the complexity of getting the data and assets together but the best way of designing this display is (of course) open for debate.

  • Which ads are shown would be down to the library JSON file containing all the ad slot information and links. That list would be updated by pull request and I would review each PR. The library would occasionally download the list and update its display.

  • This concept is about We as a Community helping each other. There is no reason for any developer reading this to pick the API up and start using other than good will. The ad impressions would generate no revenue at all; All that can be gained is a download, no more. There is no reason for someone with a game as popular as Angry Birds to put a little promotion to a developer they essentially don’t know - other than not knowing how popular their game or app will be when they first put it on the store. Hopefully, the task of adding their own app to the list and integrating the API into their code will be low-friction enough to fire-and-forget.

To sum up, yes there are questions to be answered around how these ads are displayed and made appropriate, but that is something I intend to work on well before making the library available. And yes, the drive to incorporate the library at all is probably only attractive to developers with a small audience, but I’m hoping that, even if the big players in the Corona community don’t take part, we as little players can help each other out - without tripping the store police into thinking we’re doing something naughty.

Please keep the questions coming…

#6

This sounds interesting. Being a business oriented person, I think there are a few things to consider.

First, who decides on what ads are shown? Someone with a kid friendly app might not want graphic or vulgar ads appearing in their games, nor would anyone want simply “bad looking ads” to appear in their game either.

So, there’d have to be some central authority who decides what ads are “good enough” for this, who are they suitable for, or simply let the developers decide for themselves. How would developers be prevented from having other apps promote theirs without advertising other developers’ apps in theirs?

Second, if the developers do decide for themselves, then why would someone with +50k downloads willingly promote a game with fewer than 100 downloads, for instance? What kind of measures would be taken to ensure that the heavy hitters would benefit from this as well and not just lift up the less known apps, or is that the main idea for this?

Third, for these larger apps, it’d mostly be about lifting smaller apps, but instead of it being free, it would take space from paid ads from ad networks, meaning the larger apps would also be losing revenue, or it would mean introducing ads to games where none exist, potentially annoying some users.

While my questions may sound negative, I want to stress that I am interested in the idea. Given the proper execution, it could be great!

 

#7

Doesn’t Google ban apps that promote other apps? Seems I remember that being something. Maybe I’m wrong about that.

Rob

#8

That is why I am working on a plugin for the cross-promotion portion ofTappx. It is very similar to the scheme you mentioned and I use it in my native apps. It is not a miracle but for me, it does produce better install rates than cross-promoting my apps. 

Anyway, I have the iOS version done just need to test it and submit it to the market place.

As Rob is correct. This only works because they look like ads. You can’t have a list of other people’s apps in your app. Apple will remove it from the store.

#9

Thanks guys for all these great points. I’ll try to respond to as many as I can right now:

  • The JSON block which will define the data for a particular ad will contain a filter element for age restriction. Anyone utilising the API would simply provide a config entry or start up parameter stating their app is for kids to restrict the list. The JSON could contain a category field as well. The list of categories would need to be small, I suspect.

  • The guidelines most relevant that I can find from Apple (sorry, not got to Google yet) are sections 3.2.1.i and 3.2.2.i. The overall concept, being that of cross-promotion within a very specific community, would be most easily paraphrased as “Apps from our friends”. Because of this the “ad slot” would not be a standard ad slot and would not be placed within the typical ad area - the developer using the API would not need to choose between displaying the ad network component vs. this one. It would most likely go onto a separate menu page specifically for this purpose. This API is to reduce the complexity of getting the data and assets together but the best way of designing this display is (of course) open for debate.

  • Which ads are shown would be down to the library JSON file containing all the ad slot information and links. That list would be updated by pull request and I would review each PR. The library would occasionally download the list and update its display.

  • This concept is about We as a Community helping each other. There is no reason for any developer reading this to pick the API up and start using other than good will. The ad impressions would generate no revenue at all; All that can be gained is a download, no more. There is no reason for someone with a game as popular as Angry Birds to put a little promotion to a developer they essentially don’t know - other than not knowing how popular their game or app will be when they first put it on the store. Hopefully, the task of adding their own app to the list and integrating the API into their code will be low-friction enough to fire-and-forget.

To sum up, yes there are questions to be answered around how these ads are displayed and made appropriate, but that is something I intend to work on well before making the library available. And yes, the drive to incorporate the library at all is probably only attractive to developers with a small audience, but I’m hoping that, even if the big players in the Corona community don’t take part, we as little players can help each other out - without tripping the store police into thinking we’re doing something naughty.

Please keep the questions coming…