Popcap tests ads

Popcap which is a leader in casual gaming recently released their results for the research that they did on one of their flagship titles, Zuma. According to Shankar Gupta, of Gaming Insider, one thing in particular stood out about the test results. Popcap tested different setups for their game ads. One setup allowed the users to download the game and play for as long as they wanted for free but they had to view video ads during the natural breaks in the gameplay. Another way the users could buy the game to make the ads go away. The last setup allowed the users to play the first three levels for free with ads but then locked them out until they actually purchased the game.

Popcap is not your usual in-game advertiser. They specialize in online games and are not a developer or in-game advertising company.

Popcap is in two businesses, they are trying to sell their games, and now they are also considering selling these in-game ads, which have very competitive clickthrough rates. The tests showed that the two configurations work in different ways. The best configuration to sell games is the one where the game locks up after you play the first three levels.

"Once the player’s got through the first three levels, they don’t want to stop. But then they buy, and the ads stop showing, so there’s no inventory for the advertiser. Conversely, the configuration where users could play as long as they wanted with ads showing the whole time served the most impressions, and delivered the highest number of clickthroughs, but didn’t drive conversions"

For now Popcap is going with the setup that will allow them to sell more game and get less clickthroughs. They believe this is the best way because they are not confident in their ability to sell all of the advertising inventory that they would have if they chose to use the other setup method.