In the 1980s, 90s, and even 2000s, the concept of gaming was confined to computers and consoles, a concept that only concerns enthusiasts. However, with the increase in the technological capacities of mobile devices and the increased popularity of hyper-casual game genre, the game has turned into the mainstream. More than 80 billion games were downloaded from app stores in 2020, with the games category accounting for 68% of the App Store’s revenue share. Advertising expenditures also exceeded $100 billion. Mobile games have been the most significant factor in the growth of mobile advertising.

Because the medium has grown so much and has become mainstream, it is impossible for modern marketers to ignore this medium. This channel, where the level of engagement is high, has excellent opportunities for brands.

What is In-Game Advertising?

Briefly, in-game advertising refers to advertisements displayed within mobile games. These ads can be in static banners, video, or audio format.

Why Should You Be In In-Game Advertising?

Games offer their users a much more attractive experience compared to other applications. That’s why users are much more engaged with the content within games. Considering that in-game ads are also a form of content, we can say that users are pretty receptive to these ads.

But Aren’t In-Game Ads Annoying?

Not really. As a general thought, we know that advertisements within the application are elements that spoil the user experience. However, things are a little different in the game world.

How an in-game ad affects the user experience depends on how the ad is integrated into the game. Ads that are well integrated into the game dynamics can improve the user experience instead of spoiling it. Applications such as giving extra life in exchange for watching ads or unlocking hidden features in the game allow users to have a more sympathetic view of ads.

Are In-Game Ads Safe for Brands?

Programmatic advertising brands are naturally sensitive to the security of the content presented on the platforms where their ads will be displayed. The concept of gaming is also a concept that advertisers skeptically approach.

However, most mobile games are quite safe for brands, contrary to popular belief. The fact that the content of mobile games is much lighter than desktop ones, and therefore does not contain elements of extreme violence or sexuality, and there is usually no user-generated content makes mobile games safe platforms for advertisers.

Now is the time for advertisers to think out of the box and evaluate the new tools offered by the changing media. In-game ads are one of the most important of these tools.

The world’s number one social media platform, Facebook, has been in our lives for a long time. Therefore, Facebook ads are also an important part of our daily work flow.

Achieving better results by optimizing Facebook ads is a task in itself. In this article, we will give you a few tips to better optimize your Facebook ads.

Embed Facebook Pixel on Your Website

Facebook ads are great. However, if you do not fully set up Facebook ads, it is impossible to take advantage of the full potential of these ads. In order to optimize your ads, you first need to be able to measure your ads in a healthy way. To achieve that, the best technique is to use the Facebook pixel.

Start with a Broad Audience

Identifying users on Facebook has become a challenging task, especially after the iOS update. One of the most effective ways to get around this challenge is to keep your audience broad at first, then create a new audience of users who react to your ad and push those users to conversion.

Use Your Existing Posts

It is possible to use your existing posts on Facebook as an advertisement. However, most advertisers ignore this feature.

It might be a good idea to use your organically performing posts as ads. These socially proven posts can act as a locomotive for your goal.

Do Your Ad Timing Well

One of the most critical variables that determine the performance of your ads is when your user sees your ad.

Depending on your target audience and the subject of your ad, there will be differences in users’ interest in your ads. For example, it might be a good idea to run hobby ads on the weekend and business ads on weekdays.

At the beginning of your campaign, you may not have a clear idea of ​​which ad to run and when. To have a good roadmap, analyze the timing of your audience’s reaction to your ads and optimize your campaign accordingly.

Avoid Ad Fatigue with Ad Diversity

No one likes to see the same ad over and over. While everyone is aware of this fact, most advertisers do not stop showing the same advertisement to their target audiences repeatedly. This is not a healthy method to achieve the desired results.

Don’t be lazy when it comes to creating your ad creative. Go for variety in both your ad formats and your persuasive arguments. Note that different messaging strategies may persuade different users.

One of the biggest problems for advertisers is that some of the money they spend is wasted. This fact has not changed, although measurement methods have become far more sophisticated with the increasing weight of online advertising.

Performance marketing provides a solution to this problem. Advertisers who want to invest for the results of the ads, not for the ads, turn to performance marketing.

The Definition

In classical advertising models, regardless of the effect of the advertisement, it is the advertiser who pays the advertising agency or the media in advance. In performance marketing, on the other hand, the advertiser pays if and only if the action he/she expects from the target audience is taken. This may be the sale of a product on the website or the completion of a form.

With performance marketing, the advertiser can more accurately predict how much of the money they spend on their marketing budget will return as profit. It is not possible to have such foresight with classical advertising planning techniques.

Why Not Use Performance Marketing for Every Campaign?

If advertisers waste some of their money on other ad models, why don’t they use performance marketing in every campaign?

This is a good question. To answer it, we must discuss the concept of “advertising”.

Advertising is not just for the sale of a product or service. In general, advertising is a form of persuasive communication, and selling is merely one of the outputs of this persuasion process. Making brand communication or expanding the category may also be among the purposes of the advertisement. Since the communication to be made for these purposes cannot be measured based on user actions, performance marketing techniques cannot be used in all cases.

One of the biggest obstacles to the widespread use of performance marketing is its cost, which can be high. The media, which is paid for a specific performance, naturally demands higher budgets for this type of advertising.

How to Use Performance Marketing

It is possible to use performance marketing techniques in every advertising channel where user actions can be measured.

Content can be used as a performance marketing channel. When the budgeting of sponsored posts, native advertising, or affiliate marketing activities is performance-based, they turn into performance marketing examples.

Social media ads can also be evaluated within performance marketing. If your campaign goal is to sell a product or service directly, or if you want to increase the number of fans on your social media profiles, your advertising efforts for all these fall within performance marketing.

Thanks to the developing technology, there has been a significant change in the purchase of digital advertisements in recent years. The fixed pricing system that used to be widely used has been largely replaced by programmatic advertising. This way, advertisers can manage their budgets much more efficiently.

However, the same does not go for television. Pricing models that have been used for decades in television advertising continue to be used. This system, which is based on sampling-based data and whose reasonability is questionable, is slowly changing. The use of programmatic advertising on television is increasing, thanks to the efforts of advertisers who want to utilize the opportunities offered by online advertising on television and publishers who want to offer wider opportunities to advertisers.

What is Programmatic TV Advertising?

In its simplest terms, programmatic TV advertising is a type of advertising in which personalized messages can be delivered to the audience. The biggest difference from traditional TV advertising is that TV programs have such a structure that centers the audience individually instead of an advertising strategy set according to their target audience. While traditional TV advertising is based on data obtained from a sample and updated rarely, programmatic advertising is based on data that is always up-to-date and represents the entire universe.

What are the Advantages of Programmatic TV Advertising?

The biggest advantage of programmatic TV advertising is that targeting is based on much more accurate data. This is a very important advantage in an environment where it has become very difficult to segment the target audience into meaningful segments.

Another critical advantage of programmatic TV advertising is purchasing automation. Thanks to this automation, it is possible to make much more sophisticated media plans. Manually allocating budgets in traditional TV advertising leads to missing many opportunities.

Ease of measurement is another crucial advantage of programmatic TV advertising. The direct processing of data covering the entire universe enables many planning maneuvers to be performed easily.

The facts that the data can be processed so easily and the purchasing is done with automation allow the ad campaigns to be optimized instantly. The ability to intervene immediately on campaign performance allows advertisers to achieve their marketing goals more efficiently.

Are We Ready?

We can say that programmatic TV advertising has just taken its first steps. Programmatic accounts for only 3% of total television advertising spending in the US. However, this rate is rapidly increasing every year.

The biggest obstacle to progress in programmatic TV is that the budgets required for programmatic advertising are higher than those for traditional planning methods. The biggest reason for this is that the inventories of televisions for programmatic are not sufficient. As the inventory improves, its programmatic costs will decrease.

All players in the digital advertising world agree that transparency is a crucial concept for digital advertising to reach its full potential. Developing solutions to keep fraudsters out of this complex ecosystem will protect publishers, advertisers, and consumers. Blockchain technology is one of the technologies that can play a part here.

Why Is Such a Technology Needed?

The growth experienced in the digital advertising sector is the biggest reason why the development of more effective control mechanisms is required. The amount of data shared between the parties increases day by day, making it difficult to control this data effectively. In such an environment, the work of fraudsters becomes easier, resulting in the world of digital advertising losing both money and reliability.

In the current environment, ad buyers have to manage complex systems manually. The presence of fraudsters also undermines their trust in the system.

Publishers also favor more transparency. The lack of transparent metrics and the ineffectiveness of third-party audit mechanisms negatively affect the credibility of publishers.

How Blockchain Technology Can Solve the Problem of Trust

One of the most important features of blockchain technology is that it decentralizes the control mechanism. In this way, it is possible to create much more reliable and safer control mechanisms.

Another attractive aspect of blockchain is its ability to simplify complex operations. Thanks to its scalability feature, it makes even large advertising operations controllable. With the automation of manual controls, human error is minimized.

Personalized Ads

Blocking third-party cookies is one of the hottest topics in the advertising world. First-party data is needed to create personalized ads in an environment without cookies. But not every publisher will have this data.

At this point, with the necessary legal regulations, blockchain technology can be a solution. It is possible to continue to display personalized advertisements by protecting the privacy of user data.

Big Steps Required

Many tech enthusiasts describe blockchain technology as a miracle. But we shouldn’t get excited so quickly. Because blockchain technology will create an evolution in advertising rather than a revolution. On the other hand, changing working systems and the need for legal regulations are also major obstacles to be overcome by blockchain technology. Therefore, there is no other solution for advertisers and publishers than working with reliable advertising platforms for the near future.

Since the concept of affiliate marketing emerged, it continues to be a productive source of income for online content creators. It’s a fact that it’s harder to make money these days than in the early days of affiliate marketing. However, the numbers show that this market continues to grow, still allowing to make big dollars with the right strategies.

Affiliate Marketing Market Grows 10% Per Year on Average

In the USA alone, the amount spent on affiliate marketing at the end of 2020 has exceeded 7 billion dollars. This growth rate refutes the arguments of those claiming that affiliate marketing has reached saturation point.

85% of Consumers Do a Google Search Before Purchasing Any Product or Service

The biggest force driving the continuation of the growth trend of affiliate marketing is the very attempt of consumers to reach detailed and objective information before purchasing a product or service. This is where content producers come into play. Content that is not produced by the brand itself is much more believable to consumers.

Affiliate Marketing Conversion Rates Between 0.5% and 1%

Conversion rates are critical numbers for the digital marketing world. The conversion rate of almost every digital marketing instrument decreases over time. Conversion rates provided by advertising are now referred to as one-thousandths. At this point, affiliate marketing has a much higher conversion rate compared to other digital marketing techniques. This ratio makes affiliate marketing an attractive tool for advertisers.

9-Year-Old Ryan Kaji Earned $29.5 Million From His YouTube Channel in 2020

9-year-old Ryan Kaji, one of the most significant sensations of the internet in recent times, earned $29.5 million in 2020 from his YouTube channel, where he produces content for children. A large part of this income was achieved through agreements with brands.

Retail Industry Makes 43% of Affiliate Marketing

The retail sector witnessing the highest sales figures on a unit basis is the biggest player in the affiliate world. The information need of consumers while shopping in this sector is what primarily leads to this large share.

Affiliate Marketing, the Biggest Source of Income For Websites with Low Number of Visitors

Studies have shown that websites with an average of less than 5,000 unique visitors per month have difficulties generating revenue from advertising models. In return, they can generate income from affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is an essential source of income, especially for micro-influencers producing content in a limited area, thus appealing to a limited target audience.

18.70% of Affiliate Revenues Come from Fashion Products

Fashion products have a significant share in the online retail industry, also echoing in affiliate marketing statistics. Fashion products are followed by sports and outdoor products with 14.8% and health and wellness products with 11.30%.