Dive Brief:
- At the annual Google Developer Day, mobile game companies received a number of new services, including a mobile ad format that lets mobile games stream 10-minute trials in search.
- According to Re/code, the idea is to entice mobile game developers to buy search ads.
- The new ad format offers game app marketers a new app install ad approach with the preview of gameplay before requiring a download via a mobile search ad.
Dive Insight:
For Google, the new ad combines an area of rapid growth in mobile with what has traditionally been the cornerstone of its revenue model in search. It also takes advantage of the popular app install ad format, which eMarketer predicted would reach $3 billion last year, making up a more than 10% share of mobile ad dollars as well as representing an 80% year-over-year increase for the format.
"While volume is important, it’s more important to find the right kind of user, who’ll open the app and keep on playing. That’s why today, at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), we announced a host of new features in AdWords and AdMob that make it simpler for developers to reach the right users at scale," Sissie Hsiao, product management director of Mobile Display Ads for Google, wrote in a blog post Monday.
Because streaming gameplay is data intensive, the new ads will only be served on devices connected to WiFi.
Other new services include a Video Recording API to make it easier to stream and share videos to YouTube, and tools for managing virtual goods and currencies. Another new ad feature from Google is support for portrait video ads as well as the ability to target people who spent more than 30 minutes playing games in general, or played any Google Play Games games, in the last 30 days. The update gives game marketers a new video format with the capability of reaching people who are known consumers of mobile games.
All of the new services and features are expected to roll out over the next few weeks.