Speaker Spotlight: AppLovin’s Dave White on creating authentic and engaging ads

Europe’s leading B2B conference for the global mobile games industry, Pocket Gamer Connects London, begins in just seven days and we could not be more excited to share with you the fantastic speakers gracing us with their knowledge and expertise on February 14-15!

You can view the entire speaker line-up here to get a full scope of the talent that will be speaking this February. To give you a glimpse of what you can expect, we are spotlighting some of the most highly anticipated speakers to showcase the incredible talent and top-tier businesses that will be sharing their insights with us.

In the panel discussion, “How Can We Create Authentic and Engaging Ads?”, Dave White, business development senior manager at AppLovin, will discuss the secrets to creating engaging playable mobile games ads that drive user acquisition and monetisation without disrupting the player experience – yes, he assures us it can be done!

PocketGamer.biz: What’s the most important key performance indicator (KPI) for you – and why?

Dave White: The obvious answer would be the LTV of the app as this will give insight on how valuable the content offered is to your players.

At the very early stage of the testing process, developers will want to keep a close eye on retention. This will be an indicator of whether or not your app could potentially be marketed in the future.

This will also give an indication of where devs should focus their product development efforts to increase their user engagement rate and ultimately lengthen their potential earn-back window.

You can have the most amazing game with great retention on day one, but your scale will ultimately be limited if the content provided doesn’t ensure that players come back to your app and generate further ad/IAP revenue.

What game has been on your phone the longest?

That would probably be Stickman Hook, a game developed by one of our partners, Madbox. I love the way the team brought the stickman character up to date a few years back and made it one of the coolest hypercasual games I ever played. I wouldn’t say I’m playing it every day but it’s cool to see how the product has evolved since it was released in 2018.

Outside development and publishing, where are the next big opportunities in the mobile games market?

I believe the biggest opportunity in the mobile game market at the moment is for brands gaining access to the mobile gaming inventory. For years, there has been a misconception about who the audience in gaming truly is. In fact, for hypercasual games, women between the ages of 18 and 34 make up 55-60 per cent of players. This is a prime target for many brand marketers.

We spend four hours per day on our phones and the majority of that time in apps. Not only are apps an ideal way for brands to reach their audiences, the open measurement certification SDK now available in our SDK 11.0 means that brands can do this in a brand-safe environment with MAX.

If you could give other mobile games companies one piece of advice, what would it be?

Put the monetisation strategy at the core of your game development. Your game should be accessible to any type of player. At the same time, your monetisation strategy should never interfere with the gameplay. Even with in-game ads, you must be able to offer a smooth user experience.

On IAP-heavy games, non-paying users should be given a chance to access the great content you have been building. Ultimately, those may end up converting to further progress within your game. On the more hypercasual apps, look for options to further increase the engagement of your audiences with challenges or daily rewards.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to meet with Dave White and other industry leaders at Europe’s #1 B2B games industry conference on February 14-15. Make sure you secure your spot today!

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