Cross-promotion

The cross-promotion is a feature for game publishers and game studios giving them the option to easily promote between games inside their games bringing players to download a new game from another game they publish. Game of Whales uses the current data of players that have already managed to collect. AI system analyzes the player's behavior and creates the cross-promo ad of the new game when the system decides that the player started to lose the interest to the current game.  

How it works:

• You set the cross-promotion settings in a new game (this is the game you want to promote): select the games which will promote the new game, load the images with ads of the new game, etc. and turn the cross-promotion on.
  Pay attention that the new game should be published in the appropriate stores and its bundle identifiers should be set on Game settings page of Game of Whales.  
• Game of Whales creates the advertisements in selected games and sends them to the games players. Pay attention that the games selected for promotion should support the showing of GOW ads. You can find more details about the implementation of ads on GOW SDK implementation guides. 
• If the advertisement was created for the player and the player logs the new game in, he will able to get the gift in the new game (the gift is an in-game product defined in the cross-promotion settings). 

The advertisement is valid and available to show within 2 days after its creation. If the player clicks on the received ads on his device the appropriate advertisement is redeemed.

The gift is created if the player has clicked on the advertisement in the game. The gift is valid within 2 days after it's creation. Technically the gift is a special offer for an in-game product with 100% discount. The offer can be redeemed once. If the gift exists for the player it is shown on Special offers tab of the player's card.

The cross-promotion is based on AI (Artificial Intelligence) system, so it's necessary to enable AI in a new game and in all games which will promote the new game.

Cross-promotion settings

All cross-promotion settings are set on Cross Promotion tab of AI Settings. In order to open it click on AI SETTINGS button on the dashboard.

You need setting the following parameters on Cross Promotion tab:

• Cross Promotion option - allows to turn the cross-promotion functionality on/off. By default, it's turned off.

• Ads will be created only for the selected countries if any are set (1)- if you want to show the ads only for players from a few countries, you should add the countries to this list. If the list is empty, the ads will be created for players from any country.
• Ads will be created only for the selected platforms if any are set (2) - if you want to show the ads only for some platforms, you should select the platforms by clicking on them. If nothing is selected, the ads will be created for any platform.

• Promote in the following games (3) - choose the games which will help promote the current game. The ad of the current game will be created for selected games.
• Reward (4) - choose an in-game product which will use as a gift for players downloaded the game. 

• Title and Message (5) - the text of additional ad's message. At the moment they are not supported by GOW SDK.

• Edit promotion images - load the images with the advertisement of the game.

You can load images for different types of devices and different orientations: Phone Portrait, Phone Landscape, 7" Tablet Portrait, 7" Tablet Landscape, 10" Tablet Portrait, 10" Tablet Landscape. At least one image should be loaded. But it's recommended to set all kinds of images. In this case, GOW SDK will choose the most suitable image for showing on a player's device.

In order to save all settings click on SAVE CHANGES.

Showing of ads in the game

In order to work with GOW ads on the game side, you should implement some GOW SDK methods.  You can find more details about the implementation of ads on GOW SDK implementation guides:

• for Unity SDK
• for Android Native SDK
• for iOS Native SDK (swift)
• for iOS Native SDK (objective-c)

If you use GOW REST API you should call ads method for getting the ads and adAction method for sending feedback.

A test cross-promotion ad can be created for checking of the implementation. No need to enable cross-promotion on the game for sending of test ads.
In order to create the test ads:

• Mark the player related to the test device as a developer.
• Open his player's card.
• Click on the DEVELOPERS SETTINGS.

• Click on TEST CROSS PROMOTION.

• Specify the advertisement parameters.
• Click on TEST CROSS PROMOTION.

 

Test cross-promotion ad will be created in the current game.

Gift in the game

In order to work with a gift on the game side, you should implement some GOW SDK methods related to special offers.  You can find more details about the implementation of  special offers on GOW SDK implementation guides:

• for Unity SDK
• for Android Native SDK
• for iOS Native SDK (swift)
• for iOS Native SDK (objective-c)

If you use GOW REST API you should call offers method for getting special offers.
In order to check the implementation, you can create the test special offer on Developer Settings form.

Cross-promotion reports

The advertising efficiency is shown in Cross Promotion report.

To open this report, select your game, go to Reports (1) and then click on Cross Promotion section (2).

 

The report consists of 2 part: the data about ads and the data about revenue contribution from players who joined the game through the cross-promotion.

The total number of players who joined the game via the cross-promotion in the selected period is shown at the top of the first graph.  

The graph is shown the number of delivered (1), presented (2) and clicked (3) advertisements in the selected period and the number of installs (4) of the current game by players who have watched the ads in the same period.

The ad is defined as delivered for the player if Game of Whales has received login event from the same player during the ad's valid period.

The ad is defined as presented for the player if Game of Whales has received adAction: showed event for the same ad from the same player. It means that the ad was shown for the player.

The ad is defined as clicked if Game of Whales has received adAction : clicked event for the same ad from the same player. It means that the player clicked on the ad to open the appropriate store for downloading the game.

The number of installs is increased if the player joined the game after the watching of the ads.   

The exact numbers are shown in the graph's tooltip. The percentages near the number of presented ads are calculated as Presented/Delivered*100%; the percentages near the number of clicked ads is calculated as Clicked/Presented*100%;  the percentages near the number of installs is calculated as Installed/Clicked*100%.

The data of the graph is divided by games promoted the current game.

Revenue by games graph shows how much money the players that joined the game via cross-promo in the selected period have brought.

The total amount is shown at the top of the graph.

IAP revenue (1) and Ads revenue (2) are shown separately.

The exact values can be found on the tooltip.

The data of the graph is divided by games promoted the current game.

By default, the report shows data for the last 30 days. You can change the report's period by clicking on Pick a date. 

 

The information about the revenue from players attracted through cross-promotion is also shown on the dashboard.

By default, the report shows the data for the previous month. You can change the period by changing the period of the dashboard.

If there is no revenue from the players who joined the game through the cross-promotion in the selected period the report will look like this:

If the players joined the game via the cross-promotion, their cards will have special labels.

The same label will be used to mark their purchases in the purchases list on the dashboard.

 

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