Success stories

FRVR deepens the player experience with rewarded video

January 18, 2022

5 min read

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Bringing captivating games to millions

FRVR has developed more than 60 puzzle, sports and social games for a wide range of audiences. Its mission is to bring fun, captivating games to millions of people instantly. FRVR wanted to grow ad monetization without impacting player experience by using rewarded video with Meta Audience Network and Facebook Gaming.

35%

increase in return on ad spend (Basketball FRVR)¹

Challenge

Accessing more players while safeguarding retention

Before building Instant Games and monetizing with Meta Audience Network, FRVR developed only native mobile games. FRVR wanted to gain access to more players, so they decided to use Instant Games, which allows play directly in News Feed and Messenger on both desktop and mobile. Overall, the publisher aimed to monetize with ads, while prioritizing and safeguarding the player experience.

Offering extra lives with rewarded video

FRVR liked how rewarded ads instigated a different relationship with the player by providing an in-game reward at a frustration point in the game, such as offering an extra life when out of lives, in exchange for watching an ad.

Solution

Flexible and player-friendly ad experiences

“We have specific KPIs we're looking at – the most important one is retention,” said Chris Benjaminsen, Founder of FRVR. “We find that we can introduce advertising without having a negative effect on retention, as long as we don't overdo it.”

To start, FRVR saw interstitial ads as a low-effort way to start monetizing with ads. “You don’t need to make any changes to your existing games, except just implementing the ad at an appropriate time,” explains Chris, who saw interstitial ads work with existing creative and fit seamlessly into games.

While the flexibility of interstitial ads was a bonus, FRVR started implementing rewarded ads, too. FRVR liked how rewarded ads instigated a different relationship with the player by providing an in-game reward at a frustration point in the game, such as offering an extra life when out of lives, in exchange for watching an ad.

“Rewarded video requires you to build better games. To convince a user that they should either do a micro-transaction or see a rewarded video, you need something that the user perceives as having some level of value.” By developing games with rewarded ads in mind FRVR maintained player engagement and retention.

"Our main focus going forward is rewarded video,” said Chris. “We believe that when a user chooses to watch an advertisement, rather than that advert being forced on them, it creates a better social contract.”

We believe that when a user chooses to watch an advertisement, rather than that advert being forced on them, it creates a better social contract.”

Chris Benjaminsen, Founder, FRVR

Results

Rewarded video commands higher eCPMs

FRVR continuously measured and optimized rewarded ads until the right level of ad frequency in relation to eCPMs was reached. “Auto-balancing data is incredibly important,” said Chris. “It helps minimize the negative impact on other performance KPIs, such as retention, while generating the most money.” The company found that rewarded video commanded significantly higher eCPMs than previous ad monetization techniques.

“We also found that, in some cases, showing more ads does not necessarily lead to more money,” says Chris. “We try to optimize the balance between the highest value per user with the lowest possible advertisement pressure.” For Basketball FRVR, for example, after running tests with Meta, there was a 35% improvement in return on ad spend.

Overall FRVR introduced advertising without negatively impacting player retention. The company can now invest in deeper and better experiences for players, while also increasing revenue.

¹Basketball FRVR only, verified by FRVR

Learn more about Basketball FRVR on Facebook Gaming here.

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