Balancing income and participant expertise in cellular video games is extra advanced than it appears. On this interview, Ezgi Doğan shares sensible insights on interstitial advert settings, utilizing unfilled advert stock strategically, and turning first-party knowledge into actionable monetization. From widespread technical pitfalls to rising AI-driven personalization, her recommendation may also help you optimize each retention and CPM!
AppSamurai: In your article, you talked about that commonplace interstitial templates (like 5+3+2) are sometimes assumed to be the usual however aren’t at all times optimum. Do you suggest builders implement conservative settings, the place the timer seems early or complete video period is shorter to optimize for participant’s session depth or LTV prediction?
Ezgi Doğan: To be sincere, at present’s “commonplace” templates didn’t grow to be commonplace as a result of they had been confirmed to be optimum, however as a result of most builders aren’t actually conscious of what the present defaults are—and people defaults have quietly grow to be the trade norm.
Networks with extra aggressive default setups may provide higher worth to advertisers, so that they gained a aggressive edge. Over time, different networks adopted to remain aggressive, and that’s how we ended up the place we are actually: adverts usually not skippable till 15 seconds + no less than 3 actions required by consumer, and customers incessantly discovering themselves within the retailer with simply a few unintended faucets.
What’s fascinating is that customers are additionally getting used to this. In my current experimentations throughout a number of titles, limiting skippable time of interstitials to even 10 seconds now causes pretty important CPM drops. Prior to now we’d see as much as 20% CPM drops; now I’m seeing circumstances the place it’s nearer to 40%, which makes it virtually unattainable to justify strict limits, as a result of the retention elevate will not be robust sufficient to offset that loss.
From a pure UX angle, shortening the complete period doesn’t essentially assist, however making the advert skippable earlier virtually at all times improves the expertise. The issue is: that now additionally hurts monetization considerably.
So do I like to recommend extra conservative settings?
Solely to some extent.
I nonetheless like a 5-second skip for the principle video and instantaneous skip on all finish playing cards from a user-experience perspective—however in follow, I now counsel beginning with 15 seconds complete skippable time for interstitials, and testing from there. On iOS specifically, limiting too aggressively can have a really seen influence on income.
When groups go all-in on super-early skips or very brief movies, I’ve seen CPMs drop as much as 50%, particularly on networks which can be optimized for longer templates.
General, my suggestion is to experiment—and to do it by section:
- For potential payers, conservative advert settings and stricter limits normally repay.
- For the remainder of your customers, modify step-by-step and observe each income and retention.
And one essential notice: while you revert your adjustments, efficiency doesn’t bounce again in a day. So keep away from very sharp, short-lived experiments and provides the system time to stabilize earlier than making conclusions.
AppSamurai: You spoke at Gamesforum about turning unfilled advert stock into development. With out making a gift of your entire discuss once more, had been you leaning extra towards utilizing that house strategically for inside cross-promo and churn mitigation, or is there truly a monetization layer for “low-tier” or hard-to-fill visitors that almost all studios nonetheless overlook?
Ezgi Doğan: A little bit of each — however my foremost level was that unfilled stock is a massively underused asset.
Most studios consider cross-promotion solely as UA help for brand spanking new launches, however while you plug it into your waterfall appropriately, it turns into way more strategic:
1. It helps with churn mitigation
You retain customers inside your ecosystem as a substitute of sending them to random low-quality adverts — particularly in older titles the place churn is excessive and monetization is weak.
2. It offsets low-tier, hard-to-monetize geos
Tright here completely is a monetization layer right here that almost all groups overlook.
If you fill low-value impressions with home adverts priced at $0.01, demand companions in your waterfall don’t realize it’s inside. They simply see one other community “filling” at that worth level.
That creates a aggressive sign, and I’ve seen networks improve bids to remain aggressive, which lifts CPMs throughout the stack.
3. And sure, it will probably enhance income
It sounds counterintuitive, however cross-promo — when restricted to actually unmonetized stock — can truly push world CPMs up and stabilize pacing.
So quite than pondering of it as gap-filling, cross-promotion needs to be seen as a strategic layer in its personal proper — when arrange appropriately, turns into a multi-purpose device: it boosts UA, retains customers in your ecosystem, and may even elevate total monetization in parallel.
AppSamurai: You talked about that first-party knowledge is a serious alternative for builders. Out of your perspective, what’s the sensible ‘first step’ for a developer to begin leveraging that inside knowledge quite than simply leaving it sitting of their database?
Ezgi Doğan: Step one is definitely a lot easier than most groups suppose:
begin by structuring your personal consumer knowledge into usable segments.
Most builders already sit on actually robust first-party indicators — session depth, pay propensity, churn threat, participant kind, style affinity, advert sensitivity — however none of it means something till it’s changed into targetable cohorts.
When you carve out even a handful of core segments (new, at-risk, high-value, ad-sensitive, engaged non-payer, and so forth.), all the things begins to unlock:
1. Higher, smarter focusing on
That is essentially the most simple win.
You’ll be able to instantly enhance:
- rewarded placements
- personalised IAP presents
- dynamic paywalls & reductions
- personalised advert frequency
- cross-promo relevance
2. Precise monetization alternatives
First-party knowledge isn’t solely about focusing on — it opens direct income doorways too:
- direct offers for particular high-intent segments
- real-time in-app presents tied to participant conduct
- brand-sponsored rewards and worth exchanges
3. And sure, knowledge you may truly monetize
Not uncooked consumer knowledge — segments.
Companions more and more search for publisher-owned audiences they’ll activate in a privacy-safe approach.
So the sensible, zero-complexity first step could be very clear: outline your core segments and make them accessible inside your advertising and marketing + monetization stack.
AppSamurai: Along with your roots in engineering, you see the ‘underneath the hood’ setup of monetization. How usually do you discover {that a} drop in CPM is definitely a technical integration situation (latency, waterfall setup, end-card rendering) quite than a market demand situation?
Ezgi Doğan: Truthfully, Far more usually than groups suppose.
Once I begin working with new shoppers, I see technical causes in virtually each single account.
Just a few patterns come up repeatedly:
- Rewarded adverts requested approach too early, which makes the stock look low-value for advertisers and pushes CPMs down.
- Banner refreshes set far too aggressively, flooding the public sale and hurting viewability.
- Waterfalls which can be just too lengthy, inflicting sluggish advert loading, timeouts, and inconsistent provide and inflicting IVT.
These sorts of points are normally a few of the largest causes for low CPMs. It’s actually essential to have a look at your knowledge with the availability–demand relationship in thoughts. Extra advert requests or extra placements doesn’t mechanically imply extra income.
AppSamurai: Wanting forward, which rising adtech improvements or monetization paradigms do you see basically reshaping how builders method monetization for cellular video games? How ought to studios put together to adapt their product and income methods to those shifts?
Ezgi Doğan: The best way I see it, advert high quality goes to dominate 2026. Low-quality creatives are already creating actual friction in consumer expertise and total efficiency, and we’re reaching a degree the place neither networks nor builders can afford to disregard it anymore.
I additionally really feel that dynamic, player-specific experiences are lastly changing into actual with AI. Actual-time personalization of monetization flows is definitely attainable now, and I’m hoping groups begin taking significantly better benefit of it.
