Pixel United’s Kelly Kang on Building EverMerge’s Early Ad Monetisation Strategy

Mobile advertising company Liftoff has invited inspirational women working on some of the biggest mobile games to discuss their achievements, challenges, and future aspirations. This time, the focus is on Kelly Kang, Senior Director of Ad Monetisation & Partnerships at Pixel United.

It might be tough to believe it now, but when Kelly Kang joined the mobile industry 14 years ago, she wasn’t involved in app monetisation. The Apple App Store had barely established itself, mobile games were on the back burner, and she focused on texting. Of course, it wasn’t long before the situation dramatically changed. Mobile games exploded in popularity, paving the way for many opportunities where Kang could build up her skillset, including roles at major studios such as Glu Mobile and Zynga.

Kang quickly realised she’d found her true calling and began ascending the ranks at Pixel United. Initially, she started as an Ad Monetisation Lead at one of the company’s subsidiaries, Big Fish Games. Within two years, she moved up to Ad Monetisation Director, which paved the way to her current role just 11 months later as Senior Director of Ad Monetisation & Partnerships at Pixel United.

Kang’s current focus is on generating ad revenue across Pixel United’s entire portfolio, including Big Fish Games and two other subsidiaries, Product Madness and Plarium. This is no small task, encompassing pretty much everything related to ad monetisation—branded campaigns, programmatic ads, ad product strategies, and much more.

Marketing multiple mobile game genres

As you might expect, managing three different mobile game companies simultaneously is no easy task, especially when each specialises in different genres. First up is Product Madness, which boasts popular social casino titles like Heart of Vegas. Next is Plarium, known for action-packed RPGs like RAID: Shadow Legends. Finally, Big Fish Games offers a lineup of match3 puzzlers, such as EverMerge and Gummy Drop, as well as other puzzle-based titles.

Kang’s solution to managing such an expansive portfolio is to approach each title from two angles. On one side, she looks at a title from a business perspective. A game has to ultimately generate revenue to survive, which means introducing new monetisation methods or increasing the number of ads served to non-paying users. The other perspective is that of the user. While increasing monetisation opportunities sounds like a good idea financially, you’ve also got to consider how this impacts the experience of actually playing the game and whether it could result in valued players heading elsewhere.

“I see games as a personal getaway, where you can build your own character and escape from reality, even if it’s just for a little while,” Kang says. “We see in our data that for many players, games are their break time. They’ve had a long, stressful day and play for a couple of hours after work to unwind. My goal is to enhance that experience, not add stress. I don’t want intrusive ads disrupting their game. I want to be a part of their paradise.”

Building a match3 hit: EverMerge

Of the many titles Kang has worked on, her favourite is EverMerge, as she developed its monetisation strategy while the game was still being conceptualised. That’s a rare opportunity, as for many games, ad monetisation only begins to be thought about once a game is in the late stages of its development. That is often difficult for ad monetisation pros, as it means they must work around the confines of a pre-established structure.

With EverMerge, Kang was involved from the outset, engaging in discussions about how to make the game enjoyable—and profitable. She experimented with different ad formats, influenced the game’s economy, and identified the best ad placement within the developing gameplay systems. The results speak for themselves: EverMerge was a breakthrough success at launch in 2020, generating $50 million in just seven months (an impressive feat then), and continues to go from strength to strength.

“You can often tell when ads were thoughtfully built into the game design versus when they were an afterthought,” Kang says. “For a better user experience, how ads will integrate into a game’s design should be thought about from the beginning, rather than awkwardly inserting random icons or rewards into something already built. This way, ads don’t feel forced but rather seamlessly integrated, enhancing the game’s profitability without disrupting the player’s enjoyment.”

Obstacles to success: ad quality and declining CPM

Regardless of when mobile game ad monetisation pros begin planning their ad monetisation strategy, Kang stresses that they must contend with two key challenges. The first is inconsistent ad quality, which can present issues of all shapes and sizes. For example, poor optimisation of content can result in lengthy load times, while inaccurate targeting can mean users get pushed ads misaligned with their own personal interests – sometimes multiple times.

It’s a challenge that has plagued ad monetisation pros for many years and continues to hinder even in 2024. That’s not to say that some strides haven’t been made. Ad networks and other platforms have vastly improved their tracking systems over the past few years, and in Kang’s experience, they can pick up around 60 percent of problematic ad content. Of course, that still leaves almost half of the issues in the mix, which often can only be identified by someone manually searching for it.

“The second challenge is the decline in eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions),” Kang says. “It doesn’t matter which genre we focus on – we see the same downward trend. What we’re trying to figure out is that while advertisers are paying higher CPIs (cost per install), where is that money going? Because on our end, CPMs are dropping. If they’re paying more, then who’s taking the difference in the middle?”

One way that Kang is trying to overcome these challenges is by using API keyword searches within creative content. When a served ad contains certain flagged words, the API will identify that content as problematic and pull it from the rotation. As this process works automatically, it can scan thousands of creatives within minutes. The only drawback is that with programmatic advertising, advertisers often change the creative the next time it’s served, meaning the process must be rerun often to remain effective.

Kang adds, “There are pain points in every genre, and while they can be frustrating, they can also be beneficial. If we solve a problem like ad quality in one area, we can also apply that strategy across other parts of our business. On the flip side, if something doesn’t work, we know not to use it elsewhere. It’s a constant learning process.