Monetization startup Appnext expands its social game discovery network to mobile

Monetization startups keep multiplying in mobile. But Appnext believes it has what it takes to stand out from the crowd and make a ton of money for game developers.

The Tel Aviv, Israel-based company is extending its mobile monetization and discovery platform from social networks to mobile devices, according to Tal Perry, the vice president of business development at Appnext, in an interview with GamesBeat. He said that will help game developers generate more money through advertising, cross-promotion, and game discovery.

The company serves player-targeted game recommendations during natural breaks in the action in a game. That targeting and respect for a player’s game experience helps improve results for both the publishers and game developers, Perry said. The ad is an interstitial that can be triggered by an in-game event or through the use of a branded “more games” tab. A player can scroll across the user interface to view additional games through Appnext’s interstitials. That generates up to 25 percent better engagement rates.

Appnext is one of a number of companies that believes in native ads, which are gaining traction because they are unobtrusive and fit in with the context of the content. Appnext will show offers to players, enticing them to play other games within a gaming environment. A developer can use the Appnext network to market games to users of other games within the network. Appnext includes descriptions of complementary games so that there are fewer mistaken clicks and more high-quality users and better conversion rates. The ads appear at the end of a game, when players visit a game lobby, and when the player needs a refill on virtual currency.

The ads vary based on user data, device type, and location. Appnext says it will have better effective CPMs (which measure revenue generated per 1,000 users).

“Regardless of which platform they choose, the Appnext mobile monetization network enables any mobile-game developer to monetize their game’s existing traffic in order to generate new daily traffic for free,” said Elad Natanson, the founder of Appnext.

Game developers can run campaigns across a broad range of Appnext mobile-game publishers in order to acquire new users. Perry says the company provides Amazon-like targeting.

“If the player doesn’t like the first offer, he or she can scroll sideways to see the next one,” Perry said. “When they click on an offer, the advertiser knows that the player really wants to do it.”

Rivals include Chartboost, PlayHaven, NativeX, Tap4Tap, and LeadBolt.

“Thanks to Appnext’s innovative ad unit, we’re generating more revenue than we previously did with other ad networks,” said Deniz Piri, the chief executive officer of Ahoy Games. “Beyond that, it doesn’t interrupt the user experience and allows us to offer our players more relevant game offers during breaks in the game.”

Appnext supports middleware technologies including Unity, Corona, Marmalade, Adobe Air, PhoneGap, and HTML 5 through its software development kit and plug-ins for games running on Android. Windows Phone support is coming soon. The company’s platform is already available for Facebook games. Perry said the platform will also be on iOS at some point.

Natanson founded Appnext in 2012. The company has 15 employees. It is self-funded. About 200 developers are currently using the platform on social networks, and Perry expects many to use the platform on mobile devices. He said the number of developers has been doubling every month.

“Our competition provides a terrific product, but we can do it across platforms and in a targeted way,” Perry said.