Immersive Ads Publisher Learnings and Insights

[darkmodeonn]

[Update] October 13, 2023

@mabadbuddy

Hi Developers,

First off - I’d like to give a HUGE thank you to you all for diving into our document and for not holding back in the comments – we’ve been soaking it all up! Your unwavering enthusiasm for Roblox does not go unnoticed, and we’re wholeheartedly thankful for the support, understanding, and curiosity you continually bring to our community.

In our dedication to improving transparency, here are some responses to the vital points you brought up in the comments:

1. Retention in the Publishing Experience: Our report focused on the impact of immersive ads on user retention within the publisher experience (where the ad is served), not the advertiser experience. Initial findings indicate that these ads do not deter players from returning to the experience where the portal ad was shown. This is encouraging news, as it suggests that the immersive ads do not negatively impact retention of the publisher experience.

2. Positive Early Results: We are pleasantly surprised about the positive results of the experiment, yet cautiously optimistic that it’s early days and these metrics may fluctuate. We will be sharing future installments of this document and adding more reporting in the Creator Dashboard to help you make informed decisions.

3. Upcoming Features/Updates: Anticipating the future, several updates slated for the coming year will include:

1. Enabling experiences compliant with Experience Guidelines to become immersive ads publishers.
2. Enriching publisher reporting with “Return Rates” and additional metrics.

4. Revenue Share: Despite our decision to not disclose specific revenue share earnings - given their dynamic nature, influenced by supply and demand variables - please know our ultimate aim at Roblox remains to maximize payouts to our developer community.

Please keep the feedback and comments flowing - we’re listening! Thanks.

---

Hi Developers,

Earlier this year, we launched immersive ads as a new way for publishers to monetize their experiences and for advertisers to reach their audience on Roblox. Over the past few months, we ran experiments to understand the impact of Immersive Ads. We saw that publishers who combine Immersive Ads with in-experience monetization can earn more.

Over the past six months we have seen publishers and advertisers gradually adopt immersive ads. Publishers have placed ad units in their experience and have seen a growing share of their earnings coming from immersive ads. Meanwhile, advertisers have been running portal ads to drive traffic to their branded experiences.

In the spirit of transparency, we are sharing some learning, insights, and product updates that may be useful for developers considering adopting immersive ads in their experiences.

Key Takeaways

1. Immersive ads increased total monetization in publisher experiences.
2. Immersive ads have not decreased total engagement in publisher experiences.
3. Immersive ads have not negatively impacted user retention in publisher experiences.
4. Immersive ads do not negatively impact search and discovery ranking and organic discovery of an experience.
5. Ad demand fluctuates often but has been trending upward.
6. Advertiser demand for Portal Ads is 9x higher than demand for Image Ads in the past three months.
7. Average Earnings Per Teleport (EPT) rates have increased by 25% from May to August 2023.
8. Most ad spend comes from brands today, with Sports, Entertainment, Music, Fashion, and Beauty brands being the main advertisers.

Download the full report: Immersive Ads Publisher Learnings and Insights.pdf (554.4 KB)

Thank you for all the feedback so far, and please let us know what you’d like to see in the future.

[bluebxrrybot (blueberry)]

I’ve seen so many ad billboards now, which is okay. But I haven’t seen a single ad shown on them in almost 3 months. What happened?

[CoIorEvent (coior)]

100%. It is like ads randomly work for a month, then you don’t see any ads throughout the next month.

[OutlookG (Outlook)]

Coming from one of the largest publishers using immersive ads right now;

While revenue has gotten better, the rates we are getting are still horrifically bad, especially for billboard ads. Currently the rate we are getting is 70 robux per thousand impressions, that equates to about a 20 cent CPM, well under 20x the industry average. This is a scam.

I understand that the reason this isn’t higher is that there is no demand for billboard ads, but how do you expect to get demand for billboard ads when there is no supply because no developer wants to showcase a brand for some pocket change, especially the BIG games you want to show off to brands, and not the tiny games you don’t want to show off.

There’s a reason why the top 50-100 games aren’t using immersive ads, its because they know they can get a better rate from other places either through themselves or another ad agency.

Along with this, robux per teleport has fallen off a cliff recently. I’m not willing to teleport players away for only 3 robux in return, I expect 10 or higher. Minimum payout settings for developers should be the #1 focus for developers right now so that I can make it so I’m only sending players away for a rate I believe is fair.

I’ve said it over and over, Roblox needs to share the % cut they take from advertisements, every other advertisement platform from Google to Anzu, Twitch, Youtube and more all share the % they take, why won’t roblox?

If Roblox wants top games that they can actually show off to advertisers to use advertisements, they NEED to raise rates, its THAT simple.

Was also somewhat disappointed that we weren’t mentioned during the RDC talk on immersive ads, guess I’ve been too critical

Despite all this criticism, I do think immersive ads are on the right track, but theres alot more work to be done, and I appreciate the post letting us know whats happening!

[younite]

Will there be a chance in the future to choose where your immersive ads teleports go to?

[Hxndaaa (Barkus)]

I spoke to someone about this at a booth at RDC. They intend on giving both creators and advertisers control over which genres of ads appear in which genres of games.

[younite]

Genres are great, but what about if a brand collaborates with an experience and only specifically wants their advertisements shown if other experiences are attached to that event?

[Hxndaaa (Barkus)]

I briefly spoke to them about this and while this is something they’d like to do, it would be in the distant future.

[xChris_vC (Chris)]

Would appreciate it if you also highlighted some negative stats. Doesn’t sound very transparent right now.

[OneEDM (EDM)]

@darkmodeonn

In the spirit of transparency

This appears to be a marketing post boasting about how great immersive ads are. This is not transparency.

If you actually wanted to be transparent you would share the % cut Roblox takes.

[PeZsmistic]

This is not a marketing post, these are literally research results (albeit wrapped up in a community(?)-targeted document). This is what we have been asking for with regards to the justification for controversial additions and changes on the platform. I would like to see a little more of a neutral angle though - from how positive this document is, it’s unclear if they have found any negative effects of adding immersive ads to experiences at all, or if they have simply been omitted. This is not explicitly said.

If there is something you would like to see, then why don’t you politely do as they ask.

@darkmodeonn

please let us know what you’d like to see in the future.

[OneEDM (EDM)]

@PeZsmistic

This is not a marketing post, these are literally research results

Apologies, I should have been more clear on what I meant here. It is formatted as research results but it’s unclear how comprehensive they are given the findings are exclusively painting immersive ads in a positive light.

@PeZsmistic

(albeit wrapped up in a community(?)-targeted document).

This is what I meant to convey by the above statement.

@PeZsmistic

If there is something you would like to see, then why don’t you politely do as they ask.

We have been asking. I’ve personally asked at least 3 times and been ignored every single time alongside countless others like @OutlookG. From what I can tell, this has been one of the most common frustrations with immersive ads.

[SubtotalAnt8185]

Are billboard ads ever going to be worth it?

[santafatso28 (TheOlive)]

It’s a cool update and I like the justification of new changes to studio. I also like that you asked for feedback and while you aren’t replying, I assume you are looking at it. Great to know that while the income they add isn’t the highest, they add some income and at no cost to experiences. Free money is good!

[santafatso28 (TheOlive)]

@OutlookG

There’s a reason why the top 50-100 games aren’t using immersive ads, its because they know they can get a better rate from other places either through themselves or another ad agency.

Along with this, robux per teleport has fallen off a cliff recently. I’m not willing to teleport players away for only 3 robux in return, I expect 10 or higher. Minimum payout settings for developers should be the #1 focus for developers right now so that I can make it so I’m only sending players away for a rate I believe is fair.

I think Roblox might be trying to get out of the red zone. They are supposedly 1.73 billion in debt and are probably taking that money so they can fund Roblox. For Roblox to be sustainable it needs to be funded and the health of Roblox is directly tied to the health of developers.

I don’t think it’s wrong for Roblox to take a higher percent than other platforms until they are a profitable company. The platforms you mentioned that give more are companies that have reached profitability(youtube, twitch, google).

[OutlookG (Outlook)]

Oh yea I get why they are focusing so heavily on advertising, but if they want any sort of substantial supply they need to raise that % we get or the amount they are charging brands, otherwise why would I as a developer or any big developer use this over my own solution/other ad agency where I can get way more money?

[santafatso28 (TheOlive)]

I think your view of lowering price to increase sales and overall income is valid.

Roblox View on the Subject
Here it is shown that Roblox is interested in finding a good balance of pay. I believe that the current payout amount is suited for Roblox’s goals to make the platform sustainable for developers and Roblox.

To answer your question on why you should use the Roblox advertising service, you ought to help improve the platform you use instead of outside solutions. The standard pattern for products is to start cheap and raise prices later. Help the platform to get past the cheap phase.

[SpeedySanikJr]

@darkmodeonn

• Immersive ads increased total monetization in publisher experiences.
• Immersive ads have not decreased total engagement in publisher experiences.
• Immersive ads have not negatively impacted user retention in publisher experiences.
• Immersive ads do not negatively impact search and discovery ranking and organic discovery of an experience.
• Ad demand fluctuates often but has been trending upward.
• Advertiser demand for Portal Ads is 9x higher than demand for Image Ads in the past three months.
• Average Earnings Per Teleport (EPT) rates have increased by 25% from May to August 2023.
• Most ad spend comes from brands today, with Sports, Entertainment, Music, Fashion, and Beauty brands being the main advertisers.

You forgot to add:

• Immersive ads still do not pay enough to justify placing them in your experiences

I seriously look at this and think: what a joke. The post goes out of its way to mention “transparency”, and then only points out the positives as if it’s a new campaign to get developers to ise immersion ads, instead of being helpful data/information on the current pros & cons of immersive ads.

Great job, as usual.

No personal hate, I know you just do your job

[santafatso28 (TheOlive)]

@SpeedySanikJr

You forgot to add:

• Immersive ads still do not pay enough to justify placing them in your experiences

Give Roblox the credit for what they did right. They listed 8 things out of 9. Thats great transparency in my opinion. See 88 percent transparency is good!

Pretty darn transparent and a whole lot better than the old Roblox transparency.