Personally I am one of the people who blocks ads. I find that sponsoring games is annoying sometimes, HOWEVER, there have been a fair few sponsored games I have clicked. The thing is, when I’m browsing for a game, a sponsored game is nothing more than a game in the wrong place in my mind. If it looks good and looks like something I’m interested in, I’ll click it. If it has a default icon and the title isn’t capitalized, I’m probably not gonna click it.
Ultimately, ads are effective in different ways than sponsoring. Ads allow you more freedom, and thus you can really get some clicks if your ad is done very well, but you’ll usually get less impressions, since, like I said, I am one of the people who blocks ads.
Sponsoring has the advantage of getting around ad block, and it also doesn’t create the same psychological stance that people have against ads. I dislike seeing ads because I find most of them to be annoying to read or to look at, to me, it feels like a lot of wasted screen space. “Click this 100 times to win a dominus” for example. Or something someone drew in ms paint in 30 seconds.
With sponsoring, again, I personally just see it in my mind as a game that’s not placed in the sort correctly. There is no opportunity for your ad to drive me away, and thus, if your game looks good, you’re pretty much guaranteed a fair amount of clicks.
Imo, neither is “better” than the other at getting people in your game, it comes down to how your game will look to people when they see it sponsored, or how your ad will come across as to a random person.
Additionally, this might sound counter intuitive, but, always target your ads. You’ll get less impressions, but, the impressions you get are more valuable if you can design your ad for those impressions. Rather than one general ad across 1000 robux, do several targeted ads across 1000 robux. You’ll get far more valuable impressions that way, even though you’ll get less impressions, and maybe even less clicks. Even with less clicks though, its about appealing to your players because your players are gonna play for much longer if they are actually interested in what you offered them. Ads can definitely effect how long players will play your game.
Lastly, don’t clickbait your ads. If your ad doesn’t represent your game, my immediate response is to click away. Sure, you’ll get more clicks, but, what was the point if they weren’t gonna play the game anyway?
As for a more direct answer to the original question, 5k is probably enough to get a small player base who will want to play your game. You should make sure that your game is complete, and as good as you can make it though. Because, the longer you can keep people playing, the more money you’re going to make even compared to having a lot of players.
Think about it, 10 R$ earnings a day for two weeks is better than 100 R$ earnings in one day. You’re going to earn 40 R$ more, even though you technically earned less a day, I think this is somewhat important to keep in mind if you’re wanting to start up, because it means you’ll grow a larger player base while making more money, just over a longer period of time, and, once your game is at the scale you want it, you can make all kinds of adjustments.