I used the Ads Manager this weekend to sponsor one of my games and I really think you need to overhaul the Ad Credit system or at least provide a little transparency.
For starters, the current robux to ad credit conversion rate is absurd (285 robux for a single credit is just ridiculous) and is nowhere near affordable for the average developer just looking to get their game out there.
Secondly, I expected for players to join throughout the period in which I advertised, which was unfortunately not the case. Instead, there were two isolated instances wherein a large influx of players (~100 or so) joined and subsequently left after about five minutes. I assume this is the not the intended behavior of the Ads Manager because why would you even bother setting a timeframe in advance if all the players join in large, randomly staggered bursts?
Lastly, and most importantly, I would expect for the daily Ad Credit budget I am allowed to deliberately set in advance to actually be met instead of only using half of my Ad Credits. I am now left with 8.68 Ad Credits I canât even use because you need at least ten to run a daily campaign. There was no disclaimer anywhere on the Ads Manager that suggested that this could happen.
I have attached a photo for reference:
Overall, the process was just very frustrating for me on all accords. I am a college student and work on games in my free time so I donât really have a ton of funds to pour into advertising my projects. Given that the Ads Manager is now the only way to advertise your creations on Roblox due to the asinine removal of User Ads (which in my opinion worked much better and were much easier to use), I would expect that the current system would at least attempt to simplify the process, especially for smaller developers. Itâs entirely possible that my personal experience with the Ads Manager was just an outlier in a sea of good ones, but I am left disappointed and disheartened.
Here is my review of the new Ad Manager system, we understand this is a new work in progress system but that being said when accepting USD directly and having minimum spending requirements a certain level of quality is to be expectedâŚ
This was for our ad campaign spanning from the 4/10-4/13 (9.50/Daily Budget).
We started the campaign at 12:00AM as recommended by staff members in recent posts, this was to help ensure a consistent spread of spending and not a bulk spending of Ad credits all at once.
There would be small amounts of players entering during randomized hours, then 5-6+ hours pass with no traffic, followed by a sudden burst of 100-125 Players which uses a large amount of the budget.
Itâs definitely not consistent as the ad system describes itself during setup.
I should note several developers and myself stayed ingame during the campaign to help new players and we witnessed some alarming issues.
I also want to confirm our lobby is very optimized and easy to load.
When large amount of players were sent in at once MANY of those players appearance loaded but they did not fully load into the game(Could not be teleported to another place or equip tools)/ stood still briefly( 15-30 seconds or so) until leavingâŚ
Majority of the players also did not talk when spoken to directly voice/text chat (Could be platform specific but it also occurred when only PC platform was turned on)
I really really hope its related to the ad system gathering players from regions with less optimal connections due to its randomized timing
Due to lack of control over credit spending times, we are unable to maximize on peak player hours for our target region, this is discouraging as there are currently no controls to help define target audience within the new system, advertising to the wrong target audience will do more harm than good.
No platform control for where the sponsored ad is viewed, our game is currently available on all platforms but when we disabled console/ phone to check, it seems that the ad system still displays the sponsorship on those platforms but says the game is not compatible when selected
Due to the three issues above I find that the new ad system is currently really bad for any games analytics, it will increase your visit count, but minimal meaningful interactions such as group joins, 10 Minute Retention, returning users can be expected.
I do think direct group advertising needs to be included in this version of the ad system, itâs not easy to grow a group without it, I also think group alerts that can be sent to all members once a month similar to games, would be a good way to bring back engagement with old/new group members, the announcement feature just isnât engaging enough.
So true and well said. Gone are the days where you can spend 5k Robux on an add or sponsor and itâd attract hundreds of concurrent users to our games. I really hope Roblox restores the ad system to itâs original glory.
I hope Roblox internalizes this feedback, particularly about the exploitive 10 ad credit minimum to run a campaign, and minimum deposit amounts which have NO justified technical basis. People trying the ad system for the first time rightly view this as a sleazy system. Itâs actually led to most people recommending smaller devs to NOT use the ad system, as it will lead to orphaned ad credits. Roblox should think carefully about how many ad spends will never come to the ad system due to the existing structure, and how this impacts the trust devs have in the platform. The ad system should feel like a partnership, but instead the structure of minimums is exploitive in design.
$10 ad credit minimum doesnât seem like a terrible thing imo. If you canât spend $10 on advertising then you might want to use another method such as TikTok or YouTube shorts.
Itâs 2025 you canât expect it to be like years ago where you spend 10 tix for a banner ad
the point you seem to be glossing over, if youâre not aware of how the system is actually setup â user purchases $10 ad credits, (2850 robux) runs an ad to test out system â ad potentially consumes a few credits â user is left with 7+ ad credits that cannot be used due to aforementioned daily minimumâs. If the user wants to use any of the credits that they ALREADY PAID FOR, they must deposit another $10, or another 2850 robux. The fact that you recommend people to go off platform to advertise if they donât want to deal with that kind of demonstrates the problem (and what Roblox should not want devs to have to do - it moves dollars outside of the roblox ecosystem)
The only option is robux to ad credit?? is this intentional
It says âno payment on fileâ but my card is on file in billing and it works with the old ad manager, but the new one cant seem to find it?
Edit: making an ad campaign with the old ad manager âwakes upâ the payment method and allows it to be used all of a sudden in the new ad manager
My god why is the ad manager like this now? Before I could choose if I wanted a sponsor ad or a search ad or whatever, but now itâs just ââAI ASSISTEDââ single-type ads?
Can I not change what type of ad Iâm running anymore???
For instance, I REFUSE to use âPortalâ ads because last I checked they were either botted, or only appeared on the WORST experiences, therefore I consider those players to be less than useless, as they negatively explode your experienceâs metrics. But now I canât even find the dang way to change what type of ad Iâm running?
What am I even looking at!?
How do I set up the ad!
We had SUCH a good thing going. My search ads with adjusted search terms⌠My sponsor ads⌠replaced with⌠what on earth?
I understand releasing features before theyâre done to test them, but⌠like⌠Are you trying to tell me that there is a single person on roblox who actually thinks this system as it is right now is in a usable state? Unless I have to hit the âPublishâ button to get more options, this is very concerning.
