How much money-making potential is in displaying ads on a web game?

[ijonatron]

I'm planning on starting a web game soon and I'm hoping to get some insight into whether or not this could potentially earn me some money. My primary goal is to get people playing, but being 16 it would be great to make something off of it too. Given the time and work necessary, what can I expect in making a game like agar.io or slither.io?

I'm also open to hearing about any other web-development-related areas that could be profitable. :)

[oldmancoyote]

There is a way. I've never heard of anyone doing this before, but it could make you some money depending on who your audience is and your willingness to market ads.

Trying to sell anyone anything these days is pretty much the-kiss-of-death. People are too distracted by and resentful of advertising.

However, just getting a name (a product name probably) in the public eye without a sales message is valuable. The goal of this is what they call "product recognition".

If in your game world, there were a place for a billboard or a car bumper, you could place a simple message there, just the name of a politician running for office or just the name of a product. You don't want something attention grabbing. You would want something barely noticeable. You want the name in the background not in the foreground. In the case of a politician, you could customize the name to the user's location. Perhaps there is some other place within your game where you could place a name.

The problem all side projects face is "marketing". The product is usually much easier to come by than a way to reach you customers. In your case the problem would be doubled because you need to both market to game players and market the ads to someone.

Good luck!

[ijonatron]

Thanks for the advice! I'm planning on it being fairly simple, but hopefully addicting. Similar to games like agar.io and slither.io. I know that those were very successful and made a bunch of money. With that said, I'm not sure there's room for clever product placement. Provided that I make a game fun enough to attract players, would ads create decent revenue?

[oldmancoyote]

Personally, I immediately kiss off ads. Ads as such in a game would be a distraction from game play. They would be actively resented. I don't think you could earn anything with conventional ads. I'm often wrong. Perhaps this time too. The major determinate of success would be how hard you pushed and how persistent you were. I don't think it would be easy.

[matbram]

I'd say that ads in a video games are moreso of an annoyance to most people.

It's not something I'd personally click on at all.

I find what works best is to make a really fun game, and just have some type of in game transactions, or ways to level up etc.

Many clicker based games can monetize just by allowing people to pay for time to pass by quicker, or upgrade to an autoclicker etc.

You can get creative with the methods.

Ads on their own though are more so annoying and less effective I think.

[ijonatron]

I'll definitely consider this route. I guess I associate micro-transactions with mobile games. Thanks for the suggestion!