Hamsters Won’t Pass: How to Monetize Your Mini App Games
Telegram mini apps among other things have become popular thanks to tap-and-earn crypto projects. Even the people very far removed from the crypto topic have heard at least something about Notcoin and Hamster Combat.
These games have very simple mechanics: users just tap and earn coins, hoping to earn something from them after the coin is listed on exchanges. Some are more complicated, and, for example, require a user to build their own farm or city. And, creating such a game is easy enough for experienced publishers, too – so is this the best way to break into the niche of mini-app monetization?
Not always, so today we will explain which games you need to own to really earn well, and how to monetize them with Monetag.
A Little Bit of Historical Context
It all began with Notcoin – a simple clicker, where people were supposed to just tap on their screens and earn coins. The game owners promised these coins would turn into real money after the exchange listing, and, surprisingly, it worked out: the coin was listed at the initial price of $0.01.
This began a boom of Telegram mini-app clickers: new and new similar offers began attracting players who desired to earn by tapping their smartphone screens. However, this simple gameplay based exclusively on users’ hope for a coin listing began to lose its popularity – and this led to a slight decline of the Telegram mini apps market.
Despite this temporary decline, we forecast growth in the TMA market.
Large brands start entering the niche and bringing fresh, active, and engaged audiences looking for more exciting games than Hamster Combat.
Such games can be about familiar gameplays like endless runners, and coin mining games, too – but with a more complex flow and interesting tasks.
So, What Telegram Mini-App Games to Create?
Let’s ultimately begin with what you MUST NOT bring to monetization:
- Any kind of a scam games (unfortunately, there are some)
- Apps with gameplay consisting of only ad watching (yes, and such apps exist, too)
That’s not just about your karma: you simply won’t earn with such stuff. It’s not possible to build a stable income with these types of apps, and you won’t attract loyal customers to a boring app consisting of nothing but ads.
If even this doesn’t stop you, here is a reminder: we don’t accept such apps for monetization at Monetag.
Now, to some actionable tips on the games you WANT to create because they have all the chances to bring you money.
1. It must have compelling visuals
Or at least nice to see on a screen. Some games are really simple in terms of gameplay, but they attract active users thanks to their cute or unusual interface.
2. It must be engaging
Engaging means a user can stick in the game – not just check out the app and leave. Here, we can highlight the following examples of mini-app games:
- Strategies. These are mini-games with real competitions between users, leaderboards, and tasks that give extra lives, energy boosts, or coins that you can spend on weapons, buildings, or any other game items.
For example, in this game, you need to build your own football team, manage it, perform various tasks, and earn tokens that might turn into real money if listed on exchange:
- Endless runner games. This includes any analogs of the famous Subway Surfers – and can come in any form, including car races:
- Puzzle and board games. Here your fantasy can be endless: all the good old Mahjongs, Threes-in-a-Row, and other similar time-killers wrapped in an unusual or cute design can catch users’ attention for hours:
3. It must be convenient
Customer care and good UX is something many game owners often forget about. But that’s more than important! For example, if a user sees a huge offer wall consisting of dozens miscellaneous tasks, they just catch the good old banner blindness. Yes, instead of getting engaged and watching an ad, or sharing your app, they will just close it without any sign of regret.
Here is, for example, how a good offer wall looks: there are numerous tasks, but sorted by types and neatly designed:
Monetag Marketing Team:
Ideally, you must stimulate the user to try your product and warm up their interest. This includes working with the interface and task ranking: otherwise, most tasks will cause minimal engagement.
To sum up: if you don’t take these points into account, user engagement and conversion will decline – or never rise at all. Users will join your game, and unsubscribe within a couple of minutes – and this is definitely not what you want.
How to Monetize Telegram Mini-App Games?
Let’s quickly highlight the why’s before the hows: why do you need to monetize it and why via Monetag?
Quick answer: Telegram mini apps are a new, not overheated yet market, that has plenty of fresh high-quality traffic. And this traffic is perfectly monetized: the average CPM here varies from $2 to $5.*
*Note: Your actual CPM will depend on multiple factors: GEO, how engaged your audience is, etc.
A longer one: our publishers are already doing it successfully. In this case study below, you can witness how an app with mini-games makes $50 per day – and this is just the beginning.
Now, it’s time for actionable tips. Monetag has three formats for monetizing Telegram mini-apps, and each has its specifics.
Rewarded Popup for Mini-App Games
This one is an instant redirect to an offer page, without an intermediary banner… It’s also triggered by particular actions, and, in many cases, has a higher CPM rate than other mini-app ads.
Here is an example of what a user will see after, for example, clicking on a task:
The use cases of Rewarded Popups are similar to what we mentioned for Interstitials.
Overall, you can use a Rewarded Popup anywhere in your app – and bring users any rewards you want. Just make sure this ad is expected, and a user knows they will see it after a particular trigger.
Rewarded Interstitial for Mini-App Games
This is an ad triggered by a particular action, for example, when a user performs a task or requests an extra life. It looks like this:
After a user clicks on this ad, they are redirected to an offer page. Here are some ideas of how you can use Rewarded Interstitials in your app:
- Grant users with boosters. Depending on your game’s nature, this can be something like a mining multiplier, extra lives, or reduced downtime.
- Second chance. When a player loses, you can suggest they watch an ad to continue the level or replay it.
- In-game currency. Here, a user can watch an ad and get some extra coins for the game in return.
- Earn page. If you game a special section, where users can earn by performing some tasks in the game, you can also add Rewarded interstitial tasks there.
And, again, the golden rule here is to make the appearance of this ad predictable for a user.
In-App Interstitial for Mini-App Games
This one is not as predictable as the previous two: they appear without any tasks performed by the user. Instead, it pops up during some game pauses: for example, when a user opens a new app’s page. A user can click it to see the offer page, or simply close.
Here is how it looks:
However, it mustn’t be THAT unpredictable to interrupt the gameplay, and should still be more or less expected. Here are some examples of when it can appear:
- Between game’s levels
- Right when a user opens an app
- When a user switches between an app’s pages
Again, you can pick your own placement that you find suitable.
However, avoid making In-App Interstitial annoying: don’t integrate it after every action, or every page opening. Another important thing to note: after a user watches or skips an ad, they must find themselves at the very same point where an ad interrupted them.
To Sum Up
Let’s list the main takeaways from this guide – a quick summary right before you start earning:
- Your Telegram mini-app game must be user-friendly, good-looking, and engaging
- It must have an interesting gameplay, not limited by watching-ads tasks
- You can show ads for rewards or make them appear in natural pauses, for example, during a level loading
- You shouldn’t overwhelm users with ads when they appear without rewards
- We don’t accept plain clickers and any sort of scam for monetization
And now, that’s it –
