CPMstar experience

[jonathansario]

Hello.

Anyone here ever wanted to put CPMstar ads in their game but wanted to self sponsor? See, you need a "sponsorship code" (not a content spot ID) provided by a sponsor to be entered in your CPMstar account to approve ads for your game.

Believe it or not, by Google I came across sponsors who post their sponsorship codes in forums for developer use to activate CPMstar ads in their games. No branding or anything required to use since sponsors will always get 25% of ad rev your game makes if you use their code. In fact 3 are on FGL forums on the CPMstar thread.

I heard that FGL would also share a code for you to activate CPMstar ads if you choose to self sponsor and want ad rev from your game. They'll also assist you in setting up a CPMstar developer account.

Have any of you ever tried these freely shared codes?

[Wolfos]

Well, Newgrounds has an agreement with CPMstar, so every ad from the Flash API would be from them.

[jonathansario]

That's interesting. I'm not sure if they work the same, though. CPMstar ads activated from your own CPMstar account doesn't show any kind of branding.

Do NG ads work on other portals or are they limited to NG only?

At 9/20/11 10:22 AM, Wolfos wrote: Well, Newgrounds has an agreement with CPMstar, so every ad from the Flash API would be from them.

[iluvAS]

the ads work on other sites too, but i think ng takes a % of the ad money =\

[4urentertainment]

At 9/22/11 11:25 PM, iluvAS wrote: the ads work on other sites too, but i think ng takes a % of the ad money =\

The way it works is:

CPMStar takes 25%
Sponsor takes 25%
Developer takes 50%

So in the case with Newgrounds ads, Newgrounds takes 25%. In any other case, the sponsor takes 25%. So you always get the same cut. Unless you have your own game portal and self sponsor, but even then, in order to be eligible to be a CPMStar sponsor you need to have a certain Alexa ranking and/or a certain number of unique views per month.

[MichaelJ]

I don't see why you would want to self sponsor, you wouldn't make as much money.

[4urentertainment]

At 9/23/11 06:56 AM, Animator1mike wrote: I don't see why you would want to self sponsor, you wouldn't make as much money.

That's not entirely true. If you self sponsor you're free to do whatever you want with your game. If you've got a huge game with hours of gameplay, you could try adding micro-transactions, something most sponsors wouldn't allow you to use.

Looking at success stories, the most a flash game has made with sponsorship and ads and whatnot was $60k I think. Whereas games with micro-transactions have made hundreds of thousands to millions. An example of that is the game Fantastic Contraption which made a million dollars selling the level editor for $10.

[jonathansario]

I posted this question in the arcade talk forums and sponsors immediately started PMing me to use their sponsorship codes. So its fine to use those freely shared sponsorship codes that publishers give out, right? They'll get a 25% cut from the ad rev of your game anonymously as the CPMstar ads don't have any branding whatsoever.

For the uninitiate, the sponsorship code is not the AS2/AS3 code you put in the timeline of your flash game. Its the code you enter in your CPMstar developer account dash board that activates ads for your game. This code also requires to be approved by the sponsor you got it from on their CPMstar publisher account before your game's content spot ID starts showing ads. Otherwise you'll just get a message saying "waiting for approval" in the ad box.

I tried two of the codes I got. I haven't used them in a game as I don't have a new game to place them in yet. They were approved by the sponsors within a day and I don't think they even knew who I am and the games they approved it for don't exist yet. If that's the case, I'm sticking with CPMstar instead of Mochi because CPMstar has no minimum payout and apparently very lenient approval process.

Does the eCPM depend on your sponsor or the location where the ad from your game was loaded?