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Ad planning guidelines

It is important to understand the guidelines in this article for adding ads to you app. Also, see Ad sizes and Recommended ad layouts for available sizes and layout options.

Select the locations in the app where ad containers will be displayed. The following list of guidelines should be used:

  • Any window containing an ad container should have real tangible and continuous value for the user.
    Some examples of where ads must NEVER be displayed
    • App signup/login windows.
    • App error/notification windows.
    • Windows displaying just the ad container.
  • Ad containers should be positioned in a way that clearly and visually marks them as part of the App's content. Specifically:
    • Ad containers should not be placed in their own window without any other meaningful content.
    • Ad containers should not be separated from the rest of the App's content by any invisible or transparent spaces.
  • Keep the ads as acceptable and non-invasive to the app's overall experience as possible. Too many ads, or parts of the app that feel like they are only there to show more ads, are causes of poor user experience.
  • The amount of ad containers you can use is limited. Use them wisely. Specifically:
    • Each app window may only have up to (or exactly) 3 active ads at any given moment (1 video and 2 display, or 3 display).
    • With video ad containers, you can only have one active video ad container at any moment per app window.
  • If a certain app window has several views, try to make sure that ad containers do not change when moving between views. This ensures that the containers can stay active, regardless of the current view/changes in the view.
  • Ad containers should be placed where they won't be hidden. If your app utilizes pop-ups, make sure they don't block any ad containers.
  • Ad containers should be placed where they will be seen for more than a short moment. This can be achieved by using "dead" moments in games (i.e. loading screens, post-game screens, respawn timers, etc.).
  • When using video ad containers, try to keep the container's continuous visibility duration high. This ensures higher completion rates. For example:
    • A good average open time for video ads is 30 seconds.
    • A good average Completion Rate* for video ads is 70%.

* Completion Rate - measurement of ad completions out of the total ad views.

Ad planning

Ad planning can be a tricky thing. If you're uncertain about any part of it, or just have any questions about it, contact us, and we will gladly help you with planning and implementing ads in your app.

Displaying ads in a desktop app brings with it some challenges. More ads in more places would mean a higher revenue; however,both users and advertisers have their limits. For some users, too many ads that interfere with the app's basic functions will significantly hurt the app's usability, causing the users to leave. Also, advertisers may find that too many low-performing ads are not attractive.

As such, while ideally in order to display ads in an app, you would simply define one (or several) places where ads will be shown and everything else would work itself out, you have to keep the different involved parties in mind.

From a design perspective​

It is recommended that you put ads in:

  • Unused margins.
  • Empty corners.
  • Areas often hidden by other windows.

In this way, dead space in the app's screens is used to display ads leaving the important space for the app's features, reducing the ads' impact on user experience.

From an advertising perspective​

Ads come with many rigid constraints to ensure that advertisers get good return on their investment. These most often dictate that ads must:

  • Come in one of several preset [ad container sizes][ad-sizes].
  • Not move while they are playing.
  • Not actively compete with each other for the user's attention.
  • Always be fully visible.

Bridging the gaps​

These constraints, while already conflicted, still don't even fully cover everything that would affect the app's ad/general performance when integrating ads. As such, Overwolf also places an extra set of constraints on ads displayed through the SDK, in order to maintain a healthy environment for advertisers, users, and app developers alike. For more information, see the Advertising policy.

All of those rules, when combined, make up the [Ad planning guidelines][ad-guidelines], a set of simple rules designed to help you implement ads into your app properly, while keeping the different constraints in mind. */}