Google will sell in-game ad placements directly to top brand advertisers as contextually targeted text and image ads based on content and demographic information.

Adsense for Games: The history

AdSense comes to online games and ultimately will dominate the game-related advertising business although many expected this for the last year, since November 2007. Google first started talking about AdSense for Games at industry events last summer. Throughout last year it was reported that Google acquired an in-game ad provider called AdScape in a moved that was described as Google’s attempt to “cram as many ads into the world as possible.”

Google game partners

Google has partnered with Konami, Playfish, Zynga and Demand Media and advertisers are Esurance, Sprint and Sony Pictures.

Google Adsense Estimates

Google, using comScore estimates, in a press release said that every week, over 25% of Internet users worldwide play online games, which amounts to over 200 million people. This number is growing at a rate of almost 17% each year. Given the partners and the reach of Google, this will become a major profit center for Google and a game changer for monetizing online games.

Making money from ads while gaming: The Technology

At online games most of the monetization is done through one the side bars, away from where most people are focusing their attention. That explains the low ad conversion rates on gaming sites.

The new AdSense units look more or less the same, but they show up in game instead of off to the side. Because the user is already acclimated to bells, whistles, lasers and other noisy what-not, the video ads are allowed to auto play. This turns the gaming experience into something a little closer to television viewing. The ads are likely going to have lower conversion rates than standard AdSense units on a content site because of folks not wanting to leave the experience, but will probably function quite effectively as a sort of brand impression unit, similar to how standard TV works (of course with the added benefit of being clickable).

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