the Founder and COO @ Tokenands: Chaya Soggot
- Hi Chaya. Can you tell us something about the function you currently have at TokenAds? What does your typical day at work look like?
As the COO of the company I am involved in (almost) everything. A typical day would start with a coffee and the newspapers. I then check emails, statistics, reports, facebook updates and my favorite blogs. Once at the office it is time to respond to emails and follow up with items on my “to do” list from previous night. Most days I do some or all of the following: Interview new candidates, catch up on the latest progress with new market penetration as well as current market performance, talk about new developments with R&D, Business Development, and marketing teams, connect with our partners and clients. I like staying late at the office to get some quiet time, finish up loose ends, connect with partners from the US and plan my next day.
As the Israeli business week is Sunday to Thursday, Sunday is our ‘Strategy Day’. We use this day for internal meetings, talking about the progress done during the past week as well as discussing tasks and goals for the coming week.
- What is TokenAds‘ Unique selling proposition? Why do you think people should pick TokenAds as their main virtual currency platform?
TokenAds is a great fit for games with an international user base. We focus on creating value for game developers, users and advertisers in non-English speaking countries. We do this by providing local brand names in the native language throughout Europe, as well as Asia, Latin America, Australia, and the Middle East. Our proprietary technology provides targeting and optimization capabilities to make sure the players are displayed with ads and offers related to their interests and demographics.
As of lately, there has been little focus on international markets within the space.
We are constantly getting positive feedback from game developers and users who are surprised with the level of coverage and quality of advertisers.
When game developers advertise their platform, they usually focus on USA players, perhaps because they are considered to be the easiest to monetize. But imagine a situation where you are able to generate just as much (if not more) from international users who are not as expensive to obtain. This is what TokenAds accomplishes.
- I hope you don’t mind us asking, but did TokenAds ever consider buying other (smaller) companies operating in the industry?
We are currently focusing on doing what we know best.
- Will TokenAds launch new products or functions in the near future that could benefit users? If so, could you tell us something about them?
We have just introduced a PayPal subscription model, serving mostly minors on a set budget. There is a lot more in the pipeline, but I cannot get into the details just yet.
- Can you give us your 3 best tips for monetizing games or content on social networks?
Get them hooked
You may want to give users a taste of your currency functionality before asking them to start shopping. Some successful games do this by awarding the players with free currency for the first rounds, or even awarding them with a small budget for simply logging in.
Many of our publishers report a double increase in their revenues after implementing TokenAds. Not only do they generate revenue from offers, but also many of their non-paying players using TokenAds started purchasing with standard payment methods after understanding the functionality of the virtual good within the game.
Pave the path
Make it easy for your users to find your payment page. Your payment page should be a ‘one click away’ during the stages of the game that require currency. A small icon on your top bar throughout the game can be a helpful solution. You may also want to let the users know they are running out of currency and that it is time to ‘refuel’.
Be fair
Don’t forget that your users are your biggest assets and you need to treat them accordingly. Make sure you don’t get them on a scammy subscription package or signed up on the worst spamming lists. In other words, use TokenAds… :)
- If there’s one thing you’d like to see different about the virtual goods industry; what would it be?
TokenAds sees user experience as the most important aspect of the business. We believe that by providing players with clean and fair offers we can increase profits and user loyalty for the long run.
We take great care cleaning our offers from spam and misleading offers, and we hope that with the latest ‘Scamville’ effect, we will see the industry looking further away from short-term revenue and provide clear and fair offers.
- Where do you so see the industry going from here? What do you think will change (for the better or for worse)?
Market researchers are forecasting a bright future for this industry. Yet again, a positive user experience would have a very big impact, in order to insure the long-term commitment of both players and quality advertisers.
Our R&D team is working on the next generation of virtual currency monetization, but for obvious reasons we will need to keep the features they now develop for our next session :)
