Ad Supported Free iPhone Apps Arrive in the iTunes App Store - It Got Ugly

Ad Supported Free iPhone Apps arrive in the iTunes App Store

The idea behind 'ad supported' free mobile games is nothing new. It's a straight forward arrangement as far as you and I the user are concerned.

We download a premium game for nothing, in return we're presented with an advert that's embedded in to the game.

We get to play a top quality iPhone game for free and the payout for the game developer happens if and when we click the advert.

Today I came across 21 Pro BackJack, an iPhone game in the iTunes App Store. It's official title is "21 Pro: Blackjack - Sponsored".

1. I hit the play button.
2. I get this on my screen.

3. I tap it and get the option to "Visit Sponsors!" or "Skip".

4. I choose 'Visit Sponsors!"

Now this is where it starts to go wrong for the game developer/advertiser. I was bounced from one server, to greystripe.com, then to admob.com and ended up at mob365.net. Here's what I was presented with...

The experience was a joke. I got my free game, and I suspect that the game developer got a few pennies (from the advertiser) for my clicking the advert, but the advertiser definitely didn't get a return on their investment.

In all of my years of working in the mobile content industry, I've never been convinced that this pays off for the advertiser. The execution in this instance was exceptionally bad.