This is a fireside chat that could be better suited for the slack channel but I’ll chime in with my opinion as well.
Ads are here to stay and there’s a projected $100+ billions poured by companies in mobile advertising in the future (if it hasn’t been reached yet). That is a huge increase which is being translated in ecpm. In the past a great ecpm was slightly above $1 where now having $6+ is expected. This will grow as more and more companies go into mobile advertising.
Some players understand that the developer has to make money somehow and ads are accepted. Some players also want a No Ad IAP but they’ll never buy it. Usually that IAP is bought less that 1% usually 0.1%.
Some are completely against ads as they’ve become jaded by too many spam ads. These users usually turn another leaf when presented with rewarded opt-in ads.
As everywhere, excess is bad. Having too many spam ads or iap will turn the user away and lower retention, engagement and long term ltv. But… in casual games like King’s, the conversion is ~2% on average. This leaves that 98% of players who won’t make a purchase… ever.
BTW ads are a quantity game and there’s not much you can do to drastically change this kind of revenue: mediation, different types of ads, a new hook… but in the end you depend on the advertiser.
With IAP you could with just a few core players, beat ads easily. IAP leaves you the control on the strategy and you don’t depend on the whims of the market (too much).
My 2 cents.
Fuscy