I tracked down someone who had purchased ads on Xbox Live to find out more about the process. This source also wanted to remain anonymous, for the obvious reasons. The bigger your spend, the better placements your ad will appear in, they said. And they are pretty expensive; for every view I get on Xbox Live, for the same money I get twice that almost everywhere else. The minimum spend to put your ad in the kind of rotation that might get someones attention, according to the source, is $40,000. Many companies spend much more when they buy an ad for their product. $250,000 will get you a good run for about three weeks, my source stated. If you do multiple campaigns like one for a trailer, one for a demo, etc., that's where you start crossing the $500,000 mark. Keep in mind this money simply puts your ad in rotation, as Microsoft sells multiple campaigns at a time and, if you aim your campaign at your target market, youll be increasing the amount you spend on your advertising. Creating an ad campaign can be confusing, but Microsoft helps the process; you tell them how much you'd like to pay for ads, and they help you design your campaign on Xbox Live and explain what you're getting for that money. I spoke to another source who spent $50,000 on an advertisement, and he had nothing but praise for Microsofts ad team. They were super easy to work with and were great about getting back to us in a timely manner, he said. Some of the best interaction we had with MS was their Advertising division. It gets crazier: The data shared with the Penny Arcade Report shows that Microsoft estimates 16 million impressions for an ad during a holiday, so an ad with a $21.50 CPM would cost you a stunning $344,000 to control that spot for the day. You can also buy half-day increments. Microsoft estimates that ads during a normal weekday in the first part of the year enjoyed 9 million impressions, with 15 million impressions over the weekend. Based on these numbers, Microsoft estimates that it would cost $193,500 to control the entirety of an ad spot for your average Monday with what's called a road block ad. Start layering on the features, however, and that price can begin to rise very quickly. It would be hard for any company pass up this amount of revenue, and the number of ads being sold is only limited by the amount of ad space Microsoft can fit on your screen; the amount of marketing a design can deliver to the audience may trump both aesthetics and ease of use for gamers. If you notice the dashboard redesign added in more spots for ads than were on the blades so they have more inventory to sell, my source explained. I contacted Microsoft and asked how much advertising revenue impacted the profitability of the Xbox 360. We dont share this information publicly but we can tell you that, since 2010, the advertising business has grown 142%, I was told.
