This post is for anyone running ads with Roku Direct Publisher channel (AVOD model).
Roku Direct Publisher is a great free app but has its limitations, especially when it comes to ads. When you are relying on ad revenue, then it’s time to stop and think of switching to a custom Roku app (SDK).
According to Roku Ad guidelines:
- You must use ad breaks in your JSON feed, otherwise you will only get pre-roll ads. This is very time consuming, especially if you are coding by hand.
- No pre-roll ads for movies, episodes, or tv specials longer than 15 minutes.
- You cannot insert post-roll ad breaks.
- This is a big one: according to the Direct Publisher monetization guide post on the Roku developer site, under the ad logic section, “When a viewer installs the channel, the first 15 minutes of content will be ad-free.” WHAT? A big percentage of our viewers are one-time viewers; they install the channel, look around, watch some, and never comeback. This limitation is huge when it comes to ad revenue. For that reason, switching to custom Roku app will easily double or triple your ads in most cases.
Cost of Custom Roku App (SDK)
Normally the cost to develop a custom Roku app starts from $10,000 and can go up to $50,000 in some cases depending on the feature set. It can also take up to 6 months to launch. With our state-of-the-art custom Roku solution, you can have a custom Roku channel up and running fast at a dramatically lower cost.
Here are some of the features:
- Supports all types of monetization
- Supports all content types (e.g., movie, live, series, episodic, shot form, tv specials, and audio)
- Built-in real-time video and ad analytics
- Built-in authentication & authorization
- Custom layouts and dynamic backgrounds
And much more. For more information about our custom Roku app, go to https://ottfeed.com/roku.