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Two & a Half Gamers Session #47: Creative Trends 2023
This analysis of mobile gaming creative trends for 2023 focuses on the evolving strategies for user acquisition, game design, and ad monetization.
- Top-performing titles like Royal Match maintain a competitive advantage by executing high-frequency creative testing, such as deploying 15 unique ad variations within a 14-day window.
- Mobile game developers are increasingly integrating user acquisition strategies directly into core game design by adopting hypercasual mechanics and multiple gameplay loops to boost retention and ad performance.
- The industry is seeing a widespread shift toward the use of misleading or 'fake' ads that intentionally deviate from actual core gameplay to capture user attention.
State of Mobile 2023
Global mobile usage reached a record in 2023, with users spending an average of more than five hours per day on apps and total advertising expenditure projected at $362 billion, reflecting an 18.5% five-year CAGR.
- Global mobile advertising expenditure is projected to reach $362 billion, maintaining an 18.5% five-year CAGR, while daily user engagement on apps has surpassed five hours.
- Non-gaming verticals showed resilience with 11% growth in downloads, 9% in spend, and 14% in time spent, contrasting with a 5% decline in gaming consumer spend despite nearly 90 billion downloads.
- TikTok leads non-gaming monetization with over $3 billion in 2022 revenue and an ARPU of approximately $0.85, driven by high-price in-app purchases.
Mobile Ad Creative Index
The mobile advertising landscape in 2023 is defined by a strategic shift toward high-performing creative formats as advertisers navigate macroeconomic pressures and evolving privacy regulations.
- Native ads are the most cost-effective format for gaming, achieving a $1.01 cost-per-install and an 18% Day 7 return on ad spend.
- Interstitial and video formats drive superior short-term performance for social and dating apps, yielding up to 44% Day 7 return on ad spend.
- Video ad segments ranging from 31 to 60 seconds drive 50% higher conversions compared to shorter formats by effectively showcasing complex mechanics.
Creative Industries in the UK Report
The United Kingdom’s entertainment market reached a historic peak of £11.1 billion in 2022, representing a 6.9% year-on-year increase and nearly doubling its total value since 2015.
- The UK entertainment market reached a record £11.1 billion in 2022, a 6.9% year-on-year increase that nearly doubles its 2015 valuation.
- Digital services now dominate the landscape with a 91% market share across video, music, and gaming sectors.
- The video games sector is the largest segment at £4.66 billion, with digital software sales—driven by mobile and console DLC—accounting for 90% of that total.
The Game Industry of Finland Report: 2022
The Finnish game industry established itself as a premier global hub between 2021 and 2022, maintaining a record annual turnover of €3.2 billion.
- The Finnish game industry generated a record annual turnover of €3.2 billion in 2022, securing its position as one of the top five national game markets in Europe.
- The sector comprises 232 active studios and 4,100 employees, supported by a robust funding ecosystem that includes over €300 million in private investment and significant public R&D backing from Business Finland.
- While mobile remains the primary revenue driver, 64% of studios have pivoted toward PC development, reflecting a broader strategic shift toward multiplatform releases.
Two & a Half Gamers Session #44: New Creative Strategy, UA, and Games Update
This discussion provides a comprehensive review of mobile gaming industry trends as of late 2022, focusing on user acquisition (UA), creative strategies, and monetization tactics.
- Diversifying user acquisition channels is essential for mobile growth, as reliance on a single platform has become a significant operational risk in the post-IDFA landscape.
- TikTok emerged as the standout platform for user acquisition performance throughout 2022.
- New creative strategies originating from China are currently driving global user acquisition performance and setting new industry benchmarks.
In a Privacy-Centric World, Creative Is More Important Than Ever
In an increasingly privacy-centric mobile landscape, the quality of ad creative has become the primary driver of user acquisition success.
- In a privacy-centric landscape with limited manual targeting, ad creative now functions as the primary targeting mechanism by signaling audience preferences to AI-driven algorithms.
- Marketing teams must adopt a hypothesis-driven approach to creative development, embedding specific audience appeals into content to train algorithms to identify high-value, long-term players.
- Successful creative strategy requires deep research into existing player motivations to ensure ad content aligns with the actual behaviors of the most engaged users.
Why Ad Creative Is More Important Than Ever
In an increasingly privacy-centric mobile gaming landscape, the quality of ad creative has emerged as the most critical factor for successful user acquisition.
- High-quality, data-informed ad creative is now the primary driver of user acquisition as privacy-centric changes limit traditional tracking methods.
- Effective marketing requires leveraging AI and machine learning to reach audiences, using creative assets as the primary input to influence AI-driven targeting.
- Developers must conduct deep audience research to identify counterintuitive player behaviors, such as the finding that Hero Wars players spend 80% of their time managing squads and resources rather than in combat.
Abandoning Intuition: Using Generative AI for Advertising Creative
The provided text explores the integration of generative artificial intelligence into the production of digital advertising creative.
- Generative AI offers an immediate, high-value application in advertising by significantly reducing the production and testing costs associated with creative assets.
- Advertising creative is a critical, high-stakes component of scaled digital advertising that currently suffers from expensive and time-intensive production cycles.
- The integration of Generative AI allows human teams to focus on high-level strategic ideation while delegating the labor-intensive process of iteration and asset replacement to automated systems.
How Did Social Media Apps Become Super Money Magnets in India?
India’s mobile-app ecosystem is dominated by social platforms that blend entertainment, commerce and monetisation.
- Video chat apps like Chamet are driving massive revenue growth, recording a 511% quarter-over-quarter increase by utilizing tiered in-app purchases and automated translation tools.
- Short-video platform Tiki achieved 759% revenue growth between January and June 2024 by leveraging creator commissions and government-aligned community events.
- Instagram remains the dominant download leader in India, experiencing 77% quarterly growth by targeting youth audiences through international content and YouTube-based creative strategies.
Panel: Ad Creative Testing for UA – A Look Into the Future
The evolution of user acquisition strategy centers on a transition from speculative creative production to a rigorous, data-driven methodology.
- Authentic content, such as genuine gameplay footage, failed-level scenarios, and voiceovers, consistently outperforms traditional tactics like exaggerated claims or human reaction shots.
- Privacy constraints on iOS have shifted the industry standard toward using Android-based campaigns as the primary foundation for cross-platform user acquisition strategies.
- Teams must move away from manual, fragmented tracking by adopting automated A/B testing tools and standardized data reporting across mobile measurement partners and ad networks.
How to Leverage Trends and Motivations to Build Better Casual and Hyper-Casual Games
The mobile gaming industry, particularly within the casual and hyper-casual segments, faces intense competition that necessitates innovative strategies for user acquisition and long-term retention.
- Mobile game developers can achieve massive launch visibility by aligning game concepts with viral social trends, as demonstrated by MagicLab’s 'Fidget Trading 3D' reaching the #1 spot in 40 markets after leveraging TikTok trends.
- Hybridization is a critical strategy for long-term retention in the post-IDFA landscape, requiring developers to integrate meta layers, social features, and LiveOps into casual and hyper-casual titles.
- Adding meta layers such as collection mechanics, narrative elements, or decoration features allows games to broaden their appeal to diverse player motivations, as seen in 'Project Makeover's' successful challenge to 'Candy Crush Saga'.