Top Ad Monetization Channels for Mobile Games in 2025

What I'm expecting to see in the future really is so this is a little bit biased towards you know Google and ops right um I've seen the Google team kind of ramp up their effort on iOS user acquisition so if that goes well for them hi everyone welcome to another episode of tangenty101 Today we'll talk about ad monetization trends and our latest report for the first half of 2025. We have a special guest today, Tracy Fan. Hey Tracy.
Hey Roman. Thanks for having me on.
Of course. Uh Tracy has a newsletter and she already did a we'll leave all of the links of course in the descriptions, but she did a good analysis on our previous report. So I thought, okay, what if we'll do it in a more interactive format

like this video? Um, yeah, Tracy, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Sure, thank you. Um, so my name is Tracy Fan and uh I consider myself an act native. What that means? Um so I started my career in advertising technology attemp side of thing um ad exchange SSP and most recently with Google AdMob which is an AT network/mediation platform and two months ago I decided to leave my job at Google and move from the Switzerland of Asia aka a Singapore to Switzerland. Um, so it has been a huge change. Um, and as you said, I've started my uh newsletter called the stacked to really like trying to give a

condensation of my almost 10 years in adtech. Make it more understandable for people like you like um people um also like founders that new to the app monetization side of thing. uh give them kind of like basic understanding of the landscape and then tips and tricks more follow. Um so yeah, I'm glad that you found me and excited to be here.
Absolutely. Yeah. And we will see spoiler alert, we'll see Edmo at least two times and today's report. Let me quickly share a screen and let's jump in. Uh,
sure.
I'll scroll back to the start of the report and let's start with the uh address venue share by platform. Uh, does it surprise you at all Tracy?

Not at all. So usually this is very typical um as in Android as a platform leans towards more app monetization whereas as iOS would lean towards more IP or hybrid monetization. The reason is very simple. So one like scale uh we probably have more Android users than iOS users globally. Um too um Android user, the average Android user usually has a lower purchase power um like purchasing power and purchasing intent compared to the iOS and if you know about like ATT tech right so at iOS make it more difficult to acquire user on iOS side of things. So just leaning on the ad monetization wouldn't cut it for companies that publish on iOS. So yeah,
sweet. Do you think it will stay this way?

Um I I think with still with the number of users uh on Android platform and what happened uh still in the iOS ecosystem, I don't think this going to change in a uh meaningful way.
Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. I agree. Now to the I think this is the part that everyone is more interested in to be honest like all the ad networks. Here's what we have in Q2 2025. We have the top five uh applying mint integral unity Google ad mob liftoff and everything else. What does this tell you Tracy?
Oh this is very very good data. Um, I think before I answer that question, I'd love to ask you and the tension team like how did you collect the data? What kind of samples you have?
Yeah, that's a good that's a good point. We we're looking at the games.

Uh, yeah, and the game that monetizes through showing ads obviously. Um, yeah. And uh yeah just uh free advertisement for us as a like because we are one of the best for the IA apps as a MMP. Uh I think we have one of the biggest sample of uh apps like that.
No no I think the reason I asked was like just you know for the audience to understand a little bit where the data set come from. Uh for me, I don't like it doesn't surprise me at all with the share here for gaming. Um I think it would be very interesting if you flip the picture on non-gaming utility and consumer apps. It's very different, but in gaming like I've been following app loing for quite a while and they absolutely crushing it here, right? like yeah
they they count for for 43% so almost

half of the ad revenue and I think they done this well for two reasons right one is the thing on the UA front and one is their position in the media landscape so like if we understand about ACT uh and what I call all these five top networks have in common is they actually like close look at network meaning they have both a visits on the UA side and the monetization side. So if they afflict is doing a great job on the ease side then you know like it's would cascade into their app monetization business and and I've actually checked their Q1 earning for this year and uploading app revenue has increased by 71% year-over-year. That's like crazy even for Act. Uh sorry

to ramble on but I think that's that's how they got into that number
and uh yeah like honestly when I I'm doing like a lot of research on that and like especially for plavin whenever I search for appli nowadays it's mostly like stock uh advices stock research and like it hasn't been like that I don't know like five or six years ago.
Yeah. say they've they've been like on uh one of the I I think target list for some short sellers. So I also have the uh Google alerts on app and every time it comes on right it's all about the stock and shares. Uh but again like they're doing such an amazing job especially on iOS. So right now if you're a game developer you you have to put abing as their channels and so I'm

not like advertising for them but this is actually the truth. Um what I'm expecting to see in the future really is so this is a little bit biased towards you know Google and admobs right um I've seen the Google team kind of ramp up their effort on iOS user acquisition so if that goes well for them you will see some chain on the Google adm share here
uhhuh sweet but traditionally I have a segue way to the next slide. Google AdMob has been always strong. These three applying ad mob and integral we always in the top three here. I think that's the first quarter when applying is on the first place but traditionally Google AdMob is here.
Yeah. So that's right because you know Android is kind of like Google's bread

and butter. So Google has the whole ecosystem you know Google play um Google ads and then Google ad mob. So uh like naturally Google ad mobs more stronger on Android play but I've doing this well is thanks to their um gain in the mediation game. So ever since they acquired MOP uh which is the kind of like third party mediation uh platform in the day and kind of folded into their oper operation. Um I've seen them leading in terms of gaming mediation. So that probably explain why they gaining traction on.
I see. Okay. Sweet. Uh anything else about the ad networks here or previous slides otherwise we'll countries.
Um I think one thing to point out is that on Android again like you're seeing

less concentration compared to iOS. So iOS um I think the top five networks accounts through like close to 90% of the ad revenue but for Android it's less so. Um, and I'm seeing more and more newcomers in terms of, you know, app networks coming into. So hopefully we'll seeing more diversification in this business.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, yeah, we we will have another SL maybe. Yeah. Let's skip the countries for now and I'll just show you the year overyear growth for some of these guys super quickly, right? just supply talked about it already. Uh liftoff and integral. Um but this is all old faces kind of that we've seen. And ah here it is. Pango. Here is the one that grew. It didn't make it to top five but it still grew.

Yeah. Peno is definitely one to watch. So um Pango is actually the ad network. Sorry, my voice starting to hike up a bit. So, Pango is actually the ad network of Tik Tok and as Tik Tok's gaining more and more traction on the user acquisition side. I've known that they also started to hire for more people on the supply side. So, more investment on that sense. Um so Pangle has been doing quite well in countries like Apak markets and LATAM. Um US is kind of questionable with what's going on with the politics right now. I'm not sure if they're going to invest more. Um but what the formats that I've seen Pango's doing quite well is uh things like app open ads is they quite fast to adopt new format and as Tik Tok's growing um and

you know like with their kind of like advantage on the video side of thing. I see them maybe going into more you know like better position in instantial or rewarded ads.
Mhm. Okay, good to know. Um, yeah, so that was a year over a year growth and now as promised, I'll go back to countries. Uh, yeah, let's start with the US. Kind of no surprise for the US. Maybe a surprise that it's not like 99%. Um,
um, I would say Japan has quite a big market for iOS as well, but yeah, totally. Um I think here like I might go a bit ahead of myself but iOS is usually more again like consolidated concentrated.
You're right.
Compared to Android.
Yeah. And like the list of country here

as you can see is mostly tier one countries.
Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Let's show Android too. Right. Yeah. Even like I can I always look at the other
Yeah.
Yeah. here that's already 30% instead of eight.
Yeah. So Android is uh by default because again like the user um kind of the um the makeup of users more spread out and you're actually seeing here like apart from you know tier one country you're also seeing countries from tier two or tier three like Brazil, Mexico, India what we call the next billion users and um in terms like others for example Indonesia's also So one Vietnam also one of uh like some of the up and cominging markets for Android.
Gotcha. Um and they probably will also have like

lower CPI like super low like sense probably. So you can uh centrally get like a user from India for example like three cents CPI um and there's like healthy organic growth in those um countries as well but the new art is very different right like within India uh within Mexico Indonesia like different languages different device models and internet stability so then I would say if you're a game develop veloper and you charting tier three as well, you would have to kind of like play by a different playbook.
Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you either need to be kind of local or have someone local just to understand how things work, right, in the country. Um, yeah, it's hard. It's hard to be everywhere

for sure. And ultimately it's just you know like which country or which user group bring you the best ROAS right it it's difficult to like you said to invest and go localization on all the countries.
Exactly. Exactly. Cool. Um I think that's it for the slides. Just a general question. What surprised you the most about this report? Um I think the the one that surprised me the most is actually uh Russia in terms of like the share by country. Uh because again like I was coming from ATMA and Google decided to stop monetizing Russia um like after the war uh war was started. So yeah, I didn't expect it to be that high up, but I think that's definitely some area for um let's say like Southeast Asia developers

um the people that I used to work with uh want to consider more and yeah I think it's this is a great report for anyone that working on monetization
for sure.
Yeah, thanks Satan. I also like looked at it and I thought like there is an explanation also the the CPI's gone down after the war and like a lot of companies left so it's just um yeah there there is not much uh competition so this is
for the ones that stayed
um yeah so just my observation cool I'll stop sharing the screen and ask you the last question the last question is your predictions for the ad monetization market.
My god, this is so difficult. Um, if I can, I would like to tweak the answer to not my predictions,

but perhaps what like what I'm excited the most uh in terms of, you know, atmon landscape. So, a few things actually. So I've been talking to you know like my network from the traditional advertisers um you know the agency folks and um gaming and even the consumer apps are gaining a lot of traction from more of the mainstream advertisers. So I'm very excited to see you know that kind of money uh flood toward the gaming and mobile apps in general. and we'll probably going to see more and more players uh jump in the game. So that's one. Um second, I would say again I think to my point in terms of the iOS thing like if more companies started to crack the iOS UA playbooks then we'll see more competition in iOS landscape

and then we might see some more diversification. So that would be interesting. And I think the third one is um actually the rise of the consumer apps or utilities. So the non-gaming side of thing um I've seen that from the day at Google as well like the number of um downloads and even the amount of spend on subscription and AP in consumer apps are actually increasing. So that definitely would bring in advertisement money into the consumer apps as well. So if you're gonna make the next report would love to have you know like some sample from consumer apps and some breakdown that would be super interesting.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. Even the stuff like super niche stuff at least it sounds niche for me like short drama. Do you know short drama?
Yep.
Yeah.

So yeah. So it's actually I think a trend that come from the um like China developers.
Um and it's it's picked up quite well. It requires a lot of like upfront investment but so far it's it has been doing well. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they also kind of hybrids they have both IIA and IP. So this is a very interesting development.
Yeah. Um, super. Then, uh, yeah, the last thing, where can people find you, Tracy?
Oh, thanks. So, shout out. Um, you can find me on LinkedIn. Um, so Tracy Fan is my LinkedIn and again, my newsletter is the stack. It's quite early. Uh, but I think it provides very good understanding for people from outside of Act. Um and I also do mentoring for um you know the early stage startups for

gaming apps and people in actic as well. So if you have questions just hit me up.
Super. We'll leave all of the links in the comments. If you have more questions about the report or you have questions for Tracy, leave them in the comments. We'll answer them or give us a like and subscribe not to miss the next report. Um, then once again, thanks a ton Tracy. Until next time, see you.
Thanks for having me on. All right. Bye-bye. Byebye.