Advertising reports and market data
Documents
Why are Audio Ads Here to Stay?
Audio advertising has emerged as a significant monetization strategy for the gaming industry, offering a non-intrusive alternative to traditional video and banner ads.
- Audio advertising provides a privacy-compliant monetization alternative to traditional ads by relying on contextual data like game genre and geography rather than granular user tracking.
- The format is highly viable for mobile gaming, as 61% of players keep their audio enabled during gameplay.
- Audio ads offer a robust revenue stream for developers with CPMs ranging from $5 to $15.
Reimagining Games Advertising
The gaming industry is currently navigating a significant inflection point driven by evolving privacy regulations, shifting consumer data expectations, and a changing advertising ecosystem.
- The gaming industry must pivot away from third-party data reliance due to stricter privacy regulations, such as Apple's tracking permissions and the phasing out of browser cookies.
- Meta is mitigating attribution and reporting challenges by deploying the Conversions API, which establishes a direct, secure link between first-party marketing data and its systems.
- To maintain performance optimization, Meta is investing in privacy-enhancing technologies including secure multi-party computation, on-device learning, and data de-identification.
Panel: What is the Future of Mobile Advertising?
The mobile gaming industry is undergoing a fundamental transition, moving away from intrusive, performance-only advertising toward a hybrid model that prioritizes brand integration and user retention.
- Mobile gaming is shifting from intrusive performance-only advertising to a hybrid model that integrates monetization into the initial game design phase to protect user retention.
- Rising user acquisition costs and stricter privacy regulations are forcing a move away from traditional waterfall models toward header bidding and seller-defined audiences.
- Ad formats are evolving from standard video toward high-fidelity playable ads and immersive, avatar-based brand experiences within virtual environments.
Structured Mobile Marketing | The Ad Concept Model (Zynga + Consumer Acquisition)
The mobile user acquisition landscape has undergone a fundamental transformation following the deprecation of IDFA and the subsequent decline of lookalike audience efficacy.
- The deprecation of IDFA and the decline of lookalike audiences have caused a 30 percent margin compression across the mobile gaming industry.
- Success now requires a high-volume testing model where 20 to 50 new creative concepts must be evaluated to identify a single winning asset.
- Studios should transition from generic advertising to a granular strategy that maps a game’s core value propositions to specific player archetypes.
Charter for Change: 2022
The 2022 Charter for Change outlines a strategic framework for We Are Social to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion within the advertising industry.
- We Are Social failed to meet its 2021 multi-ethnic representation target of 25%, with actual representation remaining stagnant at 19%.
- The agency exceeded industry benchmarks for gender diversity, with women comprising 54% of the total workforce and 46% of leadership roles.
- LGBTQ+ representation within the agency saw significant growth, increasing from 12% in 2020 to 21% in 2021.
1Q FY2022 Presentation Material: October to December 2021
CyberAgent demonstrated significant financial growth during the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, with consolidated sales reaching 171 billion yen and operating profit increasing nearly threefold to 19.8 billion yen.
- CyberAgent’s consolidated sales reached 171 billion yen in 1Q FY2022, with operating profit nearly tripling to 19.8 billion yen.
- The Game business segment saw sales nearly double to 58.3 billion yen, driven by the success of 'Uma Musume Pretty Derby' which exceeded 12 million downloads.
- Operating profit for the Game segment grew 15.1-fold year-over-year, though management remains cautious about full-year forecasts due to gaming market volatility.
The Hyper-Casual Benchmark Report: Q3 2022
The Hyper-Casual Benchmark Report for Q4 2022 provides a comprehensive analysis of the mobile gaming landscape, focusing on key performance indicators including cost per install (CPI), ad spend distribution, and user retention.
- Retention is the primary differentiator for success, with top-tier hyper-casual games significantly outperforming the median cohort as acquisition costs rise.
- Median cost-per-install (CPI) reached record highs in Q4 2022, hitting $0.20 on Android and $0.42 on iOS.
- iOS consistently outperforms Android in retention, with top-tier titles achieving 45% Day 1 retention on iOS compared to 38% on Android.
Global White Paper on Mobile Advertising & Marketing Game
Mobile game advertising in 2022 experienced a pronounced contraction, with total creatives falling nearly 30% year-over-year to 15.8 million while the advertiser base stayed flat at 45,100.
- Mobile game advertising volume contracted by nearly 30% in 2022 to 15.8 million creatives, driven by a shift toward quality-focused marketing and the impact of Apple’s IDFA changes.
- Video ads dominate the market, accounting for over 86% of all creatives, while casual and puzzle titles have displaced RPGs as the primary drivers of advertising spend.
- Cost-per-mille (CPM) is highest for strategy games at $21.58, and iOS advertising remains 15% more expensive than Android equivalents.
The Israeli Mobile Game Market Report (2022)
The Israeli mobile game market reached approximately $9 billion in 2021, driven by more than 200 companies and 14,000 employees.
- The Israeli mobile game market reached approximately $9 billion in 2021, supported by over 200 companies and 14,000 employees.
- Flagship titles demonstrate massive scale: Coin Master generated $1.3 billion in 2021 with 2,500 daily creatives, while RAID: Shadow Legends surpassed $700 million in revenue and 50 million downloads.
- Casual, puzzle, and hyper-casual games now account for one-third of global mobile game advertising spend, bolstered by pandemic-era growth in user acquisition.
App Marketer Survey
The global app marketing landscape is currently defined by a paradox of rising performance expectations and diminishing data visibility.
- Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework has negatively impacted 64% of user acquisition campaigns, leading to increased costs for 72% of marketers and complicating decision-making for 73%.
- Nearly 60% of marketing professionals report facing more aggressive KPIs than in previous years, yet approximately half are currently struggling to meet these targets.
- To combat data scarcity, 52% of marketers plan to increase their 2023 advertising budgets while diversifying into influencer marketing and organic social media.
2022 Global White Paper on Mobile Advertising & Marketing Game
The global mobile market in the first half of 2022 underwent a significant transition, characterized by a contraction in total advertising volume alongside a strategic pivot toward high-quality, video-centric content.
- The global mobile advertising market saw a 27% decline in creative volume during the first half of 2022, accompanied by rising costs that pushed the average CPM to $19.31.
- Video content now dominates the advertising landscape, accounting for over 86% of all creatives as developers shift toward high-quality, drama-based storytelling to lower entry barriers.
- While the total number of advertisers decreased, emerging markets in the Middle East, South America, and Southeast Asia showed robust growth, contrasting with the high-cost user acquisition environments of the United States and South Korea.
Mobile Ad Creative Index: 2022
The 2022 Mobile Ad Creative Index analyzes performance trends and benchmarks across four major mobile app verticals: gaming, e-commerce, entertainment, and finance.
- Playable ads in the gaming sector achieve the lowest cost-per-install (CPI) at $1.98, while banner ads generate the highest 30-day return on ad spend (ROAS) at nearly 22%.
- iOS advertising costs are frequently double those of Android, making Android the more cost-effective platform for mobile user acquisition.
- There is a significant disconnect between player psychology and creative execution, with only 4% of casual game video ads and less than 1% of midcore ads successfully targeting specific player motivations.