Transforming In-Game Advertising for a Privacy-Focused Era

The mobile gaming industry continues to thrive, with Adjust's 2021 data revealing significant increases in sessions, installs, retention rates, in-app time, stickiness, and daily user sessions compared to 2020. This upward trend is particularly impressive given the substantial growth witnessed in 2020 following the initial COVID-19 lockdowns. As mobile games attract more attention than ever, in-game advertising has become a crucial component of mobile growth strategies. A study by data.ai and IDC predicts that mobile games will account for approximately 61% of the gaming market share by 2022, surpassing the already impressive 52% figure in 2021. The day 30 retention rates consistently outperform day 1 rates, demonstrating the skill of user acquisition teams in finding, targeting, and retaining users while addressing privacy changes and post-IDFA challenges on iOS. Initially, opt-in rate predictions for iOS 14 were as low as 5%, but the current industry-wide opt-in rate at Adjust stands at 26%. For games, the overall opt-in rate is 31% as of Q1 2022, with hypercasual and action games reaching 39%, and racing games achieving an opt-in rate of 40%. Some individual titles have even seen opt-in rates above 70%. With such high opt-in rates, gaming revenue is on the rise. Marketers now have access to a significant amount of data, which can be utilized in both deterministic and predictive solutions to analyze SKAdNetwork data sets. In-game advertising has become a compelling option for mobile marketers, with the mobile games market generating $7.4 billion in player spending in December 2021. Eight mobile games achieved their highest revenue in 2021, each generating over $1 billion. Securing opt-in is a critical first step in any post-IDFA strategy. Once a pool of engaged users is established, there are multiple ways to work with the consented device-level data received. The success of the mobile games vertical highlights the importance of a strategic user acquisition team. While automation has taken center stage in mobile marketing, a new focus on user privacy necessitates a revisit of strategies. Agility and flexibility are now more crucial than ever, and investing in a UA team can help find the right balance. In a post-IDFA world, success on SKAdNetwork relies heavily on leveraging conversion values to understand user behavior, measure campaign performance, and optimize for growth. SKAdNetwork provides a 6-bit space for downstream metrics, which can be assigned to any value expressible in binary. The key is identifying events that occur within the first 24 hours post-install, which can be indicative of future events. Mobile game publishers have an advantage with the Identifier for Vendors (IDFV), which is still available on iOS. The IDFV enables cross-promotional campaigns and provides accurate attribution data for iOS campaigns. In-game ads come in various formats, including standard banners, interstitial ads, playable ads, and rewarded video ads. Matching the right ad with the right users and moments in-game is crucial. As the gaming industry adapts to the challenges of mobile advertising, measurement is key to evolving alongside the industry. Close monitoring of in-game ad campaigns with granular data is essential for staying ahead of the competition.