Advertising plays a vital role in attracting users and generating revenue in the mobile gaming industry. MobileAction has recently released its Mobile Ad Trends report for the second quarter of 2023, shedding light on the current state of mobile ad networks.
Popular Ad Networks on the App Store
According to the report, Facebook Native is the most popular ad network on the App Store, with 163,000 different creatives. Instagram, Facebook, and Facebook Messenger follow closely behind with 161,000, 160,000, and 159,000 creatives, respectively. It’s worth noting that all four of these successful ad networks are owned by Meta, the parent company.
AdMob, a non-Meta ad network, is the most successful in its category with 49,000 ad creatives. Unity closely trails with 48,000 creatives.
Top Ad Networks on Google Play
On Google Play, the top four ad networks are relatively equal in popularity, but there are more published creatives for each network. Facebook dominates with 453,000 creatives, followed closely by Facebook Native with 452,000. Instagram ranks third with 439,000, and Facebook Messenger completes the top four with 432,000 creatives. Interestingly, the fifth most popular ad network, Unity, lags behind significantly with just 58,000 creatives. This highlights the success of Meta’s ad networks on Google Play.
Gaming Advertising Strategies
When it comes to ad creatives, Block Blast Adventure Master and 1945 – Airplane shooting game lead the way on the App Store, with 2,300 each. Evony closely follows with 2,200 creatives. The number of creatives drops significantly for the fourth-placed Stormshot, which has 1,600 creatives.
Three games in the top ten list for ad creatives on the App Store are developed by Doodle Mobile Limited: Solitaire – Card Solitaire, Coloring Book! Paint by Number, and Block Puzzle – Brain Test Game. This indicates that the company has achieved significant success in its advertising strategy for iOS devices.
In terms of ad impressions on the App Store, Royal Match leads with 1,100 creatives, gathering over two million more impressions than the second-place title, Evony.
On Google Play, Mighty Party takes the lead with an aggressive campaign that includes over 7,500 creatives. Evony secures the second spot with 4,300 creatives, followed by Lost Fortress: Underground with 4,100 creatives.
Interestingly, all ten games that published the most creatives on Google Play surpassed the number of creatives from the top game on the App Store. This suggests that developers and publishers are investing more resources in user acquisition on Google Play.
Ad Impressions on Google Play
Lords Mobile: Kingdom Wars emerges as the game with the most impressions on Google Play, followed by Snake.io. Evony is the only game to chart within the top five titles for ad impressions. This indicates that Evony has run an aggressive ad campaign targeting both platforms.
Recent news suggests that Meta may introduce an ad-dodging subscription service in the EU to navigate new data collection policies.