The gaming industry is expanding fast, and the smartphone is playing a significant role in this expansion. By the end of 2019, the global gaming market is estimated to be worth $152 billion, with 45 percent of that, $68 billion, coming from mobile games. It’s expected to grow at a 14 percent CAGR during the forecast period 2020-2025. 

Additionally, mobile gaming revenue is estimated at $63 billion across the globe in 2020. It’s expected that this figure will continue growing and surpass the $100 billion mark by 2023. Such significant growth has attracted a myriad of investors and marketers alike, everyone wanting a cut of the pie.

Yet, brands still shy away from tapping into the power of mobile games. One of the reasons may be the overwhelming nature of the mobile advertising economy that prevents marketers and advertisers from finding the right ad inventory. Another may be the assumption that the mobile gamer environment comprises entirely teenage individuals.

In this guide, we explore demographics in mobile gaming and why marketers and advertisers should shift their focus to mobile gaming. 

Ever-Growing Audience

Mobile gaming is taking our lives by storm. Today, over 50 percent of mobile app users play games, and this figure is expected to increase as more internet users continue to use smartphones to browse the web.

Therefore, mobile game advertising remains one of the most potential but untapped areas for brands that want to expand reach.  As the mobile gaming industry continues to grow, it also attracts large, diverse audiences that can be accessed from anywhere and at any time. The number has increased even further amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Gaming audiences’ demographics are expansive from Baby Boomers to Generation Y and brands can target specific audiences, capturing their attention when they’re totally engaged and immersed in the gaming experience. A brand’s creativity in the gaming environment during this time is likely to have a high impact because the chances of interacting with a call to action are high which translates to more engagement.

High Level of Engagement 

Mobile gamers spend the highest sessions across most app categories. The average mobile games session is around 13 minutes. Similarly, gamers spend about seven hours and seven minutes per week gaming, which represents a great window of opportunity for brands to share clear and engaging content with a captive audience.

Grabbing the attention of gamers when they’re fully immersed has a couple of advertising advantages. The main benefit is that the target audience isn’t distracted or carried away by news or other online activities—they are completely focused and engaged in the activity at hand.

Brands also benefit from the mobile gaming innovative approaches especially when it comes to ad formats. Publishers and advertisers have gone a notch higher to apply different approaches such as tap to map creative location-based methods to ensure users see and engage with their ads as much as possible.

Achieving Measurable Results Across Multiple Channels

Mobile gaming is no longer a niche industry, it’s accurately mainstream entertainment. The audience is broad, highly-engaged, and packed with disposable income.

By advertising in mobile games, brands stand to reap huge benefits from a smartphone that is closely linked to intent and action. It’s a huge distribution platform for advertisers and marketers who want to uplift their brand, but it would be difficult to successfully penetrate multiple gaming markets through traditional advertising. The process of creating and setting up campaigns using this model can be long and tiresome. 

For effective advertising, advertisers can leverage the in-app programmatic approach to bid on inventory. The cost optimization model associated with the in-app programmatic method is based on CPM (cost per mille), or eCPM (effective cost per mille), assuring measurability and transparency of the results. 

Video ads for instance pairs well with mobile gaming. In this case, products are designed to be visually appealing to the user, which makes it more engaging for the user. Rewards video ads also work well on mobile. The ads are designed in such a way that users can choose to see your ad and get rewarded for watching the ad. Moreover, advertisers can whitelist or blacklist certain ads and mobile app publishers for better control over which audiences view the brand’s content.

As the gaming industry continues to expand, it’s clear that gaming platforms continue to open doors for brands, advertisers, and publishers to tap into a previously unreachable audience in ways that have never been seen before.

To keep up with the trend, marketers, and advertisers must harness multiple marketing strategies and technological tools to create great gaming experiences based on the user’s needs.   

If you’re wondering how you can start making new games, here is a comprehensive guide to getting you off the ground.