Why Mobile Game Advertising is a Must-Have for Indian Marketers in 2022

Among us, there are millions of gamers.
India is a country that has always loved mobile games, but the love turned into a passion when the pandemic forced people to stay home. In 2021 alone, over 9.33 billion mobile games were downloaded in India, making it the world’s second-largest market for mobile gaming.


Sure, but why should brands play?
While there’s a huge appetite for mobile game apps, do brands stand a chance to meet their objectives while reaching people who simply want to play?

You’d be surprised at how engaged gamers can be. In our report on mobile game advertising in India, 2022, we found that 98% gaming advertisers increased their spends on mobile game apps last year because they were so impressed by the results that advertising on gaming apps got them.

Here’s why brands love advertising on mobile gaming apps:

• They see higher attention and up to 2X higher engagement rates from audiences on mobile games

• There is room for more precise targeting and personalization

• Brands can score even with hard-to-reach audience segments while they play considering 43% mobile gamers in India are women and 31% gamers are aged over 45 years

• The experiences they can create for gamers on these apps are interesting and innovative

Marketers, let’s talk about your game plan.
Mobile game advertising when done right can achieve wonders – possibly even your highest score! There has been a whopping 2x jump in mobile gaming ad spends since 2021. Here’s how brands can play it smartly:

• Play the right game:
  Find out the games that your audience loves and is suited to your brand’s values. Scale and optimize your campaign on these apps programmatically. The Open Exchange is the most popular method to do so, and Private Marketplace deals come a close second.

• Score with the right format:
  Choose from fresh and engaging formats. Be it blended in-game experiences, rewarded videos, interstitials or playables, you can engage your audience in the most relevant way. Blended in-game ads are what brands are most looking forward to. InMobi’s platform data showed 1.6X growth in advertisers spending on video ad placements on mobile games.

• Catch the right metric:
  Craft your experience based on what you want to measure. Some great metrics to capture while advertising on mobile games are brand awareness, completion rates, attention time, viewability, and reach and frequency. Our report shows that ads on mobile game apps deliver close to 2x higher completion rates, engagement and eCPMs as compared to benchmarks.

Now that you’ve seen how advertising on gaming apps can create engaging experiences and help you measure success and ROI, let’s look at three myths about mobile game advertising – and wipe them out!


Is your brand safe? Are mobile game apps brand-safe?
Rest assured, your brand won’t lose a life. You can identify a range of safe apps that suit your brand’s values and the audience you want to reach: Our study found that there is an 83% match between the game and the brand’s values!


Do mobile games really take the media mix to the next level?
Advertisers have found that gaming apps enrich the media mix. InMobi’s platform data showed that 34% of all ad spends were on game apps between January and July 2022. And there has been a 60% year-on-year growth in the volume of advertisers investing in mobile game advertising.


Will it be game over as you tackle the challenges of advertising on gaming apps?
Advertising on mobile game apps is not at all difficult to manage or expensive to run. Plug-and-play solutions make it easy and affordable: 97% of brands who advertise on mobile game apps report high satisfaction.


Yes, mobile game advertising can give your brand a power-up.
A large variety of formats and a good number of success metrics make mobile game advertising a winning solution to help your brand achieve its objectives.

Get more insights on how brands score with mobile game advertising. Read our report, Mobile Game Advertising in 2022.
To know more about how to advertise on mobile games, write to us at mobilemarketing@inmobi.com.