Targeted marketing can be more effective for games Gemsite

Gemsite It has released its annual State of Marketing Performance report, which provides insight into the type of platforms and effective advertising strategies for game studios. According to my latest findings, optimal marketing revolves around a tailored strategy, with different platforms offering different benefits for reaching specific audiences or retaining their interest over the long term. Gamesight report It shows that finding the right advertising platform can deliver a much better ROI than a broader approach.

One of the points the report addressed was the strengths of the different platforms. For example, of the two major video-based sites for gamers, Twitch delivers 3x higher conversion rates, thanks in large part to its non-skippable ad format and targeted approach; While YouTube has a 54% retention rate, one of the highest among ad networks, it also has better long-term engagement.

Other revelations revealed in the report include the untapped potential of Reddit, which recently overhauled its ad system and is offering 52% seven-day retention rates. It also offers hyper-contextual targeted advertising programs and category takeovers that allow marketers to push ads directly to the top communities relevant to their game type. The report also indicates that X (formerly Twitter) is the most effective ad network for reaching PlayStation-based audiences.

Gaming marketers can meet gamers where they are

Sam Bonin, Gamesight Solutions Architect, told GamesBeat how this information can be actionable for game studios: “Ad platforms offer a multitude of features to optimize a campaign, including audience targeting, bidding strategies, and inventory type. Advertisers should experiment with settings and strategies …the findings in this report provide some high-level insights, which may vary from game to game, but can help guide advertisers toward the media mix that best suits their audience.”

The report also analyzes various statistics, such as conversion rates and seven-day retention rates, for different platforms. Gamesight describes Google Ads as the top network, followed by YouTube and Meta. However, each platform comes with challenges as well as benefits — the report cites increased scrutiny from antitrust enforcement as a particular challenge for Google.

“When we notice that advertising budgets have shrunk, and spending has shifted towards known quantities, this leads to a decrease in the total number of ad networks used by advertisers,” Bonin added, referring to the report’s mention of tightening marketing budgets in 2024. In previous years, advertisers may have been willing to run ads across a large number of social networks, affiliate marketers, ad platforms, etc. In 2024, advertisers tend to focus on the larger/more popular ad networks (e.g. Google/Meta/TikTok/etc).”