• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 21, 2024

Some advertisers may be getting flat results from their normal programmatic ad buys. But have they tried gaming?

A third of all advertisers are now allocating gaming budgets from their overall ad spending, according to the Gaming Advertising Report from Advertiser Perceptions. 

The top five benefits are:

• Delivers hard to reach audiences—43%
• Incremental target audience reach—38% 
• Increased engagement—34%
• Better return on investment—27% 
• Increases ad relevance for consumers—27%

This all sounds good. But it begs the question: is gaming a fit ad category for your brand?

The study shows that the five biggest obstacles to gaming advertising are:

• Brand safety concerns—29%
• Can reach the same consumers more effectively elsewhere—26%
• Difficult to measure—26% 
• Lack of scale/inadequate reach—26%
• There is organizational resistance to using gaming advertising—25%

Granted, brand safety is less likely to be the top concern compared with last year, the study says. And it apparently isn’t stopping willing advertisers.

Of the companies polled, 56% are increasing their mobile app gaming advertising this year, 21% substantially.  

Another 51% are upping their advertising around video game content, 21% significantly.  

And 46% plan to boost their console or PC gaming spend, 18% substantially.  

Where is the money coming from for these expenditures? Mostly from general ad and digital video budgets, less so from experimental/discretionary allocations: 

• General advertising budget—32% 
• Digital video—21%
• Programmatic budget—15%
• Other digital media type budgets (display, search, audio, etc.)—12%
• Experimental/discretionary budget—7%
• Dedicated gaming advertising budget—7% 
• Sponsorships—3% 
• Non-digital media type budgets (print, audio, OOH, etc.)—2%

Say this much for gaming: it’s time to stop playing around and get on it. 

Advertiser Perceptions surveyed 200 Marketer and Agency contacts from The Advertiser Perceptions Ad Pros Community from July 8-17, 2024.