• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Game developer Zynga is looking to bridge the gap between advertisers and developers and is working with PubMatic to do it.

The new partnership aims to create a pathway between advertisers and the large mobile gaming community, backed by a variety of measurement and ad-buying tools.

“Mobile gaming audiences are among the most engaged in digital media, yet buyers have lacked the tools to reach them with the creative quality and performance outcomes the channel deserves,” says Lashanne Phang, vice president of PubMatic's mobile division.

By partnering with a leading mobile game developer, PubMatic intends to use its technology and agency partnerships to provide enhanced advertising experiences for buyers looking to target audiences among Zynga’s 200 million users who are actively playing mobile games.

PubMatic's “OpenWrap” software development kit (SDK) and creative formats like its “Click to Cart” feature provide advertisers with commerce-driven ways to offer in-game promotions.

With its “AgenticOS and Activate” media-activation platform, advertisers can experiment with programmatic buying workflows powered by AI and analytic insights when targeting Zynga's gaming audience.

According to a recent report from Appsflyer, gaming app user acquisition spend continues to increase across the globe, reaching $25 billion in 2025.

Spending on gaming apps in the U.S. alone has grown 42% over the past year, with mobile games representing 8.1% of total U.S. app spend.

There are 3.4 billion games worldwide and global ad spend within games is projected to hit $131 billion this year, driven heavily by mobile games. Yet the total gaming ad investment captures less than 5% of global digital media spend.

Despite similar audience sizes, shopping apps now attract twice as much ad spend as gaming, PubMatic and Zynga's announcement notes. “The gap signals a clear opportunity: mobile gaming delivers mass reach and high engagement but has yet to capture proportional full-funnel investment from advertisers.”

“Marketing success depends on how effectively teams can measure, interpret, and act on an increasing volume of fragmented signals,” Adam Smart, director of product and gaming at Appsflyer, said earlier this year.

Introducing its significant mobile gaming audience to advertisers via PubMatic's ad platform, Zynga's head of programmatic and agency relations Corentin Leydis says the company's focus “remains simple” -- it hopes to deliver a high-value gaming environment to a variety of players who can be reached directly by advertisers.