2024 is turning out to be a great year for mobile game developers with 60% of the top 50 mobile markets recording 13% gain.

According to AppsFlyer findings, there has also been a 13% and 25% increase in Android and iOS installs over 2023 recordings. This is a juicy pie that any game developer can dig into with the help of the right gaming advertising network and high-quality ad inventory, which ensures available advertising space within platforms is maximized for revenue.

Gaming advertising networks are the platforms that help game developers improve their app downloads, retain their players, and run remarketing campaigns. For most advertisers, these ad networks give them access to advertise their products to the elusive gaming crowd.

This article will introduce the best gaming ad networks game developers can depend on to acquire more players in 2024.

What Are the Best Gaming Ad Networks to Acquire Players?

Here are the best game ad networks game developers and advertisers can use to acquire users for their games:

1. Blockchain-Ads - Best ad network to increase app downloads
2. Google Ads - Best ad network for game remarketing
3. Apple Search Ads - Best gaming advertising platform for iOS apps
4. Unity Ads - Top mobile game ad network for Android apps
5. Meta ads - Ad network with the most volume
6. AppLovin - Top ad network with the most supported platforms
7. Liftoff - Best ad network for pricing models
8. ironSource - Best ad network with the highest ROI for publishers
9. Mintegral International Limited - Top programmatic ad network
10. TikTok for business - Best ad network for TikTok players

The image below summarizes the list of advertising solutions for gaming apps:

What Is a Gaming Advertising Network?

A gaming advertising network is an online platform that gives advertisers a chance to put their ads within games.

You can see it as the middle man between two parties in this advertising equation: the advertiser and the game developer. As such, it gets paid for connecting these two parties together.

Of course, the game advertising network isn’t the only beneficiary in this relationship, as both the game developer and the advertiser also gain.

For the game developer, allowing ads within their games and selling ad space is a way of making extra cash. The advertiser, on the other hand, benefits from this arrangement by gaining access to a highly engaged audience.

How We Rated the Gaming Advertising Platforms

We rated the game advertising networks on our list based on the information from our network of advertisers and the appsflyer performance index.

The information we got from our network of advertisers comes from setting up a pool among them to record their responses. After that, we choose the best gaming ad networks on that end based on the majority choices.

The AppsFlyer performance index got its ad network choices based on their findings from multiple fronts:

• Number of non-fraudulent installs
• Remarketing conversions
• Organic app retention rate within the time frame of the report
• Number of apps running with that media source

So by comparing the game ad networks from the Appsflyer performance index and our network of advertisers, we got the overall best.

The overall best choices were the ad networks that made our list.

The Top 10 Gaming Advertising Networks to Get More Players

In this section, we’ll be displaying the top 10 gaming advertising networks to get more players in 2024. Note that these ad networks are listed in no particular order and that each of them has its strong suit.

1. Blockchain-Ads - Best Ad Network to Increase App Downloads

When you want to increase the download and installs of your app, Blockchain-Ads is the best mobile gaming advertising network for the job. This ad network will give you unbeatable ROI (Return On Investment) in the area of game app advertising.

Additionally, it provides significant financial benefits for app publishers and advertisers by maximizing ad revenue through various strategies and engaging ads.

You can get to mobile gamers, Play 2 Earn gamers, NFT Gamers, and Gaming Guild gamers with this platform. It’s a combination of the traditional gaming sector and the growing Web3 gaming audience.

With Blockchain-Ads, you can target over 10 million Web2 and Web3 gamers, and get your brand out on more than 6,000 gaming websites. As one of the best ad networks in the gaming vertical, Blockchain-Ads targets gamers based on:

• The blockchain they use
• The token they use
• The wallets they use

Despite its numerous services, Blockchain-Ads charges a fair fee for its troubles:

• Ad Click: $0.10 - $0.30
• Purchase: $2.50 - $3.50
• CPM: $0.70 - $1.20
• App Downloads - $1.00 - $1.30

Some of the game advertisers that have used the services of Blockchain-Ads and reaped the benefits include Space and AnRKeY.

With a budget of $65,000, Space, a gaming metaverse got 45,000 new registrations and 11,000 NFT mints within 60 days. The Lifetime Value (LTV) of this brand also went up to $189.82 in 12 months. Its Return On Investment (ROI) also increased by 21.5 times.

AnRKeY, a Play2Earn platform, invested $50,000 into their game ad campaign, and within 60 days, Blockchain-Ads delivered more than 6,400 paid gamers. The token price on this platform went up by 800% and the ROI increased by 17 times.

2. Google Ads - Best Ad Network for Game Remarketing

Remarketing entails engaging customers who have already used a brand to give it another try, and Google Ads is best at this.

Google Ads is a network of over two million independently owned sites, publishers, and apps. With such an expansive reach, this gaming advertising network can reach more than 90% of internet users, making it perfect for remarketing campaigns.

Powered by the infamous search engine, Google Ads provides advertisers with many ways to promote their brand. It could be through:

• Banner ads
• Interstitial ads
• Discovery app
• Native ads
• Playable ads
• Video ads
• Rewarded video ads

Additionally, in-app advertising, specifically through rewarded video ads, allows mobile game developers to engage users by offering incentives like extra lives. This advertising format is an effective way to attract and retain a deeply engaged player base while boosting ad unit sales for mobile game owners.

Google Ads offers quality lead conversions, user acquisition, monetization, and increased online sales for users. It also puts any app in front of its target users to drive engagement and downloads for iOS and Android devices.

Besides mobile apps, you can also depend on Google Ads for Amazon and out-of-store advertising capabilities.

Google Ads supports the following pricing models:

• CPC: Cost Per Click
• CPA: Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition
• CPI: Cost Per Install
• CPM: Cost Per Mile

3. Apple Search Ads - Best Gaming Advertising Platform for iOS Apps

You can’t escape Apple Search Ads when it comes to the iOS platform, as it's the exclusive advertising channel for that operating system.

However, the numbers speak for themselves, as over 65% of the downloads on the App Store happen after a search. Combine this with an average conversion rate of over 60%, and you’ll understand why it's the best mobile game ad network for iOS apps.

Apple Search Ads offers two options for advertisers: Basic and Advanced. With Basic, you can advertise over 50 apps and spend up to $10,000 each month per app. Of course, you also benefit from intelligent AI matching your ads to interested users for better results.

For Advanced Apple Search Ads, you get to advertise on as many apps as you want and also get to choose the target audience. You can also select the region where your ads will appear, the target audience, and the keywords for the ad.

With Apple Search Ads, advertisers get numerous targeting options, like:

• Demographic segmentation
• Location segmentation
• Device segmentation
• Targeting based on customer type

4. Unity Ads - Top Mobile Game Ad Network for Android Apps

Headed by Unity Technologies, Unity Ads is an ad network that was designed for the monetization of the mobile gaming scene. This mobile game ad network gives developers an opportunity to monetize their player base and support their services.

Unity Ads features a simple integration system, allowing any Android developer to include it in their games.

Since this ad platform works well with all mobile game engines, including Adobe Air, Corona, and Marmalade, its ad experience is non-intrusive. So, most gamers won’t mind ads from this network, as it doesn’t affect their gaming experience.

Unity Ads is also compatible with all Android versions from 2.3 upwards and iOS 4.0 upwards. This gives it a wide reach when it comes to its available player base. The supported ad types for this ad network include:

• Rewarded video
• Playable ads
• Banners ads
• Full-screen interstitial ads
• Video ads

5. Meta ads - Ad Network with the Most Volume

This is a mobile game ad network from Meta (formerly Facebook) and it exists to help advertisers get more users for their apps. By selling ad space, Meta ads enable game developers to monetize their games while providing advertisers access to a highly engaged audience.

Since it’s a Meta-powered ad platform, advertisers can run their ads on Meta, the Meta messenger app, the web, and Instagram.

As billions of people use Meta and its related apps, advertisers who use this ad network benefit from a wide reach.

Meta ads support popular ad formats like banners, carousel banners, slideshows, and videos. This ad network allows you to target users based on many characteristics, like:

• OS version
• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Mobile OS
• Mobile user language
• Interests
• Device

To run ads on the Meta ads platform, you can use a daily promotional budget or a lifetime budget. The daily budget works with an average amount that you’ll be willing to spend on ads each day. The lifetime budget works with the entire amount you’ll be spending for the entire ad campaign.

6. AppLovin - Top Ad Network with the Most Supported Platforms

Headquartered in California, AppLovin is an ad network that connects businesses of every size to their target customers. This ad network provides the AI and software solutions that advertisers need to monetize and grow their global audience. The ad types that you get from this firm include:

• Banner ads
• Interstitial ads
• Rewarded video ads
• Native ads
• Video ads
• Playable ads

AppLovin uses user-level data and source-level data to accurately understand user behavior and gain insight into trends. One of the biggest advantages that AppLovin offers as a game ad network is its number of supported platforms, which include:

• Android
• iOS
• Native PC
• EPIC
• XBOX
• Switch
• Quest
• Steam
• PlayStation

So, advertisers who use the services of this game advertising network gain access to a wide range of end users. The pricing models with AppLovin are the usual, which include CPM, CPI, and CPA.

7. Liftoff - Best Ad Network for Pricing Models

Liftoff is the best mobile game ad network for when you need a lot of options regarding the cost of advertising. With this ad network, advertisers can choose from:

• Cost
• CPM: Cost Per Mile
• CPC: Cost Per Click
• CPA: Cost Per Action
• CPI: Cost Per Install

Many advertisers who choose this ad network do so because of their trust in its monetization, retargeting, and user acquisition techniques. The programmatic solutions from this ad network also help with improving campaign strategies, maximizing growth, and securing campaign performance. The types of ads that Liftoff supports are:

• Video ads
• Playable ads
• Native ads
• Interstitial ads
• Rewarded video
• Banner ads

Besides providing ad-related services, Liftoff also allows developers to create smarter games that their target audience would love. This ad network accomplishes this by analyzing trends and providing game developers with a database of more than two billion mobile gaming profiles.

8. ironSource - Best Ad Network with the Highest ROI for Publishers

Every advertiser pursues a positive Return On Investment (ROI) for their efforts, and this is ironSource’s specialty. An in-game ad network enables advertisers to place advertisements within games, benefiting both advertisers and game developers by enhancing audience engagement and revenue generation.

ironSource is a mobile gaming advertising that puts power in the hands of game developers, allowing them to properly monetize their products. This ad network empowers developers to boost user engagement and retention, increase in-app purchases, and gain deeper user insights.

ironSource also provides custom ad network integrations for iOS and Android SDK, its main supported platforms. The pricing models you’ll find on this mobile game ad network include CPC, CPM, CPA, and CPI.

ironSource supports quite a lot of ad formats including:

• Rewarded video ads
• Offerwalls
• Interstitial ads
• Playable ads
• Video ads
• Banner ads

9. Mintegral  - Top Programmatic Ad Network

If you want an ad network that’s powered by AI, Mintegral International Limited is your best pick. Mintegral is one of the gaming ad networks that provides programmatic advertising, allowing advertisers to streamline their advertising process through automation.

Programmatic advertising offers an advantage in its efficiency for running auctions, identifying the best ad placements, selling digital ad impressions, and segmenting audience data.

While Mintegral is basically a self-serve ad network, it has built a high-quality traffic network through third-party channels and direct partnerships.

This ad network promises advertisers monetization of their brands by connecting them to over 10,000 publishers through SDK integration. Mintegral also allows its customers to advertise in numerous app categories like e-commerce, casual games, hardcore games, and utility apps.

The pricing models at Mintegral include CPA, CPM, CPI, and CPC, while its supported ad formats are:

• Video ads
• Rewarded video ads
• Banner ads
• Interstitial ads
• Native ads
• Playable ads

10. TikTok For Business - Best Ad Network for TikTok Players

If you want to level up your advertising game on TikTok, there’s no better ad network than TikTok For Business. TikTok For Business has achieved a lot of success, as 41% of those who saw gaming content on TikTok downloaded that game. 36% of those who saw the game content also purchased the game to play.

So, TikTok For Business holds all the tools that advertisers need to unleash their creativity on TikTok. Even if you’re new to the ad network, there’s a comprehensive e-learning center that teaches how to use its ads manager.

The supported ad types with TikTok For Business include:

• Banner ads
• Interstitial ads
• Facebook ads
• Native ads
• Video ads
• Offerwalls
• Playable ads

What Is Gaming Advertising?

Gaming advertising is a type of marketing that promotes mobile games to get more people to download them. Most of the video game advertising formats out there involve displaying in-game clips to attract the attention of gamers.

Some game advertising formats include incentives for the first thousand downloads, like access to special weapons, in-game currency, or some other perk.

What Is the Difference between Game Advertising and In-Game Advertisements?

Game advertising is a type of advertising that’s geared toward getting individuals to download a game and In-game advertising is the same. However, where game advertising uses banners on websites and videos in the app store to get user attention, in-game advertisements appear in the game.

So, in-game advertisements are directly programmed into the game to appear in specific ad spaces that developers have created.

You’ve probably seen in-game ads at the bottom of the main menu in a game or on the pause menu. These days, most game developers program ads into all their games to get the attention of gamers who would otherwise ignore it.

So, where game advertising advertises a game on the internet or offline, in-game advertisement does so in some other video games. Regardless of how they go about it, the end goal of both methods is to get users to download and play that game.

What Are the Best Strategies for Advertising a Game?

The best strategies to advertise a game include:

• Social Media Marketing
• Influencer Marketing
• Content Marketing
• User-Generated Content (UGC)
• App Store Optimization (ASO) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• In-Game Events and Collaborations
• Rewards Systems
• Video and Livestream Marketing

Can I Advertise Crypto Games?

Yes, you can advertise crypto games through ad networks that specialize in that niche, like Blockchain-Ads. Blockchain-Ads, like most ad networks familiar with the cryptocurrency space, possess the tools to get to Web2 and Web3 gamers. An example of such tools is Blockchain-Ads’ wallet targeting technology.

Final Thoughts on Gaming Ad Networks

Gaming ad networks are the channels for game publishers to increase their active player count. If you’re looking to get increased app downloads for your game, then Blockchain-Ads is the best choice. Google Ads is another good choice if you’re interested in remarketing, and Apple Search Ads is the best for iOS marketing.

There are other game ad networks on our list and each of them has their own specialties that can help you choose. However, your game advertising could be more effective if you support it with other marketing strategies. Some of such marketing strategies you could employ include content marketing, influencer marketing, SEO, running referral programs, and community building.