Each year, native ads take up a larger share of advertising budgets. This is a trend that is especially prominent in the gaming industry. With it, many gaming brands have seen positive results that they can no longer achieve through traditional advertising methods.
Learn more about how you can use native advertising in the gaming industry to reach your KPIs. To help you generate sustainable results, we’ll also highlight trends that you should take note of.
Introduction to Native Advertising in the Gaming Sector
The gaming sector is a natural fit for native advertising. Unlike traditional ads that interrupt gameplay, this method allows players to remain focused on their gameplay while still allowing the advertiser to get their message across.
What Are Native Ads?
Native ads are a novel and somewhat counter-intuitive take on traditional advertising. Instead of trying to grab your attention by practically popping out of the screen, native ads attempt to blend in. This development has come as a response to banner blindness, in which people instinctively avoid looking at usual ad placements.
One of the reasons native ads work so well for the gaming industry is that it doesn’t take the player out of the gaming experience. With native ads, you don’t have to force their attention; instead, they are drawn naturally to the advertising.
The Importance of Native Ads in the Indian Gaming Market
As you’ll see, no gaming company should go without native advertising nowadays. Considering how tight-knit the gaming community is, there’s a lot of value in focusing on the spaces where your audience is present and (quietly) making your mark there.
Current Trends in Indian Gaming Advertising
India’s gaming industry has seen tremendous growth in the past few years. According to Lumikai, India has 591 million active gamers, with 23 million new users joining in the 2024 fiscal year (April 2023 – March 2024).
Additionally, mobile gaming in India is experiencing strong growth. According to IMARC, the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.5% from 2025 to 2033. In fact, many eSports are now available in mobile form, as the value and long-term sustainability of mobile gaming becomes more evident. Even gambling games can now be conveniently accessed with lower-end devices.
With these developments, we understand that native advertising becomes even more important. Content that works on less powerful smartphones opens up a new avenue for brands to market their games in-app. Meanwhile, within streaming and gaming communities, you can reach hardcore gamers who are likely willing to invest more in their hobby.
Benefits of Native Ads for the Gaming Industry
We’re already seeing the benefits of native ads for these emerging gaming trends. Right now, the gaming industry can enjoy the following advantages.
- Increased engagement and app installs: Playable ads, where users can try a game before buying it, help persuade the audience to interact with the ads. With this format, they are more likely to install the application because they can be sure that it will be worth the phone space.
- Seamless integration with gaming content: Integration is made possible through reviews, streams and influencer promotions. The benefit? You get exposure to a highly engaged audience who wants to learn more about the latest games.
- Improved brand awareness and in-game monetisation strategies: Through influencers, exposure to a highly engaged gaming audience can help increase brand awareness. Product placements and event sponsorships also create a way for game publishers and developers to earn beyond in-game purchases.
As you can see, native advertising is great for everyone involved! Users become exposed to awesome games that they can play. Advertisers have more ways to connect with their target audiences. Finally, developers and publishers have more ways to earn.
How to Implement Native Ads for Gaming Success
Native advertising in the gaming industry uses the same playbook you’ll see across all spheres. So, if you want to incorporate it into your strategy, it’s all about using what already works and making it even better.
The outcome that we’ll discuss in our case study was made possible by following these three strategies: understanding our audience, crafting engaging and interactive content and choosing the right platform. Let’s explore each of them in the following subsections.
Understanding Your Audience
It doesn’t matter how you want to advertise. You can’t create a consistently effective marketing strategy if you don’t know who your audience is. In the gaming industry, there are at least two things that you should do.
- Identify your key demographics: Here, you have casual and hardcore gamers and eSports fans. Differentiating your audience matters because each demographic is looking for different things in a game. While casual gamers may be looking for something that’s just fun and easy, hardcore gamers may prefer more challenging experiences.
- Tailor ads to different gaming genres: The game type that you’re advertising will also matter. At the most basic level, you should be able to distinguish it as either action, strategy, casual, RPG or fantasy sports. Having this information will help not only with targeting but also with determining which types of content will resonate the most.
The more you know about your target audience, the better!
Crafting Engaging & Interactive Content
Creative gaming ads that convert require compelling imagery and engagement. Essentially, the ads should give the audience a feel for what gameplay will be like. Here are the best practices that we recommend to make this happen.
- Wield the power of storytelling: In most video games, storytelling is an integral part of the gaming experience. It provides inspiration for the characters and determines the progression of the games themselves. So, why not use it for advertising the game as well? You can go for an immersive narrative experience to introduce potential players to the game’s storyline.
- Collaborate with influencers: Many gamers look at influencers to see if a game is worth spending money on. So, positive reviews can really help. They can also become an avenue for you to give out exclusive merch and perks.
- Create interactive ads: Why not let them try the game right away? We see this strategy employed frequently. By letting them engage, they’ll be able to see for themselves how awesome the game is.
So, which will be the best approach? That depends on you! We simply recommend that you don’t go for text-heavy ads.
Choosing the Right Platforms
Selecting the right platform is also necessary. Your primary consideration in determining which platform (or platforms) to use should be your target audience. Essentially, you have to make sure that they’re actually hanging out where you’re advertising.
From what we’ve seen, the top choices for the Indian gaming industry are gaming portals, streaming platforms and publisher networks. Learn more about them in the table below.
| Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|
| Gaming portals | — High engagement from both casual and hardcore gamers — May support regional languages — Can be in the form of reward-based ads to catch more user attention | — No opportunity to reach non-gaming audiences |
| Streaming platforms | — High level of trust for the promoted brands and games — Grants you access to large and diverse gaming communities — Can attract casual and hardcore gamers | — May limit ad visibility if the user has an ad blocker — May not get a lot of engagement for ads placed on pages of less popular streamers |
| Native publisher networks | — Allow precise audience targeting — Can easily scale and automate — Great for contextual advertising | — Repeated ads may be ignored |
Case Study: MGID’s Success with Native Ads in the Gaming Sector
From our experience across various industries, the success of a native ad campaign largely depends on how you use the data available to you. More importantly, you should ask yourself, how are you going to align your efforts with your goals? Using this data-driven approach and combining it with a seamless advertising integration, MGID created a success story for Ubisoft.
Background
Ubisoft is a video game publisher that is responsible for some of the most popular titles in the world today, including Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry. When Ubisoft came to us, they were working on a sequel crossover with Nintendo: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. It was an exclusive release for the Nintendo Switch.
The company wanted to generate interest within the gaming community. This was to be implemented on top of its efforts to stimulate interaction and improve the user experience.
Strategy and Implementation
For this, we used interactive formats. We highlighted the various characters and settings that players can choose in the game, which was informed by the video game itself. Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is highly interactive, so we wanted to make sure all the ads were extremely engaging.
The media was mixed with quotes about the game to provide more context. Through a different format, users even got to meet the “dream team.” Our goal here was to get users to click on the ad.
Results and Outcomes
Following our efforts, the campaign generated 3.3 million impressions and 634,000 interactions. Our decision to use highly interactive media paid off big time because we achieved 136.5% engagement.
Here, we clearly demonstrated the power of visuals. Nintendo characters are highly popular, so just having them show up is enough to drive engagement. The job for us was to turn that awareness into curiosity and clicks. We did this by revealing more about the game and its characters following a click.
Future of Native Advertising in the Indian Gaming Market
There are a lot of exciting things that we can still look forward to. See what changes you can expect to see in the Indian gaming market soon.
Emerging Trends
Like with other industries, gaming brands and companies will also benefit from artificial intelligence. With AI, they’ll be able to deliver personalised and contextually relevant content.
However, in this industry, the more immersive the experience is, the better! So, especially as related technologies become more financially accessible, you should see more AR and VR in gaming ad experiences. These will allow users to connect virtual elements with reality, especially when the promotion concerns a real-life product.
Long-Term Benefits
You’ll continue to enjoy the benefits that you’re already getting from native advertising. The impact of native ads doesn’t fade over time: it builds upon itself, reinforcing player interest and trust. So, how does this differ from the advantages you’re experiencing now? It doesn’t — except that, in the long run, native advertising will become a standard rather than just an option.
Native advertising will eventually be the norm in this industry. By keeping up with the trends, you’ll maintain the gains that you’re already getting. From what we’re seeing, developers who can’t evolve their strategies will not succeed.
Preparing for the Future
Artificial intelligence, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are set to revolutionise native advertising in the gaming industry. So, if their use is relevant to your case, why not do it? As we mentioned, advertising in this industry is all about putting the user in the experience instead of inviting them out of it.
Of course, gaming brands should still have data at the heart of their campaigns. This way, they can more effectively reach an interested audience.
Conclusion
Native advertising in the gaming industry will continue to gravitate towards immersive experiences. Fortunately, there are now many ways to seamlessly introduce brands while keeping players engaged.
Using the right platform based on your identified target audience also contributes to your success. Never view the gaming community as a monolith. Recognise the segments within them so you can create more effective content.
Our final suggestion? Revisit your strategies right now. See how you can incorporate native advertising. By doing so, you’re helping make your brand future-proof.
