In-Game Advertising: Types, How It Is Bought and What Works

In-game advertising is any advertising shown inside a video game. On mobile it is enormous: free-to-play games are one of the largest sources of ad inventory there is, and most mobile games are themselves advertised mainly through ads shown inside other games. The phrase covers several very different things, though, from a full-screen video between levels to a billboard painted into a racing track. This guide separates the formats, explains how each is bought, covers the rules that govern them, and looks at what works from both sides: the advertiser buying the space and the developer selling it.

The two families: interruptive and intrinsic

Most in-game advertising falls into one of two families. Interruptive ads take over the screen or a part of it for a moment: interstitials, rewarded videos, playables and banners. Intrinsic ads sit inside the game world itself: a branded billboard beside a race track, a poster on a wall, a product placed in a scene. The first family is what most mobile ad spend goes through; the second is closer to traditional product placement and is used mostly by brands.

The interruptive formats

Interstitial ads

A full-screen ad shown at a natural break, such as between levels. It can be a static image, a video or a playable, and the player can usually close it after a few seconds. Interstitials earn well for developers and annoy players when placed badly, which is why app stores regulate them (see below).

Rewarded ads

A full-screen ad the player chooses to watch in exchange for something in the game: a second life, extra coins, a free spin. Because the player opts in, rewarded ads are the best-liked ad format in games and often the best-paying. Rewarded video ads: best practices covers how developers design them.

Playable ads

An interactive ad that lets the player try a short version of the advertised game before installing it. Playables run in interstitial and rewarded slots, and they are the format game advertisers increasingly lead with, because a player who has already played the core loop installs with accurate expectations. What playable ads are and how to make them covers the format.

Banners, native ads and offerwalls

Banners sit at the edge of the screen during play; they earn little per impression but are always on. Native ads are designed to match the surrounding interface, for example a sponsored item in a shop. Offerwalls list tasks, such as installing another game and reaching a level, that the player completes for in-game currency.

Intrinsic in-game advertising

Intrinsic ads are placed in the game environment so they become part of it, much as a stadium has boards around the pitch. They do not interrupt play, which makes them popular with players and with brands who want to be seen without being skipped. The hard part has always been measurement: when is a billboard in a 3D world actually seen? In 2022 the IAB, with the IAB Tech Lab and the Media Rating Council, published intrinsic in-game measurement guidelines covering display and video ads served into game environments, addressing viewability, measurement, inactivity and fraud. Interstitials were explicitly outside that guidance, which treats them as a separate format.

Intrinsic ads are sold through specialist platforms that place an ad surface in a game and serve brand creative into it programmatically. For a mobile game advertiser trying to get installs, they are rarely the right tool: an intrinsic ad cannot take the viewer to a store page in one tap. For a consumer brand building awareness, they are increasingly a standard line in the media plan.

How interruptive inventory is bought

A game sells its ad slots through a mediation platform such as AppLovin MAX, Unity LevelPlay or Google AdMob, which runs an auction among ad networks for every impression. Advertisers buy that inventory through the networks: Unity Ads, AppLovin, Mintegral, Liftoff, Moloco, Google and others, either directly or through a demand-side platform. In-app bidding vs waterfall mediation explains the auction, and the best ad networks for mobile game UA compares the networks.

The rules

Ads inside games are governed by app store policy as well as by each ad network's creative rules. Google Play's policy, introduced in 2022 and based on the Better Ads Standards for mobile apps, is the most specific. At the time of writing it does not allow full-screen interstitials of any format that cannot be closed after 15 seconds, video interstitials shown before the app's splash screen, or ads that appear unexpectedly, including at the beginning of a level or of a content segment. Interstitials belong at natural breaks. Rewarded ads that the player explicitly opts into are exempt from those interstitial rules, provided they comply with the general ads policy.

On the creative side, every network rejects ads that imitate system dialogs, hide the close button or misrepresent the product. Playable ad policy lists the patterns reviewers reject, and ads aimed at children carry a further set of rules covered in playable ads and kids' apps.

What works for advertisers

• Show the game in the first seconds. An in-game audience is already a gaming audience; the question they ask is whether yours is worth switching to.
• Let them play. In full-screen slots, a playable lets the viewer judge the game directly, which tends to bring fewer but better installs.
• Design for both placements. A rewarded viewer has time and goodwill; an interstitial viewer wants to get back to their game. Rewarded vs interstitial covers designing one creative for both.
• End on a clear end card. The click happens on the last screen. See what is an end card.
• Non-game brands can play too. Retail, finance and travel apps run playables in games as well; playable ads for non-gaming apps covers what works for them.

What works for developers

• Lead with rewarded ads. They earn well and players like them, because the player decides.
• Place interstitials at real breaks and cap their frequency. An interstitial that interrupts a level costs more in retention than it earns.
• Keep new players ad-light. The first sessions decide whether a player stays; most games show few or no interstitials until the player is settled.
• Measure the whole effect. Track ad revenue per daily user alongside retention and in-app purchase revenue, because heavy ad load can quietly reduce both.

For advertisers, the interruptive formats are where Playable Ads Maker fits: one project becomes an interactive ad for the in-app networks your target players already see, exported in the format each of 13 ad networks asks for.