Introduction
The mobile gaming industry is thriving, but is also more complex, competitive, and costly than ever. As user acquisition (UA) costs soar and privacy regulations reshape digital marketing, traditional channels are no longer sufficient to deliver sustainable growth. Developers are facing intense pressure to acquire high-quality users, stand out in overcrowded app stores, and scale globally while protecting ROI.
This is where AVOW and mobile OEM advertising step in.
By unlocking exclusive, on-device inventory from the world’s leading Android manufacturers, including Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Samsung, and Huawei, among others, AVOW enables gaming companies to access untapped audiences at the system level. Through placements like Dynamic Preloads, app store features, branded folders, and push notifications, AVOW empowers developers to reach users at critical moments in their device journey, far beyond the walled gardens.
At AVOW, we combine this unique media access with our proprietary technology, AVOW Intelligence, to optimize campaigns toward down-funnel KPIs like ROAS, retention, and in-app engagement, while ensuring transparency, fraud-free delivery, and scalable performance.
As mobile gaming enters its next chapter, success will belong to the developers who diversify their UA strategy, localize effectively across regions, and embrace innovation beyond the algorithm. This playbook examines the key trends, challenges, and breakthroughs shaping mobile game marketing in 2025, as well as how AVOW’s OEM-centric approach is redefining the growth playbook for forward-thinking studios worldwide.
The Mobile Gaming Landscape
How do I get from Pallet Town to Victory Road?
The mobile gaming industry in 2025 is more global, dynamic, and fragmented than ever before. Fueled by increasing smartphone penetration, faster networks, and an ever-evolving player base, mobile games continue to dominate app store revenues and user screen time across nearly every region of the world.
Yet growth brings new complexity. From rising user acquisition (UA) costs and creative fatigue to regional regulatory shifts and shifting monetization models, developers face a volatile environment where yesterday’s strategies no longer guarantee tomorrow’s success. Emerging markets like India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America are now hotbeds of opportunity, while mature markets like North America and Europe demand smarter segmentation and deeper engagement tactics.
At the same time, platform changes, like Apple’s ATT, Google’s Privacy Sandbox, and the growing influence of alternative app stores, have forced marketers to rethink how they reach, retain, and monetize users.
Adapted from Sensor Tower’s larger report, here is a snapshot of their key insights into mobile gaming.
Mobile Marketing in Mobile Gaming
Great games alone aren’t enough.
Success in 2025 hinges on a studio’s ability to market its titles with precision, creativity, and agility across an increasingly fragmented and privacy-first ecosystem. With millions of apps competing for attention and user acquisition costs continuing to rise, mobile marketing has evolved from a performance channel into a pillar of gaming growth.
From pre-launch teasers to post-install engagement, today’s marketing strategies must account for the full player lifecycle. Developers are investing in AI-powered creative testing, hyper-localized campaigns, influencer partnerships, and channels like mobile OEM advertising to diversify beyond saturated platforms like Meta and Google.
At the same time, privacy updates have disrupted traditional targeting and attribution methods, pushing marketers to embrace contextual signals, incrementality measurement, and first-party data strategies. Creatives must now do more than just grab attention; they need to tell stories, build emotion, and drive action in seconds.
Here, we explore the evolving role of mobile marketing in the mobile gaming ecosystem, highlighting the tactics, formats, and innovations that are shaping how studios acquire, engage, and retain players in 2025.
Here is SensorTower’s take on the key trends, challenges, and recommendations for mobile marketers.
Beyond trends, here’s Singular’s perspective on challenges, incrementality, ad fraud, and more.
Attribution, measurement, monetisation, and retention are at the forefront of Mobile Action’s look at mobile gaming UA
The Rising Cost of User Acquisition
There are only so many pots Link can smash.
User acquisition (UA) has long been the driving force behind mobile gaming growth, but in 2025, it’s becoming one of its greatest challenges. As competition intensifies across app stores and ad networks, the cost-per-install (CPI) continues to climb across nearly every genre and region. Whether you’re marketing a hyper-casual title or a hardcore RPG, acquiring new users now demands deeper pockets, sharper targeting, and more efficient creative strategies than ever before.
These rising costs are driven by several converging factors: the dominance of a few key ad platforms, limited access to user-level data due to privacy changes, the surge of new studios flooding the market, and a finite pool of high-value players. In this high-stakes environment, every dollar spent must be justified by long-term value, and the margin for error is shrinking fast.
For indie developers, this means finding capital-efficient ways to scale. For larger studios, it means doubling down on return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) optimization, creative testing, and alternative UA channels. This is where mobile OEM advertising becomes a game-changer, offering cost-effective, fraud-free access to engaged users directly at the system level, without competing in noisy, auction-based environments.
Exploring the World of Mobile Ad Creatives
Press Y to synchronise.
In mobile gaming, your ad creative is often your first—and sometimes only—chance to capture a player’s attention. As CPIs rise and competition intensifies, the quality and performance of your creative assets have become mission-critical.
From playable ads and rewarded videos to short-form UGC-style content and hyper-localized storylines, the most successful creatives today are personalized, performance-driven, and constantly refreshed. But creative fatigue sets in fast. Gaming advertisers now need to test, iterate, and launch new creatives weekly or bi-weekly just to maintain engagement and ROAS.
Gaming Ad Creatives – Insights & Recommendations
Here are even more insights on creatives, gathered from our partner Social Peta and their extensive knowledge in this space.
Understanding Creative Fatigue
Don’t rub your eyes. You are seeing the same ad.
With players exposed to hundreds of ads daily, fatigue sets in faster than ever, particularly across high-traffic channels such as social media, video networks, and in-app placements. For gaming advertisers, this means a relentless race to refresh, test, and optimize creatives before performance dips. This creative churn demands both agile production pipelines and data-driven iteration strategies, where AI, automation, and performance feedback loops play a key role.
Yet fatigue isn’t just a performance issue but also a budget and resource challenge. Constant creative refreshes can drain teams, stretch timelines, and inflate UA costs. That’s why many studios are exploring new channels, such as mobile OEM advertising, where placements like Dynamic Preloads, branded folders, and app store features provide fresh, native, and persistent exposure that doesn’t rely on high-rotation creatives.
Best Practices for Mobile Ad Creatives
Sometimes the best practice is to ask others for their best practices. Here we have done the asking for you, and our partner Mobile Action duly delivered, just like Sam Porter Bridges.
AI in Mobile Gaming
AI? Aye 🫡
Artificial Intelligence is now a foundational force reshaping how games are developed, marketed, monetized, and optimized. In 2025, AI is driving a revolution across the entire mobile gaming value chain, from AI-generated game assets and automated QA testing to hyper-personalized marketing and predictive user acquisition.
For developers, generative AI tools are accelerating production timelines, enabling small teams to create AAA-quality content faster and more affordably. AI is powering smarter NPC behavior, dynamic level generation, and adaptive difficulty systems, creating more immersive and scalable gameplay experiences.
On the marketing front, AI is streamlining everything from audience segmentation and creative testing to predictive analytics and campaign optimization. It’s enabling advertisers to make real-time decisions, craft thousands of ad variations at scale, and target high-value users even in a post-privacy world. Creative fatigue, UA performance, and monetization efficiency are all being reshaped by AI’s ability to learn, adapt, and optimize continuously.
The Language of Success: ASO Strategies for Effective Mobile Game Advertising
The pen is mightier than the sword.
As discovery becomes harder and UA costs soar, ASO has evolved into a core growth strategy that bridges performance marketing and organic visibility. In 2025, with app stores more competitive than ever, having the right keywords, visuals, and localized content can mean the difference between getting installed or getting ignored.
For mobile game developers, ASO isn’t just about rankings but about conversion. Whether you’re driving traffic from OEM placements, social ads, or influencer campaigns, your store listing is the final pitch. Every word, image, and rating matters. The most successful studios treat their app pages as conversion engines, continuously testing icons, videos, CTAs, and descriptions to improve performance.
And it’s not one-size-fits-all. Different regions, genres, and platforms demand tailored ASO approaches. When integrated with mobile OEM advertising, ASO takes on even greater strategic importance. Dynamic Preloads, branded folders, and OEM store placements funnel high-intent users directly to app listings, making your page a critical point of conversion. A strong ASO foundation ensures you capitalize on every OEM-driven opportunity.
Mobile Action is back again, this time sharing their tips for successful ASO and keyword optimisation.
Success with AVOW and Mobile OEMs
AVOW used “mobile OEM”. It was super effective.
What sets AVOW and mobile OEM advertising apart?
- Access to Untapped Inventory
Gain exclusive access to on-device placements across top Android OEMs (Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Huawei, Samsung, Transsion, and more) that aren’t available on Meta, Google, or programmatic channels. - Drive High-Quality Installs at Lower CPIs
Reach users directly during device setup, app store browsing, and utility app engagement—boosting conversion and lowering acquisition costs compared to crowded auction-based platforms. - Optimize UA with AVOW Intelligence
Leverage AVOW’s proprietary platform to unify MMP and OEM data, enabling real-time media buying optimization toward deeper funnel KPIs (like ROAS, retention, or in-app purchases). - Privacy-Safe Performance Marketing
Mobile OEM channels don’t rely on IDFA or GAID, making them inherently more privacy-compliant and resilient in a post-ATT and Privacy Sandbox world. - Scale Seamlessly Across Regions
AVOW enables scalable, localized campaigns across 40+ markets, including growth hubs like India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Nigeria, where Android and OEM dominance is strongest. - Take Advantage of Preloads & Persistent Placements
Benefit from premium placements like dynamic preloads, branded folders, push notifications, and OEM store featuring—ensuring sustained visibility without relying on ad fatigue–prone creatives. - Transparent & Fraud-Free Environment
AVOW operates on a direct-inventory basis with full transparency, reducing fraud risk and ensuring advertisers know exactly where and how their ads are served. - Tailored Support & Strategic Guidance
Every campaign comes with hands-on support from AVOW’s local teams and OEM specialists, ensuring optimal setup, localization, and ongoing performance optimization.
- Proven Performance Across Gaming Genres
From hyper-casual to mid-core to strategy games, AVOW has driven measurable growth for gaming clients like Tripledot Studios, Zephyr Mobile, OctaFX, Bolt, and more. - Strategic Partner of Global OEMs
As an official and strategic partner of Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO, Transsion, and more, AVOW provides developers with premium access and placement opportunities ahead of the curve.
Read on to find some success stories with our gaming clients through mobile OEM advertising. You can visit our success stories page for a full list of case studies with our clients from various verticals.
Are You Ready to Win the Mobile Advertising Game?
Traditional growth channels are losing efficiency, and standing out requires smarter, more compliant strategies. By tapping into AVOW’s expertise in mobile OEM advertising, gaming brands can unlock high-intent, fraud-free user acquisition across global markets. AVOW’s access to untapped OEM inventory (Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO, Huawei, and more), paired with deep campaign transparency and performance focus, makes us the go-to partner for mobile gaming growth.
Whether you’re launching in new markets, battling ad fatigue, or looking to drive more qualified installs, AVOW can help you grow faster, safer, and more efficiently.
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