Picture this: You’ve built a hit casual game with millions of daily active users, but revenue growth has plateaued. Sitting just beyond your current monetization model is a massive revenue opportunity: brand advertising budgets that could potentially exceed performance spend.
As explored in our latest report, The Future of Casual Mobile Games, casual gaming app revenues are forecast to grow 13% this year, reaching $19.4 billion worldwide. The money is there. But here’s the challenge: Brand buyers have different priorities than performance marketers. While performance advertisers chase clicks and conversions, brand buyers prioritize viewability, context, and creative quality. The question is: Are your casual games ready to capture this premium demand?
The brand vs. performance divide
Casual game publishers have traditionally leaned heavily on performance advertising, optimizing for direct response metrics like installs and ROAS. But as acquisition costs rise and ID-based targeting becomes more constrained, there’s increased pressure to diversify revenue streams.
What’s making this opportunity so enticing?
- 69% of Baby Boomers and 56% of Gen X spend most of their gaming time on casual/mobile games — a highly-valuable audience for brand advertisers.
- Brand campaigns often bring higher eCPMs and longer-term deals, providing more stability than purely performance-based revenue.
What are brand buyers actually looking for?
To compete for brand budgets, you’ll need to understand their top priorities:
Viewability & attention: Ads that are actually seen and engaged with, not just served
Brand safety: Confidence their ads won’t appear alongside content that conflicts with their image and values
Premium environment: High-quality visuals and engaging experiences that reflect well on their brand
Creative flexibility: Support for custom formats and rich media executions
Transparent measurement: Third-party verified reach and engagement data
Casual games are naturally positioned to deliver on these requirements… if you make the right adjustments.
How to make your causal game brand-ready
Implement contextual targeting tools
With signal loss affecting traditional targeting methods, contextual advertising has become crucial for brand campaigns. This means analyzing your content and user behavior to provide meaningful context for advertisers.
- Casual games deliver an average daily playtime of 12-14 minutes
- Puzzle games see 30-minute average daily playtime and longer session durations (5 minutes)
This data tells a story: Puzzle players are engaged and focused, while match-3 players might be seeking quick bursts of entertainment. Document these contexts and engagement metrics, then make them available to advertisers who want to align their brand messaging with the right mindset and attention levels.
Prioritize viewability standards
Brand buyers need confidence that their ads are actually being seen. Here are some steps you can take as a publisher:
- Integrate the OM SDK for transparent, third-party measurement
- Optimize ad placements for maximum viewability (typically 50% of the ad in view for at least one second for display, two seconds for video)
- Monitor and report viewability rates consistently across campaigns
- Test ad refresh rates to balance user experience with viewability optimization
Choose brand-favored ad formats
Move beyond basic banner and interstitial ads. Brand buyers are looking for premium creative formats, and rewarded video is your strongest opportunity.
Why?
- 87% of users view rewarded video ads positively
- Completion rates range from 80-90%, ensuring full message delivery
- 74% of app users prefer to watch an ad for additional lives rather than pay, showing strong user acceptance.
Build a brand-safe environment
Brand safety is about more than avoiding controversial content. It’s about creating premium environments where brands want to be seen. Here’s how you can get started:
- Ensure user-generated content (like usernames and chat) meet brand safety standards
- Maintain high production quality in game visuals and UX
- Foster positive player communities
- Provide clear content categories and safeguards to potential brand partners.
How to get started
Audit your current setup against brand buyer requirements and close any gaps.
- Add OM SDK integration and viewability reporting, as these are table stakes for brand campaigns
- Optimize your best rewarded video placements for maximum viewability and completion rates
- Document your game context and audience insights for advertiser-facing materials
The bottom line: Brand-ready means revenue-ready
The casual gaming market is evolving rapidly, and publishers who adapt to serve both performance and brand advertising will capture significantly more revenue opportunity. With user acceptance of ad-supported experiences at an all-time high, the fundamentals are strongly in favor of publishers who make the transition.
Implement contextual targeting, prioritize viewability, leverage the 87% user approval of rewarded video, and build a brand-safe environment. These steps will ensure that your games are brand-ready, and that your monetization strategy is future proof.
The brands are ready to spend. Are you ready to capture that budget?
Ready to dive deeper into casual gaming monetization strategies? Our comprehensive report “The Future of Casual Mobile Games” explores the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the industry. From hybrid monetization models to privacy-first advertising strategies, get the insights you need to stay ahead of the game.
