Mobile gaming has been a popular outlet for people to stay entertained while spending more time at home. A recent Google Play study of mobile gamers shows that 45% of existing players have discovered more games to play in the past year than the year before — and developers need the right tools and insights to capture this opportunity and drive sustainable growth. At the Google for Games Developer Summit, we’re announcing new solutions to help you unlock more growth and navigate privacy changes effectively. 

Grow an active player base for your games 

With more players in your game, keeping them active can help you capture more value. Last year we introduced App campaigns for engagement (ACe) in Google Ads to help you re-engage existing players. Soon, you’ll be able to use target return on ad spend (tROAS) bidding for ACe campaigns on Android. You can adjust bids dynamically based on the value each returning player is likely to create when they take in-game actions. This allows your ACe campaigns to maximize profitability by keeping your most valuable players loyal and active. This feature is currently available as a closed beta.

Along with tROAS for ACe, we’re announcing more features to help you find and retain a valuable player base: 

• Deep-link free option for ACe (coming soon): Run re-engagement ads easily on Android without having to implement deep links with a new feature that automatically directs existing users to your app’s loading screen.
• tROAS optimizing for ads revenue (in closed beta): Optimize your bids to acquire new players  who are likely to engage with in-app ads to earn more ads revenue. 
• Re-install exclusion (closed beta): Spend ad budgets more efficiently by suppressing app ads from being shown to Android users who have previously uninstalled your game. 

Earn more from your games

Not only are people discovering more games, but also they are spending more time playing games. Our recent study also shows that 70% of existing players are playing longer sessions compared to before the pandemic. AdMob monetization solutions can help you leverage the momentum to earn more from your games.

Open Bidding, the real-time bidding solution from AdMob, hosts a fair and real-time auction for participating demand sources to compete for every ad impression. This ensures you always get the most value for your inventory. 

We’re introducing new changes to Open Bidding that will give you more control and transparency on how you want to work with access to 200+ real-time bidders. Soon, you’ll be able to customize the policy setup for each bidder to adjust how they spend on your inventory. And we’re continuing to add more buyers such as Snap and InMobi to increase competition and help you earn even more. With this expansion, we are announcing that Open Bidding is now generally available to all app developers. This technology represents such a fundamental improvement to how developers monetize that we are updating the product name to simply be AdMob bidding.

IGG, the creator behind popular strategy games like Lords Mobile, was looking for a monetization platform to help diversify revenue streams beyond in-app purchases. After moving to the AdMob platform and implementing bidding across all of their new casual games, the team saw their ads ARPDAU double. 

Stay informed about relevant regulatory changes 

While we’ve seen many positive trends in mobile gaming, developers also face new challenges as they work to navigate the changing environment for privacy. The latest enhancements to the Privacy & messaging tab in AdMob can help you easily understand regulations that may impact your business, and discover tools to help with your compliance strategy. For example, you’ll be able to find EU User consent settings under the GDPR card to configure ad serving for users in these regions. The new updates are now available to all. 

To hear more about how these solutions can help you drive lasting growth for your games business, watch the Ads keynote session and check out other sessions at the Google for Games Developer Summit livestream.