What is PC and console advertising?

How do marketers advertise on PC and console platforms? Learn how to measure PC and console campaigns, optimize cross-platform, and find your gaming users where they are.

Glossary What is PC and console advertising?

What is PC and console game advertising?

PC and console advertising is the marketing strategy of placing ads for PC and console games within other channels or placing ads of any kind within the PC and console gaming platforms themselves.

To advertise PC and console games as well as place ads within them, growth marketers utilize a plethora of paid campaign strategies, particularly cross-device campaigns and in-game advertising.

Cross-device advertising methods

Mobile app marketers will be familiar with advertising on other devices using cross-device campaigns to bring users to their mobile gaming apps. This approach allows for greater reach in their user acquisition efforts. Below are some of the different cross-device campaign methods marketers use in tandem with PC and console games.

Web ad to download PC or console game

User clicks on a web ad and is taken to a gaming store to download the PC game or console game.

CTV ad to download PC or console game

A viewer watches an ad on a connected TV (CTV) device for a PC or console game, and an impression is recorded. Afterward, the viewer goes to the PC or console store and downloads the game.

Mobile ad to download PC or console game

A user sees an ad on their smartphone, taps it, and is taken to the PC or console store and downloads the game.

pc console advertising

PC and console in-game advertising

To advertise on PC and console platforms, app marketers use in-game advertising (IGA). Many PC and console games opt to advertise within their respective platforms as that’s where their users already are.

PC ad to download PC game

While playing a PC game, a player sees an ad for another PC game and either engages with the ad immediately or later goes to a PC gaming store to download the PC game.

Console ad to download console game

While ads on console games are not hugely prevalent, often only on a console home screen, users can select the ad and are directed to the game’s overview in the console game’s store to download it.

The four main types of ads in PC and console games

  1. Video ads

    Often, pre or post-roll video ads are displayed before or after starting a game. More commonly, though, video ads appear at the start of a new gaming event. Rewarded video ads are the most popular among PC games but will likely soon enter the gaming console market.

  2. Banner ads

    As the name suggests, the most common type of PC and console gaming ads—banner ads—appear at the bottom or the top of the screen.

  3. Native ads

    Native ads are integrated into the gaming environment. Native advertising ranges from actual ads on a billboard in the game to branded gear, outfits, or vehicles that players can choose or purchase within the game.

  4. Dynamic in-game ads

    Dynamic ads can be in any of the ad forms above, but the difference is that they can be updated in real-time, providing greater flexibility for ad monetization. For example, in a car race game, a user first sees a billboard with an ad for Nike, but in the next gameplay, the billboard displays Burger King.

How are ads for PC and console games measured?

Depending on the type of ad utilized, the channels on which the ad appears, and the campaign goals, marketers advertising on or for their PC and console games center their key performance indicators (KPIs) in one of the following two main areas:

Engagement: Impressions and clicks

Conversions: Installs and in-game events

Most common attribution model: Multi-touch attribution

It’s essential marketers know the value of every touchpoint in the user journey, and the best way to acquire this knowledge is by using multi-touch attribution. By understanding the multiple channels that served to secure a specific conversion, marketers can properly allocate their budget for greater success.

Understand the full picture with view-through attribution

Often within a last-touch, or even multi-touch attribution model, ads delivered on PC and console games don’t receive the attribution for an install or conversion, despite influencing a user’s action. In contrast, the view-through attribution (VTA) model reveals which impressions impacted an app’s install and helps marketers go beyond clicks to see the impact of ads more holistically. For example, impressions are particularly important to monitor when advertising on CTV or video-based social apps like TikTok.

Traditionally, the mobile games advertising market has been very click-centric, and so pivoting to also focus on impressions may be an adjustment for marketers in the industry. To learn how to do so, check out our ebook: Gaining visibility with view-through attribution.

Measure PC and console campaigns with Adjust

Cross-platform adoption is on the rise in the gaming industry, and Adjust is here to ensure our clients can have a complete overview of how users interact with their gaming apps across platforms.

Adjust’s PC & Console measurement solution allows gaming app developers and marketers to follow PC and console users on both a single- and cross-device basis. For a holistic view of their marketing, they can see how their individual PC, console, web, CTV, and mobile app campaigns impact each other. For example, marketers can see which marketing channels bring in the best users for their PC and console games and understand how their PC marketing affects the adoption of their games on consoles.

Ultimately, our gametech provides insights that can be used to maximize marketing budgets and reveal the true value of all marketing efforts across all channels and devices.

With Adjust’s PC & Console measurement solution, you can:

  • Get a comprehensive view of users’ cross-device journeys (PC, console, mobile, CTV, web, app).
  • Optimize campaigns and, ultimately, ROI based on cross-platform measurement.
  • Understand where your most valuable users play the most.
  • Know how much and how often users spend on the different platforms using your app.
  • Easily identify the channels that best promote your PC/console games.
  • Unify and analyze all of your marketing campaigns in one place.

Ready to level up your marketing overview and see the full impact of your PC and console marketing efforts with accurate cross-platform measurement? Gain early access to Adjust’s PC & Console measurement solution now by reaching out to sales@adjust.com.

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