Ad targeting has evolved significantly in recent years due to increasing government regulations and shifting privacy standards. Regulations such as GDPR and CCPA have imposed stricter controls on data collection and usage.

Meanwhile, the gradual phasing out of third-party cookies — accelerated by browser features like Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) in Safari and similar measures in Mozilla Firefox — has further restricted traditional targeting methods. Additionally, privacy-focused initiatives like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and Google’s Privacy Sandbox have limited the effectiveness of mobile advertising identifiers (MAIDs), such as IDFA on iOS and GAID on Android.

Despite these challenges, gaming holds a unique advantage. As a fairly new channel, there is a huge opportunity to build out targeting from the ground up that isn't tied to legacy systems. This means targeting can be built in a safe and compliant way that aligns with current and future privacy regulations.

Intrinsic in-game advertising (IIGA) leverages this advantage by seamlessly integrating ads into gaming experiences. Ads are positioned within virtual worlds — on billboards around sports stadiums, alongside racetracks, and on buildings — mimicking real-world ad placements to ensure an uninterrupted, immersive, and privacy-first gaming experience.

Effective targeting in IIGA goes beyond mere placement. It involves understanding and reaching players based on factors, including in-game behavior, preferences, demographics, and psychographics. This targeted approach ensures that ads resonate deeply with players, enhancing engagement and driving better brand results. This guide will explore the fundamentals of targeting in IIGA and provide insights into how this approach can help you forge meaningful connections with highly engaged gamers.

What’s covered?

• Understanding Gaming and the Gaming Audience
• In-Game Targeting Options
• In-Game Targeting Data
• Measuring Effectiveness
• Targeting Takeaways and Looking Ahead

Targeting Players With Premium Ads That Drive Huge Attention

With the average global ad-blocking rate at 37%, 52% of all consumers ignoring TV ads, and 65% skipping video ads, this has begun to raise questions about the quality and value of ad delivery and media impressions. In contrast, gaming is an immersive and lean-forward medium. Gamers are focused and dedicate time to their experience. They are incredibly passionate and are fully immersed in the game’s world.

IIGA placements are built into the gameplay in locations that perfectly complement the experience, allowing brands to target players as they navigate the gaming world. Unlike many other traditional digital channels, which are often flooded with ads, there are usually no more than one or two ads in view at a time, offering brands a way to connect with players via premium, uninterrupted placements that drive huge attention levels.

To understand how much attention in-game ads drive, Anzu teamed up with Lumen to measure in-game advertising formats and compare them against 42 other popular digital formats from the Lumen database. The study found that the average time spent viewing ads is 2.9 seconds, but only 43% of these 42 formats and 19% of non-YouTube formats exceeded that 2-second threshold.

In contrast, the study showed that in-game advertising drives more attention by a much larger margin, exceeding 69% of all other digital advertising formats. In-game ad campaigns run with Anzu outperformed even further, surpassing 76% of all other digital advertising formats, demonstrating the massive opportunity that targeting players with in-game ads can have.

What Do Gamers Look Like?

With over 3.3 billion gamers globally, much research has been done on their characteristics. Companies including Comscore, Newzoo, and GWI regularly publish updated reports that delve into gamers' profiles, identities, and habits. Anzu has also published its reports on players in the US and UK.

Due to the amount of research and changing behaviors, we won’t delve too deeply into this area. Instead, we’ve outlined below some general trends, behaviors,  and interesting areas of note. To delve deeper, check out the above resources.

Age Range: Gamers span all age groups, from children to older adults. The average age of a gamer is now in the mid-30s, with many players in their 40s and 50s who grew up with gaming in the 80s and 90s.

Gender: Gaming has become more gender-balanced. Around 45-50% of gamers are female, driven by mobile and casual gaming, though representation across all genres continues to grow.

Geographic Diversity: While North America, Europe, and East Asia (especially China and Japan) continue to be gaming powerhouses, gaming cultures in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa are on the rise, thanks to affordable mobile gaming and greater access to technology.

Income Levels: Gamers' income levels vary significantly based on their engagement and professional status. Casual gamers tend to have average incomes similar to the general population, while, for example, about 34% of US gamers belong to households in the top third of income earners.

Cross-platform: Gamers today are more likely to switch between consoles, PCs, or mobile devices. Accessible cross-play titles like Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, and cloud gaming services have made it easier for players to enjoy games across devices no matter where they are.

Second screening: 85% of people watch TV with another device in hand, and across every age range, gaming is the number one second screen activity, with more than half of people using a mobile device to game while watching TV.

How Do Gamers Feel About Advertising?

Gamers today are highly aware of monetization strategies like in-game purchases, battle passes, and loot boxes. While free-to-play games continue to thrive, gamers are increasingly critical of predatory or excessive microtransactions, preferring fair and transparent systems.

Anzu’s research found that when asked what advice you would give to advertisers looking to advertise in games, the most popular answer across all age groups was ‘respect and always make your advertising as relevant as possible to the environment’. As a result, intrinsic in-game advertising, which enhances the gameplay experience, has emerged as a great way for brands to connect with players, who, contrary to popular belief, are open to gaming if it’s done right. Anzu’s research also found that:

• 68% of gamers welcome brand advertising
• 50% say it’s important to see their favorite brands in games
• 40% say advertising enhances their gaming experience
• 23% say in-game advertising makes a brand stand out

The above data and analysis highlight the importance of respecting the player and the gameplay experience, and targeting plays a significant role in this process. So, how do you target the right players? And what tools, techniques, and data are available to you when running intrinsic in-game ad campaigns? Below, we outline the main targeting options that are available today.
Keyword and Site List Targeting

This is the process of matching game titles to distinct audience types with defined demographic properties and interests. The audience selection is translated to targeting game bundle IDs based on the contextual targeting product data. For example, if you’re trying to push some new headphones, you might want to target people in-game who have visited tech websites like Wires and The Verge and read articles with the keyword ‘headphones’ in them.

Game Genre Targeting

Game genre targeting is an advertising strategy that involves placing ads within specific types of games that align with a brand’s target audience, objectives, or messaging. Since different game genres attract different demographics and player behaviors, this approach allows advertisers to tailor and target their campaigns more effectively.

For example:

• Casual games (e.g., puzzle or match-3 games) often attract a broad audience, including a higher proportion of women and older players.
• Action or sports games tend to attract a younger male demographic, often more interested in competitive and fast-paced content.
• Simulation and strategy games might appeal to players who enjoy more thoughtful, in-depth gameplay, often with longer gameplay sessions.

Audience Targeting

There are currently three main ways to do audience targeting in-game:

1 — Demographic Targeting

Statistical, demographic data is basic information about groups of people, such as their age, gender, income, where they live, or what kind of job they have. It’s mainly collected by asking people questions through surveys or censuses. In intrinsic in-game ads, this data can help you target specific groups based on these demographic factors, ensuring that ads are relevant to the audience most likely to engage with them.

2 — Behavior Targeting

Behavioral targeting is a way for advertisers to show ads to people based on their actions and habits rather than just their characteristics (like age or gender). This focuses on what people do and considers actions like browsing habits, purchasing history, and search history. Gaming offers the potential for new and interesting behavioral data sets generated around the interaction with video games, like behavioral patterns around how, when, and what types of games are played or how players behave within a game

3 — Intent Targeting

Intent targeting is when advertisers show ads to people based on what they seem to be planning or wanting to do soon. It’s about determining someone’s intentions by analyzing their recent actions or signals. Intent targeting helps advertisers reach players showing signs of purchase intent for a particular product or service. For example, if a player is researching fitness equipment online, they are likely in the market for it and might start seeing in-game ads for gym gear or health products. It helps make the ads more timely and relevant, making the person more likely to act.

Publisher Data Targeting

It’s common for games today to ask users to input information, such as birth date, age group, gender, and more, depending on the game developer's need to collect first-party data. When game publishers share this information, ads can match a nameless user’s age, location, language, and gender but not a specific, identified individual user and their behavior across different devices and apps, preserving user privacy.

Retargeting

Retargeting is when advertisers show ads to people who have already interacted with their brand, like making a purchase. It’s a way of reminding or encouraging them to complete that action. Retargeting helps advertisers re-engage players who have shown interest in a product or service but have yet to follow through. It’s a helpful way to keep a brand or product fresh in the player’s mind, increasing the chances they’ll take action later.

Lookalike targeting

Lookalike targeting is a strategy where advertisers show ads to people similar to their existing customers or audience. Instead of targeting just the people who have already interacted with a brand, advertisers use data to find new people with similar characteristics or behaviors. 

Lookalike targeting allows advertisers to reach players who behave similarly to their best customers, even if they’ve never interacted with the brand or product. Lookalike audiences are generally created via lookalike modeling. This is where the advertiser defines the users they want, e.g., people who bought the product as "seed," and then those people are analyzed by the algorithm to see which traits they over and under-index compared to the population baseline. Then the model produces lists of users that are not part of the seed but have the same profile as the seed. Lookalike is a high-performance prospecting strategy and a form of audience extension.

Geo-Based Targeting

Geo-based targeting is when advertisers show ads to people based on their location. It uses information about where someone is or where they live to display ads that are relevant to that specific area. The data used here can vary, but the most common ways to target based on geo include by city or region, country, or by GPS/real-time location. 

Geo-based targeting can help advertisers show ads that are more relevant to where the player is located. For example, a player near a coffee shop might be targeted with ads for that store with local and seasonal promotions to try and drive footfall.

You can use various identifiers to help with your intrinsic in-game targeting. The main ones are outlined below.

IP Addresses

Targeting in intrinsic in-game advertising using IP addresses involves using the location data tied to a player’s internet connection to show relevant ads. An IP address (Internet Protocol address) can give clues about where a player is located, allowing advertisers to serve ads based on that geographic information. While the IP address doesn’t provide much personal information, it can sometimes be combined with other data to infer broader demographics, like regional income levels or cultural interests, allowing for more tailored ad content. In intrinsic in-game ads, using IP addresses helps ensure that the ads are contextually relevant to the player’s environment.

Census Data

Using census data for targeting in intrinsic in-game advertising involves leveraging publicly available socio-demographic information gathered from national censuses to tailor ads to specific population groups. Census data provides a broad view of the characteristics of people in particular regions or communities, which can help advertisers refine their campaigns.

In intrinsic in-game ads, using census data helps advertisers reach specific groups of people based on the overall makeup of the area where they live, making the ads more relevant and increasing the likelihood of engagement. This targeting is particularly useful for broad campaigns that aim to match local population characteristics without relying on individual data. Census data can also help advertisers create ads more relevant to local needs or preferences. For instance, a company could target specific products or services to areas with more families or people with specific income brackets.

Opted-In Identifiers

Opted-in identifiers are unique codes assigned to users who consent to share their data with advertisers, apps, or games. These identifiers enable the delivery of more personalized and relevant ads. In intrinsic in-game advertising, they ensure players receive ads tailored to their interests and behaviors while still maintaining control over what data they share. Advertisers can leverage these identifiers to collect more precise data, such as in-game actions, purchases, or browsing habits, enhancing ad targeting. The data collected, including MAIDs or email addresses, complies with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, as well as device-specific frameworks such as Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) on iOS.

Identity Graphs

An identity graph is a database or system that connects various data points and identifiers (such as email addresses or device IDs) across different devices, platforms, and channels to create a unified view of an individual. Identity graphs target users more accurately by linking different identifiers to build a profile of a user.

Identity graphs are crucial for console games because consoles lack the comprehensive tracking capabilities found on mobile platforms. They help connect data points across devices, allowing advertisers to build unified user profiles and deliver relevant ads. As console players often switch between devices, identity graphs enable cross-platform targeting, creating a seamless ad experience. Additionally, they help navigate stricter data privacy regulations on consoles, allowing advertisers to serve targeted ads in a compliant manner. This tailored approach enhances ad effectiveness, especially for the more engaged console gaming audience.

Campaign Performance

When measuring the effectiveness of audience targeting for intrinsic in-game advertising, key performance indicators (KPIs) to focus on include match rates, percentage of audience in-target, reach, frequency, attribution, and making sure the results are on a per-audience basis so they can be compared and contrasted. To delve deeper into in-game measurement benchmarks and best practices, check out Anzu’s definitive guide to in-game measurement.

Data Health

Typically, a match rate above 60% is considered good, while anything over 80% is considered particularly strong. These numbers, however, can vary significantly depending on the identifier used—older technologies tend to yield lower match rates, around 10-40%, due to declining availability.

While industry benchmarks are limited, match rates as high as 85% have been achieved in intrinsic in-game advertising using more advanced data solutions. For optimal performance, it’s crucial to track audience targeting effectiveness through clear metrics and continually refine strategies based on the available data.

Success Stories

Many leading global brands already leverage sophisticated targeting across their intrinsic in-game campaigns to make meaningful connections with players. Check out a selection of success stories below of brands Anzu has worked with, spanning consumer electronics, retail, fashion, and music.

Samsung Targets Gen-Z With Its Newest Flagship Phone

A great example of targeting by age came from a campaign Samsung worked on with Anzu, which sought to reach Gen Z players in Spain with ads for its latest smartphone. The campaign, which Starcom, Adgage, and Anzu executed, saw a 3% memory boost among Gen Z players (which is significant due to the brand's familiarity), 21% higher brand recognition, and when asked, 67% of the exposed Gen Z said they saw a Samsung ad within a game.

Quicktrip Geo-Targets Gamers Located Near Its Stores

Anzu’s geo-targeting capabilities allowed US convenience store chain QuikTrip to serve ads to active players near their stores with promotions and imagery of new in-store products. The year-long campaign saw creatives swapped out depending on the season, showing mouthwatering food options uniquely available in QuikTrip stores. The campaign saw a 98% viewability score and a 96% on-screen rate, reaching over 3M unique players across 80 premium games.

Tommy Hilfiger Targets Males and Females With Specific In-Game Gender Creatives

Tommy Hilfiger partnered with Anzu to promote their Classics Reborn Spring campaign with stunning high-resolution ad creatives designed to showcase the different products from the range. Thanks to Anzu’s targeting capabilities, they could target fashion-conscious male and female players with specific gender creatives that matched their profile, refreshing them throughout the campaign lifecycle. The campaign resulted in a 23pt lift in purchase intent, a 24pt lift in brand recommendation, a 20pt lift in brand favorability, and a 14pt lift in ad recall amongst the target audience.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of data privacy and digital advertising, targeting through intrinsic in-game advertising provides a modern solution that overcomes the challenges of traditional methods and eliminates the need for outdated identifiers.

As gaming solidifies its role as a key component of the media ecosystem, integrating intrinsic in-game advertising into your omnichannel strategy is essential for driving stronger engagement and future-proofing your advertising in a privacy-first world. Additionally, the IIGA ecosystem must enable advertisers to seamlessly extend their audience strategies, ensuring a consistent and effective reach across all channels.

Key Takeaways

Don't overlook the power of in-game advertising: No matter who you want to reach, in-game ads offer many ways to connect with your audience.

Use advanced targeting methods: Use targeting based on demographics, behavior, and specific locations to make sure you reach the right players at the best time.

Measure campaign success effectively: Focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) like incremental reach, brand lift, and view-through conversions to see how well your campaign is doing.

Respect the gaming experience: Ads that fit naturally into the game are more accepted by players and can greatly improve how they see your brand and remember it.

Use retargeting to boost your results: Combine non-intrusive in-game ads with other types of performance-based media to get the best results.

Stay flexible: As advertising rules change, keep adjusting your targeting strategy and creative approach to stay effective and follow the regulations.

If you'd like to download this guide for future reference or share it with others, click the button below.