Out Now! Liftoff’s 2023 Mobile Ad Creative Index

2022 was a year of profound macroeconomic change. Inflationary pressures and slowdowns in growth impacted the technology sector as a whole, and mobile marketers entered the new year facing rising costs and reduced budgets. As an industry, mobile advertising also continues to adapt to changes in privacy compliance, from the continued rollout of Apple’s SKAN to the GAID deprecation that’s just on the horizon.

While challenges lie ahead, there’s cause for optimism. Digital marketing spend has hit a snag, but mobile ad revenue around the globe is still projected to grow. Insider Intelligence projects that ad budgets will rebound in the next two years, and advertisers that can continue to spend stand to gain significant market share. 

Across all app verticals, creative remains one of the key levers for growth for many advertisers. To attract new users and scale in an uncertain climate, marketers need to think big. It’s no longer enough to run business-as-usual campaigns. Advertisers need to tap into what motivates users and communicate the real value their products can bring.  

To assist mobile marketers at this unique time, our report provides the latest cost and revenue benchmarks for ad formats across five verticals: gaming, e-commerce, finance, entertainment, and dating & social. 

This year, we look beyond best practices to the trends driving revenue for advertisers now. Industry pressures can accelerate innovation, and mobile marketers are experimenting and adapting with remarkable success. In the final section of this report, we dive deeply into five trends that are moving the needle: extended ad experiences, taking playables beyond gaming, leveraging gaming motivations, long-form video ads, and user-generated content ads.    

Read the report in English or Chinese.

Report highlights include:

• Cost and ROAS benchmarks by ad format across five verticals
• Cost per install (CPI) breakdowns by platform and by month
• Pro tips on boosting campaign performance
• Five must-know trends including extended ad experiences, long-form videos, UGC, playables beyond gaming, and player motivations