Advertising Technology Blog

Google announces Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), Business Agent, and Direct Offers to advance agentic commerce. UCP is an open standard enabling AI agents to handle shopping across retailers, co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, and others. Business Agent lets brands chat with shoppers on Search, while Direct Offers pilot in AI Mode allows retailers to present exclusive discounts during discovery. These tools help retailers capture sales, reduce abandoned carts, and connect with value-driven shoppers. Ad ops should prepare for conversational commerce by optimizing feeds with new data attributes and testing AI-driven ad formats.

Prediction markets like Kalshi, Polymarket, and Myriad blend financial mechanics with social and gamified features to drive deep engagement. Kalshi uses regulated markets and leaderboards, Polymarket leverages blockchain speed and daily rewards, and Myriad combines trading with media consumption. Robinhood's adoption signals mainstream momentum. For ad ops, these platforms showcase high-intent user behaviors, daily habit loops, and community-driven stickiness—providing a playbook for engagement design across app categories.

Adjust's 2026 predictions emphasize multi-platform measurement, AI-driven decision-ready insights, and linking optimization for growth. Key themes include aggregating signals for privacy-safe personalization, predictive analytics for long-term success, and evaluating paid and organic performance together. Regional highlights: Europe's gaming growth via monetization, China's AI-native entertainment, APAC's market divergence, Japan's demand for integrated measurement. Actionable takeaway: invest in unified analytics that connect mobile, web, and offline touchpoints to optimize user journeys and ROI.

The 2025 festive season drove significant mobile app activity across categories. Entertainment installs peaked post-Christmas, with video streaming up 54% on New Year's Eve. E-commerce saw highest installs on Dec 26-28, while sessions peaked earlier during deal discovery periods. Finance apps had highest sessions in early December, dipping during holidays. Food delivery maintained steady growth throughout. Gaming installs rose after Christmas, peaking at +18% on New Year's Day. Travel apps peaked Dec 26-28. Key takeaway: marketers should time campaigns to each category's unique engagement windows to maximize ROI.

The open internet offers app advertisers untapped growth beyond walled gardens like Meta and Google. With 59% of US consumer time spent on the open web but only 48% of ad spend, a significant opportunity exists. Machine learning now enables efficient targeting across diverse inventories. Rising costs and ATT-driven measurement issues in walled gardens push advertisers to diversify. Gaming and non-gaming apps benefit from relevant users, contextual ads, and flexible pricing. To succeed, marketers must learn the ecosystem, prioritize scale, and integrate MMPs. Mintegral provides a robust platform with SDK-powered traffic for effective open internet campaigns.

Use a seasonal marketing planner with key dates for 2026 to boost your brand. Download region-specific TikTok calendars, like for Denmark or France, to prioritize moments for awareness or sales.

In late 2025, TikTok led South Africa's social apps in revenue and users, while Facebook and Instagram saw declines. Poppo Live and Grindr showed stable growth. Overall, trends indicated shifting user engagement and monetization patterns.

Top social apps in Algeria saw declining downloads and revenue in Q4 2025. TikTok and Facebook had stable active users, while SuperLive and Tango showed growth.

MONOPOLY GO! reached $6B in lifetime IAP revenue by 2025, faster than any mobile game before, driven by engaging game design, social features, live ops, strong IP use, broad demographic appeal, and culturalization. With 70% daily return rate, it generates ~$200M/month and ranks #14 all-time globally. Key insights: high player retention, event-driven engagement, and IP leverage offer proven strategies for ad monetization. The game's success underscores the value of social mechanics and localized content in driving sustained revenue.

In December, top mobile games like Last War: Survival drove revenue through holiday live ops, skins, and discounts. Whiteout Survival, Royal Match, and MONOPOLY GO! leveraged events and collaborations. Global consumer spending hit $6.9B, up 3.5% MoM, led by US (32%), China (13.6%), Japan (12.7%). Download leader Block Blast! doubled events; Red Dead Redemption mobile debut surged. Takeaways: Seasonal events, IP collabs, and live ops boost engagement and spending.

Salt Bank led downloads early but declined. Revolut stayed stable with 5-6K weekly downloads and >1.2M active users. BT Pay, Raiffeisen, and ING saw download drops but maintained users.

In Q4 2025, top Swiss beauty apps saw download spikes in late November. Notino led with 8.1K weekly downloads, followed by Marionnaud and SEPHORA. Active users peaked similarly, then declined in December.

Gamified ads boost e-commerce performance by integrating game mechanics like progress bars, points systems, and interactive quizzes into the shopping journey. These ads drive engagement, conversion, and loyalty by leveraging behavioral psychology, making rewards feel earned and personalized. Key formats include progression-based rewards, quizzes for data collection, and tiered loyalty programs. Platforms like Mintegral's Playturbo enable scalable creation of such ad experiences, helping marketers attract and retain shoppers while improving long-term ROI.

Manus is joining Meta to bring its leading autonomous agent to billions of users. The agent handles complex tasks like coding and data analysis. Over 147T tokens served and 80M virtual computers created. Talent joins Meta to scale general-purpose agents across products.

Banks lack unified attribution for owned channels (email, SMS, push), web, QR codes, and re-engagement, causing budget misallocation. Omnichannel attribution connects all touchpoints to deposits and loans, revealing that owned channels can be 2-3X more cost-efficient than paid ads. Cross-device journeys (e.g., mobile ad to desktop conversion) remain invisible in single-device attribution. Banking-grade compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001) is maintained. Ad ops decision-makers can optimize budget allocation by comparing true cost per deposit/loan across channels.

Over 75% of banking app users drop off after first session due to friction. AppsFlyer's Deep Linking Suite preserves user intent by routing customers directly to relevant in-app experiences from any entry point: web, QR codes, SMS, email, or app. Deferred deep linking ensures non-app users reach the intended destination after installation. Deep linking improves day-30 retention by 110% with personalized onboarding. For ad ops, this reduces wasted ad spend by connecting campaigns to actual conversions like account funding.

Mobile performance marketing (MPM) is now essential for e-commerce sellers due to rising mobile commerce, expected to exceed 50% of e-commerce by 2028. Key benefits include cost-per-event targeting, improved tracking via pixel-based events, and novel creative opportunities. Actionable steps: target CPE campaigns, implement accurate attribution, choose partners wisely, and explore playable ads. Sellers ignoring MPM risk falling behind.

App store fee changes allow developers to bypass 30% commissions, offering new revenue opportunities. Marketers can reinvest savings into performance marketing, leverage first-party data for targeted ads, and experiment with flexible subscription models. Success requires solving UX and operational challenges, but the shift from fee to fuel can create a virtuous cycle of growth.

SVC's hit game Supermarket Work Simulator 3D achieved explosive user growth through playable ads. Takuji Komita, SVC's Manager, highlights how interactive ads drove high-quality installs and rapid scaling. The game reached over 5 million Android downloads and topped charts in multiple countries. Playable ads allowed users to experience core gameplay before installing, leading to better retention and conversion rates.

Liftoff's Creative Packages combine strategic services with AI-enhanced production to scale performance marketing. These engagements provide customized assets like video, playables, and UGC, supported by testing frameworks and performance insights. Marketers cut production timelines and overhead while improving asset quality through iterative, data-driven refinement. Key formats include Product Ads, Theatre Mode, and Playable2Video. AI tools like Cortex accelerate workflows without replacing human creativity, helping teams iterate smarter and align creative with campaign goals. Early results show UGC portrait videos outperform internal assets in value efficiency, and HTML interstitials boost CTR in lower-traffic placements.