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Gadsme has launched a new in-game ad monetization platform dubbed Audio Ads for mobile games and apps.
Today, Gadsme is adding Audio Ads to its core display and video offering, giving it more product variety for advertisers.
After moving into the in-game advertising business in 2021, the company has been rapidly onboarding major gaming studios including Lion Studios, Voodoo, Ubisoft and many more. Gadsme recently raised $8 million with major investors including Galaxy Interactive and UbiSoft, so it could move into the audio ads space.
Gadsme’s product allows programmatic and direct advertisers to run targeted, worldwide campaigns via (Internet Advertising Bureau) IAB-compliant ad formats that sit within the 3D scenes of any video game.
The global display and video in-game markets enable quick reach to a diverse and engaged global gaming community of more than three billion people. In-game advertising display and video markets are estimated by Allied Market Research to be over $17.5 billion by 2030, with a growth of 11% from 2022 to 2030.
Gadsme previously introduced clickable in-game ads for both programmatic and direct advertising demand. Gadsme offers non-intrusive in-game ads with a simple software development kit. It is adding to that with a simple SDK update to launch the Audio Ads.
Worldwide, the audio ads market is worth an estimated $200 million. With in-game audio ads, it can be an additional $50m in 2026, the company believes.
Not only is Gadsme expanding its non-intrusive offering and delving into Audio Ads, but it has also developed the first SDK that supports both display and video in-game ads and now Audio Ads. That saves game studios and developers many SDK headaches.
Until today, Gadsme allowed programmatic and direct advertisers to run global campaigns, via IAB compliant ad formats, that sit within 3D scenes of any video game. Gadsme’s highly viewable ads are designed to serve the gameplay and are designed to be more respectful to the players, and can even enhance the gaming experience by adding more realism.
Gadsme’s Audio Ad formats include the two in-game audio ad formats currently commercialized by dedicated audio ads companies: mutable audio ads and rewarded audio ads.
But, Gadsme has added an additional, entirely new format which takes advantage of the fact the SDK manages both 3D visuals and Audio Ads: location-based triggered 3D audio ads.
Game studios can set any location within their game scene that triggers a (non-intrusive) Audio Ad when the player visits or moves into that radius. Delivering a seamless experience that can be tailored accordingly and doesn’t disrupt the player. This can also be adapted to even reward players when visiting the set location to listen to the ad, similar to a traditional rewarded video placement. This will aid conversion, driving further revenues back to the studios.
The SDK also has volume detection capabilities, both on Android and iOS, to ensure to all brands and agencies the Audio Ads are being listened to, and inline with the standards set by the IAB. In Gadsme’s case, only unmuted phones with volume levels over 30% will be counted as an impression. That protects advertisers from paying for an unfair audio impression.
All data related to audio is available through a standard dashboard and application programming interface. Exactly like any other format managed through the Gadsme platform.
Given the many well documented concerns with intrusive ads that disrupt the gameplay, and Google recently announcing their plan to pull back on highly intrusive Interstitial Ads, with Apple likely to follow suit, it paves a strong way for non-intrusive ad solutions to step in, the company said. This further creates more supply and aids the opportunities for all advertisers to embrace the huge opportunities the gaming world presents.
“We have experienced tremendous growth over the last six months and our partners who are very happy with our stable in-game ad product, kept asking if we would consider launching Audio Ads,” said Guillaume Monteux, CEO of Gadsme, in a statement. “Obviously, we always aim to please, and given we have the 3D SDK already, it made total sense to build Audio into it. So, in two months we’ve built out an entirely unique solution. Not only this, but as a business we strive on doing things differently and were adamant from day 1 that both static ads, video ads and now audio ads, could all be run seamlessly in one SDK and through the same console. A simple SDK update means developers can integrate a variety of Audio Ad placements directly into their games.”
To support the growth of Audio Ads, Gadsme has partnered with Targetspot to help fulfill the inventory. TargetSpot is the major audio ads provider for Radio, Podcast, Web, with only premium brands and messages. This ensures Gadsme can maximize revenue for studios and it was important to have a major global demand partner ready to support both programmatic and direct Ad campaigns, from launch.
“We met with TargetSpot a few months back and it was clear the industry needed more Audio Ad partners to drive supply and offer the right message, to the right audience, at the right time,” Simon Spaull, chief revenue officer at Gadsme, in a statement. “Given we already had strong relationships with many game studios, plus a proven, pristine and stable tech solution in the 3D display arena, it was a natural progression to evolve into delivering Audio Ads, and TargetSpot was the ideal partner to maximize revenue potential for our partners.”
Although this product has only just launched, Gadsme said it already has many gaming studios keen to test Audio Ads and bolt this onto their existing in-game ad solutions.
In an email to GamesBeat, Spaull said they see a lot of advertising demand globally for Audio Ads, and it’s been served successfully to digital formats for many years, but only recently has it been available to serve within games.
“We’re now seeing a big uptake in gaming companies wanting to explore non-intrusive ad formats, as they heavily rely on advertising revenue, and audio is now a part of this,” Spaull said. “Gaming advertising has also been largely limited to only gaming companies advertising. With the various and recent (Identifier for Advertisers — where Apple favored user privacy over targeted ads) IDFA challenges on top, it’s clear gaming companies, who we know have idea audiences for all brands and advertisers, needed to explore new opportunities.”
Spaull said that audio not only brings in an additional (non-disruptive) revenue stream , but opens up the gaming world to an entirely new potential advertiser. Literally anyone with a product to sell can run an Audio Ad.
“We can even offer performance based campaigns, which further improves the revenue potential. Gaming companies can also run rewarded audio ads and we have a whole host of options to monetise their audience, all with minimal (in many cases zero) disruption to gameplay,” Spaull said. “As a company already specializing in in-game video and display Ads, it was a natural move to bolt audio onto our offering. We are now the only company in the world that can offer in-game 3D video, display and audio Ads, and all in one SDK.”
The company has 12 people. Smaull previously worked at AppLovin.
“We are competing well against competitors with six times our headcount and are currently the fastest growing in-game ads company in the market,” Smaull said.
As for the inspiration, Smaull said, “To be able to offer all non-intrusive ad formats to game studios in one SDK. Advertising always evolves and we believe non-intrusive in-game ad formats will be the future of advertising in games.”
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