Roblox opens up video ads to all brands

Roblox, a popular online gaming platform known for its user-generated experiences, announced today, that it's making video ads available to all advertisers.

This move opens up new opportunities for brands to connect with Roblox's massive user base, particularly Gen Z consumers (people born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s).

Why is this important for marketers?

• Reaching Gen Z: Gen Z is a large and influential demographic with unique spending habits. Roblox boasts over 71.5 million daily active users, with Gen Z making up more than half. This presents a significant opportunity for brands to reach this target audience through a platform they already engage with.
• Immersive Advertising: Unlike traditional ads, Roblox video ads are integrated within the platform's 3D environment. This creates a more immersive and engaging experience for users, potentially leading to better brand recall and ad effectiveness.
• Scalability and Ease of Use: Roblox's self-serve Ads Manager allows advertisers to easily create and manage video ad campaigns. Additionally, programmatic buying will be available soon, enabling advertisers to automate ad purchases based on specific criteria.

Key takeaways

• Video ads are now a viable option for reaching Gen Z on Roblox. This demographic is known to be tech-savvy and less receptive to traditional advertising methods. Roblox's immersive video ads offer a more engaging alternative.
• Consider brand suitability and genre targeting. Roblox offers tools to ensure your ads appear alongside experiences relevant to your brand, maximizing campaign effectiveness.
• Focus on user experience. While video ads present a new marketing opportunity, it's crucial to prioritize user experience. Roblox emphasizes that ads should be non-disruptive and compliant with their community standards.

Early signs of success

Roblox conducted a study with Latitude, a research firm, to gauge user reception of video ads. The study found that:

• 75% of respondents were more likely to notice brands advertised on Roblox compared to other platforms.
• 73% perceived brands advertising on Roblox as category leaders.
• Video ads led to a significant increase in brand awareness, consideration, and user actions like visiting the advertiser's experience or social media pages.

Looking forward

Roblox is also expanding its measurement and partnership capabilities:

• Integral Ad Science (IAS): This partnership provides advertisers with third-party verification of ad impressions and helps combat invalid traffic.
• Kantar: This collaboration offers brand lift studies to measure the effectiveness of video ad campaigns.
• PubMatic: This partnership allows for programmatic buying of ad space on Roblox, further streamlining ad campaign management for brands.

By opening up video ads and forming new partnerships, Roblox is creating a more robust advertising ecosystem for brands. This allows marketers to leverage the platform's unique capabilities to connect with a valuable Gen Z audience in an engaging and measurable way.