Gaming Has a New Playbook: Why Marketers Should Pay Attention

In-game advertising has delivered scale and attention for years. Now, with new industry-wide measurement standards, it’s ready to take its place as a core channel for modern marketers.

The IAB Gaming Measurement Framework is a watershed moment. It gives brands the measurement blueprint they’ve been missing and signals that gaming is ready to compete with TV, CTV, and social as a core part of the media mix.

Why This Framework Matters

Launched by the Interactive Advertising Bureau after months of collaboration with agencies, publishers, and ad tech providers, the framework:

• Defines standard ad formats across Display, Video, Audio, and Custom categories.
  
  
• Lays out baseline (must-have) and additional (nice-to-have) metrics for each format.
  
  
• Aligns the expectations of brands, agencies, and gaming platforms, making partner selection, planning, and reporting more transparent.

As Zoe Soon, VP at IAB’s Experience Center, put it during the launch:

“We created this framework so marketers can measure what matters and feel confident investing in gaming. This levels the playing field.”

Gaming Levels Up Measurement

Historically, gaming ad spend lagged because marketers doubted they could measure results. Standardized metrics change that.

Baseline metrics now include Impressions, Viewability, Unique Reach, Frequency, Engagement, Clicks, Redemption, and Conversions. Additional metrics span Brand Lift, Attention, Incremental Reach, and Sales Uplift.

With these definitions in place, gaming can finally be benchmarked like any established channel, empowering marketers to plan, compare, and optimize with confidence.

Insights from the “Play to Win” Webinar

The IAB recently hosted Play to Win: Measuring Campaign Success in Gaming, with speakers from Roblox and Publicis sharing what this shift means in practice.

Allison McDuffie from Roblox put it simply: shared standards and a common language move gaming from a promising novelty to a dependable marketing channel. She stressed that consistent metrics make automation and scalable reporting possible, helping campaigns evolve from one-off experiments to repeatable, performance-driven programs.

Sam Lim of Publicis noted that brands now expect tangible performance outcomes from gaming, even when the activation is primarily upper-funnel. Without a measurement plan built in from the start, renewals are far less likely.

And Zoe Soon from the IAB pointed to the scale of the opportunity: over 80% of U.S. internet users identify as gamers, climbing to 90–95% among Gen Z and Gen Alpha. With that kind of reach, the case for a common measurement language is undeniable.

What This Means for Brands

Gaming is no longer a place for test budgets. It’s now part of serious media planning.

Marketers can integrate gaming into the media mix, knowing results will align with familiar KPIs. Creative strategy can be more targeted, mapping formats directly to campaign outcomes. Vendor selection becomes easier, as platforms can be evaluated against a shared baseline.

And those who move early will have an advantage, securing both audience attention and valuable learnings before the space becomes more crowded.

Closing Thoughts

Gaming has crossed the line from experimental to essential. The IAB’s framework delivers the clarity, structure, and comparability marketers have been waiting for.

At Odeeo, we see this as a major step forward for in-game audio advertising. With measurement standards now in place, advertisers can connect immersive, non-intrusive audio experiences to the metrics that matter most. It’s a pivotal moment, one that brings gaming into the spotlight as a truly measurable, strategic marketing channel.