AppLovin's 2024 Ad Trends report reveals role of Gen AI

Marketing technology platform, AppLovin, has published its second Performance-driven Ad Trends report for 2024. The report delves into how its in-house creative agency, SparkLabs, utilises generative artificial intelligence (AI) to innovate its mobile and gaming ad creative process. The study also highlights the year's top creative strategies based on an analysis of data from tens of thousands of creatives.

The report reveals significant insights into how generative AI tools are fuelling new efficiencies and broadening the scope of the creative process. SparkLabs employs these technologies to enhance workflows thereby boosting both the quality and impact of performance ads.

AppLovin's CMO, Katie Jansen, highlighted the importance of AI in the creative process: "Embracing AI expands the potential of creatives. The technologies continue to evolve, but we've found a massive opportunity to benefit from many different AI tools right now. We've seen that it is crucial to foster a culture that inspires creative teams to explore and adopt these technologies in order to improve efficiencies, continue to push creative boundaries and improve results for our customers."

Key creative strategies for the year were identified in the report, based on comprehensive data from SparkLabs' creative output in 2023. Noteworthy trends include prioritising team adoption of AI over individual usage by incorporating AI into daily team operations. 'Genre-bending' featured prominently, where popular mechanics were borrowed from other successful game genres to widen audience appeal.

The use of gamification to introduce fresh interactions in non-gaming app verticals was also a significant trend observed. About a third of top-performing ads in the non-gaming category incorporated 'gamifying' features. Similarly, metaplay was innovated upon, showcasing gameplay elements beyond a game's core components to extend creative concepts and help brands gain prominence.

Jessica Dolan, Director of SparkLabs, highlighted the growing role of connected TV (CTV) in advertising: "More than half of SparkLabs' best-performing non-gaming ads in 2023 were CTV creatives. CTV offers a unique platform for advertisers to communicate their brand message by leveraging engaging visuals and live actors to entice the viewer to try something new."

Overall, the report underlines the transformative power of Generative AI in the mobile ads creative process. This includes driving new efficiencies, pushing creative boundaries, and moulding the top-performing ad trends of the year.