Fresh SparkLabs Report: Performance-driven Ad Trends 2024 

Genre-bending, Metaplay, and (of course) AI top this year’s creative trends

Creative friends, we feel for you: Inspiration can be hard to find in these bleak winter months. But we come bearing sustenance – and a little creative sunshine! The SparkLabs report, Performance-driven Ad Trends 2024 is out now and filled with ideas to motivate and inspire you – and help your creatives yield some amazing results!

In addition to showcasing stunning examples of the trends that shaped the last 12 months, this year’s report also covers how AppLovin’s in-house agency, SparkLabs, has started using generative AI to improve workflows to elevate the quality and impact of their creatives for both gaming and non-gaming apps. 

At SparkLabs, generative AI tools are powering new efficiencies and broadening the possibilities of the creative process – so much so that in addition to delivering high-performing ads to some of the best-known brands in the mobile world, the team actually saved 1600 hours – hours that would have been spent on mundane, manual processes. 

➡️ Read the report to learn how!

And of course, there are the top creative strategies for the year. These aren’t just the winning strategies in our opinion: Nope, these trends are based on data analyzed from tens of thousands of creatives produced by SparkLabs in 2023. 

This year, they include:

• Genre-bending: In gaming ads, we saw titles borrowing popular mechanics from other successful game genres to broaden audience appeal.
• Gamification in non-gaming apps: Gamification was used to inspire fresh interactions across non-gaming app verticals. About a third of the year’s top non-gaming ads, in categories from fashion to fintech, included gamified features.
• Metaplay: Beyond genre-bending, leveraging the concept of metaplay, creatives featured gameplay mechanics that went beyond a game’s core elements. This allowed some “wiggle room” in creative concepts and helped brands stand out. 
• CTV for apps: 2023 saw brands successfully connecting with new audiences via the larger canvases and immersive experiences of CTV.

There’s more, too – including the actionable best practices you need to take your creatives to the next level. 

SparkLabs’ Performance-driven Ad Trends 2024 is the sunshine you need for ad creation inspo this gloomy winter! The insights from this report will help you innovate and reach new audiences in novel ways – and drive your best-ever results. 

Go on – check out the report now!