The Roblox Advertising Playbook for 2025

Roblox has emerged as a dynamic platform for performance marketers aiming to engage a vast and active user base. With nearly 90 million daily active users across 190 countries, and a significant portion aged 13 and older, Roblox offers a unique opportunity to reach diverse demographics, including Gen Z and Generation Alpha.

What is Roblox?

Roblox is a free virtual universe where users can explore a wide range of games, known as "experiences." In addition to playing, users can socialize, design their own spaces, customize their avatars, and engage in the virtual economy by purchasing upgrades to enhance their gameplay. Roblox also empowers users to create and share their own experiences for others to enjoy..

What is the audience for Roblox ads?

Roblox boasts 88.9 million daily active users across 190 countries. The majority of these users are based in the United States, Brazil, and the Philippines. Currently, over 60% of Roblox users are aged 13 and older, with the Gen Z demographic seeing the most significant growth. On average, users spend 2.4 hours per day on the platform. Notably, Roblox's audience is predominantly mobile-first, with 80% of daily active users accessing the platform via mobile devices.

Why should you advertise on Roblox?

Roblox offers an unparalleled opportunity for performance marketers looking to engage younger audiences in innovative, immersive ways. With the platform’s robust ad formats, advanced targeting options, and detailed reporting tools, advertisers can connect with a highly engaged user base while driving measurable results. Whether your goal is to boost brand awareness, drive traffic to a branded experience, or maximize video engagement, Roblox’s advertising ecosystem provides the tools and reach necessary to succeeds.

How to buy Roblox advertising 

Roblox’s Ads Manager allows you to create campaigns for immersive ads within experiences (including image ads, video ads, and portal ads); sponsored experiences, which appear on the Roblox homepage; and search ads that appear on Search results. First, let’s break down what each of those positions looks like. 

1. Understanding Roblox's advertising ecosystem

Roblox provides a variety of advertising formats tailored to different marketing objectives:

Immersive Ads: These native ads integrate seamlessly into the 3D environments of Roblox experiences, enhancing user engagement without disrupting gameplay. They include:.

• Image Ads: Static, non-clickable images placed within experiences. Key specs include:
  • Accepted formats: PNG, JPEG
  • Aspect ratio: horizontal, 16:9
  • Minimum width: 500 pixels
  • Maximum file size: 30mb  
• Video Ads: Auto-playing or click-to-play videos that can be rewarded. (These can also serve on Clip It, which is Roblox’s version of TikTok exclusively for Roblox content.) Key specs:
  • Accepted formats: MP4, MOV
  • Length: 15-30 seconds
  • Maximum file size: 100mb
  • Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Resolution: 720p to 1080p
  • Minimum width: 720 pixels  
• Portal Ads: Ads displayed above doors in publishers’ experiences, teleporting users to specific destinations upon interaction. These are static, non-clickable images and require an eligible connected Roblox experience. 

Sponsored Experiences: Appear on the Home and Discover pages, promoting specific experiences to enhance visibility. This option is available only to accounts with eligible connected experiences. 

Search Ads: Available only to accounts with eligible connected Roblox experiences, these are displayed on search results pages based on relevancy score and bid price. Advertisers can bid on up to 10 keywords.

2. Setting Campaign Objectives

Roblox's Ads Manager categorizes campaign objectives into:

• Awareness: Aiming to increase brand recognition through image or auto-playing video ads within experiences. Bidding is based on maximum CPM (cost per thousand impressions).  
• Visits: Driving users to specific experiences via portal ads or sponsored experiences. Bidding is on a maximum cost per play (CPP). Note: Advertisers cannot promote 17+ experiences using this objective.  
• Video Views: Encouraging engagement through 15-second click-to-play videos, with bids based on cost per 15-second video view (CPV15). *

*This optimization is in flux and could require allowlisting in order to access the feature.  

3. Targeting Options

To optimize ad performance, Roblox offers targeting based on:

• Location: Select up to 10 regions or countries. Targeting a region includes all countries within it.  
• Gender: Options include all, male, or female. Note: Gender targeting is prohibited for users aged 13-17 in Europe.  
• Age: Brackets include 13-17, 18-24, and 25+.  
• Device: Target users on mobile, tablet, desktop, and/or console.  
• Genre: Align ads with user preferences across the nine genres below. For immersive ads, the genre of your ad is tied to the genre of the experience where it will appear. (For example, selecting "Roleplaying" ensures your ads are shown only in "Roleplaying" experiences.) For sponsored experiences, genre targeting is based on user preferences, displaying ads to users who favor the selected genres.
  
  • Action: Emphasizes physical challenges that require motor skills such as jumping, shooting, and climbing.
  • Adventure: Complete tasks by using clues and interacting with people or the environment to progress gameplay.
  • Obby: Requires players to navigate a series of challenging obstacles to reach a goal or complete a task.
  • Roleplaying: Players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting and have freedom to influence the story.
  • Simulation: Experiences that closely simulate real world or fictional realities.
  • Social: Enables an environment where characters can meet friends, hangout, and socialize.
  • Sports: Emulates the playing of traditional or fictional physical sports.
  • Strategy: Focuses on skillful thinking and planning to achieve success.
  • Tycoon: Players take on the role of a business owner and manage various aspects of the business to achieve success and profitability.

4. Roblox budgeting and bidding strategies 

Advertisers can choose between:

• Lifetime Budget: Sets a maximum spend over a campaign's duration, with a cap of $300 per day.  
• Daily Budget: Establishes a daily spending limit, up to $300 per day. 

Roblox utilizes a second-price auction system, where the highest bidder wins but pays the second-highest bid plus one cent. Bidding can be based on CPM (cost per thousand impressions), CPP (cost per play), or CPV15 (cost per 15-second video view), depending on campaign objectives. Roblox evaluates both player and ad details to calculate an eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) value for each ad request.

5. Creating and managing Roblox ad campaigns 

To launch a campaign:

1. Access the Ads Manager and select "Create."

2. Define the campaign objective, budget, and duration. End dates are optional when using daily budgets with debit or credit cards. If no end date is specified, the campaign will continue indefinitely at the set daily budget.

3. Specify targeting parameters, including location, gender, age, device, and genre.

4. Choose ad placements aligned with objectives.

• Advertisers with a "Visits" campaign objective can select either an in-experience portal or a sponsored experience displayed on the Home page.  
• Advertisers with an "Awareness" campaign objective can choose between an in-experience video or an image ad.  
• Advertisers with a "Video Views" campaign objective are limited to in-experience video ads.
• Inventory tiers determine the types of experiences where ads can appear but do not impact the audience who sees the ads. 

5. Set bid amounts corresponding to the selected objective.

6. Upload ad creatives adhering to Roblox's specifications.

7. Review and submit the campaign for moderation, typically completed within 24 hours. 

Post-launch, certain elements like campaign names, budgets, and bid amounts can be adjusted, while others, such as campaign objectives and targeting parameters, remain fixed. 

6. Monitoring performance of Roblox ads 

Roblox provides comprehensive metrics to assess campaign effectiveness, empowering advertisers to make data-driven decisions:

• Impressions: The number of times your ad was displayed. For image ads, an impression is counted when the ad is viewed for at least one second and meets visibility criteria. For video ads, it’s counted when viewed for at least 0.5 seconds.
• Clicks and CTR: Tracks how often users clicked on your ad, with click-through rate (CTR) calculated by dividing clicks by impressions and multiplying by 100.
• Cost Metrics:
  • CPM (Cost Per Mille): The cost of 1,000 impressions.
  • CPP (Cost Per Play): The average cost incurred for each user who enters your experience.
  • CPV15 (Cost Per 15-second Video View): The cost of each user who views your video ad for 15 seconds.
• Play Rate: Percentage of users who entered your experience (“plays”) after seeing your ad.
• Budget and Spending: Provides insights into your allocated budget, total spending, and remaining funds to ensure you stay within limits.

Best practices for Roblox advertising

Craft Engaging Creatives: Since Roblox’s audience is predominantly Gen Z and mobile-first, use visuals and messaging that resonate with younger users. Create dynamic, eye-catching designs and tailor your content to the platform’s immersive nature.

Leverage Targeting: Use Roblox’s robust targeting options to refine your audience. Align your ads with the most relevant genres and demographics for your product or service.

Engage with Brand-Safe Content: Adhere to Roblox’s Community Standards to ensure your campaigns align with brand-safe content and avoid unnecessary moderation delays. The following content is not allowed on the platform in any context: 

• Extreme violence including real-world depictions of graphic violence, war crimes, or terrorism
• Depiction of real-world sensitive events
• Depiction of sexual acts or nudity
• Hate speech or promotion of hate groups
• Discussion or depiction of use of illegal drugs or regulated substances including tobacco, vaping, and steroids
• Discussion or depiction of political content including political parties, political candidates, and elected officials