Roblox is working with Google to scale-up advertising, adding the search giant’s immersive ads and allowing users to opt-in to watch full-screen spots of up to 30-seconds to earn in-game perks. The program, known as Rewarded Video, was announced at the IAB PlayFronts where Roblox also touted new partnerships with measurement and brand lift firms including Nielsen, Kantar, IAS, Cint and DoubleVerify “to enable brands to better understand the impact of their investment.” Rewarded Video will be implemented by Google Ad Manager, which offers its own metrics. Gamers will be able to accrue benefits including virtual currency and power-ups.

The ad expansion allows Roblox, the gaming platform built around user-generated content, to make itself more accessible to brands while providing additional revenue opportunities for creators.

Through the collaboration with Google, “brands can purchase immersive video ads on Roblox programmatically through Google Ad Manager, opening up access to Roblox’s audience of 85.3 million daily active users — a substantial share of which are Gen Z, according to the platform,” Adweek reports, noting that “early tests of the program saw completion rates averaging over 80 percent.”

Both 2D and 3D ads are included in Google’s Immersive Ads program, which is geared toward advertising that can blend seamlessly into the gaming experience (“think virtual billboards in a gamified cityscape,” suggests Adweek).

In addition to Ad Manager, Google will roll out these ads through its mobile-focused AdMob platform, “creating significant new revenue opportunities for publishers while giving advertisers contextually relevant ways to reach engaged audiences,” explains Search Engine Land.

“Adding Google Ad Manager to the Roblox tech stack enables us to quickly scale our immersive advertising formats to meet buyers where they buy their media,” Roblox says in a newsroom post. “In the coming weeks, brands can easily expand their video ad buys to purchase our new Rewarded Video ad format directly and programmatically — and reach their key audiences, including the tens of millions of daily active Gen Z users.”

Adweek reports “the move correlates with a broader industry trend; gaming’s ad investment will grow 3.2 percent year-over-year in 2025, according to a recent survey from IAB projects.”