IMS 2025: Summarizing the Most Trailblazing Mobile App Marketing Trends of the Summit

Israel Mobile Summit (IMS) 2025, which took place on October 29th, 2025 was jam-packed with visionaries and leaders from the mobile app world. Among them were figureheads from Spotify, Zynga, and Viber, and mobile app agencies including Dentsu, and our very own Z2A Digital who also sponsored the event. 

Of course, with so much talent present at the summit, there was an abundance of insights, discussions, and wisdom shared throughout the event worth covering. In this post, we’ll highlight some of the key topics discussed during the summit, which app developers and agencies should know about. 

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Scaling With AI: One of the Must-Follow Mobile App Marketing Trends 

After some initial welcome notes, Sagi Schliesser, Founder and CEO of CrazyLabs, dove right into the pervasive presence of AI, and its inevitable role in mobile gaming. He made it clear—AI is here to stay and is a must for scaling. Using the fashion simulation game, GLOW, as an example, he analyzed how makers of the game integrate AI into all facets of its development.  That includes marketing and production, boosting campaign performance, scaling, and content creation. 

That said, app makers who are reluctant to AI are selling themselves short. Ignoring automation can mean longer product cycles, higher costs from manual processes and more, due to a lack of speed and agility (which AI provides). 

Remember what happened to brands like Blockbuster, Blackberry, and Kodak? App developers that disregard AI may see a similar fate. 

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AI, Programmatic Ads, and Privacy Laws are Transforming User Acquisition 

The first panel discussion of the summit covered user acquisition trends. 

It began with talks of rising CPIs and how DSP partners are considering programmatic ads proactively. This contrasts the typical reactionary approach to go programmatic only after exhausting all other channels. And it’s a welcome evolution since using programmatic ads have clear benefits, especially when deployed early, including:

• Accelerated user acquisition
• More precise targeting
• Time and cost savings

Shortly after this, our very own Emmanuel Okocha explained how privacy has become a wedge for advertisers and partners since they’re seeing less data. With reduced visibility of their performance on traditional platforms, many are seeking new networks and channels since the bigger players are no longer reliable for data insights. 

Agencies as well are changing their approach. Many now understand the importance of collecting the most important data (instead of all data) and presenting it in the right place. The agencies who build tools to extract more granular data will have an advantage and make better decisions. If you’re an app maker, you should seek out agencies who can pull the right data points and present it to you in a meaningful way. 

Emmanuel also mentioned his thoughts on AI integration at mobile app agencies. He reassured attendees that the technology will not replace workers, but instead, reduce manual labor. For example, duties such as bidding or handling creatives, both of which were once labor- and time-intensive, can now be completed with a single prompt. However, humans need to stay in the loop since AI struggles with cultural context, which is crucial for campaign success. 

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How App Makers Can Generate D2C Success

Closer towards the noon break, the summit featured talks focused on D2C app growth. 

The first segment, led by Valeria Alfimova of Stash, served the playbook on how to generate long-term D2C revenue along with conversion tactics, KPIs to track, and more. 

Another segment followed shortly after which detailed the rise of app companies seeking growth beyond traditional app stores. Led by the likes of Alona Frishberg (Whalo) and Raphael Rubin (Stripe), the panel discussed how D2C is transforming how app makers are monetizing their creations. They also analyzed how the D2C trend is allowing seamless payments, and more direct engagement with users. 

D2C app sales are likely increasing for a few reasons. 

1. Developers can sell apps directly from dedicated webstores to avoid the high commission fees they’re charged by Apple and Google or in-app purchases. 
2. Users often find better deals, free trials and discounts on these sites. 
3. Users can bypass geo-restrictions and find older versions of apps through branded webshops. 

What does this mean for app makers? Revenue, loyalty, and user acquisition can live and thrive beyond the confines of mainstream app stores. You just need the right strategy to find success. 

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Alternative Billing and App Monetization Strategies are Gaining a Foothold

Next up, were talks covering the shift in how apps generate revenue. 

The first of such panels, aptly entitled “Think Outside the Banner”, examined how app makers can look beyond ads and in-app purchases to generate revenue. The panelists, which included the likes of Maya Burlin of Huuge and Yael Aviram of Playtika, discussed alternative methods to earn and diversify revenue streams. 

Later on, a secondary discussion tackled the topic of alternative billing as a means to drive growth. It highlighted the fact that regulatory challenges need not be a roadblock to generating revenue. He explored how recent privacy changes would affect common app monetization strategies, and how brands could counteract those changes with alternative billing tools. 

These were important segments for those in attendance, because stricter permissions and compliance requirements have reshaped the digital economy. In other words, it’s led to declining ad revenue for apps that have traditionally relied on invasive tactics. Now that privacy laws have shrunk the returns on these ads, app makers are increasingly relying on other mobile app monetization strategies. They include: 

• Subscriptions
• Sponsorships & Brand Partnerships
• Premium paywalls
• White-labelling
• Marketplace Service Fees

Essentially, stronger privacy laws and the growing desire of users opting out of data collection is a good thing. It’s creating new and additional opportunities for app companies to generate revenue while ensuring that they meet legal and ethical standards. 

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AI and Puzzle Genres are Reshaping the Mobile Gaming Trends 

From noon onwards, the discussions shifted heavily towards the mobile gaming landscape. They covered a few aspects of mobile gaming trends, including the art of perfecting game launches. 

But two discussions, one of which was referenced earlier in the day, stood out in particular: AI for improving marketing campaign quality and retention/engagement and the rise of match-3 and hybrid puzzle games. 

AI-Use for Marketing Campaigns and Retention/Engagement Strategies

The panel entitled, “Generative AI for UA and Games”, featuring the likes of Ela Rosen of CrazyLabs tackled many questions surrounding GenAI’s role in mobile gaming. They answered whether automation could help predicting user value, and improve marketing campaign quality, among others. 

The answer of course, is yes with the typical caveats of AI lacking emotional intelligence and contextual comprehension. Aside from these weaknesses, AI can analyze massive datasets incredibly fast, to determine which customers have the highest potential LTV. It can also personalize content, which is unfeasible when done manually. 

Additionally, AI can help app makers improve engagement and retention (and by extension, revenue), and help optimize for better LTVs and mobile app monetization strategies. This was covered in the discussion “Beyond Clicks and Conversions: AI Machines That Drive Engagement and Retention”. It also highlighted the importance of understanding user psychology to design AI-driven systems, which could help developers create better challenges, offers, and interactions to retain players. 

The Rise of Match-3 and Hybrid Puzzle Games

One of the more interesting mobile gaming trends is the rising popularity of puzzle games, namely, match-3 and hybrid-casual ones. This segment entitled “Market Evolution in Mobile Gaming” discussed how these games were changing the market. They aren’t inventing new mechanics per se, but rather, they’re creating shifts in monetization, style, and gameplay preferences. 

For more context, match-3s are a subgenre of puzzle games where players swap adjacent items to form a line of three (or more identical ones). If you’ve seen or played Candy Crush, Jewel Legends, and Allura, then you’ve encountered match-3s before. In 2024, there were 9.7 billion downloads of match-3 games, with a 14% YoY increase in in-app purchase (IAP) revenue, which accounts for 14.9% of total gaming IAP revenue. 

Hybrid puzzle games combine the simple puzzle mechanics of hyper-casual games with progression systems of traditional or mid-core titles. Popular titles from this genre include Color Block Jam, Screwdom, and All in Hole. They too have gained significant traffic, with AppMagic reporting that the top 10 hybrid casual games doubled their revenue compared to Q2 2024, a 114% YoY increase in that quarter. 

For mobile game publishers, venturing into this genre could be a lucrative opportunity. For mobile app marketing agencies and advertising platforms, seeking partnerships with the creators in this genre could be profitable, as they are continuing to grow in popularity among gamers. 

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Summing Up the Summit: Mobile App Marketing Trends to Live By

IMS 2025 provided a wealth of mobile app marketing trends that developers, advertisers, and agencies should consider and adopt as 2026 looms. Whether that means integrating AI into more aspects of your operations or experimenting with alternative monetization, embracing market shifts will mean the difference between growth and stagnation.

At Z2A Digital, we’re proud to be at the forefront of the mobile landscape. We assist our partners to leverage new technology, performance-driven strategies, and ethical approaches to create long-term, sustainable growth. The discussions held at IMS are helping us to steer our partners to apply these techniques so they can reach their objectives. 

Ready to take your user acquisition strategy efforts to new heights with insights from these industry visionaries? Book a demo so we can explain how we execute these strategies for your apps in your vertical today. 

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Frequently Asked Questions

How does AI help with personalization? 

AI personalization can be used to create, repurpose, and distribute content that’s tailored to users’ individual preferences and behaviours. Marketers can also deploy AI to better understand audience demographics and engagement patterns to create messaging that better resonates with target audiences. 

Why are puzzle games so popular? 

Puzzle games are popular because they offer a balance of mental stimulation and entertainment value. They’re suitable for players of all ages and backgrounds, and research even shows they can have cognitive benefits for older adults.  

How do you monetize an app? 

The most common app monetization strategies include:

• In-app purchases (IAPs)
• Advertising
• Subscriptions
• Freemium to premium models
• Sponsorships
• Affiliate marketing
• White-labelling/licensing

What topics are covered at Israel Mobile Summit? 

The Israel Mobile Summit is an annual event where panelists and speakers discuss growth tactics, app monetization strategies, and how emerging technologies (such as AI) are shaping the mobile app industry. The summit also features first-hand experiences of how app developers have overcome challenges to attain success in the industry, along with lessons guests can adopt.