For years, the industry treated Adtech like a plumbing problem that needed to be fixed quickly. We were obsessed with pipes, protocols, and latencies of milliseconds. But the “plumbing era” is coming to an end as we move into 2026. Now is the Era of Experience.
In our recent Adtech Conversations with the people who built the modern stack, from gaming consultants to AdMon experts, one thing is clear: the line between “monetisation” and “user experience” has not only cracked; it has been broken down.
This is the “Adtech Playbook” for the next era, put together from the front lines.
Money vs. Time
We’ve moved past the days of squeezing users for every last impression. The most successful publishers now treat their ad inventory as a “Value Exchange.”
Industry veteran and consultant Teut Weidmann puts it bluntly:
“If you have a game that older players like, they try to save time by spending money… Money equals time.”
Teut’s “Whale Test” is a wake-up call for developers who accidentally cap their own revenue by not letting high-spenders provide value. But for the rest of the audience, the “Triangle of Happiness” (Developer, Advertiser, and User) must remain balanced. This is where hybrid monetization shines, allowing the “Grinder” to pay with time (ads) while the “Whale” pays with a wallet.
Funnel of Trust
The app ecosystem is undergoing a radical restructuring. Alessandro De Zanche, founder of ADZ, argues that the industry’s biggest mistake was applying generic blueprints to unique audiences.
“Privacy is not something that you build overnight… Privacy trust is an opportunity to differentiate themselves from untrustworthy competitors.”
Alessandro’s “Funnel of Trust” turns privacy from a compliance hurdle into a revenue product. He’s also calling for a “Tier 1” programmatic environment with a financial-industry style KYC (Know Your Customer) policy:
“Tier 1 in digital advertising must be about buyers and sellers. They are known to each other… Your ad will not end up on an unknown app and vice versa.”
Intentional Engagement
In gaming, design isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about psychology. Guy Yogev, game designer at Supersonic, believes that great games succeed because the experience is “thoughtfully shaped.”
“The core loop is the heartbeat of the entire experience. Whether the core action involves merging, blasting, or connecting, it must feel intuitive from the first moment.”
For Guy, the First Time User Experience (FTUX) isn’t just a tutorial; it’s an emotional spark. If the design doesn’t make a player feel “capable and welcomed” in the first few seconds, no amount of AI-driven optimization will save it.
Play with Audiences
Non-gaming apps are finally waking up to high-impact formats. Branimir, former Ad Monetization Lead at SofaScore, notes that the revenue gap between gaming and non-gaming is narrowing as apps realize the value of Interstitials and Rewarded ads.
However, Branimir warns that eCPM isn’t the only metric that matters:
“They should probably keep more eye on the whole user behaviour. Are they potentially losing users and audience and page views and screen views because of that new ad format?”
His advice for 2026? “Play with audiences.“ The future belongs to publishers who invest in first-party data and audience segments rather than just chasing the next adtech update.
AI as an Assistant, Not Architect
While everyone is “zagging” toward AI, our experts are “zigging” back to human strategy. Whether it’s Branimir’s view of AI as a “powerful assistant” for AdOps or Alessandro’s view of AI as a “commodity,” the consensus is the same:
“AI is a commodity. It’s not a differentiator… Success won’t come from the next tech update, but from building a quality environment.” – Alessandro De Zanche
The Bottom Line
The “Pro” take is simple: The technical hurdles of the last two years have forced us to be better storytellers, better designers, and more transparent partners. We aren’t just “buying eyeballs” anymore; we are “earning time.”
As we always say, build products that are “carried by themselves” and use UA to scale, not to survive.
Which of these perspectives resonates most with your 2026 roadmap? Are you building a “Funnel of Trust” or are you still focused on “Plumbing”?
