The In-App market has changed significantly over the past few months. Regulatory pressure is increasing, major traffic sources are tightening their requirements, and teams that once relied heavily on a single source are being forced to diversify.

The Onmyads team shared its view of how the market is changing, why Unity has become one of the key alternatives for iGaming media buyers, and what teams should consider before moving their spend.

Regulation is tightening across iGaming acquisition

The pressure from regulators on iGaming is now having an effect on the whole acquisition ecosystem, not just the operators.

Back in November 2025, iGaming regulators from seven European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and the UK, called for stronger action against illegal iGaming advertising on social media, video platforms and affiliate networks.

This trend has carried on into 2026. Regulators from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are working together more to deal with illegal iGaming across borders, and are looking at the whole ecosystem, including platforms, aggregators and technology providers.

Advertising platforms are also tightening their own requirements. For example, back in August 2026, Google updated its iGaming certification rules to require local licences for targeted markets, as well as extra documentation for affiliates and other businesses that promote iGaming.

So, here’s the main thing for media buyers to know: choosing a source isn’t just about high traffic and low CPA costs anymore. Things like GEO restrictions, licensing, platform policies and regulatory changes can all have an impact on whether a campaign can be launched and scaled.

This makes diversification more and more important. If a profitable source becomes unavailable, it can take a buying team a long time to rebuild its acquisition strategy.

Has changed in In-App traffic since Moloco shut down 

In early June, Moloco abruptly restricted agency access in the segment where Onmyads operated. The change affected even agencies working with licensed, compliant products, according to the Onmyads team.

The episode highlighted a broader problem: there are fewer scalable In-App alternatives than many buyers assume. It also reinforced the need for diversification. A source can remain profitable for months or years, but if access disappears, a team needs somewhere else to move its spend and needs to know how to work with that traffic source before the emergency happens.

Why Unity became a key alternative

Unity Ads operates differently from Moloco, with access to its own in-app publisher ecosystem and inventory. Its ecosystem is closely connected to mobile games and apps built with the Unity engine, while other apps can also use Unity’s SDK for monetization.

From Onmyads’ perspective, Unity combines several features that make it relevant for media buyers: global GEO coverage, familiar formats such as video and playable, relatively affordable traffic and optimization for different goals, including installs, actions and ROS.

There are limitations as well. Unity does not currently provide the same scale that Moloco previously provided to Onmyads’ teams. iGaming accounts can also be difficult to approve, so launching is not as simple as creating an account and adding a payment method. A major advantage in this case would be the ability to use white-label RMG accounts. You can get them from the Onmyads agency. 

At the same time, there was no dramatic increase in Unity traffic costs following the market shift. The platform has not yet absorbed the entire volume that previously went elsewhere, while many teams are still learning how to work with it. That makes the current period more about testing and optimization than simply moving as much spend as possible.

How to approach Unity

The basic logic is familiar to experienced In-App buyers: start with several apps, collect enough data and give the system time to learn. Onmyads uses a test budget of up to $3,000 as a reference point for understanding the source. The actual amount depends on the GEO, product and optimization goal.

Unity combines ML optimization with the ability to work manually with publisher performance. Historically, blacklist and whitelist management was an important part of ad campaign optimization. Once enough data is available, media buyers can identify publishers that consume spend without producing acceptable results and exclude them.

For example, if several publishers account for a significant share of spend but consistently underperform, removing them can materially change campaign economics. ML can handle much of this process automatically, but manual optimization remains an additional tool.

Cheap CPA does not always mean good traffic

Onmyads has also been seeing a growing gap between the CPA visible on the traffic side and the actual quality of the cohort on the product side, particularly since late 2025. A campaign can initially look highly profitable: a cheap first deposit, a high payout and positive front-end economics. But if the cohort does not mature on the advertiser’s side, the cap may stop being renewed.

This is why optimizing purely for the lowest possible CPA can become counterproductive.

According to Onmyads, teams increasingly need to consider the full cohort economics and experiment with higher-quality approaches, including more iOS traffic, slot-focused campaigns and more differentiated mechanics. A more expensive FD can still work if the resulting users have stronger long-term value. The key point is simple: traffic should be evaluated not only by the price of the first conversion, but by what happens to the cohort afterwards.

Diversification is becoming a necessity

Based on its conversations with media buying teams, Onmyads estimates that roughly 70% still rely primarily on Facebook. The remaining group includes teams for whom Facebook has never worked well, including some new teams and ASO- or SEO-focused media buyers.

For these teams, In-App can be a more natural acquisition channel. But there is no single source that can simply replace Facebook or Moloco.

The current In-App landscape includes Unity and Kayzen, while other networks have their own entry requirements, GEO restrictions and compliance limitations. TikTok is also increasingly being discussed as another diversification route. The practical lesson is not to find a new “Moloco” and move everything there. It is to build a source mix that does not leave the business dependent on a single platform.

Advertisers also need to understand the source

Another issue Onmyads sees is a mismatch between how advertisers evaluate traffic and how In-App campaigns actually learn. A product may set a very small cap. For example, 10 FDs, and expect the source to demonstrate its quality immediately. But ML optimization needs data. Early conversions can be expensive or inconsistent while the system is still learning which users and placements work for a particular product. This is why Onmyads increasingly sees value in direct conversations between advertisers, buying teams and traffic sources.

The same applies to cohort analysis. A campaign may look expensive when viewed as a single cohort, while the media buying team only started optimizing effectively halfway through the period. Looking at the aggregated numbers without considering when the campaign actually improved can lead to the wrong conclusion.

What Onmyads offers

Onmyads is a performance marketing agency and AdTech partner for media buying teams, agencies and advertisers.

Its current offer includes:

  • Unity Ads — accounts with whitelisting for RMG (real money gaming), onboarding from scratch, a dedicated Unity manager, account setup in 30 minutes and private webinars with case studies.
  • Meta Ads — full ad setups and agents with credit lines across various verticals, with 24/7 support.
  • Kayzen, Bidease and Bigo — dedicated agency accounts with in-network managers.

Account rentals are offered starting from 7%, according to the company’s current commercial offer.

For teams entering a new In-App source, the challenge is not simply getting an account. It is understanding the source, passing the relevant checks, testing correctly and giving the algorithm enough data to learn.

As the market becomes more fragmented and regulated, diversification and the ability to adapt quickly are becoming increasingly important. Teams looking to test Unity, diversify their media buying or explore other available sources can discuss their setup and requirements with Onmyads.