What Roblox's TikTok Ads Reveal About Its Growth Strategy
Every now and then, I discover a part of the Roblox ecosystem I hadn't noticed before. My latest discovery is Roblox user acquisition ads on TikTok, which I find super interesting.
While looking over the schedule for Advertising Week New York (which I'm attending next week; more on that below), I saw that Roblox's Head of Growth Marketing, Danica Xu, is speaking on a panel presented by TikTok about automated ad campaigns.
I spend so much time thinking about Roblox recruiting advertisers to its own ads platform that I often forget Roblox is also an advertiser, looking to acquire new users through platforms like TikTok. So I went digging into what Roblox is running, and one thing stood out right away: every campaign I tracked targeted only people 18 and older. That says a lot about where Roblox is trying to take its business.
Why Is Roblox Paying for Adult Players Right Now?
Roblox has had some tough quarters since its peaks in 2025. Daily active users fell from 152 million in Q3 2025 to 123 million in Q2 2026. For Q3 2026, Roblox guided to bookings declining 14% to 18% year over year, which is the first time it has ever guided to negative bookings growth.
Much of Roblox's slowdown comes from its own choices. Its age-check rollout restricted chat and slowed new user acquisition, and its Recommended For You algorithm favors long-term retention over near-term monetization. Both are smart long-term bets, but they've weighed on the business, so Roblox is looking for new ways to grow.
One of the biggest opportunities is 18+ players, who have more spending power than kids. In Q2, users over 18 made up 27% of age-checked DAUs globally and about a third in the US, and US users over 18 monetize more than 50% higher than users under 18. So if Roblox is going to achieve its goal of capturing 10% of the global gaming market, it has to win over 18+ players, especially the ones who already spend on games.
Is Roblox's Paid Acquisition Offense or Defense?
I think Roblox spending to acquire 18+ users is a mix of both.
On the defensive side, organic growth has slowed, and paid acquisition is a lever Roblox can pull directly while age checks and the algorithm changes work their way through the system.
On the offensive side, there's real evidence this is working. At RDC, Chief Growth Officer John Ciancutti said Roblox tested more than 200 new US campaigns targeting 18+ players over the summer. Most of them met or exceeded conservative ROI guardrails, making them viable as ongoing spend. New players from these campaigns are also onboarding and retaining at higher rates than in Roblox's prior optimized mobile campaigns. Roblox plans to run these 18+ campaigns alongside its more established user acquisition campaigns. Essentially, Roblox will go out and get more 18+ players for high-quality 18+ games, including the novel games it's backing through its Jumpstart and Incubator programs.
Roblox is also building out the team behind this. It's hiring a Senior Growth Marketing Manager and a Growth Marketing Manager. The Growth Marketing Manager posting describes managing multimillion-dollar investments across Google, YouTube, Meta, TikTok, Apple Search Ads, and DSPs, and lists experience managing $10M+ in annual paid media as a preferred qualification. It looks like Roblox's paid acquisition machine is growing, and the company is getting more serious about how it tests.
Is Roblox Spending More on Marketing?
I was curious whether this push is showing up in Roblox's financials yet, so I looked at its quarterly sales and marketing expense alongside bookings and revenue over the past two years.
As I suspected, marketing expenses track the business closely. Every quarter since 2024, sales and marketing has come in at roughly 3.5% to 4.7% of bookings and 4% to 6% of revenue. Spending also tends to rise in the back half of the year, which is when bookings peak. So when Roblox hit $78.5 million in marketing spend in Q4 2025, that lined up with its record $2.2 billion bookings quarter. When Roblox is bringing in more, it spends more.
When reading the chart above, note that revenue keeps climbing in 2026 while bookings fall. That's because Roblox recognizes most bookings as revenue over about 27 months, so revenue is still catching up from 2025's big quarters. Bookings is the better real-time read on how the business is doing.
Sales and marketing has come down this year, to $61 million in Q2 2026, but that's mostly because the business has come down with it. Relative to bookings, Roblox is actually spending a little more. In Q2, marketing grew about 15% year over year while bookings grew 8%, pushing marketing to 3.9% of bookings, its highest share since early 2025. That's a modest signal, but it fits the story of Roblox leaning on paid growth while organic growth slows.
This line includes personnel costs, not just paid media. The real test is Q3, when the summer 18+ campaigns ran and when marketing typically rises. If sales and marketing climbs meaningfully above its usual share of bookings while bookings are guided down 14% to 18%, that will tell us Roblox is putting real money behind paid acquisition.
What Ads Is Roblox Running on TikTok?
I'm a marketing nerd who has run his fair share of paid user acquisition campaigns. Paid marketing is particularly interesting to me because it all comes down to experimentation and optimization. Can you find the right creative that will drive the results you're looking for?
Thanks to the EU passing laws that require ad transparency, I can see what ad creative Roblox is running in select European countries through the TikTok Commercial Content Library. All of the campaigns I tracked excluded 13-17-year-olds and targeted every age bracket from 18-24 through 55+, across male, female, and unknown gender.
I also found creator-free gameplay ads for Flee the Facility, Dueling Grounds, and TTK Testing. TTK Testing is exactly the type of aged-up game that Roblox likes to tout, a first-person shooter with very high-fidelity graphics that doesn't look like Roblox at all.
Here's what stood out to me from these ads:
Multiple influencers, and sometimes none. Roblox is working with creators like NightFoxx, Bundun, TheaBeasty, and Sahj, while also running pure gameplay ads with native-language text on screen.
Games of every size. The ads range from the biggest games on the platform, like Murder Mystery 2, all the way to smaller hidden gems like Paranormal.
A range of genres. Survival, horror, RPG, sports, fighting, and shooters all show up.
Different ad lengths. Full ads run 23 to 48 seconds, with cutdowns as short as 6 seconds.
Driving app installs. Several ads use app promotion objectives with a "Go to Google Play" call to action. The goal is to get people to play these games, which means getting them to download the Roblox app if they don't already have it.
Seasonal timing. It makes sense that Roblox is promoting scarier games like Scary Shawarma now, as we enter spooky season ahead of Halloween.
My sense is that Roblox wants to see what resonates, so it's testing a lot across games, creators, lengths, and markets, with seasonal considerations layered on top.
Why Do 18+ Players Matter for Roblox's Ad Business?
There's another reason growing the 18+ audience matters. I've heard from people in the ecosystem that Roblox's 18+ ad inventory is in high demand and sells out. If that's the case, it's a supply and demand issue. Roblox's most sellable audience just isn't big enough yet, and it needs more of those people to grow its advertising business. Advertising revenue is still modest for Roblox today, but every 18+ player Roblox brings in through paid media is also 18+ inventory it can sell to brands.
What I'm Watching Next
18+ share of DAUs. Does it keep growing beyond 27% globally and about a third in the US?
Bookings per DAU. A more adult user base should lift this if older users keep monetizing 50%+ higher.
Sales and marketing expense in Q3. This will be the first look at whether the summer campaigns turned into real spend.
At the core of all this, Roblox is trying to tackle a major challenge: people think of it as a platform for kids. Roblox is trying to shed that perception, and it's using select games to help tell that story.
See You at Advertising Week New York
I'll be attending Advertising Week New York, and I look forward to watching the Roblox and TikTok session on Monday. I'm also hosting an industry event on that same day, October 5, in Midtown with Mike Shields (Next in Media), sponsored by Exclusible and SuperAwesome.
We already have an impressive group of registered guests from Roblox, TikTok, Epic Games, Twitch, NBCUniversal, dentsu, Publicis, WPP, GamesBeat, The New York Times, and more.
Gaming x Advertising Mixer - Ad Week NY: Request your invite here
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Stephen Dypiangco is one the world’s leading experts on the topic of Roblox and brands. He has advised global companies on their Roblox strategies, including BBC Studios, Paramount, and Takara Tomy.
With 120+ articles published about Roblox and a following of over 14,000 across LinkedIn and his industry leading Max Power Gaming newsletter, he is widely regarded by gaming industry executives and investors as a trusted resource.
Stephen is building the premiere network of Roblox professionals to help this emerging sector connect and scale through his unique blend of relevant content and community events.
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