Investigate mobile game advertising connections

Keep the advertiser and store-listed developer separate

The advertiser account identifies the account associated with an ad. The store-listed developer identifies the account under which the destination game is listed on the App Store or Google Play. These identities can differ. The advertiser’s studio portfolio should not automatically include every game its account has advertised.

SpyReel presents these observations as advertiser account → advertised game, with the store-listed developer named separately. This makes the direction of the observation clear and preserves the distinction between a studio’s verified catalogue and external advertising destinations.

Inspect the evidence before drawing a conclusion

An exact App Store app ID or Google Play package ID identifies the destination more reliably than a similar title or logo. A captured video helps you inspect what was promoted; the associated source and store links explain where that identification came from.

1. 01Open the advertising connections tab on a tracked studio’s profile, or a connection entry in the activity feed.
2. 02Use View ad evidence to inspect the recorded creative, advertiser account, network and source links.
3. 03Use Open store to inspect the external destination listing and its listed developer.
4. 04Compare the exact app identifier and destination with the advertised game.
5. 05Check the evidence dates and account identity before sharing the finding with your team.

Distinguish discovery dates from advertising dates

A connection discovered today may be supported by ads from an earlier period. Its discovery date describes when SpyReel recorded the connection. The ad evidence dates describe the advertising history provided by those records. Discovering a historical ad does not mean the advertiser started a new campaign today.

When presenting a finding, retain both dates and the network. Say that an advertiser account was observed pointing to a particular game during the recorded period. Avoid changing that into a claim that a new publishing deal happened on the discovery date.

What an advertising connection can and cannot establish

The evidence can establish that a recorded ad from an identified advertiser account pointed to a particular store listing. It can give a developer or user acquisition team a useful starting point for researching which games a publisher’s associated accounts have promoted.

The observation alone does not establish ownership, a publishing agreement, an acquisition, an agency relationship, advertising spend or test results. Related companies, agencies and commercial arrangements can produce similar observations. Confirm any business explanation with independent evidence before treating it as a fact.

Follow the next observations

If the destination game or its developer is already tracked in SpyReel, inspect its own history for subsequent creative activity, store changes, chart movements and measured install signals. Watching a tracked game helps keep that research together over time.

An external destination can remain an evidence record without a full tracked game page. In that case, its title opens the external store listing while View ad evidence keeps the captured ads accessible. Missing tracked history should remain missing rather than being filled with invented activity.