TLDR
Canva has added self-serve in-game advertising through a new Livewire integration, letting its 265 million users buy billboard and interstitial placements inside games from US$500. Gaming ads are the third media channel Canva has added since June 2026, following social publishing and the MagicBrief acquisition.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
What Ads by Livewire does inside Canva
Canva users can take a design they have already built, open the Ads by Livewire app inside the editor, pick a format, set a geography and audience, enter a budget, and push the campaign into games. Campaigns are reviewed within 24 hours and go live within 24 to 48 hours of submission.[1] Two formats are available at launch: in-game billboards and interstitial banners, with additional formats planned for early 2027.[1]
Targeting is handled by Gamer.ID, Livewire's privacy-safe identity system spanning mobile, console, PC and TV.[1] The Canva Marketplace listing puts the potential reach at 3.6 billion players across mobile and PC.[2]
Bryant Lee, Canva's Global Head of Partnerships and GTM, said the integration removes a production bottleneck that has historically sent marketers to separate teams. "Marketers need to scale their work across more platforms than ever before. Livewire connected through our open ecosystem, a brand can build once in Canva and publish that same asset straight to gaming platforms, without a separate production process or a separate team. This is Canva's all-in-one creative ecosystem in action. It's one workflow, pluggable with every platform marketers need," Lee said.[1]
Who can buy and what it costs
The minimum spend is US$500, about the price of a mid-range office chair, and no gaming industry knowledge is required to run a campaign.[2] In-game advertising has historically sat behind bespoke publisher negotiations and managed agency deals, putting it out of reach for most small businesses.
Indy Khabra, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Livewire, said the entry point was deliberate. "Whether you run a global brand, an agency running fast turnaround work for a client or a local pizza shop, you can now reach that audience with the designs you already make in Canva. That has never been possible before," Khabra said.[1]
Prompt the Market could not independently verify Livewire's audience figures, which come from the companies' own release. The 3.6 billion player figure and the 265 million Canva user count are drawn from company-issued materials.
The three-move sequence since Cannes
Gaming is the third media channel Canva has added in roughly 11 weeks. On 25 June 2026 at Cannes Lions, Canva unveiled Grow 2.0, embedding ad creation, publishing and measurement for Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn directly inside its editor.[3] On 10 September 2026, Canva announced its intention to acquire MagicBrief, an Australian AI-powered creative intelligence startup, to fold real-time performance data into the same workflow.[4]
The Livewire integration launched on 8 September 2026 and adds a channel that social publishing platforms have not touched.[1] In-game advertising requires publishers, inventory and identity infrastructure that social platforms never built; Livewire supplies all three through the Canva Marketplace app.
The next expansion of formats is scheduled for early 2027, according to the launch release.[1]
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is Ads by Livewire in Canva?
How much does it cost to run an in-game ad through Canva?
What ad formats are available at launch?
How does the audience targeting work?
Xaviery Malinao writes for Prompt the Market on how brands and agencies are adapting to answer engines, drawing on Bushnote's work with clients across search, AI search and content.
