Engage Your Users with Playable Ads Like a Pro

Playable ads are certainly one of the most engaging ad formats. This interactive ad format enables mobile app ad advertisers to give a brief preview of their app before the potential user downloads it. You might be wondering “are playable ads really worth it?”. With the correct utilization of playable ads, and a proper understanding of the benefits of playable ads, they certainly can yield better user acquisition and digital advertising results. Let’s go through some of the playable ads basics.  

What Platforms are Playable Ads Featured on?

Playable ads provide the most powerful interactive ads experience, especially for mobile game apps. The main benefit is that potential users get to have a brief look into the app before downloading. Playable ads are featured on platforms such as Facebook and many third-party advertising networks, such as App Samurai. Retention rates, MAU, and DAU are often KPIs which many marketing managers must follow and using playable ads can assist these KPIs. Why? Because you’re more likely to give an accurate representation of your product or app, and therefore, the user is less likely to download and have mismatched expectations. 

Facebook Playable Ads

Playable advertisements can be used on Facebook and featured on Facebook’s News Feed, Instagram’s newsfeed, Instagram stories (via the placement-asset customization feature), Facebook’s Audience Network interstitial and Facebook’s Audience Network rewarded video. 

Playable Ads: Game Demo

Game demos are one of the most common forms of playable ads. This is because games are intrinsically interactive experiences, and thus an interactive format it fitting. An interactive demo allows people to experience your application before installing it. Thus, your audience, essentially gets a chance to trial your game prior to downloading. This playable ad will often end with a call-to-action, such as a “download now” or “play now” button, which will direct the user to the App Store, or Google Play store. Below is an example of a playable ad that features a game demo. As you can see, the user gets a glimpse of the game, gets to physically experience it, and then has the choice to download that game or not, based on their experiences. 

Playable Ads Aren’t Just for Game Apps

The most common user of playable ads, are obviously games. However, they’re not the only potential user of this interactive format. We estimate that playable ads are 32% more memorable than static ads and lead to a 123% increased conversion rate, based on our existing and past customers. Thus, it is no wonder that other verticals are wanting to utilize the power of playable ads. One example was an award-winning campaign by Migros, that used playable ads, which simulated a virtual baby and at the end, directed the user to download the Migros App. 

Final Thoughts on Playable Ads

Whether or not you feel playable ads are the appropriate fit for your current campaign will depend upon your objectives and KPIs. If your objective is brand awareness and brand recall, then playable ads have a tendency to have a higher recall, which is an essential element in brand awareness.  If your objective is to have better in-app interactions, such as MAU, DAU, retention rate, in-app actions or LTV, then playable ads certainly can assist those goals. How? Because the playable ad gives the potential user better insight into what to truly expect from the app, therefore, is less likely to lead to mismatched expectations and the dreaded uninstall. 

If you’d like to know more about the different ways you can advertise your app, you can learn about them here, or register to get started today!