The explosive growth of the mobile app industry over the past few years has left developers and marketers struggling with the impact of increased competition. With so many choices available end-users are much more discerning when it comes to choosing products.
The challenge is how to create advertising solutions that are innovative and eye-catching, and can effectively and efficiently convey the benefits and the desired product “story” to those end-users.
There are many ways to communicate the marketing message. Advertising products and services online allow brands to reach global target markets and large-scale distribution capabilities. However, the effort required to convert viewers into active users is intense, and with the average cost per install currently running at around $2.36 for iOS and $1.40 for Android, advertising budgets rapidly become vast if a company is to stand any chance of building a profitable active user base.
A delicate path must be trod: if the ad for a big app release is too sensational and cannot fulfil the promises of the preview, it will generate negative reviews and leave users disappointed. If an app is not working as described and the user experience is not positive, the user will no longer be interested in the app and is likely to delete it from the smartphone. The Yahoo study “The App Lifecycle” clearly shows the impact of app replacement: over 50 percent of users uninstall an unused app after three months, and 52 percent of users exchange their apps after less than one month.
The concept of “Try & Buy“ in the advertising world could be a useful approach to generate efficient customer communication, strengthen product loyalty and save costs by letting the users test whether a product or a service is in line with their expectations before purchasing. Playable Rich Media Ads are a solution that help achieve those marketing goals and enhance the ROI.
What are Playable Rich Media Ads?
Playable Ads are an innovative rich media banner format, containing a branded mini-games that can be played within the banner unit. The user plays the banner game, attempting to achieve a goal set by the advertiser and is rewarded for their efforts. A “call-to-action” button at the end of the gameplay can funnel the user to a target page of the advertiser’s choice, such as their homepage, a Facebook page or a specific alternative landing page.
Playable Ads offer a highly interactive and realistic experience for the user, which increases awareness about the brand and product in a playful manner. The user can experience the most important and relevant functions and features of a product or a brand in a genuine way and become familiar with them. Playable Banners are in HTML5 and equipped with strong social features. Due to the interactive nature of the ads the users are pre-qualified as they test before installing, downloading or buying a product or a service. The CTR (click-through rates) are on average 3-times higher than for standard video ads.
More and more large companies believe in the future and the benefits of Playable Ads. Twitter reported “Miniclip doubles CPMs using playable ads”, mNectar’s streaming network turns ads into playable games and Google actively launches new Playable Ad products.
M-BIZ Global offer HTML5 playable banners to brands, ad networks and agencies. The playable ads consist virtually of two parts: a) a loading game part with simple graphics in a 150–200KB file size, compatible with Google and Facebook requirements, and b) the full banner, which downloads all the graphic assets once a user clicks on the play button of the ad. The size of the full banner can be up to 3MB or a bit higher.
Playable Ads are an innovative solution, and a perfect complement or alternative to other advertising formats in the marketing mix.
