Mobile-game marketing firm Chartboost has jumped on the growing enthusiasm for “playable ads” for mobile games by launching the Chartboost Playable Ads business. Tests show that these types of ads work far better in terms of user interest and revenue for publishers.
Playable ads enable you to tap on them and then immediately move into the experience of playing a game. These new types of ads are a recognition that the mobile advertising world is changing. Banner ads aren’t cutting it, and video ads have limited value in conveying what a game is like.
Now more than ever, players expect a level of quality within the ads they are served without disrupting their gameplay, said Maria Alegre, the CEO of Chartboost, in a statement. The tech is based on HTML5, the lingua franca of the web.
“These ads need to combat the passive view to reach players with genuine interaction,” Alegre said. “Today we’re excited to introduce an entirely new ad experience built around the player — starting with the Chartboost Playable Ad.”
She added, “This new ad format is more than just a playable ad, it’s an immersive interactive moment within a game where the player chooses their level of engagement. By reaching mobile gamers in their element, the ad becomes seamless and natural.”
Chartboost believes that gamers will like these kinds of ads better. The company worked with game developers from around the world and spent months developing the formats for playable ads. Optimized for play, Chartboost’s technology focuses on the richest quality with quick load times across a range of devices at a quarter of the size of a video ad.
With these ads, players get a taste from a mini-game demo of an app before installing, so installs come from already engaged interest. The data is in, and it shows that players enjoy this ad format.
Campaigns on the Chartboost network are seeing an average of 123 percent increase in conversion over static ads with an average of 26.4 percent increase in retention over seven days across all genres.
Game developers can now offer the most natural type of interstitial for gamers while maximizing earned revenue. Chartboost publishers are doubling their eCPM (ad revenue) without any decrease in retention from those ad interactions.
Social casino game maker Product Madness said that its conversions jumped 70 percent with playable ads.
Above: Chartboost’s Playable Ads
“We want the first experience someone has with a Product Madness game to be instantly engaging and fun,” said Patrick Witham, the director of user acquisition at Product Madness, in a statement. “This can be a challenge with static or video — it’s a passive experience. Now with Chartboost’s interactive playable ads, the player gets a taste in under 20 seconds, so when they install, we already know that they’re engaged.”
Product Madness launched a new playable ad campaign with Chartboost earlier this year on iOS and Google Play. It immediately saw higher clickthrough and higher install rates with a targeted audience that was ready to play. The end result: a 70 percent increase in overall conversion from static.
Rivals include companies such as 1App.com, mNectar, and Hatch. But Alegre said, “Other companies take a different approach by streaming the native binary from a remote device into the publisher app. In contrast, Chartboost’s approach and HTML5 technology enable game developers to design a 15 to 30 second experience of their game that will engage the users and drive them to install the app.”
She added, “The streaming tech is trying to skip the app stores and deliver [an] instant, full experience, which has the benefit of instant gratification but the pervasive challenge of getting return users. The Chartboost HTML5 Playable is designed to deliver highly engaged users that will actually download the game, which increases the chances of that user returning and becoming a long-term player.”
Chartboost has more than 100 employees.
