Extending The Momentum of Your Newly Launched App - Ad Formats

In the first blog of this series, we saw how it is important to get your paid advertising strategy right to ensure that the organic downloads keep flowing in. I also suggested the Top 5 essentials to keep in mind while planning your advertising campaign. Let's take a deeper look into the first of the five Ad Formats. As per most advertisers, a good ad needs to achieve certain objectives, of which the notable ones are:

• Inform the user about the app being advertised
• Engage with the user so the users interest in the ad increases and hence the user tends to download the application
• Reach as many users as possible
• Not get repetitive to ensure the user does not get bored of the ad or ignore the ad completely

The way the creative is built goes a long way in ensuring the above points. The ad needs to be attractive, eye catchy but not disturbing, bright but not cause epilepsy and so on. But other than stating the obvious, I wanted to point out 3 other quick ways to ensure that your ad achieves what you want it to.

1. Refresh your ad often If the user sees the exact same ad over and over again, he/she will begin ignoring it. Create a few additional ad banners for the upcoming duration of the campaign and refresh your ads every two weeks or so
2. Create ads of different sizes Devices come in different sizes and so should your ad. Do not try to force fit an ad of wrong dimensions into different devices. At times, if you do not have an ad of the right size, the ad network might not allow your ad to go on certain devices thus resulting in lost potential users
3. Leverage different formats Interstitial ads and Rich Media ads are a powerful tool to show ads to users with a wide plethora of benefits. These ads provide some of the best methods to smartly engage with your user and are definitely tools you should try to leverage

Lets take a look at a few ads that resonate very well with users along with the statistics of these ad formats.

Regular Banners vs HD Banners

The new double density devices such as iPhone 4 and above, iPad mini etc. with retina display have larger screen resolution. HD banners (640x96 and 640x100) are the best fit for these devices in terms of user experience. Take a look at the image below when you show a regular banner on double density devices vs an HD banner.

In terms of the numbers, it is seen that the CTR of the HD banners tend to improve by 20%- 30% compared to regular banner ads. The conversion ratios (click to download) of these HD banners tend to be 7% - 10% more than regular banners ads.

Interstitial Ads

Interstitial Ads form a powerful way of engaging with your users with 10x more real estate to play around with. This gives the advertiser flexibility to provide a wide range of interactions on the ad unit or just show the ad in a more appealing format. They are visibly more attractive than regular banner ads as seen in the image below.

Interstitial Ads

Interstitial Ads form a powerful way of engaging with your users with 10x more real estate to play around with. This gives the advertiser flexibility to provide a wide range of interactions on the ad unit or just show the ad in a more appealing format. They are visibly more attractive than regular banner ads as seen in the image below.

Rich Media Ads

If your budget allows for it, Rich Media ads have the highest engagement rate compared to static ads. You can even decide to let the user interact with a part of your app directly within your ad and then download the app for full use. Here is an example of a really well performing rich media ad for Sega.

To wrap up, the important 3 steps to keep in mind are:

1. Refresh your ads often
2. Create ads in different sizes
3. Leverage different ad formats

Click here to read previous blog of this series. Click here to read the next blog of this series.