The rich media ad-vantage for mobile app marketing success

When it comes to mobile app marketing, rich media formats have become one of the most popular ways to drive installs and engagement rates. This is because rich media provides an opportunity for marketers to create more dynamic and engaging content for their audience. Essentially, increased interaction at the advertising stage of the funnel can lead to higher click-through rates and greater user retention down the line.

In a broad sense, the definition of rich media is any asset that contains multimedia elements. These elements include text, images, audio, animation, and video. The introduction of HTML5 has resolved lagged load times of multimedia assets. As such, many rich media assets are now interactive and classified as hypermedia, in which the structure of the asset is designed as a series of linked elements for the user to navigate between.

The use of multimedia elements is what sets rich media ads apart from standard ad formats.

Within the context of mobile marketing, there are two types of rich media: Rich media advertising and rich media content.

What is rich media advertising?

Rich media advertising refers to interactive ads with multimedia elements that are designed to engage users. Unlike static ads that only display text or one image, rich media ads provide a more immersive and dynamic user experience, allowing advertisers to convey their message in a more creative and impactful way.

Rich media ads are typically served on mobile apps, websites, and social media platforms. They can be created in various formats–we’ll discuss these in more depth next. However, it’s important to note that rich media formats are particularly valuable to gaming apps as they can facilitate playable ads, which let consumers preview a game.

What is rich media content?

Rich media content embeds multimedia assets within organic content marketing formats such as blogs, emails, social media posts, ebooks, and educational courses. The addition of rich media enables businesses to create more interactive experiences for their audience, including quizzes, games, and virtual tours, among other formats.

App marketers can leverage rich media within their content marketing strategy to tell a more compelling story and communicate complex ideas in a more accessible way. For example, an interactive infographic can be a powerful way to present complex data or statistics in a more visually appealing and easy-to-digest format.

There are many rich media formats available to mobile app marketers. The following are the three core ad formats.

Rich media banner ads

There are two types of rich media banners:

1. In-banner rich media ads are stationary in position.
2. Expandable rich media banner ads require a tap or hover to reveal the full content of the ad. The expansion could be pushdown, multidirectional, or floating style.

Here are a few examples of rich media display campaigns.

Whiskas

Cat food brand Whiskas launched a rich media campaign in Kazakhstan, encouraging pet lovers to treat their animals to Whiskas or Pedigree food on the Day of Animals. The rich media interstitial ad allowed users to virtually feed a cat and dog with their choice of Whiskas food.

Royal Match

Puzzle app Royal Match by Dream Games has become synonymous with playable ads. Its infamous playable puzzle ads are often displayed using the rich media interstitial format.

Interested in creating rich media ads for your app? Here are some steps to get started:

1. Define your goals: What do you want to achieve with your ad? Do you want to grow brand awareness, increase install volume, or improve the quality of users you are attracting? Defining your goals will help you create an ad that is aligned with your overall marketing strategy and objectives.
2. Choose your ad format: Consider which format is best suited to your goals and audience, and make sure it is compatible with the platform or platforms where you plan to run your ad.
3. Design your ad: Make sure your ad is visually appealing and on-brand, with a clear and concise message that resonates with your target audience. Use high-quality images and graphics, and if you’re creating a video ad, make sure it is well-scripted and professionally produced.
4. Add interactive elements: Consider adding multimedia features such as quizzes, games, galleries, or virtual tours to make your ad more interactive and memorable.
5. Optimize your ad: Once your ad is designed, it’s important to optimize it for performance. Test different versions of your ad to see what works best, and make sure it is optimized for different devices and platforms. Use Adjust’s attribution toolkit to track the performance of your ad and make adjustments as needed to improve its effectiveness.

Creating rich media ads requires a combination of creativity, technical skill, and strategic thinking. By approaching rich media display campaigns with strategic consideration, you can create ads that capture the attention of your target audience, communicate your message effectively, and drive results for your app. Learn more about how to attribute installs from your rich media campaigns accurately with Adjust.