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One of the most significant trends driving the growth in digital advertising is the continued rise of interactive ad formats. Interactive Advertising Market growth at USD 127.76 Billion with a CAGR rate of 15.40% by Forecast period 2023-2032.
The “original” banner ads typically include a simple creative with one call to action button driving customers to the advertiser’s homepage. These have now evolved into a broad range of interactive ad formats from rich media ads to interactive and shoppable video ads. These formats have proven to drive significantly higher KPIs.
Interactive Rich Media Ads
By using rich media, advertisers allow their audiences to interact with an ad by touching, dragging, scratching, swiping, spinning, playing a game, watching a video, and more. These ad types often use videos, GIFs and animations to bring the ad to life. These ads could also feature 360 and AR experiences. Gamification is a large component of rich media ads which have shown to achieve 15X higher engagement than regular banner ads. Rich media ads can be distributed in a wide range of formats from banner ads, dynamic ads, interstitial ads, gamification ads or floating ads.
Shoppable video ads
Shoppable video ads are another advanced interactive video format which allows viewers to click on products within the video ad to see more details without leaving the ad itself. The viewer will be able to see more product details such as an item name, price, image and a link to shop. The viewer can then click through to shop directly from the advertiser’s product page or have an option to purchase the item directly within the ad itself. Tests have shown however, that consumers are more comfortable making a purchase from the advertiser’s website rather than completing a transaction directly within the ad unit itself. The links to shop now buttons can use specific tracking links enabling the advertiser to track full end to end performance. Shoppable video ads can be run as display ads or programmatically as a VPAID tag. These ads can then appear in a variety of formats from banners to interstitial ads, pre-roll video ads, or outstream ads.
Interactive video ads
Interactive video ads combine a video ad with interactive elements such as hotspots or branching video functionality. These offer in-ad engagement without instantly removing the user from the ad experience. The viewers can click on different elements of the interactive video ad to discover more information. They will then have options to click through to different actions, driving much more qualified traffic to the advertiser’s website in comparison to a direct click to the advertiser’s homepage. Branching interactive video ads also encourage the viewer to interact with the ad by choosing the way in which they would like for the ad to proceed. This format also offers the advertiser’s interesting data on the preferences of their target audience.
Interactive video ads are a great way for advertisers to engage potential customers in a more fun way and to drive more qualified traffic to their site. These ad formats also help advertisers gather new data points about video ad performance and preferences which can also in turn be used to improve ad targeting and experiences in the future.