The Role of Interactive Ads in Increasing User Engagement

You’re casually scrolling, reading the latest news online. An interactive ad pops up and immediately grabs your attention. Without even thinking, you find yourself tapping and swiping through the experience. And before you know it, you’ve spent several minutes deeply engaged with that branded content.

Interactive ads merge the digital and physical worlds to pull you in. Scanning a QR code can instantly transport you to a whole new experience. With the right interactive approach, brands can turn ads from annoyances into captivating adventures.

What Are Interactive Ads?

Display ads use data and algorithms to determine your interests based on your online activity and grab your attention.

Engaging Users

Interactive ads are a new breed of digital advertisements designed to engage viewers actively. Unlike traditional banner ads that rely on passive viewing, interactive ads encourage user participation through innovative layouts, clickable elements, gamification, and other immersive features.

Boosting Brand Recall

Research shows that interactive ad formats boost brand recall by over 50% compared to standard ads. When users interact directly with an ad, the brand message sticks better in their minds. It creates a more memorable experience that drives better results.

Keeping Users Hooked

The key to successful interactive ads is capturing user attention from the get-go. Eye-catching visuals, simple games or quizzes related to the product grab interest right away. Once hooked, users spend more time engaging with the brand message.

The longer the interaction, the higher the ad effectiveness. That’s why many interactive formats use multiple layers of engagement to prolong the experience.

Customized for Each User

By tailoring content dynamically, brands can deliver hyper-relevant messages that resonate better with users. This personalized approach enhances customer engagement and click-through rates. To achieve this on a global scale, it’s crucial to consider content globalization strategies. While, to measure the effectiveness of this personalization and ensure it’s truly driving customer satisfaction, consider using some of the best NPS survey tools. These tools can help you gather feedback on how your dynamic content is impacting user experience and identify areas for further improvement.

Benefits of Interactive Ads for Users

Increased Engagement & Retention

Interactive ads offer a much more immersive experience compared to static banners. They capture your attention by allowing you to interact physically — whether it’s scrolling, swiping, tilting your device or even using voice commands. This level of engagement keeps you hooked for longer periods.

By scanning QR codes, for example, you can instantly access exclusive content, interactive games, or even augmented reality experiences – all seamlessly integrated into the ad itself. It’s like having a portal to a whole new world, right at your fingertips. The interactive nature also makes the ad’s message more memorable and impactful.

Gamification & Entertainment Value

Learn how to put ads on your app from this post.

Seamless Mobile Optimisation

Interactive rich media ads are designed to work seamlessly on smartphones and tablets. Features like shaking or tilting make them incredibly user-friendly on mobile devices. This matters as modern consumers spend most of their digital time on mobile.

Shareability & Social Potential

The novelty and entertainment factor of many interactive ads gives them a viral appeal. You’re more inclined to share unique, engaging ad experiences with friends over messaging apps or social media. This amplifies the ad’s reach through word-of-mouth referrals.

In essence, interactive ads transform a traditionally passive experience into an active one where you willingly choose to pay attention and engage with the brand’s message. It’s advertising repackaged as utility or entertainment.

Types of Interactive Ads

1. Playable Ads

These let you experience a mini-game-like version of an app or game. You get a sneak peek into the gameplay and interactive elements before deciding to install it. They’re super engaging and fun to play around with.

2. Augmented Reality (AR) Ads

Using your smartphone’s camera, AR ads overlay digital objects onto the real world around you. It could be trying on virtual makeup looks, seeing how a piece of furniture fits in your living room, or playing with 3D animated characters that seem to be right in front of you!

3. 360° Video Ads/VR Showroom

These immerse you in a virtual-reality-like experience by allowing you to look around in any direction by dragging or moving your phone. Great for travel destinations, product demos, concerts and more – letting you explore the full environment.

4. Shoppable Ads

While watching aN ad, you can click on tagged products to get more details and make purchases directly. It’s a smooth way to learn about items and instantly buy ones you like without extra steps. This innovative approach is called shoppable ads.

5. Gamified Ads

You can make ads fun and rewarding with game-like elements like scores, levels, prizes or competition. It could be simple games, quizzes, scratch cards etc.

Check out the impressive self-service and custom ad campaigns built with the Nexd platform.

Best Practises for Creating Engaging Interactive Ads

Prioritize User Experience

Today’s digital marketing relies on prioritizing the user experience above all else. It’s about making the ad feel natural, intuitive and even fun to interact with — not just shoving product info down people’s throats. Think about how you can add value and make their experience better. Ask yourself: how can this ad be helpful, educational or entertaining?

Gauge Your Resource Capacity

Creating engaging, interactive ads is no small feat, and it’s essential to understand your resource capacity before diving in. Evaluate the time, skills, and tools your team has at its disposal. Identify any gaps and address them by applying resource leveling or smoothing techniques to balance the workload efficiently. This ensures that no single team member is overwhelmed, maintaining a high level of productivity and quality throughout the ad development process.

Keep It Simple, Yet Immersive

While you want your interactive ad to stand out and captivate users, be careful not to overcomplicate things. The best ones strike a balance between simplicity and immersion. Use animations, sound effects or micro-interactions sparingly — only when they enhance the overall experience.

Too many bells and whistles can overwhelm users and defeat the purpose. Subtle, smooth transitions and frictionless interactions are the way to go. The ad should draw people in without being overbearing.

Optimize for All Devices

In our multi-device world, it’s crucial that your interactive ad works flawlessly across desktop, mobile and tablet. People engage with ads on the go more than ever, so responsive design is non-negotiable.

Test your creation rigorously on every screen size and device type. Ensure seamless performance, fast load times and proper scaling of the content development process and interactions. Nothing kills engagement faster than a clunky, slow or broken ad experience.

For faster and more effective ad creation, use the NEXD Campaign Manager. Our ads are up to 10 times lighter than traditional HTML5 ads! 😉

Measure and Refine Constantly

Like anything digital, interactive ad success depends on meticulous measurement and iterative refinement. Set up comprehensive tracking from day one to monitor all the key engagement metrics like views, clicks, conversions and more.

A composable CDP (Customer Data Platform) can help by combining and analyzing data from different sources. This comprehensive view of user interactions allows for more accurate adjustments and improvements, leading to better user engagement.

Various influencer analytics platforms or a good CRM can help you cross-reference this data to gauge audience engagement and fine-tune your strategy. These give you insights into audience demographics, engagement rates, and content performance, which can help you create more targeted and interactive ads that resonate with specific audiences.

Use all of that to identify what’s working well and what needs improving. Run A/B tests and tweak the messaging, flow and interactions accordingly. It’s a constant optimisation cycle to keep people hooked and maximise ROI over time.

Examples of Successful Interactive Ads from Campaigns

Burger King’s ‘Burn That Ad’

Burger King got creative with augmented reality and a mobile game where you could “burn” rival McDonald’s ads to unlock exclusive deals. It tapped into people’s love for gamification and the competitive spirit.

Results:

• At the time, the campaign boosted app downloads by 8x and increased social media followers by over 25%.
• More importantly, it drove a massive 300% uptick in guest traffic to Burger King’s outlets. Not bad for some fiery burger wars!

Glass Animals’ Interactive Website

Glass Animals created an interactive landing page that resembled a vintage computer desktop. Fans could explore the site by clicking on various icons to access sound files, create music, and generate memes. The band encouraged fans to send in their creations for potential use in future projects.

Results:

• The campaign recorded over 1.2 billion video views in just 6 days on TikTok through the #AySauce challenge.
• It achieved an engagement rate of 15.79%, highlighting the campaign’s effectiveness in captivating the audience​.

The key for brands is tapping into people’s desire for novelty, personalisation and fun. When ads feel like an engaging experience rather than an interruption, the results can be stellar. But it takes creativity and having your finger on the pulse of emerging interactive tech.

Also read: Top 10 Rich Media Ad Examples From Global Brands

The Power of Interactive Ads in Boosting User Engagement with Nexd

Building interactive digital ads with Nexd can significantly enhance user engagement. Selecting the right mobile ad types and formats is essential for maximizing both revenue and user experience. And as the industry continues to innovate, new formats emerge.

The key to success, however, lies in partnering with a platform that can optimize your ads for your target audience. This partnership ensures improved user responses and higher engagement rates. If you’re eager to explore various ad formats for your next mobile campaign, Nexd is the solution.

Nexd’s creative management platform equips marketers with the tools to craft compelling digital ad campaigns quickly and effectively. Embrace the future of advertising with Nexd and watch your user engagement soar!