Video, Playable, Native or Display: Which Ad Formats Actually Convert for Mobile Apps
Creative is the single biggest lever in mobile user acquisition — the same budget with better creative can halve your CPI. But 'better' depends on format. Each format reaches users in a different mindset, and matching format to goal is where most campaigns win or lose.
Video: the workhorse
Video remains the highest-volume performance format in mobile. Full-screen interstitials and rewarded placements deliver the completion rates and engagement that install campaigns need, in both 16:9 and 9:16 orientations.
The discipline is in the first three seconds: show the core loop of your app immediately, not a logo. End cards matter too — a strong companion end card can lift conversion meaningfully on the same video.
Playable: try before you install
Playables let users interact with a slice of your app — usually a game mechanic — before committing to an install. The users who convert after playing arrive with intent: they know what they're getting, and retention reflects it.
The tradeoff is production cost. A good playable is a small piece of software, built as HTML, and it needs the same craft as the app itself. For gaming and interactive apps, the quality of downstream users usually justifies it.
Native and display: scale and efficiency
Native ads blend into the content around them, built from your app store assets — icon, screenshots, description. They convert at lower rates than video but at correspondingly lower prices, and they reach placements video can't.
Display banners remain the cheapest reach in mobile. The standard sizes — 320x50, 300x250, 728x90 and 1200x627 — cover the overwhelming majority of in-app and mobile web inventory. They rarely carry a campaign alone, but they round out frequency and retargeting efficiently.
Building the mix
The portfolios that scale combine formats deliberately: video and playable for high-intent volume, native for efficient incremental reach, display for coverage and retargeting. Then let performance data — not preference — allocate budget between them.
At Adora DSP, creative-level reporting shows eCPM, eCPI and eCPA per creative per source, so the mix optimizes itself on evidence.
Key takeaway
Match format to mindset: video for volume, playable for intent, native for efficiency, display for coverage — then let creative-level data allocate the budget.
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