Why playable ads?

Playable ads allow users to test your app within the ad format before downloading or buying the app. Facebook's studies show that this helps advertisers drive higher-intent installs, and thus higher return on investment.

Note that playable ads are not only for mobile game advertising. You can be creative, like Burger King advertising their restaurants with an engaging game where you catch burgers falling from the sky.

How do playable ads work?

The lead-in video shows up on the user’s feed. This part of the ad is crucial as it has to catch attention quickly and prompt the user to click on the ad to expand it into a full-screen experience of your app.

How to create playable ads

Create the playable yourself

• The playable game should be in a single self-contained HTML5 file: it should not make any HTTP requests or contain any JavaScript redirects, and it should not require mraid.js
• All assets should be part of that single HTML file, data URI compressed (including JavaScript, CSS, images, sounds). The total file size should be less than 2MB.
• For any Call-to-Action, the playable code should call the JavaScript function FbPlayableAd.onCTAClick() whenever an action should open the app store. For example, this.downloadBtn.onClick(function(){FbPlayableAd.onCTAClick()});. The Facebook mobile app will handle navigation to the correct app store page for this app.
• Meta tags for specifying your APP_ID and ASSET_ID are optional but recommended. The meta tags enable Facebook to attribute the playable in the ads to your app. For details on meta tags, see the explanation of meta tags in Facebook's documentation.

Work with a partner

Smartly.io and TreSensa have combined forces to give your clients an end-to-end in-app Facebook Playable Ad solution! As an industry leader, TreSensa has pioneered the most effective Playable Ads for hundreds of app-install, gaming, and brand marketers and produced results that marketers love.

To get started, contact Tresensa via this website to get a quote.

How to set up playable ads in Smartly.io

In order to set up a playable ad campaign, follow these steps:

1. Create a campaign with the App Installs objective with audiences only for Facebook Stories, Facebook News Feed, Audience Network Interstitial, and Audience Network Rewarded video
2. In the Ad Creatives section, select the Mobile App Ad creative type and the Image/Video ad format

3. Under Playable, select an existing Playable or drag and drop your new Playable HTML 
4. Under Media, select Use video
5. Upload a video or select one from the library
6. Done!

Limitations of playable ads

• This format is not allowed yet for Real Money Gaming (RMG). Playables can be used to advertise free-to-play (F2P) games and social casinos apps.
• Usable only for campaigns with the App install objective in Facebook Mobile News Feed, Audience Network Interstitial and Audience Network Rewarded video in Smartly.io
• High quality lead-in video in horizontal or square aspect ratio (vertical not supported)
• The playable should be in portrait mode and have responsive design to accommodate varying device screen sizes