Google launches new interactive interstitial ads and in-ad game tryouts

Google said today it is launching a couple of new types of mobile ad formats for advertisers — a new ad that lets mobile users try out a game, and a new type of HTML5 interactive interstitial ad.

“Trial Run Ads” let a user play a game in the ad for up to 60 seconds. The game content is streamed through the ad from the app before the user downloads the app.

Google believes that if a user tries out the game and likes it, they are, in a sense pre-qualified as someone who will not only download the game but continue to play it. Google reports that a high number of people who download apps never even open them.

Google is also announcing new, highly customizable HTML5 ads that offer a customized user experience tailored to each advertiser’s app.

“Interactive Interstitials offer a truly custom experience that can include your app’s value proposition and the functionalities you want to highlight, all painted in your personal branding strategy,” Google said in a blog post today.

The ads work particularly well for advertisers who are looking for higher user engagement in installers, Google said.

The new HTML5 interstitials free the ad creative from rigid templates and give users a better flavor of the game or product being promoted.

And since the ads allow greater control over the creative, advertisers can more easily test which content elements attract the most clicks.

For both the new types of ads, advertisers will pay Google only when a user clicks the Install button. They don’t pay Google for the in-ad game demos or for interactions with interstitials.

Trial Run Ads and Interactive Interstitials are, for now, in beta and available only to a limited set of advertisers.