A Comparison of Display Ad Formats: HTML5 Animated vs. Static


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Proper advertising is crucial for the success of any app marketing campaign. A wrong ad creative can drive potential high lifetime value (LTV) users away. Moreover, ad creatives also help app marketers grab users’ attention and drive them to take action, whether it’s installing an app, registering for an account, or making a purchase.

As the mobile advertising industry evolves, so do ad formats. App marketers can now choose from a variety of ad formats including static, animated, native, playable, video, etc. Using the right ad creative with the right placement is the key to a strong campaign performance. At Aarki, our in-house designers create and test ads in a variety of formats to evaluate the Champion Creative for a campaign. In this article, we’ll present the results of our recent case study comparing HTML5 Animated and Static ad formats.

Methodology

To determine the value of the HTML5 animated format, we analyzed a programmatic advertising campaign for a game app over a period of 30 days. The advertiser, having no experience with the HTML5 ad format, aimed to increase engagement with their creative ads.

After consulting with the advertiser’s creative team to review their creative assets and strategy, we developed a highly engaging HTML5 creative using Aarki Studio. We saw a considerable increase in the client’s key performance indicators (KPIs): install volume and return on investment (ROI).

Creative Iterations

The campaign started with the client’s static ad creative. This creative showcased an image of the game layout and some of its characters. In a glance, users were able to understand the theme of the game and how it’s played.

We made some iterations with the current creative to improve the campaign performance. We added a simple animation by showing one power-up, and then crafted another HTML5 animated creative by combining multiple power-ups. The final HTML5 animated ad outperformed all the other iterations—the campaign’s Champion Creative. It showed more of the game theme and layout.

Results

The Impact on ROI

Day 7 Return on Investment

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During the first nine days of the campaign, it generated low activity and the ROI was low. The first day we ran the HTML5 ad, we increased the ROI by 86.48%, and maintained 90.94% higher ROI throughout the campaign.

The Impact on CPI

Cost Per Install

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The HTML5 animated creative had a positive impact on CPI as well. CPI on the first nine days of the campaign was high. We decreased CPI by 304.04% on the first day the Rich Media ad was run, and maintained 6 times lower CPI throughout the campaign.

Summary

The results reveal that the HTML5 creative outperformed the static ad and had strong performance on both metrics—increasing ROI and lowering the average CPI. This is  proof that Aarki’s creative optimization improves campaign performance across various metrics. Each creative variant is developed using our deep category expertise and learning, thus ensuring the creatives being launched are aligned with the interests of target users.

 

Topics: Creative Insights, Marketplace Insights