How to Create Playable Ads for Mobile Games

The short answer

A playable ad is a small interactive creative, not a miniature port of the entire game. Start with one audience promise and one action, agree the inputs and acceptance criteria, build one master, create only named variants, package for named destinations, and attach QA evidence to the exact files delivered.

1. Write a testable creative hypothesis

The hypothesis connects a creative choice to a decision. ‘Puzzle fans will understand the sorting fantasy faster when they drag the first object themselves’ is specific enough to design. ‘Interactivity will improve ROAS’ is too broad: auction, audience, spend, attribution, and downstream product quality also affect ROAS.

2. Choose the smallest interaction that expresses it

Map the opening frame, first input, feedback, progress, outcome, and CTA. Remove any state that does not help the player understand or feel the chosen promise. A familiar game may need only one move; an unfamiliar mechanic may need a short guided sequence. Complexity should follow comprehension, not the number of features in the source game.

3. Brief production inputs and ownership

• Game build or capture, store URL, and current creative context.
• Production-ready art, audio, fonts, copy, brand constraints, and confirmed usage rights.
• Audience, objective, target networks, language, orientation, CTA, and review owner.
• Master definition, qualified variants, exports, source delivery, review points, and acceptance checks.

4. Build and approve the master

The master is the accepted reference implementation. Review behavior before surface polish: can a first-time viewer infer the action, does invalid input respond safely, does progress read, and does the outcome lead naturally to the CTA? Keep version identifiers stable so comments, packages, and receipts refer to the same build.

5. Make controlled variants

6. Package for the named network

HTML5 describes the implementation medium; it does not create one universal package. A destination can impose its own entry point, file structure, weight, API, orientation, lifecycle, clickthrough, and network-request rules. Treat each destination as an export with a dated specification source.

For example, Unity's current public specification requires a single inlined and minified index.html under 5 MB, MRAID 3.0 compliance, no automatic store redirect, and waiting for the MRAID viewableChange event before starting content. Verify those details against the live Unity specification when producing the export; do not copy them to another network.

7. QA the delivered bytes

Test the package, not only the development build. Record file identity, environment, load, input, feedback, outcome, CTA, lifecycle, audio, viewport, orientation, console, dependency, network-call, and permissions checks as applicable. Mark every untested path and limitation.

Choose the production route

Delivery is the start of the test

A shipped playable gives the UA team a controlled asset. It does not establish the winning result. Join each campaign creative ID back to the exact master or variant, preserve metric definitions and attribution windows, and decide whether the next action is to keep, iterate, replace, or investigate.

Use the brief template, scoping worksheet, and QA checklist without submitting an email address.