Why Should You Include Interactive Ads in Your Digital Marketing Strategy?

Reaching targeted audiences through advertising is increasingly challenging these days.

No longer do consumers want to be sold to or inundated with salesy ad after ad for products and services.

They prefer to scan or skip over ads and instead focus on surrounding content, whether that be video, blog post, social media post, or other.

So, what can your brand do to snap consumers back into the experience of your ads? Try creating a more personalized approach through interactive ads.

Interactive content is all the rage these days, adding personalization and creating a two-way communication pathway that gets viewers involved.

Using interactivity in your ads is the new way to get noticed.

You can make them engaging, creative, stimulating, and even fun, giving consumers a change from the serious nature of much of the information found online today.

Keep reading to learn more.

What are Interactive Ads?

Interactive ads present viewers with a way to actively engage with your brand.

They invite consumers to take a certain action in order to discover something the ad will reveal or to navigate to your website landing page.

These interactive ads capture attention, causing viewers to stop and engage with compelling content that can entertain and also help them in some way.

How Do Interactive Ads Maximize Engagement?

Interactive ads maximize engagement by enticing and directly inviting consumers to physically engage with some part of the ad, making it more of an activity than a passive experience.

For example, with one click, they can bring the ad to life in some way, such as initiating a 360-degree view of a product, showcasing all it has to offer. 

With this action, interest may rise and compel them to learn more on your website. A few ways to ensure maximization of engagement also include the following.

1. Design and Placement

Consider what design and type of interactive ad are most suitable for each medium or platform you choose.

Understand the consumers in those locations and find a way to speak to them directly.

As for design, create a balance of interactive visuals and features along with a dose of entertainment.

2. Tracking Customer Insight to Refine Approach

With the ability to track the audience attention that an ad receives, you gain valuable insight about those that participate.

These customer insights can help you refine your approach, stay ahead of the competition, and understand ways to target your existing audience or a new one altogether.

3. Regularly Releasing Interactive Content

Another part of maximizing engagement is to release interactive ads more than once or only occasionally.

With additional ads, you continue the conversation with your audience and can further maximize engagement.

Develop a regular routine so consumers always want to return.

It’s easier than ever today to generate this type of content as long as you know what you want to convey, the action you want your audience to take, and the information your buyer persona will react to.

You can also add to an existing campaign or launch a new one.

Interactive Ads: What are Their main Benefits?

There are numerous exciting benefits for utilizing interactive ads in your campaigns. These include:

• Improve the effectiveness and performance of your advertising efforts.
• Create and expand brand awareness.
• Increase brand interaction.
• Differentiate from your competitors and stand out.
• Generate higher-quality leads.
• Improve brand recall by making a lasting impression on participants.
• Improve marketing and advertising ROI.
• Boost conversions and sales.
• Gain access to customer insights to help refine your approach.
• Increase social interaction and social sharing.
• Gain new customers.
• Increase customer loyalty.

9 of the Best Types of Interactive Ads

Interactive content continues to evolve, and using it in your advertisements can make all the difference today.

Your brand can still be unique thanks to the various types of interactive ads available and the fact that new options continue to develop.

Key types of interactive ads today include the following.

1. Interactive Banners

Interactive banners are a type of display ad that attracts the eye of visitors on a web page, search engine results page, social media, or anywhere else placement is advantageous.

They are a great way to keep the user on the page, ensure instant sign-up, and make the entire process more convenient, faster, and better.

When a consumer clicks on or rolls over one of these types of banners, it can lead to various types of content, such as a form, video ad, a quiz or poll, or a playable game.

For example, Rock Content created a banner for its interactive newsletter. With a simple click, consumers can quickly and easily add their names to be notified via email the next time the newsletter is published.

2. Interactive Video Ads

Videos continue to be popular today, and you can now use this to your advantage in interactive ads.

Interactive video ads are a versatile option, allowing you to put your own unique mark on their presentation.

You can use them to show product details, showcase a service, or guide viewers to your website and purchase pages. You can also include interactive product placement.

3. 360-Degree Video Campaigns

A 360-degree video campaign allows consumers to discover your product and experience views showing all sides and angles, whether it’s a new sneaker or real estate.

This type of interactive ad is already popular with consumers, so if it’s a good fit for your brand, go for it.

4. Facebook Instant Experience Ads

The Facebook social media platform is one of the best places to entice consumers with interactive ads, allowing you to share highly engaging content through its Instant Experience Ads feature.

With this type of ad, consumers can complete forms, watch videos, or swipe through a carousel of photos.

5. Playable Ads

One of the most popular interactive ad types today is the playable ad.

The consumer clicks or takes another type of directed action to get a sneak preview of an app or game, allowing them to see before buying.

The visitor may be encouraged to solve simple puzzles or control a character, resulting in a call to action for downloading the app or game. Here’s an example:

6. Augmented Reality Ads

New ways to use Augmented Reality (AR) today involve ads, and you can produce these ads through Snapchat’s Lens Studio, Google’s ARCore, and Apple’s ARKit.

Examples of AR ads include viewing how different decor will work in a room or how various shades of lipstick will look on your lips (after you upload a photo of them).

7. In-Game Advertising

Gaming continues to be popular, and brands today need to consider in-game advertising as part of their digital marketing strategy.

The key to this, however, is to choose wisely which games and which audiences to advertise to, depending upon your brand’s purpose and what you have to offer.

8. Interactive Voice Ads

One of the newest ways to connect with audiences is through interactive voice ads.

Thanks to the availability of voice-activated devices, these ads utilize human voice, which can be a highly effective method to encourage interaction.

9. Interactive Quizzes or Calculators

One of the more useful ways to interact with consumers is by providing interactive quizzes or interactive calculators.

Users engage with this content, and you gain new insights into who is interacting and what interests they hold.

Get Inspired: Examples of Successful and Creative Interactive Ads

It’s easy to get inspired today. Just go online and see what’s already out there. Doing so will aid your own creativity and put you on the right track to discovering how interactive ads can work for your brand.

To get you going, here are examples of successful and creative interactive ads already winning over consumers.

Boursin

The cheese producer, Boursin, chose to go with a 360-Degree video allowing visitors to experience views inside a packed refrigerator. 

The experience involves the consumer clicking and dragging the screen, making their way around the scene. Those on mobile devices simply rotate the phone to gain different views.

The beauty of this ad is that other items in the refrigerator are there to show what will pair well with the different Boursin cheese offerings.

Burger King

Fast-food giant Burger King went the playable ad route, creating ads that are already vastly improving their Click-Through Rate. 

For one, they join the NBA campaign and turn courts into menus, inviting viewers to take a shot at making a basket for a chance to win free food at their restaurants. 

Make the half-court shot, win a full meal.

Ikea

Home Furnishing and Home Goods provider Ikea created Space10, enabling viewers to interact by redesigning plans for 3D rooms using the LiDAR sensors.

Vans

Vans, the longtime manufacturer of shoes and apparel, manages to stay relevant by creating playable interactive ads for Facebook. They turn their ad into a game where clients help characters collect gifts as quickly as possible.

State of Texas

The State of Texas stands out by providing interactive ads on Hulu, making commercials almost a thing of the past. These ads offer quizzes, polls, video overlay, and photo galleries to entice viewers to interact and learn more about what the state has to offer.

Coca-Cola

The purpose of an interactive ad by Coca-Cola is to convince more people to give their Coke 0 a try. For this, the brand teamed up with Shazam and created an ad where coke is visually poured onto the mobile screen, accompanied by the sound it makes as it fills up a glass. 

Every time a consumer chooses to experience this, they are rewarded with a free Coke 0.

Wrap Up

If you’re new to interactive ads, you don’t have to be intimidated. Today, more sources than ever are available to help you create the right ones for your brand.

Think about your target audience and find the best way to reach them in new ways, whether that be an interactive quiz or calculator, playable ad, interactive video or voice ad, or one of the others on the list above.

As a result, you can boost brand awareness, interaction, and recall and win over more customers along the way.

Ready to try your hand at creating interactive content for ads? Let Ion by Rock Content show you how to get started. Access this tool through the Content Cloud!