What's the most important playable ad best practice?

The hook. If the first three seconds don't earn a touch, nothing after it gets seen. Show the problem on frame one and hint the first move.

How long should a playable ad be?

Most teams aim for 15 to 30 seconds of play before the end card. The docs we checked don't set a hard playable duration, so keep it short enough that most players reach the CTA.

Why was my playable rejected?

Common causes: over 5 MB, external network calls, a missing or wrong click-through call, or opening the store on the first tap. Check the network's spec page and preview tool.

Should a playable show the real game?

Yes. Misleading mechanics can lift IPM and hurt retention. Regulators such as the UK ASA have ruled against unrepresentative game ads, and Google Play bans deceptive app promotion.

What should I measure for playables?

IPM, CPI and D1 or D7 retention against your best video, plus in-playable engagement and end card reach. Don't judge on CTR alone.

How often should I refresh a winning playable?

When CPI starts climbing after a strong start, it's usually fatigue. Have the next variants ready before that point.

Playable ad best practices: a checklist for UA teams

The best practices that matter most for playable ads are simple: hook on the first frame, one mechanic that's really in your game, a fair fail state, a CTA only after gameplay, a file that meets each network's rules, and a plan for the next version before this one launches. Everything else builds on those six.

This checklist is split into three levels. Beginner covers what every playable needs to get approved and played. Intermediate covers how to test and read results. Advanced covers how teams keep winners alive once creative fatigue sets in.

Key takeaways

Beginner: one moment, one input, hook in the first three seconds, CTA after gameplay, under 5 MB.

Network rules cause most rejections: no store redirect on first tap, no runtime network calls, muted audio until interaction.

Intermediate: test variants that differ in one thing and judge on IPM, CPI and retention, not CTR alone.

Advanced: treat a winner as a family. Change hook, difficulty, theme and end card one at a time to fight fatigue.

Show gameplay players will actually get. Misleading playables can win installs and lose players, and regulators have acted on it.

Genie Playable builds from your own game, iterates from the last version and exports for eight networks, with no developer needed.

Why do playables need their own best practices?

Because they behave differently from video. A video plays whether or not anyone engages. A playable asks for a tap, and if the first three seconds don't earn it, nothing else matters. They're also stricter technically: they run as code inside another app, so networks police file size, audio and click behavior closely.

The upside is real. Liftoff's 2025 Mobile Ad Creative Index found that in 2024 playables delivered impression-to-install rates eight times those of non-playable formats for top spenders, and 16 times for other game advertisers. Those are averages across many advertisers, not a promise, but they explain why most UA teams want playables in the mix. For when a playable beats video or an interactive end card, see playable vs video vs end card.

What does every first playable need? (Beginner)

If you're making your first playable, get these right before anything clever. The step-by-step version is in how to make a playable ad.

Creative basics

·One moment. The best ten seconds of your game, not a full level or the tutorial.

·Hook on frame one. Show the problem before the first touch: a character in danger, a board one move from clearing.

·One input. Tap, swipe, drag or hold. If it needs explaining, it's too complex.

·A visual hint. A hand or arrow showing the first move.

·A fair fail state. "So close" failures drive installs. Decide whether failure goes straight to the end card or allows one retry.

·A clean end card. Logo, one short line, one install button. Structure detail in the anatomy of a playable ad.

·Real gameplay. The mechanic should exist in your game.

Technical basics

Check	Why	Source
File under 5 MB	AppLovin, Meta and Google Ads cap at 5 MB; Unity Ads wants under 5 MB	Network docs
All assets inside the file	AppLovin and Unity prohibit runtime network calls; Google allows only its own hosted libraries	AppLovin, Unity, Google Ads docs
No store redirect on first tap	AppLovin and Unity both require interaction with gameplay before the CTA opens the store	AppLovin, Unity docs
Right click-through call per network	mraid.open on AppLovin and Unity, FbPlayableAd.onCTAClick on Meta, ExitApi.exit on Google	Network docs
Audio muted until first touch	Required by AppLovin and Google Ads; Unity asks for audio to stop when the ad isn't viewable	Network docs
Works in portrait and landscape	AppLovin requires both; Unity wants one responsive build and is deprecating single-orientation playables	AppLovin, Unity docs
No fake close buttons or fake system UI	Explicitly prohibited by Unity; a quick way to lose trust everywhere	Unity docs

Network by network detail is in the specs hub, and if you're fighting the size cap, read playable ad file size.

Genie Playable exports optimized builds for Meta, AppLovin, Unity Ads, Liftoff, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, Pangle and Mintegral, so the per-network packaging in this table is handled without a developer. Moloco coming soon.

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How do you test and read results? (Intermediate)

Once playables are getting approved, the job shifts from building to learning. These habits separate teams that find winners from teams that just ship playables.

·Change one thing per variant. Hook, difficulty, theme or end card. If two variants differ in four ways, a winner teaches you nothing.

·Start with two or three variants. Enough to compare, few enough to read with real budget. More in how many playables to test.

·Benchmark against your best video. Same campaign, same geo, same period.

·Judge on IPM, CPI and retention. Playables can show lower CTR and still win on installs and D7. CTR alone misleads.

·Track inside the playable. Engagement rate, where players fail, how many reach the end card. See what to track inside a playable.

·Give it enough spend before calling it. Low-volume reads flip easily. Set your threshold before launch, not after.

·Write down the result. A one-line log ("easier first level won on IPM, lost on D7") builds a creative memory that outlasts any one UA manager.

Signal	What it usually means	Next variant to try
Low engagement in the first seconds	The hook isn't landing	New opening frame or clearer hint
High engagement, few end card views	Too long or too hard	Shorter loop or easier difficulty
Good IPM, weak D7	The playable promises a game you don't ship	Show more real core loop
Strong first week, then CPI climbs	Creative fatigue	Fresh theme or hook on the same mechanic

For setting tests up properly, see A/B testing playable ads. For reading a live result, is my playable ad working?

How do you keep winners alive? (Advanced)

Advanced teams don't think in single playables. They think in families. A concept that wins becomes the base, and every new version is a small, deliberate change.

·Iterate from the winner, don't restart. Keep the mechanic that works and rotate the hook, the theme, the difficulty curve or the end card. Full workflow in how to iterate on a winning playable.

·Plan refreshes before fatigue hits. Have the next two variants ready when a winner launches.

·Match LiveOps beats. A seasonal event or new feature in the game is a ready-made new hook. The playable should show what players will find when they install.

·Localize the parts that matter. Text on the end card, and sometimes characters or settings for key markets.

·Split by network where it pays. Different networks, different audiences. A version tuned for one network's inventory may not win on another.

·Test feature ideas. A playable can test a mechanic before the game team builds it fully. Treat it as a signal, not proof.

·Keep it honest. In 2020 the UK ASA ruled that two Playrix ads for Homescapes and Gardenscapes were misleading because the puzzles shown didn't represent the games. Google Play's App Promotion policy also bans deceptive ads. See fake vs real playable ads.

Here's what we hear most from UA teams. The best concept is rarely the problem. The problem is that version five needs a new hook by Thursday and the person who can build it is booked on the game roadmap, or the studio's next revision round is two weeks out. Teams that fix the iteration loop get more out of a good concept than teams that keep hunting for a new one.

Every new version starts from the last one. Change the hook, difficulty or end card and export again, without a developer or an outside studio.

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What's the full checklist on one page?

Level	Checklist item
Beginner	One moment from the real game, 15 to 30 seconds
Beginner	Hook on frame one, visual hint for the first move
Beginner	One input, a fair fail state, a clean end card
Beginner	Under 5 MB, all assets inside the file
Beginner	CTA only after gameplay, correct click-through call per network
Beginner	Muted until first touch, works in both orientations, tested on low-end devices
Intermediate	Two or three variants, one change each
Intermediate	Benchmarked against your best video on IPM, CPI, D1 or D7
Intermediate	In-playable events tracked: engagement, fail point, end card reach
Intermediate	Spend threshold set before launch; results logged
Advanced	Next two variants ready when a winner launches
Advanced	Refresh hooks around LiveOps events and new features
Advanced	Localize end cards for key markets; tune per network where volume justifies it
Advanced	Every playable shows gameplay players will actually get

Where does Genie Playable fit?

Genie Playable is built for the advanced part of this checklist: making many honest variants of a playable that looks like your game, without waiting on a developer or an outside studio. It builds from your APK or HTML build plus the assets in Genie, from a format that's already working, or from a brief with Genie Agent. You iterate from the last version and export for eight networks: Meta, AppLovin, Unity Ads, Liftoff, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, Pangle and Mintegral. Moloco is coming soon.

Self-serve starts at $490 a month, or $249 a month for startups, and sign-up is free, with enough tokens to create your first two playables before you pay. Larger companies usually take a custom plan with a full one-month pilot, where the Genie team onboards you and helps build the playables you want.

Who it's not for: teams running a single playable a year, teams whose concepts depend on custom mechanics that need code, and teams that want an agency to own creative strategy end to end. Genie gives your team the tool; the creative judgment in this checklist is still yours.

Put the checklist to work. Start from your own build and make the next version from the last one. Your first two playables are covered on self-serve.

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FAQ

Sources

A playable ad from your own game is a 30 to 90 second interactive slice of your game: your characters, your art and one clear mechanic, packaged as a small HTML5 file an ad network can run. You can't ship your game build as it is. Networks cap playables at about 5 MB in a single HTML file or ZIP, with strict rules on code and clicks. So you have three options: export a stripped-down scene from your engine, rebuild the moment in an HTML5 framework, or use a tool that builds the playable from your game's build and assets. This guide walks through all three.

Key takeaways

What does "a playable ad from your own game" actually mean?

It means the player sees your game, not a generic template with your logo on top. Studios that do this well keep three things fixed and treat the rest as open.

Keep fixed	Open to change
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This matches what UA and creative leads tell us. Brand fidelity is non-negotiable. Gameplay is often borrowed from whatever is trending. The catch is policy. The UK ASA now treats even a genuine but non-core mechanic as potentially misleading, and Google Play bans ads that don't represent the app. The closer your playable is to what players actually get, the safer it is, and the better it tends to retain.

Why can't I just ship my game build as a playable?

Ad networks run playables inside their own ad containers, not as apps. Every playable has to fit this box:

SizeAbout 5 MB on every major network (AppLovin, Meta, Google, TikTok, Unity, Mintegral, Moloco, Snapchat). A WebGL export of a real game is usually far bigger. An empty Godot export is already over the limit.

FormatOne self-contained HTML file with every asset inlined (AppLovin, Unity, Moloco), or a ZIP with an index.html (Google, TikTok, Mintegral, Snapchat). Meta accepts both.

No external callsNothing loads from your servers at runtime.

Click-out callmraid.open() on AppLovin and Unity, FbPlayableAd.onCTAClick() on Meta and Moloco, ExitApi.exit() on Google, window.openAppStore() on TikTok, window.install() on Mintegral.

Behavior rulesMuted until the first interaction, no store redirect on the first tap, no auto-redirects, works in portrait and landscape.

The full list lives in our Playable ad specs by network (2026).

What are the three ways to turn my game into a playable?

	1. Engine export	2. HTML5 rebuild	3. Build from your APK or HTML and assets
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Most studios mix routes: a hand-built hero playable for a launch, and faster tooling for the weekly variations that keep a campaign alive.

What buyers expect to pay and wait: roughly $3,000 to $8,000 and two to four weeks per new playable from an external studio, and roughly $600 to $2,000 in-house once the setup exists. Nobody has a clean source for these numbers, so treat them as market expectations. One mid-size studio we spoke to put it simply: the market norm is "two weeks onwards", and their target is under a week.

Your game is already the brief.

Upload your APK or HTML build. Genie Playable turns it into a playable ad with your own art, characters and live events, ready for 10 ad networks.

Try it free on your game

How do I make a playable ad from my game, step by step?

01\Pick the moment worth playing

Choose one mechanic a stranger understands in three seconds. Good sources: your core loop at its most satisfying, the live event running now, or a format already converting in your genre. If you can't explain the moment in one sentence, it's too complex. One mechanic beats two.

“Merge plus puzzle looks clever and almost always tests worse.”

Segwise

02\Script the arc

Almost every playable follows the same shape:

03\Prepare your assets

Export characters, backgrounds, UI and sounds from your game, then cut hard. Compress images, use sprite sheets, trim audio to short loops and subset fonts. Base64 inlining adds about a third to file size, so aim for 2 to 3 MB in total and treat 5 MB as the ceiling.

04\Build it

Whatever route you use, keep the logic in plain HTML and JavaScript, make the layout work in 9:16 and 16:9, and keep sound off until the first tap.

05\Package it for each network

This is where engineer time quietly disappears. "A unit that passes on AppLovin can bounce on Unity," as Segwise puts it. Each network needs the right file format, the right click-out call and any required hooks. Mintegral, for example, expects gameReady() and gameEnd() calls. Build once and generate network variants from one source. Hand-editing copies is how bugs creep in.

06\Test before you upload

Then test on a real low-end Android phone. A desktop browser hides most of the problems.

07\Launch and measure

Give each playable enough data before you judge it. A common rule of thumb is about 50 conversions in four days, or 100 in seven. Judge on D7 ROAS and retention, not CPI alone. If you can, add events inside the playable (start, first interaction, win or lose, CTA tap, drop-off point), because network dashboards only show the last step.

08\Plan the next version before this one fatigues

Top-grossing games ship dozens of new playables a month, and most of that volume is variations of a winner. Leading teams put roughly 70% of output into variations and 30% into new concepts. Decide now which single thing you'll change next: the hook, the fail state, the character, the event skin or the end card.

What should I keep from my game, and what can I borrow?

Keep everything that helps a player recognise your game after install: art, characters, UI language, sound. Borrow structure freely, whether that's a proven hook, a pacing pattern or a format working in another genre. Racing and narrative studios often tell us their game "isn't playable". The honest read: a playable doesn't need your full core loop. It needs one true moment from your world.

What are the most common mistakes?

Mistake	What happens	Fix
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The next version, not a new brief.

When a playable fatigues, Genie Playable lets your UA or creative team change the hook, the character or the event skin on the last version and ship it again. No dev queue.

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Where does Genie fit?

Genie Playable takes the third route, and adds two more ways in. You can build from your game: your APK or HTML build together with the assets, narrative, mechanics and live events already in Genie. You can start from a format that's already working and rebuild it with your game inside. Or you can start from scratch and describe the playable to Genie Agent.

Genie Core keeps every version on brand, and Genie Playable exports network-ready variants for Meta, AppLovin, Unity Ads, Liftoff, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, Pangle and Mintegral from one source, with Moloco coming soon. No developer is needed at any step, and your team makes the final call on every version. Sign-up is free and covers your first two playables. Try it on your game.

Where to go next

First playable? Follow how to make a playable ad step by step, then run it through the playable ad best practices checklist. Once it's live, read how to know if your playable ad is working and how to A/B test playable ads.

Why do playables need their own best practices?

What does every first playable need? (Beginner)

Creative basics

Technical basics

How do you test and read results? (Intermediate)

How do you keep winners alive? (Advanced)

What's the full checklist on one page?

Where does Genie Playable fit?

FAQ

Sources

Keep reading

Anatomy of a playable ad: hook, tutorial, fail state, end card

Your playable is fatiguing: how to iterate a winning playable

How do you A/B test playable ads?

Ready to ship playables from your game?

What does "a playable ad from your own game" actually mean?

Why can't I just ship my game build as a playable?

What are the three ways to turn my game into a playable?

How do I make a playable ad from my game, step by step?

01\Pick the moment worth playing

02\Script the arc

03\Prepare your assets

04\Build it

05\Package it for each network

06\Test before you upload

07\Launch and measure

08\Plan the next version before this one fatigues

What should I keep from my game, and what can I borrow?

What are the most common mistakes?

Where does Genie fit?

Where to go next

FAQ

Sources

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FAQ

Sources

Keep reading

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Ready to ship playables from your game?