We live in a world of hyper-exposure to advertising. So much so that there’s a phenomenon called banner blindness. However, advertising can still be engaging and converting when you elevate your tactics. The perfect way to do this is with interactive ads.
In this blog, we will define interactive advertising and its benefits and components. You’ll gain insights on strategies to apply, inspiration from examples, and parameters to measure.
What You’ll Learn
- What Are Interactive Ads Campaigns?
- Traditional vs. Interactive Campaigns
- Benefits of Interactive Campaigns
- Key Elements of Successful Interactive Campaigns
- 4 Types and Examples of Interactive Campaigns
- Strategies for Creating Effective Interactive Campaigns
- Measure the Success of Your Interactive Campaign
- Future Trends and Challenges of Interactive Ads
What Are Interactive Ads Campaigns?
Interactive ad campaigns create an immersive experience for audiences. They provide the opportunity to interact and engage by transforming passive viewing into action. This tactic helps your brand tell meaningful stories, personalize interactions, and generate lasting impressions.
The key characteristics of interactive advertising include:
- User participation: These ads provide opportunities for active engagement and become part of the advertising experience.
- Real-time feedback: With formats like quizzes or polls, people receive immediate responses, which can lead them to take further action.
- Personalization: Interactive ads should be part of your personalization strategy; the experience becomes more relevant based on their interactions.
- Data gathering: The interactions generate data, which you can use to inform your future campaigns.
Traditional vs. Interactive Campaigns
The primary difference between traditional and interactive campaigns is the execution. Traditional advertising alludes to concepts that are static and simply convey an offer. The only potential interaction is a click.
Interactive campaigns encourage users to participate. It’s not just a click; it’s a longer, more engrossing experience.
Examples of Interactive Campaigns
What are the best formats for interactive ads? Here’s a quick list:
- Quizzes and polls
- Calculators
- Interactive videos
- Games
- Augmented reality (AR)
Benefits of Interactive Campaigns
Increased User Engagement – Engaging audiences is a primary objective in advertising, but it’s a crowded ecosystem, no matter the tactic. Interactive ads help you stand out and grow engagement. In fact, interactive content receives 52.6% more engagement than static content.
Higher Conversion Rates – According to research, interactive content generates twice as many conversions as its static counterparts. As a result, you should make interactive ads part of your conversion rate optimization (CRO) planning.
Improved Data Collection and Insights – When people engage, they are generating data with their actions or responses. You’ll gain insights into the standard advertising metrics around completion rates, views, and clicks. In addition, users enter their perspectives when they take quizzes or participate in games.
All this data is valuable and granular, delivering more insights. Those include:
- Increasing personalization attributes
- Understanding if ads are the ideal length
- Developing future nurture streams for those participating based on their opinions
Stronger Brand Recall and Loyalty – When people engage fully with content, they are much more likely to remember the experience. They may also look at your brand more favorably because you’re creating distinct interactions. This connection will be even stronger when there’s a personalization angle.
Imagine campaigns that invite customers and fans to create their own flavors or styles. This works because it’s a personalized journey that fosters a sense of ownership by the customer. The results drive sales and long-term loyalty between the customer and the company.
Key Elements of Successful Interactive Campaigns
When developing an interactive advertising strategy, what makes successful campaigns? Keep these things in mind.
- Clear Objectives: Define what you want to achieve, such as increased social media engagement, conversions, or website traffic.
- Determine the Target Audience: Outlining the buyer persona you hope to attract and convert will inform the type of interactive advertising you create, the channels where you place it, and the creative behind it.
- Create Compelling Content: Based on your objectives and audience, the content needs to educate, entertain, or be the solution to a common problem. Interactive campaigns provide an immersive way to tell stories that resonate, creating connections and positive brand perceptions.
Deliver the Best User Experience
Interactive ad interfaces must also deliver the right user experience (UX) qualities and technical backend. Otherwise, audiences will tune out and move on. It should be seamless and enjoyable. Consider things like:
- Ensuring all graphics and creative assets are high-quality
- Thoroughly testing the mechanics of the interaction to catch any bugs
- Addressing any accessibility issues that could occur
- Focusing on mobile-first experiences since a large number of people view ads on these devices
Now, let’s look at how to put these elements into practice with the many types of interactive advertising options.
4 Types and Examples of Interactive Ads & Campaigns
Getting into the interactive game offers many options. Depending on your goals, audience, and channels, there’s an ideal match for you. Let’s look at the different types and how they work.
1. Quizzes and Polls
Consumers love quizzes and polls, as evidenced by their popularity on sites like Buzzfeed and social media. They can be just for fun or actually lead people to find a product that addresses their challenges.
Users must engage with this content deeply, but it shouldn’t be too long. By using quizzes and polls, you make the experiences personal, educational, and entertaining.
It also provides great data that helps you better understand your audience and their needs. These insights could even spur product development.
Some interactive ad examples for quizzes and polls include:
- A grader quiz where people answer questions and get a grade with personalized recommendations on how to improve
- Polls on preferences around how people use your products
- Which character are you type of quiz that shows them product ideas based on the attributes they pick
2. Interactive Videos
Videos with clickable elements perform well. According to the latest State of Video Marketing, 60% of respondents said they were the most effective. Many people are visual learners and explorers, so they favor video marketing as a medium to do this.
You can create interactive videos that are infotainment, combining information and entertainment. Within short videos, users can make choices that take the story down different paths. Based on this, their “ending” will differ regarding the offer. People may find these so enjoyable that they are eager to share them on social media.
Here’s a solid example from Deloitte, created as a recruiting experience to make sure new hires understand fundamental company values. Now imagine this as an ad, maybe following the day of a busines sowner that needs tax-related services.
3. Games and Gamification
The inner child in us all is always up to play, so test out interactive gaming ads on social media, websites, and OTT (over-the-top) streaming.
Some interactive advertising examples that integrate gaming include:
- Instant win games like wheel spins or scratch cards for discounts
- Carnival game scenarios where winners get an exciting offer
- Puzzle piece games, where a new one is revealed every day on various channels, with players trying to solve it to gain an incentive
- Hidden objects ads that direct users to images where they must find the special object to win a prize
4. Augmented Reality (AR)
AR can create virtual immersive experiences that excite customers. A big trend in the AR interactive advertising space focuses on trying before you buy makeup and fashion. Many major cosmetic brands and retailers let users envision how that new lipstick shade will look, and it’s a great way to learn what items are popular if you can tie their interaction to sales.
Another interactive advertising example that involves AR enables shoppers to preview furniture and home décor in spaces. These ads have many benefits. Customers get a personalized shopping experience, which could reduce returns for online shoppers who often get the wrong sizes.
Strategies for Creating Effective Interactive Campaigns
To launch high-performing interactive campaigns, you should make these things part of your strategy:
- Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll use to measure performance in alignment with the goals you defined.
- Choose the right platforms and tools to create these interactive experiences. These could include quiz builders, video platforms, and technology for AR.
- Design interactivity that resonates with your audience based on your chosen personas. Pay attention to what matters to them in buying decisions and where they look for recommendations.
- Tailor interactions to the individual by using personalization and segmentation. Targeting options in advertising allow you to do this at scale.
- Test and optimize after you build the campaigns. Make sure you’ve worked out all the kinks; otherwise, you won’t meet UX expectations. Then, implement A/B testing to find the optimal elements to include in your campaigns.
Measure the Success of Your Interactive Ads
As part of your goal setting and KPI designation, determine the key metrics you’ll track. Examples include:
- Engagement rates
- Time spent with the activity
- Conversions
- Click-through rates
The key to accurate measuring is the backend setup, which can include tracking code on pages and using unique links. You’ll be able to capture this data by using tools like Google Analytics, marketing automation software, and social media platforms.
As you measure, you’ll see trends and patterns that tell you how effective the concept was in meeting goals. These learnings will help you improve your next campaigns. You may learn things like one format is more popular than others and which channels work the best.
Future Trends and Challenges of Interactive Ads
Common challenges relate to execution. You don’t have the time, expertise, or resources. You can close this gap by working with experts in the space.
Another concern is making sure nothing breaks. Interactive content can have a lot of technical pieces. If something fails, it all falls apart. An example would be using an integration tool to link a quiz platform to your marketing automation system. Even thorough testing can’t prepare you for technology issues. A good idea is to keep testing while live.
Getting user engagement right can also be an obstacle. Something you think your audience will love could fall flat, indicating you may need to do more research. Look to competitors, industry publications, and your internal subject matter experts.
The future of interactive advertising, even with challenges, looks bright. People seek interactivity in purchasing decisions, seeking to gain information in a quick, engaging way. AI has many potential applications. As it improves, it could support greater personalization, and with generative AI, you have a resource for creative.
AR plays a role in interactive campaigns; more industries will apply it to create virtual buying experiences. This trend could also see more use of virtual reality (VR), especially as more people have access to the technology.
Start Running Your Own Interactive Ads and Campaigns
To elevate engagement, you’ll want to make sure interactive campaigns are on your priority list. The benefits they deliver and the creativity they inspire make marketing fun. They allow you to make advertising compelling and interesting, something they can’t ignore.
Start your journey or optimize all your advertising with a partner like Ignite Visibility. We can help you with:
Let’s talk about how we can work together. Contact us today.
