Interstitial adverts are a type of online or mobile advertising that completely occupies the interface of a web page or mobile app, and their popularity has been fueled by the introduction of smartphones.
Interstitial advertisements are typically positioned at app or page transition points, or in between two distinct content pages, to provide a more memorable advertising experience. Videos, pictures, or interactive content are used to produce these advertisements.
Publishers and independent advertisers really like these advertisements. They are most frequently observed in the mobile and gaming industries, while they are becoming more and more common on desktop websites.
According to Google, mobile interstitial adverts should be positioned throughout the user experience. Specifically, they should normally appear at “natural transition points in the flow of an app,” such as the transitions between a game’s levels or activities.
But if they are not implemented carefully, they can turn into an invasive advertising option, which is why Google has started to punish some types of interstitial adverts.
Interstitial advertisements continue to be among the most well-liked desktop and mobile ad styles despite this. For publishers trying to boost their revenue from digital ads, they are a great option when used appropriately and under the right conditions.
Continue reading to learn the specifics of interstitial adverts for web publishers and marketers.
How Do Interstitial Ads Work?
Interstitial advertising is those that come just before the main content on a webpage or mobile app and can fill virtually the whole screen. Users are unable to ignore them as a result.
Interstitial advertisements serve to promote a website, educate users about a good or service, or bring in money when they naturally occur in apps or between two distinct content pages.
Interstitial ads are full-screen advertisements that fill the screen, in contrast to pop-up ads that appear over content and banner ads at the top of content. Ad forms that interstitial ad types can appear in include text, pictures, rich media, and video ads.
In certain situations, interstitial adverts are a better option because they are not affected by ad blockers.
Users can choose to either click on an interstitial ad to visit the advertiser’s chosen location or close the ad to return to the original website, application, or game. The type of advertisement determines when to use the close option.
While interstitial video advertising may have a five-second wait before allowing a user to return to the original content, non-video interstitial ads offer an instant close option.
An Interstitial Ad: Why Use It?
The reason why interstitial ads are so well-liked is because of their high click-through rates (CTRs) and impression rates.
Because interstitial advertising is more noticeable, they works well on mobile devices. Larger advertising can overcome ad viewability problems, sometimes known as banner blindness, in the context of smartphones by generating more impressions and user interaction.
Increased conversion rates and total ad income are correlated with greater CTRs. Users who see interstitial adverts have two choices: they can click the ad to learn more about the offering, or they can click the close button to go on. This indicates that there is a 50% likelihood that interstitial ads will be clicked. Interstitial advertisements have a higher click-through rate than banner ads, according to the facts.
One of the most common types of mobile ads is the interstitial ad, which appears in between ads on websites for mobile games and apps that frequently take up the whole viewport.
By optimizing interstitial advertisements, companies like Pinterest and Airbnb have seen a 100% and 300% boost in app installations, respectively. Because of this, the majority of publishers frequently include interstitial advertising in their inventory of ads, knowing that advertisers and marketers are willing to pay a considerable sum for them.
Because an interstitial ad fills the entire screen of the device, users are unlikely to be able to ignore it. For a greater user experience, publishers can therefore always display rich media and high CPM advertising here.
Because it would be difficult to ignore a full-screen advertisement, this lessens the likelihood that the user would overlook the advertisement that is displayed on the screen.
Penalties for Interstitial Advertising Use:
Google penalizes certain adverts, which may seem contradictory for a corporation that derives a significant percentage of its revenue from advertising.
As stated in its Ads Policy, Google’s goal is to “support a healthy digital advertising ecosystem” that benefits users, advertisers, and publishers while being transparent and
Google declared in 2015 that it would punish websites that ran full-page adverts asking visitors to install mobile apps in keeping with this idea. It subsequently declared in 2016 that the following would be subject to additional mobile interstitial penalties:
- Pesky pop-up advertisements:
Google forbids the display of pop-up advertisements that obscure most or all of the content on a website, making it impossible for users to read or view it when they arrive via a search link or while navigating the page up and down.
2. Invading Standalone Interstitial Ads
Google penalizes websites that display full-screen interstitial ads, or standalone interstitial ads, that cover a page and obscure the original content that users clicked on. Only after dismissing the advertisement can they access the content. These advertisements harm the website’s search engine rankings, much like invasive pop-up advertisements do.
3. Unwelcomed Independent Stand-Alone Interstitial Ads:
Additionally, Google penalizes the display of advertisements that don’t stand out from the primary original content on a website or mobile application. This occurs when the page layout is set up so that the above-the-fold viewable content resembles the isolated interstitial ad. The real content appears below the fold.
Additionally, you can alter how frequently unique users see interstitial advertising. This guarantees that consumers will not be presented with excessive or repetitive advertisements.
Exceptions to the Interstitial Ad Penalty
Not every interstitial will result in a penalty, even though carrying out the aforementioned actions may cause a website to fall in the SERP ranks. As Google claims, the new signal won’t interfere with certain widely recognized interstitials that users will surely be familiar with.
How Publishers Can Stay Out of Jail
Commercial breaks seem entertaining. However, there can be consequences if it is not used correctly. Timing is crucial when it comes to interstitial advertisements. When users are transacting or reading a crucial webpage for information, they shouldn’t interfere with their experience. Checking and adhering to Google Policies before displaying interstitial advertisements on your (publisher) site or app is the best and simplest approach to prevent penalties.
One thing to have in mind is that interstitial advertising on desktops might be bothersome, so take caution when using them. The large display panel on a desktop makes it difficult for users to find the close or continue buttons. However, the close button (also known as X) on a mobile device is too small to find and tap.
Nonetheless, a lot of publications display interstitial advertisements on their desktop sites. Likewise, you are in excellent practice if you have a strategy that is effective for your desktop website without resulting in penalties. If not, you ought to reevaluate your plans for interstitial advertisements on your desktop websites.
You must ensure that interstitial advertisements do not in any way annoy users, even when they are displayed on mobile devices. They ought to arise in between organic gaps. An interstitial ad might appear, for example, when the user is navigating between articles or when a gaming session ends.
Pro tip: Avoid inserting interstitial advertisements between user interactions if your website or application requires a lot of direct user engagement (such as clicking while playing Candy Crush). This could result in users inadvertently clicking on adverts, which would be an invalid behavior. possibly worse, you’ll impede users’ ability to interact with your app or website and may possibly lose them permanently.
1. Cookie Usage Advertisements:
One type of interstitial advertising that can appear right away after a user navigates to a web page is cookie usage interstitials. A cookie interstitial notifies the user that cookies are being used on your website and requests their consent, as opposed to marketing a good or service.
This is not simply a recognized form of interstitial advertising; in certain regions of the world, including the European Union (EU), it is required in order to give users greater control over the information they supply to websites. Depending on their size, businesses in the EU may be fined millions of euros for failing to display interstitial advertising stating their cookies policy.
2. Age Verification Supplements:
For the purpose of age verification, Google also permits websites to display interstitial advertising on pages that, among other things, contain adult content, products, or services. In order to verify that a user is authorized to purchase alcohol, these websites will request that the user give their date of birth. These interstitial consent papers are not only legal in many nations but also required.
3. Intra-Page Advertisements:
As long as the sites in question are not discoverable through an organic Google Search, interstitial advertisements that appear as visitors navigate between them on a website are permitted.
4. Getting past a paywall:
Example of Paywall Interstitial Ad
Interstitial paywall advertising is a common tactic used by upscale, well-known, and news media websites to entice visitors to purchase premium content. For web and app publishers who invest a lot of money and resources in producing high-caliber content, this is a routine procedure.
Best Practices for Interstitial Ads
As we can see, interstitial advertising is really useful, especially for app developers who want to charge for mobile websites and games.
Mobile marketers must incorporate interstitial ads in accordance with the following best practice standards, though, as Google is quick to punish interstitial advertising that doesn’t appear at natural transition points.
1. Give the user experience top priority.
The user experience must always come first when arranging interstitial adverts in programmatic advertising. Interstitial advertisements function best in linear user experiences, which means that they should match the app’s natural flow by appearing at its natural start and end locations.
It is advised that advertisements appear prior to the broken page or the prompt directing the user to click “continue” or “next.” This is due to research demonstrating that adverts that pop up very away after a user clicks a button may be startling, resulting in unintentional clicks and, eventually, a decreased conversion rate.
Interstitial ad optimization for the user experience can be further enhanced by designers pausing any app activity while the ad is shown. For example, to guarantee that customers do not experience sluggish or unresponsive graphics while the advertisement is playing, audio output from the main app should be stopped. Additionally, it’s best practice to avoid showing advertisements while an app loads or closes.
2. Use the Appropriate Amount of Advertising
Publishers and marketers should think about how frequently they utilize interstitial advertising in addition to when and where to insert them inside the user experience.
It’s important to avoid bombarding consumers with too many app interstitial adverts, as this will eventually irritate them and decrease user retention. Intruding advertising is one of the main reasons customers uninstall mobile apps.
3. Accessibility of Exit Button
Searching for exit buttons on pop-up advertisements that appear to be invisible is one of the most annoying things ever, and the same is true for interstitial adverts. Although the majority of users are aware that free mobile apps must have advertising in order to remain operational, if they perceive that they are being “spammed,” they will rapidly grow intolerant of the commercials.
Even though a lot of advertisers choose to use a timeout function, which forces an advertisement to be seen for a predetermined amount of time before it can be skipped or ended, standard practices ought to once again apply in this situation.
First, programmers ought to make sure that:
- Users are aware of the duration of this “timeout.”
- Where possible, users have the choice to bypass
- It is possible for users to leave.
The interstitial ad leave button is visible to users and isn’t hidden by subdued hues or other purposefully positioned elements.
4. Observe Google’s guidelines.
Similar recommendations to the ones above are found in Google’s rules for introducing interstitial advertising, which also advises developers to account for the possibility of ad latency.
Put differently, app creators should be aware that unexpected interstitial ad interactions can arise from carrier network issues. Therefore, pre-loading interstitial adverts could be beneficial in order to lower latency.
Examples of Interstitial Ads
Interstitial advertisements have the potential to be very captivating when properly planned and executed. These are a few current instances of successful interstitial adverts.
1. Playable Interstitial Commercial: Chandon and Moet
A brief game could be played by users of a playable interstitial advertisement made by Moet and Chandon. For the brand, this interactive campaign was a huge success.
2. Accomplished Interstitial:
Because they provide the user something in exchange for directing them back to the app they are currently using, rewarded interstitial adverts have a high conversion rate. As you. can see in the advertisement campaign below, Adventure Duck really got this idea right.
Exemplary video interstitial advertisement
A user is notified that they can view a video to earn additional lives and carry on playing when they complete (or lose) a level.
Benefits of Interstitial Advertising
Interstitial advertising is favored above other ad formats for a number of reasons. Let’s examine the reasons behind publishers’ affection for these ads.
1. Comprehensive Interstitial Advertisements
There are no limitations on what you can promote with an interstitial ad; it can be anything. Creating rich media advertisements that combine text, graphics, and video is simple.
2. Engaging Interstitial Advertising
The full-screen overlay of interstitial advertising can draw in the intended audience and provide an engaging experience while the user waits for a website to load or for the next level or action in a game to emerge.
3. High Viewability and User Engagement
Because of its popularity, interstitial advertising has better viewability than banner ads. Because full-screen ads are impossible to ignore, user engagement is increased.
It is also less annoying than most other online advertisements because the user has the option to ignore it.
4. Applications Across Multiple Platforms
Historically, interstitial ads have mostly appeared on mobile platforms and within applications. On desktop browsers, these advertisements are growing more prevalent, offering publishers a sizable source of income.
5. Elevated CPMs
Interstitial advertisements are more likely to grab people’s attention even though they could be viewed as more obtrusive than other forms of advertisements.
Because of this, advertisers value them more and are prepared to pay publishers more to have the opportunity to reach potential consumers. This is especially true for Android users; according to a report by Appodeal, eCPMs for interstitial advertisements on Android have overtaken those for iOS in mature regions, ranging from $5.26 in the UK to $10.11 in the US.
6. High CTRs (click-through rates)
Interstitial ads are unavoidable and provide viewers just two options: click the ad or click the exit button. As a result, click-through rates (CTRs) on these ads are typically rather high, which makes them a lucrative source of ad inventory for publishers.
The Drawbacks of Interstitial Advertising
Interstitial advertisements offer certain benefits, but there are also certain drawbacks to take into account. According to social media behemoth Meta, one of the most annoying and disruptive types of in-app advertisements is interstitials, which come in both static and video formats.
1. Analytics Skews
Analytical data can be distorted by interstitial adverts, particularly when inadvertent misclicks are recorded. Errors will increase the click-through rate (CTR) while lowering the click-to-install (CTI) rate.
Accurately assessing the effectiveness of an advertising campaign requires an understanding of the link between CTR and CTI. That ability is undermined by an artificially inflated CTR.
2. Abruptly Impair the User Experience
Although the use of these pop-up advertisements is governed by explicit restrictions, interstitial adverts are by their very nature fairly obtrusive.
Although this results in high viewability, the content’s flow can be interrupted and can be bothersome because it fills the entire screen. When used improperly, they can be especially annoying for gaming apps since they can cause the game to lag and divert the user if they don’t load promptly.
3. Google Fines for Wrongful Application
Publishers must make sure they adhere to all of Google’s display ad guidelines and suggestions when installing interstitial advertisements on mobile sites. In order to avoid facing consequences for implementing interstitials incorrectly, publishers should make sure they are aware of the most recent standards outlined in the Google Developer Program.
4. Sluggish load times
Because interstitial ads are typically larger than other ad formats, they disrupt essential web vitals and cause a delayed load time. Additionally, they frequently include more intricate designs and interactive features.
Users find slow load times and latency problems annoying since they make for a bad user experience. If a website or app takes too long to load, users are likely to give up, which can cost businesses money.
A variety of techniques are available for publishers to assess load times, such as Largest Contentful Paint
What Is the Pay for Interstitial Ads?
As with any marketing measures, interstitial adverts pay a comparatively high price, but a number of variables are involved, such as the user’s location and operating device.
The US ($9.64), Japan ($6.86), Australia ($5.98), China ($5.12), and Canada ($4.95) are the top five relevant eCPM nations for interstitial advertisements on iOS, according to the aforementioned Appodeal survey.
The US ($10.11), Australia ($8.62), Canada ($7.41), Japan ($6.92), and New Zealand ($6.65) are in order of popularity for Android.
Which Frequency Capping Works Best for Interstitial Ads?
Google caps the frequency of interstitial adverts at one per hour for each unique user in order to prevent interference with the user experience.
This guarantees that a user does not see an interstitial ad more than once.
Ensures Traffic Is Directed to Specific Landing Pages
What happens if and when a user clicks on this advertisement, even if the aforementioned standards concentrate on acceptable practices for when they scroll within an app?
Although receiving a click is wonderful, the real money is in the conversion. Advertisers would want to think about developing tailored post-click landing sites with the express purpose of bringing in new business, as opposed to directing viewers to a brand webpage.
Interstitial advertisements are a great ad type when used carefully, especially for publishers who work primarily with mobile online content.
When Are Interstitial Ads Appropriate to Display?
Interstitial advertisements should ideally appear before the broken page, not after. Break pages frequently require the user to touch the “Next” button (or something similar).
Which frequency works best for interstitial ad capping?
While interstitial adverts are beneficial, an excessive number of them can detract from customers’ experience and cause them to detest both your brand and the website they are using. Advertisers are responsible for making sure their adverts appear at appropriate intervals.
The ideal ad frequency from the advertiser’s perspective is one every 24 hours, but you can raise it to one every 12 hours. Establishing an ad frequency is preferable when you are optimizing your marketing campaign, that is when you have gathered sufficient It is preferable from the publisher’s perspective to cap interstitial advertising at one per hour for each unique user (if permitted by an ad network). It is ensured by this time that users do not view the same advertising again and over.
If strategically placed, interstitial advertising can produce excellent results. Because Adsterra’s Interstitials fill the entire screen, they don’t need any fixed area on your website. Full-screen coverage increases the likelihood that users will interact with the advertisement, especially when you see relevant advertising from our network.
Go over this guide to putting up an Adsterra interstitial campaign if you want to reach relevant audiences and turn as many users into leads and customers as possible.
Avoid these mistakes while starting an interstitial campaign.
Additional advice for marketers regarding where to display the Interstitial ad style is as follows:
Avoid using too many words. Pay more attention to the visual components than the text because they are more important for generating conversions.
Avoid deceptive advertisements as they may enrage people and result in legal repercussions. Be inventive and captivating, yet maintain your credibility.
Discard items that are inconsistent. Your landing page’s style and content must be reflected in your interstitials.
Conclusion
The most important advice for marketers is to select a trustworthy ad network that will link them to reputable publishers’ high-quality traffic. Advertisers and media buyers can interact with over 35,000 highly-rated publishers who send Interstitial traffic from 248 geos with Adsterra.
All publishers wishing to monetize their websites will have to do is register and obtain an Ad Code for the Social Bar, which includes all creative ad formats, including Interstitials.
One of the most successful forms of mobile advertising is interstitial advertising. So, is interstitial advertising a good idea?
It’s up to you to determine the solution to that. Whether or whether interstitial advertising is a good fit for your company is a complex topic that needs to be carefully considered. Interstitial advertising needs to strike a balance between generating revenue and offering a positive user experience.
If you work with a monetization partner like Publift, where we employ best practices, interstitials can be a very profitable and successful way to display adverts. Making sure that none of your advertisements annoy or frustrate your users is crucial.
Are You Adding Interstitial Ads?
According to a survey, 22% of users immediately search for the close button when an interstitial ad pops up on their screens. Nevertheless, after seeing interstitial advertising, 40% of users recall the advertisement and its offer. Thus, timing and relevancy are crucial for interstitial advertisements.
In case you are unfamiliar with interstitial advertisements, starting with Google AdMob could be the ideal option. It is recommended that mobile application producers read Google’s advice on incorporating interstitial adverts.
Finally, keep in mind that testing is essential. Even if your current setup is working well for you, it’s a good idea to keep an eye out for improved techniques. The same holds true for interstitial advertisements. You shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to increase revenue by keeping an eye on user behavior and the response from advertising in order to improve your methods.
FAQs
1. How Do Interstitial Ads Work?
Full-screen interactive advertising known as interstitials completely fill the user interface of the website or application they are hosted on. In order to maximize user engagement, these advertisements are typically positioned during organic gaps or transitions, such as the spaces between game levels and interesting activities.
A type of banner advertisement that appears on desktop and mobile devices (full-screen advertisements for iOS and Android) is called an interstitial ad. The aspect that sets them apart from other ad formats, such as banner, pop-up, and native, is their full coverage.
Rich media, text, video, and image are examples of interstitial ad formats. To access the advertisement’s final location, users only need to click or tap on it; to resume their current activity, they can simply close the advertisement.
2. Interstitial Screens: What Are They?
One kind of advertisement that shows up on a website in between the content the user has requested and the content itself is called an interstitial screen.
A countdown timer or a “Skip Ad” button that lets the user skip the advertisement and get straight to the desired content is typically seen on the interstitial page.
3. What advantages do interstitial advertising provide for publishers?
Interstitial advertising improves user experience and profitability for publishers by increasing income, offering premium inventory at a discounted price, and allowing for controlled ad frequency.
4. Where can you utilize interstitial ads?
Desktop websites, mobile websites, and mobile apps can all employ interstitial advertisements. But because of their potentially invasive design, they ought to only show up when the user’s activity naturally pauses or changes.
5. What is the punishment for Google’s obtrusive interstitials?
To protect visitors from invasive advertising experiences, Google penalizes websites that overuse interstitial ads, such as by concealing critical information or displaying them at inconvenient times.
