专访 CrossInstall CEO Jeff Marshall：脸书、谷歌试玩广告动作，将改变全球视频广告市场格局

Morketing Global Morketing Global 2021-03-10

文丨Seven、Eyck

如今，广告比以往任何时候都更加精细。在广告市场规模不断升级的情况下，用户对于传统广告形式的耐受度不断降低，抓住用户有限的注意力也变得越来越困难。

另一方面，广告主不再仅仅满足于以较低的CPI、粗放式扩大用户规模，如何最大程度提高ROAS、LTV、安装率已经成为他们新的追求，一套创新的解决方案势在必行。

近几年以来，开发人员选择的主流方式变成了“激励式广告”。不过，需要注意的是付费或受激励安装APP的用户往往质量很低，根据移动分析公司Quettra数据显示，平均一款APP在安装后的前3天内会损失77％的用户，这一数字在30天后更是会上升到90％。在用户获取成本不断攀升的情况下，开发人员势必需要专注于降低卸载率以确保能够获得最大的收益。在这种情况下，交互式广告模式，即试玩广告，再次受到行业关注。

以目前现状来看，对于试玩广告尝试最多的还要数游戏行业，毕竟这种广告形式与游戏属性有着天然的契合性，游戏玩家可以通过试玩广告提前简单互动，体验游戏核心玩法，让玩家自行判断游戏是否适合自己，然后再下载安装。随着时间的发展，应用、社交、电商以及品牌广告主也开始尝试试玩广告，有趣的创意层出不穷。

在人们的普遍认知里，用户被广告所吸引而安装APP，随后却发现内容与广告不符时，会快速卸载APP。然而，试玩广告在初期就会过滤掉非目标用户群体，从而加大的降低了卸载率，或者说提升了留存率，这也在最大程度上减少广告浪费。

可以说，试玩广告所带来的并非仅是形式上的改变，其背后代表的更是新式的获客模式。那么，试玩广告的发展空间还有多大？这种获客模式是否也能够在其他行业中全面推行适用？广告主在投放试玩广告时会遇到哪些问题，又该如何解决呢？因而，Morketing采访了美国移动广告平台CrossInstall CEO兼联合创始人Jeff Marshall，并与他针对这些问题进行探讨。

试玩广告再掀波澜

对于营销人员而言，试玩广告并非一个新概念。早在2015年，谷歌便曾推出APP Streaming技术，让用户即便没有下载APP，亦可提前在检索的过程中体验APP的功能。在当时，营销人员开始对于这种新颖广告形式有关注，然而受限于技术等方面原因，试玩广告的可扩展性、便捷性阻碍了其快速发展，广告主耗费更多的精力和成本却无法达到覆盖更大市场规模的效果。因而在当时，只有少部分App营销人员对于试玩广告呈乐观态度。

不过，随着HTML5、ram、JavaScript等技术的发展，试玩广告的门槛再次降低，兼容性及普适性等问题得到改良。而且更重要的是，越来越多的渠道将试玩广告视为发展的重点。

在2018年3月底，Google 官方正式宣布，Google Play将对其广告服务进行调整，推出H5内置广告，并在9月推出谷歌推出新服务“Try Now”。同样在这一年，Facebook也推出在News Feed和Audience Network上推出试玩广告Playable Ads。

Google和Facebook策略调整以及功能上的不断完善，对于外界而言，其实是在释放一种信号，试玩广告将会改变全球广告的市场格局。当然，对于渠道方而言，他们的引导并非没有自己的考量。

以Facebook为例，根据数据公司AdStage的报告显示，2018年1月News Feed的CPMs同比增长了122%，而这一数据在17年仅为45%。广告成本的加速提升，反应出的是Facebook广告需求增长，广告位饱和，平台广告占比较高，广告印象降低，用户体验下降等现状。单方面盈利的提升并不能让拥有长久眼光的Facebook感到满足，这也导致了Facebook调整News Feed算法，减少来自媒体、品牌商及内容出版商的消息推送数量。

从结果上来看，试玩广告成功帮助了广告主达成了他们的KPI。参与了Facebook信息流试玩广告的Miniclip首席市场营销官Nick Tsimpidaros表示，试玩广告的用户点击率是其他广告形式的3倍，平均每用户安装成本降低25%，与常规广告相比回报达到了两倍。

CrossInstallCEO兼联合创始人Jeff Marshall

“目前，试玩广告在全球市场范围内成为了新的高LTV（用户周期价值）广告形式代表。游戏玩家和用户有机会在真正下载或购买之前体验游戏或品牌，这种交互形式是试玩广告才能独家提供的，”CrossInstall CEO兼联合创始人JEFF MARSHALL也向Morketing透露道。

CrossInstall于2012在旧金山创立，通过其DSP和CaaS服务(Creatives as a Service)为移动广告提供了一种移动试玩广告多平台解决方案。他们从2015年开始专门制作试玩广告。其DSP服务则会将定制的试玩/交互式移动广告与高性能程序化竞标系统结合在一起，以高度定制的技术为基础，确保广告能够吸引到合适的受众。2018年推出的CaaS服务更是一站式为广告主定制试玩广告，并适配Facebook, Google, Snapchat, AppLovin, Unity等十几个平台的不同格式，且配合广告主数据效果进行试玩素材的优化，以触达上亿用户。

现如今，CrossInstall看到越来越多的公司将时间和预算用于试玩广告和交互式广告，包括Kolibri、Playgendary、Glu、PixelFederation、N3TWORK，Machine Zone、Nintendo、Philips Hue、Garena等顶级游戏发行商都已加入到试玩广告的阵营之中。

现阶段广告主的痛点

“游戏试玩广告能够产生更多的转化，留存和LTV。例如，通过允许用户在下载前对其游戏进行试玩体验，玩家会更加投入其中，从而能够增加玩家安装应用的可能性。这就是为什么像Glu Home这样的设计之家（玩家用家具来设计空间）以及其他非游戏公司，都被试玩广告所吸引的原因所在” ，Jeff Marshall说。

很显然，各种规模和行业的广告主都看到了使用试玩互动广告的价值。据了解，CrossInstall现如今也已经为包括电商，娱乐，零售，食品和旅游在内的13个行业创建了试玩广告。

然而，对没有同试玩广告/交互式广告服务商合作的广告主来说，在分散的全球移动生态系统中进行广告投放是一大难题。很多公司表示其难度远远超过预期。

随着越来越多的新平台出现，分散的生态系统导致营销人员投放流程变得更加复杂。各平台都有独特的要求，这些不同的要求会影响广告素材构建，广告优化和效果分析。此外，不同国家试玩广告的成熟度不同，这意味着在不同国家投放试玩广告时会不可避免的受到技术上阻碍，许多公司尚未十分清楚建立与所有不同平台兼容的高质量试玩广告是一件非常困难的事情。因此，想要投放试玩广告的游戏和品牌需要进行相应的规划，以确保他们在移动设备上吸引和获取用户。

“制作和优化试玩广告并不容易，每个平台对于试玩广告的要求各不相同，并且还存在压缩文件大小的技术问题，这使得做出精美高质量的试玩广告愈加困难，”Jeff Marshall说。比如，Facebook要求上传的试玩广告低于2MB，Google要求低于1MB，而一般市场上的试玩广告包体在5MB。

CrossInstall为了满足平台需求，会通过两个方式缩小包体。其一，缩小广告文件的大小，可以删除音频，字符或缩小图稿尺寸。但CrossInstall认为，最好根据每个广告素材的现实情况来确定各个功能的权重，并在此基础上优化文件。此外，CrossInstall还可以使用代码和图像压缩算法尽可能减少这文件尺寸。这些策略能够让CrossInstall保持试玩广告的内核和试玩性，同时在尺寸限制内的正常运行。

当然，这只是CrossInstall服务中的一个环节，他们希望提供端到端的创意合作伙伴服务，满足每位客户的试玩广告需求。为此，他们花费不少时间与各种网络平台建立合作伙伴关系，比如Google、Facebook、Snap以及其他许多顶级交易平台合作，确保他们的互动广告满足客户的特定要求。

“由于涉及SDK环境、文件大小要求等问题，直接购买试玩广告成功转化的难度往往超过广告主预期。大多数情况下，成功的试玩广告往往是在伴随数据基础上对不同平台不同效果进行有针对性的优化，方能达到最好的效果。所以我们在提供所有支持渠道适配基础上，服务内容包含创意、开发、质量保证，致力于素材的持续优化，和广告主一起获得成功。”，Jeff Marshall坦言道。

打造高质量产品模型

众所周知，试玩广告除了高转化、LTV高等人们熟知的优势之外，另一个优点就是可以为广告主提供更明确的归因测量，也能为广告主提供有价值的见解。

“我们会跟踪互动率，这是潜在新用户转化的重要效果衡量指标。例如，如果首次投放的互动率偏低，我们就需要分析素材并优化广告，让用户更多地参与其中。我们的CaaS产品允许我们使用数据驱动的方法跟踪所支持平台上的每个用户交互，包括Tapjoy、Unity、AdColony和GoogleInstant Play，并根据数据对广告素材进行自定义更改。”，Jeff Marshall说。

据了解，CrossInstall试玩广告素材中的动态参数包括游戏玩法难度，试玩广告的长度，CTA图像及语言，角色及背景等。这些动态参数能够令他们为创意优化测试的变量进行多重组合。通过对试玩广告动态参数的测试和分析，进而可以识别具有最强转化率的参数，以创建最佳组合，进而做出最引人注目的广告。

此外，CrossInstall的服务拥有非常广泛的质量保证流程，以确保广告在能够所有主流广告网络和平台上顺利投放。比如，他们会为每个试玩的游戏提供自动和手动QA，以测试Android和iOS设备上的加载问题，图形和方向问题以及CTA交互和点击行为，这意味着他们的试玩广告服务几乎没有延迟时间或崩溃，可提供最佳用户体验。

萌芽的中国市场

“这只是试玩广告机会的开始，市场处于起步阶段”，Jeff Marshall说。除了相对成熟的欧美地区外，其他国家地区的试玩广告仍处于起步阶段的市场。所以CrossInstall计划今年将在海外开设更多的全球办事处，为试玩广告不断增长的不同市场提供本地支持和服务，尤其是潜力巨大的中国市场。

大中华区（GCR）商务负责人Léa GAO

“因而在18年12月，大中华区（GCR）商务负责人Léa GAO将CrossInstall先进的试玩广告制作技术、丰富的创意经验带到中国，期待在亚太广告主身上看到更多的成功。今年我们计划增设全球办公室，在每个试玩广告增长的潜力市场上提供本地化支持和账户管理”，Jeff Marshall说道。

毫无疑问，中国广告市场正在极速增长期，其预期能产生的收益显然增强了CrossInstall的“野心”。

“中国仍处于蓝海阶段，非常多的广告主具有投放需求。试玩广告对于他们而言是一个全新的市场，虽然大部份广告主都还没有在该领域上有太多尝试，不过他们已经认识到试玩广告的发展趋势，具有试用试玩广告的意愿”，Léa GAO向Morketing介绍道。

这条路在中国拥有广阔的发展空间，而且还能走得好。对于现今具有前瞻性的中国出海广告主而言，他们俨然从Facebook最近在其News Feed和Facebook Audience Network上推出试玩内容的动作，窥探出游戏试玩广告的未来潜力。

当然，中国市场试玩广告的发展仍存在一些问题。

“中国目前可以提供精美、高质量且满足平台不同需求格式的试玩广告的公司为数不多，相对来说，更多还是以交互式视频广告为主”，Léa GAO说，“而像电商、社交、品牌、应用等行业领域的广告主，缺乏对于试玩广告的认知，整体落后于欧美市场。 ”

所以CrossInstall中国办事处会加快引进先进的技术和经验，为希望尝试试玩广告的中国广告主提供服务。现如今，他们现在已经在中国落地，准备建立团队。随后，会将工作重心放在本地化身上。

“未来，对于新入局的中国出海广告主而言，他们需要主要关注Facebook和Google上的媒体购买。另一方面，创意内容在未来会更加重要，高质量的创意广告素材对ROAS来说至关重要”，Léa GAO说。

CrossInstall在试玩广告领域四年的技术积累和经验，将会帮助中国广告主解决这部分的难题，制作更具竞争性、更高质的创意广告。

“CrossInstall总公司位于美国加州的旧金山，但是我们希望扩展我们的能力，不仅要在欧美成为程序化和试玩广告的中坚力量，也能成为全球试玩广告的强大动力，目前我们也在大力发展亚太地区，尤其是中国市场，是试玩广告进一步全球化推进的关键”，Jeff Marshall 说道。

英文版：

CrossInstall’s CEO, Jeff Marshall: Facebook and Google’s interactive advertising campaigns will changethe global advertising market landscape

Today,advertising is more sophisticated than ever. As the size of the advertisingmarket continues to increase, users are continuously less tolerant oftraditional forms of advertising and it has become increasingly difficult tocapture users’ limited attention.

Meanwhile,advertisers are no longer just satisfied with the increase in user scale with alow CPI. Maximizing ROAS, LTV, and install rate have become their new pursuit.Thus, an innovative solution is imperative.

Inrecent years, the mainstream approach chosen by developers has become "rewarded advertising." However,it's important to note that users who pay for or are motivated to install anapp tend to have very low quality. According to mobile analytics company Quettradata, on average, an APP will lose 77% of users in the first 3 days afterinstallation. After 30 days, it will rise to 90%. As user acquisition costscontinue to rise, developers are focused on reducing the uninstall rate to ensuremaximum profitability. In this case, the interactive advertising model, thatis, playable advertising, has once again received industry attention.

Inthe status quo, playable advertising is most used in the gaming industry. Afterall, this kind of advertising has a natural fit with the game attributes. Playerscan experience the game’s essence through simple interactions. They can determinefor themselves whether the game is right for them, and then download or install.More recently, app, social, e-commerce, and brand advertisers have also begunexperimenting with interactive and playable ads, and there has been anemergence of interesting ideas.

Ifusers interact with an ad and later install the app only to find the content isfar different from their ad experience, they will immediately uninstall the app. However, the chance for users to trybefore downloading will filter out the non-target user groups at the beginning.This will reduce the uninstall rate and increase the retention rate, which helpsadvertisers maximize their budgets.

Playableadvertisements bring not only a formal change, but also a new style of customeracquisition. So, how much space does playable advertising have for development?Can this kind of customer model be fully implemented in other industries? Whatproblems will advertisers encounter when they launch playable ads, and what arethe solutions? Morketing interviewed Jeff Marshall, CEO and Co-founder ofCrossInstall, a US mobile advertising company, and discussed these topics withhim.

Thereemergence of playable ads

Formarketers, playable advertising is not a new concept. As early as 2015, Googlelaunched APP Streaming technology, allowing users to experience the functionsof the app in the process of retrieval even if they did not download the app. Atthat time, marketers began to pay attention to this new form of advertising.However, due to technical limitations, the scalability and convenience of playableadvertising hindered its rapid development. Even though advertisers spent moreenergy and budget, they could not cover the large market size . So at the time,only certain App marketers used playable ads.

However,with the development of HTML5, ram, JavaScript and other technologies, thethreshold for playable advertising has been lowered again, and issues such ascompatibility and universality have been improved. And more importantly, morechannels focus on playable advertising development.

Atthe end of March 2018, Google officially announced that Google Play would adjustits advertising services, launch H5 built-in advertising, and launch a newservice in September called "Try Now." Facebook also launchedPlayable Ads on its News Feed and Audience Network.

Googleand Facebook's strategic adjustments and continuous improvement to features signalsthat playable advertising will change the market landscape of global advertising.Of course, there are a number of factors in play that persuaded them to focuson this up and coming ad format.

TakeFacebook as an example. According to a report by the data company AdStage, theCPMs of the News Feed increased by 122% in January 2018, while this figure wasonly 45% in 2017. The accelerated increase in advertising costs reflects thecurrent growth in Facebook’s advertising demand, the saturation of advertisingspace, the high proportion of platform advertisements, and the lowering ofadvertising impressions. As Facebook strives toward multilateral profitabilitywith its long-term vision, it has adjusted the News Feed algorithm to reducethe number of News Feeds from media, brand owners and content publishers.

Illustratedby the results, playable ads have successfully helped advertisers achieve theirKPIs. Nick Tsimpidaros, Chief Marketing Officer at Miniclip, who used Facebook News Feed ads, said that the user click rateof playble ads is three times that of other ad formats, and the averageper-user installation cost is reduced by 25%, doubled compared to regular ads.

CrossInstall CEO & Co-founder JEFF MARSHALL

“Recently, playable ads havecome to represent the new, high LTV (lifetime value) format in marketsworldwide. Players and users value the chance to experience a game or brandbefore the actual download or purchase point – this sort of interaction isenabled uniquely by playables,” CrossInstall CEO & Co-founder JEFF MARSHALL revealed to Morketing.

Founded in San Francisco in 2012, CrossInstall provides a uniqueapproach to mobile advertising as a multi-platform solution for playables throughits DSP and CaaS services (Creatives as a Service). They started making playableads in 2015. Their DSP service combines custom playable/interactive mobileadvertising with a high-performance programmatic bidder based on highlycustomized technology to ensure that ads reach the right audience. The CaaSservice, launched in 2018, is a one-stop shop for custom ads and helpsadvertisers run in-house, custom-built playable mobile ads on Facebook, Google,Snapchat, AppLovin, Unity and other platforms. The service offers advertisersads built to their specifications with in-house expert design, development, andquality assurance for playable ad creative compatible across leading platformsand channels to reach the hundreds of millions of users.

Today,CrossInstall has seen more companies spending time and budget on playable andinteractive advertising, including top game publishers such as Kolibri,Playgendary, Glu, Pixel Federation, N3TWORK, Machine Zone, Nintendo, PhilipsHue, and Garena.

Advertiserpain points and solutions

“Playable ads can generate more conversions, retention and LTV. Forexample, by allowing users to experience a snapshot of their games beforedownloading, players will be more involved, which increases the likelihood ofplayers installing apps. This is why advertisers like Glu, that offers a uniquegame experience with Design Home (where players place furniture to design aunique space), and other non-gaming companies choose to use interactive ads, saidJeff Marshall.

Clearly,advertisers of all sizes and industries have seen the value of using demointeractive ads. CrossInstall has created trial ads for 13 industries whichinclude e-commerce, entertainment, retail, food and travel.

However,the decentralized global mobile ecosystem presents a problem for advertisersthat choose not to use a playable/interactive ad partner to design and optimizetheir ads. Many companies find the process far more difficult than they had expected.

Theworldwide mobile ecosystem is fragmented. With the growth of new platforms,almost all processes have become more complex. Individual networks andplatforms have unique requirements which impact creative builds, adoptimization, and reporting and analysis. In addition, the maturity of playableads in different countries varies, which means there are frequent technicalhindrances . Many companies are not yet fully aware that building high quality playableads that are compatible with different platforms is very difficult. Therefore,games and brands need to plan accordingly to ensure they attract and captureusers on mobile devices.

"It'snot easy to create and optimize high-quality playable ads. Each platform hasdifferent requirements, and there are technical issues with compressing filesizes. This iswhy clients come to CrossInstall as their playable provider. " JeffMarshall said. For example, Facebook requires an upload size under 2MB andGoogle requires less than 1MB, while the general market ad package is 5 MB.

Inorder to meet each platform’s specific requirements, CrossInstall will shrinkthe file size in two ways. They remove audio, characters or downsize theartwork. However, CrossInstall finds it best to optimize file weight on aper-creative basis. In addition, CrossInstall can use code and imagecompression algorithms tominimize these efforts whenever possible. These tactics ensure they keep theessence of the game and playable, while working within sizing constraints.

Ofcourse, this is just one part of CrossInstall’s service. They act as a creativepartner to meet each customer's advertising needs. To do this, they spend a lotof time building partnerships with various online platforms, such as Google,Facebook, Snap and many other top exchanges and platforms, to ensure that theirinteractive ads meet the specific needs of their customers.

“Buying playable units outright is always more difficult thanadvertisers expect because of issues surrounding creative optimizations, SDKenvironments, and file size requirements. Therefore, each playable must becatered toward the requirements of the specific platform. That’s why it is soimportant that our service is inclusive of ideation, development, QA, andongoing optimizations," Jeff Marshall said frankly.

Offering aHigh-Quality Service

Interactiveads provide advantages such as high conversion and high LTV. Another advantageis the ability to provide advertisers with more specific attributionmeasurements and valuable insights.

"Wetrack interaction rates, which are a first look into how effective a playablead is at guiding a sub-set of potential new users through the playableexperience. For example, if the first interaction rate is low, we need toanalyze and optimize the ad to increase user engagement from the start. We use a data-driven approach totrack every user interaction across all platforms, including Tapjoy, Unity,AdColony, Google Instant Play and soon including others. We make customizedchanges to the creative based on the data ," Jeff Marshallsaid.

Thedynamic parameters in CrossInstall’s interactive creative are almost limitlesscombinations of variables they test for creative optimization. These caninclude the difficulty of gameplay, the length of the ad, the CTA image andlanguage, and the characters and background. Through the testing and analysis ofdynamic parameters within the playable, advertisers can identify the parameterswith the strongest conversion rates to create a winning combination and themost compelling ad.

Inaddition, CrossInstall's services have an extensive quality assurance process toensure ads run smoothly across all major ad networks and platforms. They provideboth automated and manual QA for each playable to test for loading issues,graphical and orientation issues, and CTA interactions and click-throughbehavior across Android and iOS devices, meaning there is no lag time orcrashing.

Fast Growing Chinese market

"Thisis just the beginning of the growth of playable advertising, and the market isin its infancy," said Jeff Marshall. While playable ads have been aroundlonger in the European and American markets, in other countries they are stillin the initial stages. Therefore, CrossInstall plans to open more globaloffices overseas this year to provide local support and services for thegrowing market of playable ads, especially with the huge potential of theChinese market.

Léa GAO, the Head of Business in Greater China

“In December 18, Léa GAO, the Head of Business in Greater China (GCR),joined CrossInstall expanding our presence in APAC and worldwide by bringingplayable ads to a market where they are still in their infancy.

We are planning on opening additional global offices thisyear. We want to provide local support and account management to each marketwhere playables are growing,” Jeff Marshall said.

Thereis no doubt that the Chinese advertising market is experiencing rapid growth,and its expected revenues have clearly enhanced CrossInstall's ambitions.

“China’s advertisers have ahigh demand for playable ads as a new market. Although, most advertisers areonly starting to get their feet wet in this field, the playable ad trend hasalready piqued their interest, Léa GAO mentioned to Morketing.

Thisstrategy has a vast space for development in China. For today's forward-lookingChinese advertisers, they can see the future potential of interactive ads fromFacebook's recent launch of playable content on its News Feed and FacebookAudience Network.

Ofcourse, there are still some obstacles in the development of playable advertisingin the Chinese market.

“First of all, most 'experimental ads' seen by Chinese advertisersare non-html5 video creatives, not real playable ads. At present, there are notenough competent companies in China that can produce high-quality playable ads.Secondly, most Chinese advertisers choose to purchase a single playable ad fortesting. They are not aware of the importance of optimizing the playable creativesbased on data performance. Many domestic advertisers think that playable adsare as simple as just creating them," Léa GAO said. "There is asignificant opportunity to collaborate with all types of advertisers in China. Many advertisers are missing out on theoptimization step with their playable ads which can be critical to the successof their performance. Fortunately,this is why companies like CrossInstall can help with the entire process fromdevelopment to optimization and beyond."

Therefore,CrossInstall’s China office and years of experience with playable ads andrenowned clients will accelerate the introduction of playbale ads to Chineseadvertisers. CrossInstall is first building a team in China. Later, the focuswill be on localization.

“Chinese advertisers who enter the global market are more focused on buyingtraffic on Facebook and Google than in the past. Creative content is also farmore important than simply buying users, and quality creatives are crucial to ROAS,Léa GAO said.

CrossInstall'sfour years of technical accumulation and experience in the field of playableadvertising will help Chinese advertisers create compelling, quality creatives.

"CrossInstall’s headquarters is based in San Francisco, California, but we want to expand ourcapabilities to become a powerful driving force for global playable advertising.We are seriously developing the Asia-Pacific region. We continue to strivetoward not only being the leading creator of programmatic and playable ads inthe United States, but to expand our capabilities to be a worldwide powerhousefor interactive ads,” said Jeff Marshall.

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