Google introduces interactive ads so you can try out Android apps without installing them

Google is experimenting with a way to make Android-based ads less irritating and more useful. Trial Run Ads are a new type of interactive ad that lets you try out games by streaming them rather than installing them. It's a format that Google and developers hope will help to drive installations, the thinking being that try-before-you-buy makes things easier for the would-be customer.

The new ads came about after research showed that mobile users' attention spans have shortened, and a quarter of downloaded apps are never used. Google is also introducing beta support for HTML5-based Interactive Interstitial ads which can be used for regular apps and not just games.

Trial Run Ads are very much what you would expect. They give the opportunity to test drive a game for up to 60 seconds so you can decide if it is the sort of thing you would like to download. It's an alternative to the often used system of making available two versions of a game (trial and full), or providing in-app purchases to unlock features. By making ads interactive, the burden of effort is taken off the user making them more likely to engage. Google says they should lead to "more relevant ad clicks, app downloads, and pre-qualified app users".

Interactive Interstitial ads are a new, highly flexible format which allows for data to be pulled in dynamically. This in turn means that ads can be more easily updated and made more relevant to users. While the format does not allow for app streaming in the same way as Trial Run Apps, it does allow developers to show of a portion of their apps or provide various levels of interactivity.

As these new formats are currently in beta, it may be a little while before end users start to see them, but more interesting ads are on the way.

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