Mobile games are a fundamentally different attention context than social. Designing ads with those differences in mind results in better outcomes on AppLovin.
Prioritize videos longer than 30 seconds
Because interstitial placements offer 5+ seconds of guaranteed attention and rewarded placements are unskippable for up to 60 seconds, short ads underutilize available attention. The majority of top-performing videos on AppLovin are longer than 30 seconds.
If you don’t have longer videos, you can create some using existing assets by stitching together multiple UGC videos. Showing more than one creator also increases the chances an ad will resonate.
Always use captions
Most mobile gamers play with sound off, so captions improve accessibility and significantly boost conversion. Use bold, legible font and highlight benefit keywords with color or stickers.
Videos with captions consistently outperform videos without captions. For example, videos with captions drove 64% higher Day 0 ROAS than (otherwise identical) videos without captions for Mellow Sleep in an October 2025 experiment.
Hook users in the first 3-5 seconds
Video ads on AppLovin are unskippable for at least 5, and up to 60, seconds, so hooking users in the first 20 seconds is not as critical as it is on social platforms. That said, using a strong hook is important to keep users engaged past the 5-second unskippable window in Interstitial placements.
Open with a strong hook in the first 3-5s, then focus on brand storytelling, education, and emotional connection. AppLovin reaches the coldest audiences with guaranteed attention, so users absorb a complete pitch.
Understand the traits of your winning videos, then iterate new hooks. Spin off audience-specific versions of winners, e.g., "Are you a busy mom?" vs "As a new college grad on a budget..."
Hook strategies to test
- Direct Problem Callout - Name the exact pain. Specificity = recognition.
- Bold Claim - Lead with the most dramatic result you can prove.
- Unexpected Demo - Visual proof beats any claim. Show, don't tell.
- Social Validation - Volume is trust. Lead with scale. # of 5-star reviews, happy customers.
- Data / Authority - Stat first, story second. Data earns attention.
Focus on storytelling and educating
In rewarded placements, videos play through their duration once they begin. This means you have users’ undivided attention. If you had your audience’s attention for 60 seconds, what would you want them to know?
Slower builds, layered storytelling, and educating on product features often performs well on AppLovin.