Anybody who has been been reading the news lately within the last month or so has seen this coming. In the next few weeks, we’ll begin seeing ads appearing in Android search results that allow users to take games for a spin before choosing if they would like to download them to their devices. Google made the announcement on Monday during their Developer Day at Game Developer Conference in San Francisco.
When this feature does begin rolling out, users will begin seeing AdWords Search Trial Run Ads in their Google search results, and will include a “Try now” button next to the download button. If a user decides to try it before downloading it, they will be able to play the game for up to 10 minutes before deciding if they’d like to download it from the Google Play store.
App streaming in organic search results began rolling out more widely on Android devices earlier this year, giving people the “Try now” option to preview an app before downloading it. Because of the fact that so few apps are being used after being downloaded (according to Google, it’s one in four), the ability to try before downloading is aimed at trying to increase the odds that users will remain engaged after installation.
Google started testing Trial Run Ads through AdMob back in December. The original test-drive period in those in-app ads is just 60 seconds, but now, users will have 10 minutes of trial time available to them in the new search trial ads. Although this feature is aimed at game developers, Trial Run Ads will be available to a wide range of apps.
Other announcements that were made on Monday include:
Portrait Video Ads in mobile apps – this feature will be launching in a few weeks. According to Google, 80 percent of video ad views in mobile ads on the Google Display Network are watched vertically, regardless of if the video was created for landscape or not. In the early testing phases, there was a significant improvement in both click-through and conversion rates. This resulted in lower cost er install and more installs form Portrait Video Ads.
Also, developers will be able to target ads to users who have spent more than 30 minutes playing games or played an app that is integrated Google Play Games within the past 30 days.