A click is a departure. It is the last event of an ad's life, recorded at the moment attention moves somewhere else. For two decades it was the best proxy we had for interest, so we treated it as interest itself.
A playable ad records the part that happens before the departure: whether the person picked up the mechanic at all, how long they stayed, which option they chose, whether they finished. Those are the signals that describe intent, and none of them require the person to leave.
What a playable actually measures
- Start rate — did the unit get touched once it was viewable.
- Completion — did the person reach the end card under their own steam.
- Choice — which item, plan, destination or offer they selected.
- Time to first interaction — how legible the mechanic was without instruction.
Choice is the one that changes media buying. A retail unit where three quarters of players build a basket around the same product is telling you something a click-through rate cannot: not that the creative worked, but which offer the audience wanted.
Why this matters outside gaming
Gaming advertisers adopted playables because the ad could be a slice of the product. For a bank, a grocery service or a travel brand there is no level to sample, so the mechanic has to stand in for a decision the customer already makes — filling a basket, moving a slider, picking between two options.
When the mechanic maps to a real decision, the interaction data is research. When it does not, the unit is a mini-game with a logo on it, and the only thing it measures is tolerance.
The practical consequence
Judge a playable on completion and choice distribution before you judge it on install rate. A unit with a low click-through and a clean completion curve is usually a targeting problem. A unit with high starts and a collapse in the first three seconds is a comprehension problem in the mechanic, and no amount of bidding fixes it.
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Keep going
- Measurement
Reading playable ad metrics without fooling yourself
Start rate, completion, time to first interaction, choice distribution and CTR — what each one diagnoses, and the order to read them in.
- Primer
What is a playable ad?
A plain definition, the anatomy of a unit, where it runs, and how it differs from video, interactive end cards and rich media.
- Craft
Eight mechanics for brands that don't sell games
Baskets, sliders, matches, reveals. Each one maps to a decision the customer already makes, and each one tells you something when they make it.