Background:

We are seeing more and more issues with interactive ads that run in inApp environments using the most common SDK-s. Ad viewers try to interact with the ad, but this is understood by the app as click through to a landing page instead of interacting with the ad as intended. This results in low engagement figures and abnormally high (10+ %) CTR.

Based on data from different exchanges, this is happening when people try to initiate drag interaction both on HTML5 & WebGL ads. We also see issues when people try to swipe, interact with gyroscopes, etc.

After some heavy testing and trying different solutions, we at Nexd have found a way to read the user interactions with the ad correctly and enable people to engage with the ads as intended.

In the near future, this fix will also be applied to HTML5 ads imported to Nexd Campaign Manager platform and served by us. We'll keep you posted.

Solution

The fix requires some additional input collection from the environment our ads are being displayed. We added a special “InApp Support'' checkbox to Nexd Campaign Manager (see screenshot below). To keep your ads light as a feather, enable this functionality only to the ads that really need it. If it happens that you selected the option, but are not running in mobile environments, then do not worry, the ad will work fine.

In detail, InApp support enables additional support for InApp placements like MRAID, Google AdMob integration, Mopub integration, and other platforms integration. Additionally, it also expands to offline tracking, meaning that the ad is preloaded but is shown in the InApp environment without the internet. InApp support enables us to handle the discrepancies more correctly that originate from preloaded ad units.

Keep in mind that there will be no negative implications in case those creatives with InApp support enabled also run on the mobile web. Enabling InApp support will just increase the size of the tag.