AI Enhancements, Interactive Ads, and Other Trends From Liftoff’s 2025 Mobile Ad Creative Index

Mobile marketing has seen some exciting innovations in the past few years. Top mobile games and apps are redefining what we’ve come to expect from ad creatives—and the rest of the industry is taking note. To help you stay competitive in today’s market, Liftoff’s 2025 Mobile Creative Ad Index takes an in-depth look at the creative trends attracting spend from vertical leaders.

Top Apps Are Building Standout Interactive Ads

As the battle for user attention heats up, more apps are investing in ad formats that maximize engagement. Interactive ads and UGC content, once “nice to have” luxuries, are now essential to scaling user acquisition campaigns. For non-gaming apps in particular, interactive concepts now play a crucial role in driving conversions.

Share of spend on interactive ads for top non-gaming apps grew 20% in 2024. This is a dramatic increase in share of spend compared to 2023, when top spenders allocated less of their ad spend on interactive ads than the rest of the field.

So how do you make the most of your interactive ad spend? While tried-and-true templates like scratch-offs can increase engagement rates, we recommend adding an eye-catching feature that stops the scroll to see more impact from your interactive ads.

For example, while a standard, 2D carousel ad may get lost in the shuffle, adding 3D design elements can catch the eye of prospective audiences. The same logic can be applied to other popular ad formats. For instance, swapping out the static elements of social scroller with video content can drive increased engagement.

Top Games Are Investing in Playable Ads and an Active Live Event Calendar

For mobile games, playable ad experiences should be table stakes. But for many games, game demos and minigames are still surprisingly underleveraged. We found that top-spending apps allocate over 35% more of their spend on playables than other apps, indicating that other games are leaving performance gains on the table. 

Significantly, when looking only at non-top-spending apps, ITI conversion rates for playable ads are 16x that of non-playable formats.

To take a playable from good to great, combine it with a limited-time event promotion. Top-performing mobile games are finding consistent success by highlighting live event offerings in their UA campaigns. By showcasing time-limited live events in their ad creatives, they are able to tap into player FOMO, motivating new players to download the game or returning players to reactivate. For more on how top games hack the live event calendar, check out a case study about Nexters’ Hero Wars.

Combine UGC With an App Walkthrough or App UI

It’s no secret why user-generated content (UGC) works. UGC ads are highly effective because content creators appear more trustworthy, and authenticity pays dividends. We found that UGC’s share of spend for top apps increased by 11% for top-spending apps, compared to 2% for other advertisers.

We also found that, on average, advertisers who introduce UGC to a campaign increase their impression-to-install (ITI) conversion rates by an average of 152%.

When it comes to content, a good place to start is a walkthrough. No matter what kind of app users download, they will appreciate an initial experience guided by someone they trust.

As a bonus, showing off your app UI before they install gives your audience a head start in the onboarding process. Critically, ensure that your assets are of the highest possible quality. After combining winning creative templates with a top asset, we’ve noted a 350% increase in scale (of ad spend).

Scale and Enhance Ad Creatives With Generative AI

If you’re looking to scale ad creative or test new concepts, you can unlock immense value with the right generative AI tools:

• One of the most common ways AI can help is by enhancing existing assets at scale. For example, an AI tool can add gentle motion to your static assets, turning previously flat visuals into attention-grabbing showstoppers.
• For video-to-playable ads, you can use AI tools to produce and test variations on top assets. You can create longer, more customized ad experiences by recombining existing assets in alternative sequences.
• When it comes to user-generated content, generative AI can help overcome one of its biggest challenges: language barriers. You can use AI to localize ads for any geo with translation, dubbing, and lip syncing all in one edit, while even preserving the actor’s original voice.

If you found these insights helpful, dive deeper with our full 2025 Mobile Creative Ad Index Report, packed with more tips and strategies for success.