5 ad formats to boost mobile conversions this Shopping season

As the year winds down, a series of key shopping events —Black Friday, Singles’ Day, Christmas, and more— blend into a month-long season where users are more open to trying new apps to snag special offers. Last year, mobile made up 79% of Cyber Week traffic [1] and e-commerce app sessions experienced a 20% YoY growth on Black Friday alone [2].

‍In 2024, mobile spending for the holiday season is expected to reach $128 billion [3]. To make the most of this opportunity, marketers need to rethink their growth strategy—and creatives, the visible face of your brand in a performance marketing campaign, play a key role in capturing attention and translating user interest into installs, registrations, and in-app purchases.

In this article, we’ll dive into the trending ad formats and creative features that are helping mobile marketers drive meaningful interactions and boost mobile sales. We hope these set you up for a successful shopping season 🙌. Let’s get started!

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1️⃣ Countdown Ads: Encourage users to act now

Countdown ads build urgency, encouraging users to act fast. They're ideal for time-sensitive promotions like flash sales, game days, product launches, or seasonal events. Countdown ads are automatically updated in real time to always reflect the correct timeframe, ensuring your offer is relevant whenever users see it.

Countdowns tap into the power of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) by adding a time limit that builds excitement while highlighting urgency or scarcity. This makes them a perfect tool for promoting limited-time offers, limited-edition products, and early-bird deals.

2️⃣ CTV-to-Mobile: Real-time ROI measurement made easy

In 2024, 40% of US advertisers reallocated part of their budgets to CTV [4]. This channel has evolved from traditional branding campaigns to also work for performance initiatives: integrated with leading MMPs, CTV-to-mobile solutions now allow advertisers to drive measurable installs and in-app conversions.

When running CTV-to-mobile campaigns, there are specific visual cues and creative practices that help ensure a seamless, responsive user experience. Progress indicators, for example, inform users of how much time remains to scan a QR code or find your app in the store.

📚Recommended read: 7 actionable CTV creative best practices to grow your app. Check out this article for a full guide on creative best practices for CTV-to-mobile campaigns.

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3️⃣ Weather & time-based creatives: Hyper-relevant messaging at all times

Connected to APIs or product feeds, these ads automatically adapt to factors like weather and time of day—without the extra effort of designing new creatives or scheduling updates. This ensures your ads are always tailored to users’ specific context and immediate needs.

Weather and Time-based ads work for all app verticals, allowing marketers to test a range of creative concepts and tailor campaigns for different use cases.

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4️⃣ Apple’s creative features: A must for SKAN & AAK campaigns

Over the past few years, Apple has been introducing and refining creative features like SKOverlay and SKStoreProductViewController. Don’t let the long names throw you off 😂—here’s what these tools offer:

• SKOverlay displays a bottom banner over an existing ad, allowing users to trigger an app install or open with just one click.
• SKStoreProductViewController shows users an overview of the brand’s App Store page, allowing them to make a purchase directly from the ad.

Both of these features are fully compatible with Apple’s privacy frameworks (SKAdNetwork and AdAttributionKit), allowing you to enhance iOS campaign performance in the Privacy Era. With an Apple-native look, these features visually imply Apple’s endorsement of the recommended app, which makes it easier for users to understand how to take action.

5️⃣ Hybrid ads: Combine top-performing units

Hybrid ads bring together two or more creative formats and features within a single ad unit for a more interactive user experience. For example, after a traditionally view-only format like a video, a hybrid ad can include an end card with a Carousel or Multiproduct ad.

Get your creative strategy ready for the 2024 end-of-year Shopping season!

Due to the increase in competition during this period, we typically see CPM rates rise up to 40% in November-December (vs September)[5]. However, while costs during the period might be higher, installs and in-app purchases are also higher. 

The right creative strategy will help you tap into a greater share of this $128 billion opportunity. You’re in time to make it happen! 😉

If you want to reassess your creative strategy, drop us a line to talk to one of our experts or download Profit by Design, our latest creative guide for Shopping apps, for actionable tips.

Resources

[1] Salesforce, 2023.

[2] Adjust, 2023.

[3] Adobe, 2024.

[4] eMarketer, 2024

[5] Jampp internal data, 2024.

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