Facebook’s new 'Playable Ads' let you try mobile game demos right in your newsfeed

You can now try that mobile game before you buy — and without even leaving Facebook.

Thursday, Facebook introduced a new ad solution with mobile game developers in mind. Dubbed “playable ads,” the feature lets video game marketers serve ads that give users the chance to try before buying.

Facebook users will be able interact with these playable ads and try out mobile games without even having to leave their Facebook newsfeed. There’s no download required to play the games in ad. The benefit for game developers and advertisers? They can better connect with Facebook users who actually intend to download and play the game. (Facebook, of course, benefits by getting paid for the ads by the game makers.)

According to Facebook, companies like Angry Birds developer Rovio and social casino game developer Bagelcode have already seen results with the playable ads they've run.

Bagelcode saw a 3.2X improvement in return on ad spend on Android and a 1.4X improvement in return on ad spend on iOS. And Rovio saw a 40% lower cost per paying user and a 70% lift in day seven return on ad spend.

Along with playable ads, Facebook has also announced a new retention optimization feature for game developers to monetize via in-app ads. This will allow marketers to target users who are “most likely to re-engage,” or revisit the app to replay the game.

Last month, Facebook announced another new type of advertisement on the platform with its augmented reality ads. These allow users to interact with the product within the ad, for example, try on a virtual pair of glasses and see how they look, using AR technology.

Facebook clearly views interactivity as the future of its social media advertising. Playable ads is another step in that direction.