One ad never wins UA. A fleet does.
A playable ad is 12–15 seconds of real gameplay, built to trigger the install at the moment desire peaks. They are light, short-lived, and run by the hundreds — so winning user acquisition takes a whole fleet.
A method in three stages
How we make mobile-game ads.
Our method runs in 3 stages: concept, then polish, then scale. Each one is described below, with playable demos you can try right here on the page.
The purpose of an ad is to drive a player into a game. The ad doesn't have to be perfect, because the game is the perfect thing. If it works, engages, sets the mood, and readies the player to tap, that is enough.
We don't polish ads until they gleam. They are workhorses — a little rough, never precious, and cheap to make. They do the job, and they do it well.
What matters most is that they scale, reaching every niche in a player audience: rhythm-game kids, endless-runner regulars, idle tappers, match-3 solvers, word-puzzle fans. Everyone gets an ad built for them — the one they like, play, and install the game from.
How it works
Concept
AI-pipeline prototypes. Rough by design — the point is range. Different mechanics, different angles.
$250 · per concept
Polish
Selected concepts become network-ready ads — multi-layout, bug-free, wired for Meta, Google, TikTok, Unity, AppLovin.
$750 · per production
Scale & hyperlocalize
Same mechanic, completely different creative surface per targeting segment. Music, visuals, copy, cultural cues rebuilt.
$250 · per variant
Stage One · Concept
It begins with 8 concepts.
A concept is a mechanic plus a mood, a way for a player to interact with a game in 15 seconds. It is not a finished ad: placeholder art, a long bug list, mobile-only. Its job is to set a direction, one proposition for how a player might enter the game.
Default is 8 per brief, produced like a writer's drafts — deliberately different readings of the same brief. The client picks four to six. Each concept is $250.
Tap any preview to play it right here on the page. You can also scan the QR code to launch it on your phone, or open it full screen.
Stage Two · Polish
The selected concepts become real ads.
The second week closes the distance between a proposition and a shippable ad. The layout is made to adapt cleanly between portrait and landscape. The bug list is hunted to zero across the supported networks. The end card routes to the correct App Store region. One round of client revision is included, and further rounds are billed at $75 each.
The ad networks.
Mobile advertising is distributed through a small number of networks. Meta, Google Display, TikTok, Unity Ads, and AppLovin together take the majority of UA budgets. Each one accepts playable ads under its own format constraints and SDK conventions. A polished production ships conforming bundles for every network the client runs.
| Network | Max size | Format | CTA method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta (Facebook & Instagram) | 2 MB | Single HTML | FbPlayableAd.onCTAClick() |
| Google Display Network | 150 KB | HTML5 ZIP | window.open(clickTag) |
| Google App Campaigns | 5 MB | HTML or ZIP | ExitApi.exit() |
| TikTok Ads | 5 MB | Single HTML | mraid.open(url) |
| Unity Ads | 5 MB | Single HTML | mraid.open(url) |
| AppLovin | 5 MB | Single HTML | mraid.open(url) |
| ironSource | 5 MB | ZIP | dapi SDK |
A concept is a proposition. A polished production is an invoice line item. The distinction matters, and it is what the second week is about.
Each polished production is $750 and is typically completed within four working days. A typical engagement carries six concepts through to production. Final deliverables include every file the ad network requires: the HTML5 bundle, the thumbnail, the icon, the metadata manifest, and a preview link.
Stage Three · Scale & hyperlocalize
The third week delivers the fleet.
A polished production is one creative surface. A campaign needs many, for reasons that are arithmetic rather than aesthetic. Meta exposes 200+ audience attributes. Google Ads layers in-market and affinity segments on top. TikTok targets by interest cluster and behavioral signal. Each cell in that matrix is a different person: manga lovers, Vocaloid kids, runners, K-pop fans. Each one gets an ad of their own.
So each production is rerendered per segment. The game loop stays constant. Music, sound effects, palette, copy, cultural references, and pacing are all rebuilt. Translation is only a part of what changes. The full variable is the feel of the ad, and every variant is checked by a native speaker.
Read the diagram top down. One polished production fans out to six targeting segments, and each segment receives its own localized creative. Tap any phone to play it, or scan the QR to launch it on your device.
Polished production · $750
Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage
The generic playable. Vocaloid palette, English copy, a universal J-pop track. One core loop — the seed for every variant below.
JP female 18-34
Anime · Vocaloid · Sakura window
KR + SEA 16-30
K-pop fandom · Comebacks
zh-CN urban 18-35
Holographic idol · CNY
FR + BE + QC
Nostalgic anime · Paris Fashion
UK + IE 18-30
Anime × garage · MCM Comic Con
Global EN + LATAM
Holiday UA blitz · December
The number of variants a client orders depends on the number of audience segments in the targeting plan. Sixty is typical for a single-franchise campaign running in twelve locales with a light seasonal overlay. Two hundred is not unusual for a multi-franchise seasonal push across a full year. The $250 rate holds at scale: the thirtieth variant costs the same as the two-hundredth.
The rates
Flat unit prices, published.
Every engagement is built from the lines below. Nothing is quoted differently for a first client or a tenth. Nothing is billed at scale that was not agreed at kickoff.
| Unit | Rate | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Concept Stage One | $250 | A rough playable prototype built in the AI pipeline. Different mechanic per concept. Delivered with a preview link. Not finished — the point is range. |
| Polished production Stage Two | $750 | A concept taken to network-ready state. Portrait and landscape layouts. Tested against Meta, Google Display, TikTok, Unity Ads, AppLovin. One revision round included. |
| Localized variant Stage Three | $250 | A complete rerender of a polished production against a new targeting segment. Music, visuals, copy, cultural register rebuilt. Native-speaker QA included. |
| Video cut Add-on | $100 | Square, portrait, or landscape video version of any polished production, rendered at 1080p and compressed per network specification. |
| Non-mobile banner Add-on | $100 | Standard Google Display units — 300×250, 728×90, 970×250, 160×600, 320×480 — built from the polished production assets. |
| Revision round Add-on | $75 | Each asset includes one round of client revision. Additional rounds are billed at this rate. |
Engagements
Three ways to start.
An engagement begins with a contract against an agreed package. Payment is typically 50% at kickoff and 50% on final delivery. The minimum engagement is $25,000.
Pilot
from $25K
≈ 100 playable ads delivered
Test the format. Find a winner.
- 8 concepts
- 4 polished productions
- ~80 localized variants
- 4 video cuts + 4 Google Display banners
- Asset matrix CSV + MMP wiring
For studios validating playables as a UA channel for one franchise.
Growth
$50K – $100K
200 – 400 playable ads delivered
An always-on creative pipeline.
- 16 concepts across 2–3 mechanics
- 6–8 polished productions
- 160 – 360 localized variants
- Per-network video and banner sets
- Quarterly creative review
- Native-speaker QA on every variant
For studios running paid UA across 8–15 markets with regular creative refresh.
Scale
Quoted on brief
Volume scoped per program
A creative line for a full year of UA.
- 4–6 franchises in parallel
- 10–15 locales
- Seasonal calendar with refresh cycles
- Dedicated producer
- Multi-franchise asset matrix
For publishers running a multi-franchise UA program across a full year of seasonality.
The cadence
Three weeks, Monday to Friday.
Week One
Concepts
8 concept prototypes delivered via preview links. The client reviews and selects between 4 and 6.
Week Two
Polished production
Selected concepts brought to network-ready state. Layouts adapted, bugs closed, sound finalized, SDKs wired.
Week Three
Scale & deliver
Localized variants, video cuts and banners shipped to the client's ad platforms. Native-speaker QA on each variant.
Tracking & measurement
Built to drop into your existing UA stack.
Every asset is wired for the standard mobile measurement layer: AppsFlyer, Adjust, Singular, Kochava via SDK or postback, with click-tracking macros for Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, Unity Ads and AppLovin. Network-side specs (FbPlayableAd.onCTAClick(), mraid.open(), ExitApi.exit(), clickTag) are implemented per delivery target, not retrofitted at handoff.
For each campaign cycle the Studio delivers an asset matrix CSV that drops directly into the client's ad-ops tooling, with one row per variant covering network IDs, locale, segment, dimensions, postback config and SHA-256. We do not buy media and we do not own attribution. The data lives in the client's MMP, dashboards, and stack.
About Alconost
An ads pipeline twenty-one years in the making.
For 21 years Alconost has helped companies enter new markets and win users in them, first through localization and then through the multilingual creative built around it. Localization is the spine of that work: hundreds of game titles, hundreds of clients, 120 languages, 700+ in-house linguists, and dozens of native voices per release.
In 2012 the same line learned to render motion. Alconost Video added trailers, gameplay cuts, App Store and Google Play videos, UA pre-rolls, animated explainers, voice-over, and dubbing, reaching 1,100+ videos for 250+ studios. By the time playable ads arrived, the studio was already producing ad creative for some of the world's biggest mobile-game publishers in dozens of languages a week.
From localization, to motion, to interaction.
Playables (2025) is the third move on the same rails, with the same in-house linguists, the same editorial QA, and the same asset-handling discipline. A playable fills the gap a trailer leaves: what a viewer can see but cannot touch. Localization gave us the production line. Video taught us motion, sound, and timing. Playables turn all of it interactive, aimed from the start at one target: a player tapping install.
Appendix · Playable portfolio
Action, puzzle, word — the genres we've shipped.
Stage One prototypes from prior briefs. Rough by design, mobile-only, mechanic-first. Each becomes a network-ready, multi-layout, fully-localized playable ad once polished in Stages Two and Three. Tap any preview to play it here, or scan the QR to launch it on your phone.
Action
Puzzle
Word
Ready to build a fleet?
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