Mobile monetisation and marketing company ironSource has revealed plans to launch its first set of AR ads for mobile games.

The ads will use Apple's ARKit and Google's ARCore on Android to display characters from games in the world, all within an ad. These can be used within rewarded, video, or display ads.

The technology was created by ironSource's own Playworks Studios, which uses game design ideas to plan creative ads. The first campaign is set to run in November 2017, once ARKit is more widely used.

The true nature

"For mobile AAA games which are often 3D and filled with special effects, AR ads finally offer a format that can evoke the true nature and experience of the game in an ad experience," said Dan Greenberg, Chief Design Officer at ironSource.

"Ultimately, amazing creative experiences are not enough to guarantee campaign results. You need to be able to access large volumes of relevant users, and to live close enough to the data to iterate and optimize. As the first ad network offering AR ads, that’s something we're able to offer mobile AAA games looking to grow their market share by leveraging this new format."

IronSource's first batch of interactive ads launched back in June 2017. The ads performed 300% better than video ads in terms of downloads.