How much does a playable ad cost? Pricing explained

The honest answer to "how much does a playable ad cost?" is that it depends on what you are buying: a proven mechanic dressed in your art, a mechanic built from scratch around your game, or a batch of variants for testing. Prices across the market range widely, from freelancers to large production studios, and quotes are often hard to compare because they include different things.

Here is how we price, so you have a concrete reference point. Every project gets a fixed quote after the brief. Ready templates start from $390, and custom playables start from $1,490. The rest of this article explains what drives the number up or down, and how to compare quotes from anyone, including us.

What you are paying for

A playable looks small on screen, but the work behind it has six distinct parts. Every quote is some mix of them.

1. Concept and storyboard. Choosing the mechanic and the angle, and laying out the hook, the interaction and the end card. This is where the playable is won or lost, and it is the cheapest place to make changes.
2. Art. Adapting your existing game or brand assets, or creating new ones. Reusing layered source art is far cheaper than drawing new characters.
3. Game code. The mechanic itself, its feel, its difficulty curve and its feedback. A tap-to-choose interaction is quicker than a physics puzzle.
4. Network builds. One file per network, each with its own packaging, store call, orientation and size limit. Our specs checklist shows why this is real work rather than an export button.
5. QA. Playing every build to the end on real iOS and Android phones, and through each network's own checker.
6. Reviews and changes. Rounds of feedback on a test link, from feel and difficulty to copy and polish.

Production cost is not media cost

Search results for "playable ad cost" mix two different budgets, so it is worth separating them.

• Production cost is what you pay once to have the playable designed, built and packaged. That is what this article and our prices cover.
• Media cost is what you pay the network each time the ad runs. It depends on the network, the geography, the bidding model and how well the creative performs. Google Ads, for example, bills playable assets in App campaigns per engagement.

The two are linked. A playable that lifts installs per thousand impressions lowers your cost per install on every impression you buy, which is why a stronger build can pay for itself quickly on a meaningful budget. It also means the cheapest production option is not automatically the cheapest overall.

There are also smaller costs that rarely appear on a quote: network review time, resubmissions when a spec changes, and refreshes when a winning creative starts to fatigue. Plan a little time and budget for them from the start.

Template, custom or variant

Ready templates

A template is a mechanic that already works: it has been built, tuned and tested across networks. A reskin swaps the art, colours, copy and end card for yours. It is the fastest and cheapest route, and the right one when speed matters more than a bespoke mechanic, or when you want to learn whether playables work for you at all before investing in a custom build.

The trade-off is fit. A template shows a mechanic that suits your product, not necessarily your product's own core loop. For brands that is often fine; for a game, it works best when the template is close to the real first session.

Custom playables

A custom playable is built around your game's core loop, using your art and tone, from storyboard to final build. It is the right choice when the mechanic is the pitch, when your game has a distinctive feel a template cannot capture, or when you plan to iterate on the playable for months.

Variants

Once a playable exists, the cheapest performance gains usually come from variants of it: a different opening frame, an easier or harder first level, a new end card, another language. If the original was built with its variables in a config file, a variant is a change to that file rather than a new project, and it should be priced accordingly.

What makes a custom playable cost more

• New art. Characters drawn and animated for the ad cost more than adapting your existing assets.
• Complex mechanics. Real physics, path drawing, chain reactions and multi-step puzzles take longer to build and tune than a single tap. A draw-a-path mechanic like our Roll Home concept needs more tuning than a flavour picker like Tidewell.
• More content. Each extra level, scene or branch adds design and QA time. Most playables need one level and a twist, not three levels.
• 3D or heavy effects. These cost more to build and to fit within the size budget.
• Many languages from day one. Each language needs layout checks, and some scripts need extra font weight.
• Late changes of direction. Changing the mechanic after the build has started costs far more than changing the storyboard.

What keeps the price down

• Layered source art. Characters, backgrounds and UI as separate layers, plus fonts and logos.
• A clear brief. Store link or brand guide, the networks, the deadline, your best current creative and the metric you will judge by.
• One mechanic, one angle. The best playables are focused anyway.
• Decisions at storyboard stage. Approving the hook, interaction and end card on paper keeps the build rounds about polish.
• Consolidated feedback. One list per review round, agreed internally first, rather than separate notes from five people.
• All networks named up front. Adding a network after delivery means another round of packaging and QA.

In-house, freelancer or studio

In-house makes sense when you produce playables every week. You control the queue and the knowledge stays with you. The cost is a team that has to stay current with every network's spec changes, as 2026's move of ironSource's direct campaigns into Unity Ads showed.

Freelancers can be very cost-effective for well-defined builds. Check that they deliver for every network you need, that they test on real devices and that you receive the source.

A studio brings design, art, code and network QA under one roof, with a process and a fixed price. You pay for that structure, and in return you get predictable timing and someone accountable for every file.

How to compare quotes

Two quotes for "a playable ad" can describe very different deliveries. Ask every supplier the same questions:

1. Is the price fixed, and what would change it?
2. Which networks are included, and is each one a separate tested build?
3. How many review rounds are included, and what counts as a new request?
4. Is there a storyboard before the build starts?
5. Is the build tested on real iOS and Android devices?
6. Do you receive the source files, and on what terms can you reuse them?
7. What does a variant cost once the first build exists?
8. What is the turnaround from approved brief to delivery?

Budget for a test series, not one ad

A single playable is one data point. The value comes from learning which concept, hook and end card work for your audience, and that takes a small series. A practical first budget for a game advertiser looks like this:

• One custom playable on your strongest angle, or two templates on different angles if you want a fast concept test.
• Two or three hook variants of whichever performs better.
• One end card variant.
• Language versions of the winner for your main markets.

Judge the spend by cost per learning rather than cost per file. A cheap playable that teaches you nothing is expensive; a custom build that finds an angle you can scale for months is cheap. Our guide to A/B testing playable ads shows how to sequence those tests.

How our quotes work

You send the store link or brand guide, your networks and your deadline. Within a day you get a storyboard with the hook, the interaction and the end card, and a fixed quote. The build comes with a test link that runs in any phone browser and two review rounds. Delivery is network-ready files, tested on iOS and Android, plus the source files.

Ready templates start from $390 and custom playables from $1,490. You can play our concept playables to get a feel for the quality, or read about brand playables if you are not a game advertiser.

Start a playable with us

Send us your store link or brand guide, your networks and your deadline. Every project gets a fixed quote after the brief: ready templates start from $390 and custom playables from $1,490. Write to info@zerind.com or use the form on our homepage.

Start a projectPlay our concepts

Related reading

• How to make a playable ad: from storyboard to network-ready HTML5The production path we follow on every build: brief, one-page storyboard, asset prep, a lean HTML5 engine, one adapter per network, and QA on real phones.
• A/B testing playable ads: hooks, difficulty, end cards and variantsConcept tests before iteration tests, one primary metric, the order we vary things in, and how to build a playable so new variants are a config change rather than a rebuild.
• Playable ads for brands: interactive ads beyond gamingPlayables are not only for games. Mechanics that suit food delivery, retail, fintech, travel and consumer apps, and how to design the interaction around the offer.

Sources

Checked on 8 October 2026. Networks update their specs; always confirm against the current page before you upload.

1. Google Ads Help, HTML5 and playable asset requirements for App campaigns: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9981650
2. Unity, Guide for ironSource Ads direct demand sunset: https://docs.unity.com/en-us/grow/is-ads/ironsource-ads-sunset