By Greg Castro, VP, Global Partnerships, Mobvista
Every day produces new technological developments that shorten decision-making cycles and drive greater efficiency in all marketing disciplines. It is especially pronounced in mobile marketing, where advertisers have to capture the attention of people on the go who may be balancing many tasks.
With people checking their phones over 200 times a day, there is a huge opportunity to get in front of the right prospects with the right message at the right time. But winning this daily battle requires a modern playbook.
Here are three trends driving that playbook that will be big news in 2026.
The rise of no-code playable ads
It is clear that playable and interactive ad formats that invite users to tap, swipe, explore, or “try before they buy” in a lightweight, non-disruptive environment continue to dominate mobile advertising.
These formats have been around for years, but the surrounding ecosystem is maturing. What is primed to accelerate this already popular medium is the increasing sophistication of “no code” development tools, which enable almost anyone to create their own playable ads.
Low-code application development can be up to 20 times faster than coding by traditional methods, according to Forrester Research.
What used to require a team of developers can now be conceptualized and built by designers and marketers with drag-and-drop interfaces.
As a result, playable ad inventory is no longer reserved for gaming studios or app-install marketers; CPG, retail, travel, and financial brands are beginning to integrate interactive concepts into mainstream campaigns. And those without robust internal development teams can use this approach to ideate and deploy their own playable ads.
Involving additional creative personnel directly in the development of ad creation will unleash a new wave of powerful marketing that entertains customers while driving increased revenues. Why? Because more team members can contribute ideas, test variants, and optimize flows without waiting for engineering cycles.
As a result, creative platforms, mobile ad networks, and social channels are beginning to prioritize workflows that drastically lower the barrier to interactive production.
The next generation of playable ads will expand beyond simple “mini-game” mechanics. Advertisers are exploring dynamic branching narratives, personalized choice-based experiences, and utility-driven interactions that mirror the product’s actual value proposition.
XMP driving media buying’s automation era
As creative production becomes more nimble, media buying is undergoing its own transformation. The expansion of cross-media planning (XMP) systems and intelligent buying automation is beginning to reshape how campaigns are launched, optimized, and scaled.
Many tasks previously handled manually, like budget allocation, pacing corrections, bid adjustments, audience rule application, are migrating toward automated processes.
The move to automation is not just about efficiency; increasingly only automated media buying and targeting can match the speed of the automated platforms on which these ads are bought. Automated XMP systems can respond in milliseconds, making crucial corrections that create either significant cost savings or emergent opportunities to capture sales.
The overall shift toward automation is a positive for media professionals, despite what concerns they may initially have. With machines handling the bulk of repetitive tasks, employees can focus more on strategic, analytical, and multidisciplinary projects. It is a waste of human ingenuity to have seasoned and well-compensated professionals spend hours adjusting bids or replicating campaign structures across platforms. They can instead focus on spending time with clients to align on goals. They can think more deeply on what messaging or partnerships will drive greater engagement and success.
Media professionals who thrive in this environment will become orchestrators, eventually designing systems, validating insights, and connecting strategic dots across channels.
Insight trackers prompting creative analytics’ great leap
Creative effectiveness is also undergoing a revolution. Instead of relying on metrics like CPM, CTR, completion rate, and installs, the industry is beginning to demand a new generation of insight that provides granular, interpretable signals.
The future of creative measurement lies in understanding how everything works together. That means determining how visual elements, message sequences, and interactive components all work together to correlate with deeper engagement and higher conversion probabilities.
Enter insight trackers or dynamic creative intelligence systems, which replace our simple dashboards of today for diagnostic frameworks. Advertisers can no longer rely on analytics that come weeks or even days after campaigns end; they need real-time metrics to power the aforementioned automated platforms that must make in-the-moment decisions.
This shift becomes especially important in an environment where creative iteration cycles are accelerating. If teams can produce near-limitless variants thanks to AI-assisted creative generation, they need analytics that can help teams decide which creative to retire and which to deploy in its place immediately.
Expect more platforms to integrate predictive modeling, automated creative scoring, and attention-based diagnostics. Brands that excel will be those that use platforms that combine quantitative insights with qualitative decision-making.
Towards an automated, insight-driven future
Playable ads will enrich the user experience, spurred on by no-code tools that incorporate more marketing expertise into the creation process. Automated media buying and targeting will expedite decision-making and redefine media roles. Insight trackers will serve as the engine for those automated platforms. The common thread is adaptability: teams that embrace experimentation, lean into technology, and continually refine their craft will be best positioned to thrive in this rapidly evolving landscape.
