Rewarded Video vs Interstitial Ads: Which Should You Use?

Two very different earners

Rewarded video and interstitials drive most mobile game ad revenue, but they treat your players in opposite ways. One is invited; the other interrupts. Getting the balance right is the difference between healthy revenue and a retention problem.

Rewarded video

Players opt in to watch a full video in exchange for a reward — coins, an extra life, a revive, a 2× bonus. Because it’s voluntary, it rarely annoys anyone, and it carries the highest eCPM of any format (roughly $3.50–$42, depending on geography). It can even improve retention by helping players progress.

• Best for: currency top-ups, continues, doubling end-of-level rewards.
• Watch out for: limited inventory — there are only so many natural reward moments.

Interstitials

Full-screen ads shown at a break in play. They pay well (about $1.50–$18 eCPM) and are trivial to implement, but they interrupt — and overusing them is the fastest way to tank retention.

• Best for: clean transitions — level complete, game over, returning to a menu.
• Watch out for: frequency. Cap to about one every 2–4 minutes, and never mid-action.

Which should you use?

For almost every game, the answer is both:

• Lead with rewarded video wherever a player wants a boost — it’s revenue with no retention cost.
• Layer in interstitials at natural breaks, with strict frequency caps.
• Add banners only on static menu screens, where their low eCPM stays out of the way.

A quick rule of thumb

If a placement interrupts the player, it must sit at a genuine pause. If it rewards the player, it can appear far more often. Get the eCPM context first with our plain-English eCPM guide.

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