In this video
- Four networks, four different answers about MRAID — and why none is wrong
- What MRAID actually is, without the jargon
- Why mraid.js is referenced but never shipped in your ZIP
- Which networks take an MRAID build, and what the others use instead
- Why a network would ban a standard outright
- 2.0 vs 3.0, and why one file can be correct on both
- Testing a creative in the free MRAID validator
About this video
MRAID — Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions — is an IAB standard for how an ad talks to the app it is running inside. It is also the single most contradictory line on any network spec sheet: Unity asks for 3.0, AppLovin for 2.0, TikTok forbids it outright and Mintegral does not use it at all. This tutorial explains why all four are correct, why the mraid.js file is referenced rather than bundled, which of the thirteen networks this product exports for actually want an MRAID build, and how to check your own creative in a free browser-based validator.
Playable Ads Maker — build playable ads and end cards, export to 13 ad networks.
Transcript
If you have watched the network videos on this channel, you have been given four different answers about MRAID - and two of them flatly contradict each other. In this video I'll sort that out, in about six minutes.
Unity: MRAID 3.0. AppLovin: 2.0. TikTok: forbidden. Mintegral: not used.
None of those is wrong, and none of them is out of date. They are four networks answering the same question differently, and once you see why, every spec sheet you read after this gets easier.
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MRAID: an IAB standard for how an ad talks to the app around it.
Your playable is a web page running in a little browser inside somebody else's game. It is sealed in there. It cannot open the App Store, it cannot know whether it is actually on screen, it cannot close itself - because a web page has no way to do any of that.
MRAID is the bridge. The app puts a handful of functions on the page, your ad calls them, and suddenly it can open a store link, ask whether it is visible, and tell the app it has finished.
mraid.js is NOT in your ZIP - and it should not be.
You are leaving a socket for the network to plug into.
6 of 13 networks take an MRAID build.
The other seven each have their own way out. Google has ExitApi. Mintegral has window dot install. TikTok and Pangle use their own SDK. Facebook and Moloco share one call, and Liftoff listens for a message.
TikTok bans mraid.js, JS redirects and network requests as ONE rule.
And the version numbers? Two point oh is the one everything supports. Three point oh adds later features on top. That is why one network's sheet says two and another says three, and why neither is telling you the other is wrong.
Decided at RUN time: 3.0 where real, 2.0 where not. One file.
Pick the network. The preset decides. You write none of it.
Which is also why exporting the wrong network's file is the single most common way a playable fails. It is not broken - it is fluent in a language that container does not speak. The CTA does nothing, silently.
So let's test one. This is our MRAID validator - it is free, it runs in your browser, and nothing you drop into it is uploaded anywhere.
Drop in an exported file and it tells you what it found: whether the MRAID tag is there, which API calls the creative makes, whether it waits for the ready event before touching anything.
MRAID is not there on page load. Wait for ready.
And beside it, the spec checker, which asks the broader question: is this file within the size the network publishes, does it reach for anything at run time, does it have a working way out.
Three mistakes. Bundling your own mraid dot js - you have replaced the network's bridge with a dead one.
Calling MRAID before the ready event, which works on your desk every time and fails on a phone some of the time. Those are the worst bugs there are.
And shipping one file to every network. Six of them want MRAID and seven want something else - one export per network is the whole reason the Export window asks.
If you only remember one thing: you do not need to learn MRAID to ship a playable. You need to pick the right network in the Export window, and check the file before you upload it.
That is MRAID, sorted. See you in the next video!