Mobile Game UA Video Basics: The First 3 Seconds and Vertical Format
If a mobile game ad doesn't stop the scroll, the rest of the 15 or 30 seconds doesn't matter — nobody's watching it. That's why the first three seconds are what UA (User Acquisition) video editors polish hardest. This post covers the basics teams building their first UA video tend to miss.
Why the First 3 Seconds Are Everything
On feed-based ad placements like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, a user's window to swipe past is barely one or two seconds. UA videos usually run 15 to 30 seconds, but the segment that actually determines completion rate is the first three. Three things need to be true in that window:
- Is there motion on screen? A static logo card gets swiped past immediately.
- Is the core fun visible at a glance? It needs to be real gameplay — not a tutorial or a loading screen.
- Does it create curiosity? A near-miss moment — right before success or failure — pulls a lot harder than a static frame.
Vertical Is the Default Format
Since most UA placements live in mobile feeds, 9:16 vertical is the standard aspect ratio. Force-cropping landscape gameplay footage into a vertical frame often cuts off key UI or characters, so it's worth capturing with vertical framing in mind from the start — or, if your game is landscape, building in margin and text space within the vertical frame during editing.
| Placement | Common ratio | Recommended length |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram / TikTok feed | 9:16 | 15–30 sec |
| YouTube Shorts | 9:16 | 15–60 sec |
| Interstitial (in-app ads) | 9:16 or 16:9 | 15–30 sec |
Tips for Capturing Gameplay Footage
- Default to real on-device screen recording, but pick segments without frame drops — a stuttering clip reads as a signal that the game itself is low quality.
- Strip out or cover anything unrelated to actual play in editing — UI notifications, ad banners, debug text.
- A near-failure that turns into a dramatic success pulls viewers in harder than a string of clean wins.
- Put a segment that works without sound near the front — most feed video autoplays muted.
Keep Editing Light, Iterate Often
A UA video isn't something you make once and move on from — it's closer to a disposable asset you produce in multiple versions (different opening 3 seconds, different captions) and compare against performance data. Cutting gameplay footage into vertical format and quickly producing several versions with different captions and openers is the core of the work.
Speed of iteration matters more than polish in UA video production. Four rough cuts that only differ in their opening three seconds will usually teach you more about what works than one beautifully finished video.