Interstitial

An interstitial is a full-screen digital advertisement that briefly takes over the entire screen interface of a mobile app, website, or any other social media platform with which a user is interacting, requiring some sort of interaction—from a close button click to a more direct engagement with the ad content itself—before the user can interact with their 'original' content again. The interstitial is often placed at natural transition points in the user experience, such as between levels in a mobile game, during a brief pause in video streaming, or when using the navigation features of a website. In the context of social media, interstitials are one of the most powerful attention-grabbing tools in the modern marketer's digital toolkit since they are, by far, the most 'in-your-face' ad format.

When well designed and strategically placed, interstitials can do a fair job of enhancing the user experience without going overboard. At the same time, they can also serve to enhance brand awareness in a way that seems considerably more organic than the sort of 'shout-out' moment that banner ads often deliver.