An end card is the screen that replaces a video advertisement the moment it finishes. It usually holds an image or a small interactive page, an app icon or logo, a rating and one button such as "Install" or "Learn more". The format exists because a full-screen video leaves little room for a call to action while it plays, and because in rewarded and interstitial placements most viewers stay until the end. In app-install advertising, the end card is where a viewer is asked to leave for the app store.

From last frame to app store

A game reaches a natural break, or a player opts to watch an ad for an extra life. The app's software development kit (SDK), often through a mediation platform such as AppLovin MAX, Unity LevelPlay or Google AdMob, requests an ad. The winning response carries the video and the end card assets. The SDK plays the video, swaps in the card, draws a close control and waits.

A tap fires the click trackers and opens the destination: on iOS, usually an App Store product page rendered inside the app by Apple's StoreKit, full-screen or as the smaller SKOverlay sheet introduced with iOS 14; on Android, the Google Play listing. Closing the card still leaves an impression on record, under weaker attribution rules.

OpenRTB, the auction protocol maintained by IAB Tech Lab, marks rewarded placements with an impression attribute, rwdd, set to 1, and notes that the reward is typically distributed after the video completes. The card appears just after the viewer has collected what they came for.

How the specifications describe it

Programmatic buyers attach the end card to the video's VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) response as a companion ad. VAST 4.1, finalised in November 2018, gave the Companion element an optional renderingMode attribute with three values: default, end-card and concurrent, with default applying when it is absent. A typical end-card companion holds a StaticResource image or an HTMLResource page, a CompanionClickThrough destination, CompanionClickTracking URLs and a creativeView event that fires when the card appears.

OpenRTB 2.5, published in December 2016, added vcm to the Banner object: for banners in a video impression's companionad array, 0 means concurrent and 1 means end-card. The Advertising Common Object Model (AdCOM) repeats the field and adds that a placement should typically designate one end card at most. The impression is usually declared as plcmt 3, interstitial video, a definition IAB Tech Lab clarified in February 2025.

Interactive cards rely on MRAID (Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions). Version 3.0, released in July 2017, deprecated the useCustomClose method and made the host app responsible for the close indicator, with a close region of at least 50 by 50 density-independent pixels. In players that support it, SIMID (Secure Interactive Media Interface Definition), opened for comment in April 2019 to replace VPAID, lets a creative extend an ad's duration indefinitely, so an interactive screen can outlast the video. The VAST CTV Addendum of July 2024 brought SIMID to connected television (CTV).

Exchanges add their own rules. AppLovin's expects a full-screen companion after video, recommends images near a 1.33 aspect ratio such as 1024x768, and disables HTMLResource companions by default, according to its OpenRTB documentation. Unity's static end cards default to 800x800 pixels, with 800x600 and 600x800 alternatives and a 5 MB ceiling; its playable end cards must be a single HTML file of up to 5 MB following MRAID 3.0.

Who makes and runs it

On the buy side, user acquisition teams and creative studios design the assets, and platforms increasingly generate them. TikTok Ad Network, formerly TikTok Pangle, attaches an automatically generated card to rewarded video and interstitial ads, assembled from store listing assets. Google Ads shows auto end screens with an app's name, icon, price and install link on in-stream ads in mobile app install campaigns, according to its help centre. Buyers on demand-side platforms (DSPs) reach the same slots through mediation: Display & Video 360 (DV360) added six app mediation partners, including AppLovin MAX and Unity LevelPlay, in April 2024.

On the sell side, the SDK or mediation platform renders the card, owns the close button and decides how long it stays on screen.

Origin and evolution

According to a November 27, 2018 post by IAB Tech Lab, mobile SDKs rendered the VAST companion as an end card long before any standard named the format, while VAST 2 and 3 were current, a span from 2009 to 2016.

Standardisation trailed practice. After the vcm field and MRAID 3.0 came VAST 4.1, which presents the end card as its first Interactive Template, based on a use case already informally implemented. "Most of what we are doing could easily be standardized, and it would be pretty simple to do," Jesse Leikin, then SDK product lead at Oath, said in the IAB Tech Lab post. Uptake was slow. In April 2019 Arnaud Casame of Google's IMA SDK team said the SDK did not yet support the end-card mode.

Playables made the card interactive. An IAB playbook in June 2019 set out three parts - a tutorial prompt, the interactive experience and an end card, the last opportunity to drive action - and Facebook released a validation tool for HTML playables that September.

Apple then changed the economics. SKOverlay arrived with iOS 14, and SKAdNetwork 2.2, shipped with iOS 14.5 on April 26, 2021, added view-through attribution. Rules followed. The Coalition for Better Ads published a mobile app standard on November 2, 2021, naming four interstitial experiences it judged below standard. Google Play announced on July 28, 2022 that full-screen ads must be closable after 15 seconds, opt-in ads excepted, from September 30 that year. Apple revised guideline 2.5.18 on October 24, 2022, requiring clearly visible close or skip buttons on interstitials and barring tricks that induce taps.

Why it matters

Attribution rewards a tap. Apple's documentation separates StoreKit-rendered ads, with fidelity type 1 and a 30-day install window, from view-through ads, with fidelity type 0 and a 24-hour window; fidelity 1 always takes precedence, even over a more recent view. View-through impressions count only after two seconds on screen on iOS 15.4 and later, three on earlier versions. Mobile measurement partners (MMPs) apply similar logic, with seven days the common default for clicks and 24 hours for impressions. A tap on the card can move an install from a one-day view-through claim into a week-long or month-long click window.

AppLovin's chief executive, Adam Foroughi, wrote in February 2026 that roughly half of its impressions run between game levels and the rest are rewarded video, with average watch time above 35 seconds. In rewarded video completion is guaranteed by design, so most viewers reach the card, making it the format's main click surface.

Limitations and disputes

The sharpest criticism concerns click quality. Kayzen, a mobile programmatic buying platform, described in April 2023 an arms race over click-through rates: full-screen clickable areas, Smaato cutting its close button to 30 by 30 pixels in February 2023, and Vungle shrinking the padding around its own to 18 by 18 pixels in December 2022. Kayzen also said many SDKs fire the MMP click as soon as an SKOverlay appears, yielding click-through rates mostly not initiated by users. Apple offers no click callback for the overlay, according to Chartboost's documentation, so SDKs cannot see real taps.

Platforms have written rules against the worst patterns. Unity's playable specification bans automatic redirects and using the first touch to open the store, and Google's restrictions on standalone buttons in image ads were enforced from January 23, 2025. Other settings pull the opposite way: Google AdMob's high-engagement controls of February 2025 allowed rewarded ads of up to 60 seconds with as many as three exit steps.

Allegations have reached the largest operators. Culper Research alleged on February 26, 2025 that AppLovin enabled installs "with just a single click", often inadvertently. Foroughi said the short-seller reports were "littered with inaccuracies and false assertions", according to The Motley Fool.

Not the same as

Companion ad. A display unit delivered with a video. The concurrent kind sits beside the player; an end card is a companion rendered after it.

YouTube end screen. A creator tool from 2016 placing up to four elements in the last 5 to 20 seconds of a video at least 25 seconds long. It replaced annotations, which YouTube stopped showing on January 15, 2019, and is distinct from the auto end screens on paid video ads.

Playable ad. An interactive demo that is the ad itself. A playable end card puts that demo after a video.

Post-roll. A video ad slot after content. An end card follows an ad.

In broadcast the phrase still means a commercial's closing seconds of logo, web address and fine print, described as a fixture of nearly every spot in a 2023 essay by the Los Angeles agency Cast Iron.

Recent developments

The format is at the centre of litigation today. AppLovin has asked the Superior Court of California in San Francisco for a temporary restraining order against Unity, alleging that Unity's Ad Quality SDK has, since at least May 2025, collected the HTML and JavaScript of playable and end-card units, click-through destinations and advertiser identities for impressions AppLovin wins. A hearing was scheduled for today. Unity denies wrongdoing, says collection happens with express permission, argues that AppLovin's own Ad Review tool is more intrusive and has offered to switch off collection for MAX within five business days.

Automation is also spreading. Trade reports in March 2026 described Google switching auto end screens on by default, overriding end screens added manually on YouTube, according to Search Engine Land. The Coalition for Better Ads updated its standards on January 14, 2026, taking disallowed experiences to 23 across four environments.

Timeline

  • November 16, 2009: VAST 2.0 released; mobile SDKs later render its companion ads as end cards
  • 2012: VAST 3.0 released
  • 2016: YouTube introduces end screens for creators
  • December 2016: OpenRTB 2.5 adds vcm to the Banner object, with 1 signalling an end-card companion
  • March 2017: YouTube announces the retirement of annotations
  • July 2017: MRAID 3.0 released, deprecating useCustomClose and handing the close indicator to the host
  • November 2018: VAST 4.1 adds the renderingMode attribute with an end-card value
  • November 27, 2018: IAB Tech Lab describes the end card as the first VAST Interactive Template
  • January 15, 2019: YouTube stops showing annotations
  • April 2, 2019: Google's IMA SDK team says end-card rendering mode is not yet supported
  • April 2019: SIMID released for public comment
  • June 2019: IAB playbook lists the end card as the final element of playable ads
  • September 2019: Facebook releases a preview tool for HTML playable ads
  • 2020: Apple introduces SKOverlay with iOS 14
  • April 26, 2021: SKAdNetwork 2.2 ships with iOS 14.5, adding view-through attribution and fidelity types
  • November 2, 2021: Coalition for Better Ads publishes its mobile app standard
  • April 2022: OpenRTB 2.6 adds the rwdd attribute for rewarded impressions
  • July 28, 2022: Google Play announces that full-screen ads must be closable after 15 seconds
  • September 30, 2022: Google Play's full-screen ad rules take effect
  • October 24, 2022: Apple revises App Store guideline 2.5.18 on interstitial close buttons
  • April 4, 2023: Kayzen documents shrinking close buttons and automatic MMP clicks on SKOverlay
  • April 2024: DV360 adds six app mediation partners as an inventory source
  • July 2024: VAST CTV Addendum 2024 adds SIMID support
  • January 23, 2025: Google begins enforcing restrictions on standalone buttons in image ads
  • February 4, 2025: IAB Tech Lab clarifies video placement definitions, including interstitial
  • February 2025: Google AdMob high-engagement settings allow rewarded ads of up to 60 seconds
  • February 26, 2025: Culper Research publishes allegations about AppLovin installs
  • May 2025: Unity bundles Ad Quality into LevelPlay SDK 8.9.0, according to AppLovin's filing
  • January 14, 2026: Coalition for Better Ads updates its standards
  • March 2026: Trade press reports Google applying auto end screens by default in app install campaigns
  • September 27, 2026: AppLovin files an arbitration demand against Unity
  • September 30, 2026: Court hearing scheduled on AppLovin's application for a temporary restraining order

Summary

Who. Advertisers and their creative teams supply end card assets; ad networks such as Unity, AppLovin, Vungle, TikTok Ad Network and Google generate or render them; SDKs and mediation platforms control display and the close button. IAB Tech Lab defines the relevant fields in VAST, OpenRTB, AdCOM, MRAID and SIMID, while Apple and Google Play set the rules for full-screen ads in their app stores.

What. The screen shown after a video ad finishes, carrying a call to action, usually an install button, delivered as a static image, an HTML page or a playable.

When. Mobile networks used companion slots as end cards while VAST 2.0 and 3.0 were current, from 2009. OpenRTB 2.5 added an end-card signal in December 2016 and VAST 4.1 named the format in November 2018. Industry and app store rules on full-screen ads followed in 2021 and 2022.

Where. Mainly in rewarded and interstitial video inside mobile apps and games, with related forms in web video players, YouTube and connected television.

Why. Viewers of full-screen video rarely tap mid-play, and a tap earns stronger and longer attribution than a view. The same pressure explains the disputes over hidden close buttons, automatic store openings and, as of today, access to end-card creative itself.