Cracking the ASA Code: 550%+ eROAS Growth in 6 months

NewPubCo had hit a wall with their Apple Search Ads campaigns for Number Crunch: Match Game. The user acquisition channel had never been on track, consistently draining resources with every dollar spent yielding a negative return. The studio needed a fresh strategy—fast—to turn their ASA efforts into a profitable venture.

Enter Appodeal. By implementing a suite of strategic optimizations, the Appodeal team was able to completely transform the performance of NewPubCo's ASA campaigns in 6 month:

Through a potent combination of exact-match keyword targeting, search term optimization, brand protection campaigns, and geographic segmentation, Appodeal was able to drive unprecedented improvements in both retention and monetization. The result? A 550%+ surge in Return on Ad Spend, taking Number Crunch: Match Game from deep in the red to solidly profitable.

So how did Appodeal make it happen? What's the secret sauce in their ASA strategy? Read on to dive deep into the details of this remarkable turnaround story and discover the key ingredients you can apply to your own Apple Search Ads campaigns. Your ROAS will thank you.

For mid-sized mobile game studios like NewPubCo, achieving profitable user acquisition through Apple Search Ads (ASA) is a daunting challenge. Despite having the resources to create high-quality titles, connecting with the right audience while maintaining a healthy return on ad spend (ROAS) often feels like an unsolvable equation.

This was the dilemma NewPubCo faced with their evergreen number puzzler, Number Crunch: Match Game. The studio had enlisted various agencies to manage their ASA campaigns, but consistently fell short of their ROAS goals. With each dollar spent, they found themselves sinking further into the red.

The fierce competition for keywords in the crowded puzzle game category made achieving a positive ROAS feel like an impossibility. NewPubCo knew that cracking the code on ASA profitability was essential to sustaining their game's growth, but campaign after campaign failed to reach even the break-even point.

Frustrated by wasted ad spend and untapped potential, NewPubCo sought out a new solution - a way to restructure their ASA campaigns to turn the tide on profitability. They turned to Appodeal Gaming, issuing a bold challenge: develop a system to exceed a 140% ROAS and unlock the true potential of their evergreen title.

To solve the profitability puzzle and achieve the ambitious ROAS goals for Number Crunch: Match Game, Appodeal implemented a multi-faceted ASA campaign strategy:

We focused our budget on exact match keyword campaigns to ensure precision in targeting and efficiency in spend.

While bids are placed on keywords, the actual acquisition happens through search terms. By closely monitoring search terms, we optimized bids and filtered out irrelevant traffic.

Running brand defense campaigns ensured we captured users searching for our brand, preventing competitors from acquiring them.

In addition to protecting our brand name, broad search brand campaigns allowed us to capture users searching for misspelled or related terms, increasing our reach.

Since ASA considers CPA as CPI, setting a CPA CAP ensured that campaigns didn’t start spending until a specific bid threshold was met, preventing unnecessary high CPI expenditures.

To optimize performance across different regions, we structured our campaigns in the following ways:

Putting it all together, Appodeal launched US campaigns with a "one geo, many keywords" structure, low bids, and CPA caps to gather initial data. Top search terms were identified and broken out into "one keyword, many geos" campaigns to maximize control.

Using internal analytics, geos were segmented by performance - profitable, significantly off-target, and on the cusp of breaking even. Off-target geos were culled, while borderline regions were moved to separate campaigns with lower bids or CPA caps for further testing and optimization.

When NewPubCo partnered with Appodeal to overhaul their Apple Search Ads strategy, they set an ambitious goal: increase D365 effective Return on Ad Spend (eROAS) by 140% for their flagship title, Number Crunch: Match Game. This would mean transforming a campaign that was previously running at a loss into a profitable growth engine.

The results of this strategic overhaul were nothing short of spectacular. For Number Crunch: Match Game, D365 eROAS skyrocketed by an astonishing 550% - demolishing the original 140% target by an additional 301%.

In the span of a few short months, Appodeal had transformed ASA from a cost center into one of the game's most valuable and profitable user acquisition channels.

To prove this was no one-off fluke, Appodeal deployed the same battle-tested methodology to another NewPubCo title: Dominoes. While the starting point was less challenging, the outcome was equally impressive. Dominoes saw D365 eROAS surge by 163%, beating the 140% improvement goal by a healthy 16% margin.

By demonstrating the repeatable, reliable success of their ASA strategy, Appodeal didn't just help NewPubCo boost ROAS for a couple of titles - they unlocked an entirely new pathway to scalable, profitable growth. With this system in hand, NewPubCo could now confidently invest in Apple Search Ads across their full portfolio, knowing each dollar spent would yield a positive return.

When NewPubCo came to us for help with their underperforming Apple Search Ads, we saw an opportunity to live out two of our core values:

Our commitment to service was matched only by our dedication to excellence in execution. We left no stone unturned in our quest to maximize NewPubCo's ROAS, from surgical campaign segmentation to meticulous search term optimization to unwavering brand defense.

This is the heart of the Appodeal way - a way of doing business that puts our partners' success at the center of everything we do. It's a commitment to collaboration, to service, and to an uncompromising standard of excellence.

We're proud of what we achieved with NewPubCo, not just because of the incredible numbers, but because of the shared values and dedication to mutual success that made them possible.