Success Story
x5.5 installs by scaling x3 the ad spend of a top studio in casual games
Scaling UA Campaigns, in 2 months, we decreased CPI by half & increased retention rates by 25%.
The Success
Scaling a UA campaign is not an easy task
One does not simply increase their Ad Spend and, magically, the rest of the metrics increase too.
Sometimes, you spend more money, but you don’t get more installs. NewPubCo, a game studio developing casual games, learned that the hard way.
By the next month, JoinBlocks metrics rocketed:
Installs
%
Forecasted eROAS D365
%
Increase in D7 Retention
This success story was possible thanks to a collaboration that started with a Game Studio joining our Accelerator Program!
The Problem
Inefficient scaling of a UA campaign
NewPubCo, one of our top successful game studios from the Accelerator Program, have solid metrics in some of their best-performing User Acquisition campaigns.
The studio wanted to scale their mobile game and boost its installs. For that, they launched a whole new UA Strategy, increasing their ad spend by x3.5 times. The expected outcome? To get, at least, triple the installs.
However, after one month, the results were not proportional to the budget increase. Installs were growing only by x1.9 times. The rest of the metrics also plummeted.
| Previous Metrics | After x3.5 Ad Spent | |
|---|---|---|
| Forecasted eROAS on Day 365 | +200% | 88% ↓ |
| ROAS on Day 7 | +40% | 21% ↓ |
| Retention Rate on Day 7 | +15% | 12% ↓ |
When JoinBlocks’ team saw their metrics downfalling, as members of the Appodeal Accelerator Program, they requested support to Appodeal UA Experts.
The Solution
Optimizing the UA efforts
The game studio NewPubCo initially had one paid UA campaign that was delivering good results. To scale it, they created more UA campaigns, testing different concepts, markets, and ad networks.
✅ Best Practice Tip:
After the results of the second month, the Appodeal UA experts took charge of that UA strategy.
We analyzed the results of those hyper-segmented campaigns and made several optimizations. By testing new ad creatives, user segments, different geos, and CPI's, we found the soft spots to achieve the desired growth.
Some campaigns were deactivated, and others were cloned with small variations. Little by little, we defined a new UA strategy to scale JoinBlocks ad spend.
By the end of the third month, we created +30 UA Campaigns testing different optimizations, audiences, markets & creatives. That was the required amount to start detecting which combinations of ads performed better.
During this process, the UA experts at Appodeal were aware of never duplicating active campaigns. Otherwise, that would have caused a "UA Cannibalization". When you have very similar campaigns that target the same audience, your campaigns compete against each other, and the cost of the campaign gets artificially inflated.
By mixing those UA campaigns with different combinations, we detected which campaigns brought more installs, and we scaled them. Those that underperformed, were completely deactivated.
The Results
Ensuring high eROAS & retention rates
Having a UA Campaign with a low ad spend usually brings great metrics. The tricky thing is to scale it while maintaining a good eROAS & Retention Rates.
Once we dive deeper into the charts, we can observe that the metrics during the first month were outstanding.
However, on the second month, forecasted ROAS on Day-365 falls below 100%.
Thanks to the intervention of the Appodeal UA Experts, Joinblocks' game studio was able to fix this situation and raise it back to positive results.
✅ Pro Tip:
Join Blocks 2048 from NewPubCo
Join Blocks, developed by NewPubCo, is a casual mobile game played by +25 million people and rated with a 4.7 score. Inspired by the classic block puzzle 2048, it offers enhanced graphics, new functionalities, and a smooth gaming experience.