CASE STUDY: How IGG’s Lords Mobile surpassed launch goals

Background

I Got Games (IGG) is a developer and publisher of online games for mobile, PC, and browser platforms. About 300 million people worldwide have played the company’s games, from arcade and action genre games like Castle Clash to strategy games like Clash of Desert.

While game launches are challenging, initial user acquisition campaigns present a critical opportunity to capitalise on early profitability gains by reaching users that generate the greatest customer lifetime value. This is particularly true during a global game launch, where multiple geographies and audience attributes present unique challenges and opportunities for granular campaign optimisation.

To address this, IGG marketing director Eugene Konash and his team set out in early 2016 to refine their Facebook campaign strategy, which centred on hitting key audience monetisation milestones.

These targets included 7-, 14-, 30-, and 90-day return on adspend (ROI) goals, all while adhering to specific cost per install (CPI) constraints.

The team decided to use the solution provided by Nanigans, which enabled quick and intelligent testing, measurement, optimisation, and scaling of the ad budget to reach goals within and across multiple different markets.

Execution

To attract new gamers for the launch of its new title Lords Mobile, IGG looked at prior launches to build 'lookalike' audiences based on similar genres of games the company had developed and launched in the past.

Additionally, the team leveraged interest targeting and broad targeting on Facebook. Nanigans' real-time reporting interface enabled IGG’s team to monitor the audience attributes generating conversions and early monetisation so as to maximise campaign impact.

In terms of creative, IGG experimented with different Facebook mobile app install ad formats throughout the course of the campaign, including image, carousel, and video ads. With strategic testing, IGG discovered that video mobile app install ads delivered 20 percent lower cost per install and two times higher ROI than other ad formats.

As IGG tested these ad types using Nanigans, it focused on determining which attracted the most valuable audiences while also ensuring that creative assets were adapted for each market.

Results

The company’s Lords Mobile game launched in multiple geographic markets. The company:

• Scaled ad spend 80 times by the fourth week and met ROI goals while increasing install volume over three months.
• Used software-enabled learning and optimisation to increase click-to-install conversion rates by more than 40 percent between the first and fourth months of the campaign.
• Drove installs at 20 percent lower cost and achieved nearly twice the ROI of other mobile app install ad formats using video.

The initial success of the Lords Mobile launch led the team to expand on its online marketing plans to include:

• Extending the reach of user acquisition campaigns to new channels, such as the MoPub mobile ad exchange.
• Scaling profit-driven campaigns to five key new countries by combining lookalike modelling with Nanigans value-based bidding and optimisation.
• Intelligently testing new ad types, such as carousel mobile app install ads with video, by building on early lessons from other similar ad types.