Creative Ads reports and market data
Documents
Click is not a Click: Measure the True Value of Your app Campaigns - Ben Jeger, Moloco
The modern mobile app marketing landscape faces a significant measurement crisis characterized by the decoupling of user intent from recorded engagement metrics.
- Traditional click-through rates (CTR) have become unreliable due to the widespread practice of automated background click-firing, which artificially inflates engagement metrics to maintain attribution in privacy-restricted environments.
- The 2021 introduction of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework accelerated the decoupling of user intent from recorded engagement, forcing marketers to rely on flawed data that obscures actual campaign performance.
- Ad networks and publishers are incentivized to prioritize volume over quality, leading to deceptive creative practices like fake 'X' buttons and interstitial loops that degrade long-term user retention.
AI video is Already App-ening - João Vieira da Costa, Replai.io
The integration of generative AI into video creative production is transforming mobile game marketing by shifting workflows from subjective, gut-based decision-making to data-driven, scalable factory processes.
- Generative AI and computer vision enable mobile game studios to automate the production of thousands of video variations per month, shifting creative workflows from subjective decision-making to data-driven processes.
- The 'data-to-video' pipeline uses computer vision to automatically tag in-game elements like characters and calls to action, creating a metadata-based source of truth that links specific visual components to performance metrics.
- Studios can now internalize creative production previously outsourced to agencies by using AI to execute complex tasks such as automated resizes, text translation, lip-syncing, and cultural adaptation.
Panel: Success Spotlight: TikTok Strategies for New Title Launches.
TikTok has emerged as a foundational pillar for mobile game launches, functioning as a primary engine for organic growth and user acquisition.
- TikTok serves as a primary engine for organic growth and user acquisition, requiring developers to frame gameplay within provocative or debate-inducing narratives to boost algorithmic visibility.
- High-volume creative production is necessary to combat rapid creative fatigue, with teams identifying high-performing assets through rigorous testing cycles within 12 hours.
- Long-form videos between 30 and 60 seconds often outperform shorter clips, provided the initial hook is strong enough to capture immediate attention.
In the Sandbox With Creative Success! AppsFlyer, ACE Games, Product Madness.
This discussion, held at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2024, explores the evolving role of creative assets in mobile game user acquisition.
- Creative assets have replaced granular user-level data as the primary lever for mobile user acquisition due to ongoing privacy restrictions on iOS and Android.
- Effective creative strategy requires a data-driven feedback loop that integrates attribution data with business intelligence tools like Looker or Tableau to move beyond vanity metrics.
- Marketers must shift from single-asset campaigns to creative sequences that build brand familiarity and hook users within the first three to five seconds.
The Hunt for hybrid casual, Captain Hook of Creatives, Google Apocalypse (#92)
The mobile gaming industry is undergoing a structural transformation as hyper-casual publishers pivot toward hybrid-casual models to secure long-term stability.
- Google recently implemented a major, industry-wide change to ad monetization that effectively eliminated a common publisher 'hack' used to increase ad revenue by 25% to 50%, with the policy change being applied retroactively.
- The 'hybrid casual' genre is the dominant industry trend, with Habby, Voodoo, Crazy Labs, and SayGames leading the market by blending hyper-casual accessibility with long-term engagement mechanics.
- Habby remains a significant outlier in the hybrid casual space, with Survivor.io serving as a primary template that many other developers are attempting to replicate.
Guide to Growing Chinese Gaming Apps Overseas: 2024
Chinese gaming applications continue to exert a dominant influence on the global stage, particularly within the strategy and role-playing game segments in mature markets such as the United States, Japan, and South Korea.
- Chinese publishers are maintaining global dominance in strategy and RPG segments by shifting to hyper-localized art styles, specifically manga-inspired visuals for Japan and realistic or cartoon aesthetics for Western markets.
- Generative AI is now a core operational requirement for rapid, compliant localization of ad creative, voice-overs, and marketing copy to manage high costs per install in mature markets like the U.S., Japan, and South Korea.
- High-performing user acquisition campaigns are increasingly utilizing minigames and AI-enhanced visuals to capture player attention in highly competitive environments.
Supercell's Clash Mini Softlaunch: Game design, UA & Creative review (#90)
Clash Mini represents a strategic attempt by Supercell to capture the mobile auto-battler market, a genre that has historically demonstrated significant revenue potential in Asian territories compared to Western regions.
- Supercell’s Clash Mini faces a high probability of cancellation or fundamental restructuring due to its inability to meet the company's rigorous internal benchmarks for a global release.
- Since its November 2021 soft launch, the game has generated $2 million in revenue from 4.7 million downloads, failing to demonstrate the revenue depth required for long-term viability.
- The game’s monetization strategy, which locks high-impact units behind binary gacha systems, has created a pay-to-win dynamic that alienated players and hindered revenue performance.
UA strategies in the post-IDFA world LIVE - Gamedrive x 2.5gamers!
The mobile gaming industry has undergone a fundamental transformation in the post-IDFA era, necessitating a shift from granular, deterministic tracking toward a holistic strategy that balances performance marketing with brand-building.
- AppLovin has emerged as a top-two UA channel for most mobile games, joining TikTok, Facebook, and Unity as essential platforms for iOS user acquisition.
- The current industry trend for creative strategy involves integrating 'fake' ad mechanics directly into the game as mini-games or calendar events to ensure a smooth transition from creative to gameplay.
- Switching ad mediation platforms can significantly impact revenue; for example, changing banner refresh rates from 30 seconds (AdMob) to 10 seconds (LevelPlay or MAX) can potentially triple banner revenue.
Creative Analytics: Mobile Market Analytics and Ad Intelligence
This analysis examines the mobile advertising landscape during 2023, focusing on market trends, creative formats, and the strategic integration of user-generated content (UGC).
- Video formats now dominate the mobile advertising landscape, accounting for 80% of all ad creatives in Q3 2023, up from 69% in the previous quarter.
- The mobile advertising market saw a 7% decline in active advertisers year-over-year, totaling 54.9 thousand in Q3 2023.
- Gaming remains the leading industry vertical, generating 1.3 billion downloads and $2.8 billion in revenue during Q3 2023.
Top Troops Global launch case study: Game design, Ad monetisation & UA review (#82)
Top Troops represents a strategic evolution of the Battle Legion formula, transitioning from a PvP-focused meta to a PvE-centric progression system.
- Top Troops launched globally on October 4th, but experienced a slow start with approximately $6,000 in daily revenue during its first week despite years of development.
- The game utilizes a merge mechanic that lacks strategic depth, as players primarily brute-force progression using legendary units while ignoring a large portion of the available unit roster.
- Top Troops prioritizes IAP-driven revenue and currently generates less than 10% of its total income from ad monetization, significantly lower than comparable titles like Dragon City which reach 30%.
China Special West to East: market situation, cultural adaptation, publishing, UA & creatives
The Chinese mobile gaming market is experiencing a robust post-pandemic recovery, characterized by a significant acceleration in government licensing approvals for foreign titles.
- The Chinese government has increased game approval rates following the post-pandemic recovery, signaling a more favorable regulatory environment for new titles.
- HTML5 (H5) games serve as a strategic entry point for the Chinese market because they are easier to manage and often bypass the mandatory ISBN license requirement.
- User acquisition on Android in China is highly complex and requires working with local agencies, whereas iOS remains the most accessible platform for self-managed publishing.
Starfield: Bethesda's Largest Release
Bethesda’s release of Starfield represents a strategic evolution in large-scale game promotion, shifting from traditional desktop-centric video advertising to a diversified, multi-platform approach.
- Starfield achieved the largest launch in Bethesda’s history, reaching over 10 million players through a strategy heavily reliant on Day-1 availability via Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass.
- The marketing campaign utilized a diversified, multi-platform approach across Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram, which successfully made the title the most wishlisted game on Steam prior to launch.
- Despite ranking in the top two for RPG advertising expenditure in 2023, the game faced intense market competition from established titles such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.