CASE STUDY | USER ACQUISITION
Liftoff Exceeds ROAS Goals for Gaming Titan
Creative Testing and CPR Model Outperforms D7-ROAS Goals by 40%
The Challenge
37GAMES is a part of 37 Interactive Entertainment, a global games publisher headquartered in Guangzhou, China. The company produces games in a wide variety of genres that are popular with players around the world.
Looking to grow one of their star titles, Puzzles & Survival, 37GAMES turned to their long-term advertising partner Liftoff. 37GAMES monetizes through in-app purchases (IAP), and its main goal was to drive quality users in order to maximize revenue. To assess the success of their campaign, they looked at a variety of metrics, but their main focus was their D7 return on ad spend (ROAS).
The Solution
As a mid-core game, Puzzles & Survival proved a great fit for Liftoff’s Cost Per Revenue (CPR) Model. By leveraging past learnings from similar match-3 and mid-core games, Liftoff’s ML model could optimize the game’s campaigns for higher spenders. Soon after setup, Liftoff’s ML began driving higher-value users to Puzzles & Survival, maximizing the title’s ROAS rewards.
Creative testing also played a key part in attracting quality users to the app. After receiving designed assets from 37GAMES’s top campaigns, Liftoff tested 2-D graphics against 3-D graphics. The creative team found that 3-D graphics resonated much more with target audiences. Liftoff also tested UI-focused ads against story-focused formats and found that ads with more narrative—but that also featured core gameplay—performed the best.
The improved ads combined narrative and 3D graphics and drove a 264% lift in installs. The new direction continues to drive strong results for 37GAMES. By optimizing for high spenders, Liftoff’s CPR model increased revenue substantially for Puzzles & Survival. iOS campaigns in key markets saw significant boosts in D7 ROAS. Liftoff consistently exceeded the company’s overall D7 ROAS targets by 40%. Since their first month, ad spend has scaled 200x.
Beyond improving on ROAS goals, Liftoff continues to drive better LTV for the company. As 37GAMES scales across the globe, Liftoff continues to be an essential part of its expansion strategy.
