Achieving double-digit ROAS growth with Xpend
Background
Hamburg based Playa Games have enjoyed incredible success with their multi-award winning Shakes & Fidget game. It’s a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that stands out from the crowd because of its fun gameplay, cartoon graphics, and use of satire. It started life as a browser and Steam-based game before becoming a cross-platform hit when Android and iOS apps were launched in 2012.
Since January 2013 games marketing agency Mothership have worked hand-in-hand with Playa Games to support the development of the game and its growing community. Mothership now has a dedicated team of 11 people who oversee all aspects of Shakes & Fidgets marketing efforts. The game now live-streams four shows a week on Twitch, with impressive viewing figures for each show.
Challenge
As a single-game studio, growth for Playa Games means acquiring new players. In a hyper competitive landscape, Mothership casts the net wide by launching acquisition campaigns across several networks at a time.
Having trusted ROAS and CPI data is a critical part of any successful acquisition campaign. That task becomes all the more complicated when attempting to aggregate data from multiple networks without a combined and reliable dashboard.
Mothership also delivers ad monetization and performance marketing services for Playa Games. Having the ability to measure ad monetization revenues and key performance marketing metrics is essential to help drive up revenues. Without these insights, Mothership would lack the clarity to make informed decisions.
Solution
Xpend is AppsFlyer’s dedicated cost aggregation platform. It offers complete coverage across all advertising networks and provides a reliable single source of truth that advertisers can use to make more informed decisions.
With Xpend, Mothership can effortlessly compare and contrast the performance of its campaigns by individual networks in a single, unified dashboard. Now they can easily analyze their in-game purchases and ad revenues in real-time with the added benefit of having the ability to drill down to a more granular level when they need to.
“Xpend was really simple to set up and straight away we had the ability to see a consolidated view of the ROAS for all our advertising networks. And, having the ability to measure in-game purchases and ad revenues in real-time at ad-level has made a big difference. Now we also know exactly what type of ad creative attracts players who prefer consuming ads in the game.”
Christian Hofbauer – MD – Mothership
Results
By having complete visibility of their ROAS, Mothership is able to quickly and efficiently make campaign optimization decisions. Spend from underperforming networks can easily be redirected to higher performing networks to drive significantly higher ROAS.
“For us, one of the benefits of Xpend is that it’s helped us save a significant amount of time. Our previous approach was much more labor intensive. We’ve seen tremendous progression in terms of positive developments in tour KPI’s and output. In 12 months we achieved double-digit ROAS growth.”
Stefan Hinz – MD – Mothership
Looking Forward
Mothership and Playa Games have established a strong and very successful partnership since starting out back in 2013. A lot has changed since then. The mobile ecosystem has evolved and so too have the adventures of Shakes & Fidget. The team at Mothership will continue to work closely with AppsFlyer to support the next exciting chapter of the adventures of Shakes & Fidget.
“We’ve always enjoyed working with the team at AppsFlyer. They’re fun, professional and have a very positive mindset. They’ve really helped us make the most of our AppsFlyer investment.”
Thorsten Rohmann – MD – Playa Games
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