The Challenge
With little experience in UA, the team decided to look for an advertising channel that would provide quality app downloads at a predictable cost. Also, the ITI team needed to find an attribution tool to measure the return of ad spend (ROAS), which would include not only in-app purchases (IAP) and revenue from showing in-app ads. It was also important that this tool would be available at an affordable price. Hyper-casual games typically have a low cost per install (CPI), and publishers cannot afford to pay an even slightly higher CPI.
The Solution
ITI worked with the Apple Search Ads team to discover what keywords helped drive lower costs. Following the app's release, ITI added Apple Search Ads keyword sets related to popular casual games near the top of the U.S. charts. Once Rescue Cut started to rank at or near the top of charts, bids were increased on brand keywords to maintain the app's ranking. The team, working with Apple Search Ads, knew that there was fierce competition among top apps in this category, which affected their ranking. It was decided to add new competitor terms every week and increase bids more on some useful keywords relevant to the app, which brought new users with both a higher retention rate and ROAS.
"Before this, we didn't really focus on UA. It's my first time managing users, ad spend and monetization. We have chosen Apple Search Ads as one of the first sources for UA and used Tenjin dashboard to manage it"
Kosei Saegusa, CMO
The Result
6x more installs and 50% CPI decrease by Apple Search Ads in 3 months