Launching to Success: UA Creatives for a New Title

Goodgame Studios is a leading developer and publisher of free-to-play games. The company tasked AppAgent with finding the right communication angle for Sunshine Island–a new farming game set in an exotic location.

Create the very first batch of user acquisition (UA) assets for a new farming title. This encompasses UA creatives and fleshing out the app store content. The goal is to understand which elements of the game should be highlighted and built upon for marketing campaigns starting with the global launch.

Fine-tune the campaign based on the product’s needs in each stage of the launch, from the initial introduction to post-launch communication. Static ads are great for uncovering quick insights that can be later expanded as more high-value assets.

The team began by defining four main player motivators: mastery, management, expression, and social. For each motivator, AppAgent’s Creative Strategist developed three different creative directions, which were then shortlisted down to five that went into production. Directions included bartering & collaboration, village upgrades, and diversity & culture.

The creative production entailed both user acquisition and store assets to ensure a consistent user experience. This approach enabled us to track and evaluate the most effective user engagement processes, ultimately leading to insights on user retention and, further down the funnel, monetization metrics.

We primarily used static banners to uncover quick insights about what creative directions resonate best with the target audience at a low cost. With the insights we gained, we incorporated the successful creative approaches into video ads. These strategies allowed us to effectively blend narrative elements and game mechanics, which helped grab users’ attention and assess their readiness for the game. When tested, this combination yielded strong results at both the top and bottom of the funnel.

AppAgent’s Creative Team and the client’s user acquisition team gradually narrowed down the best-performing creative directions and ads. This iterative process continued until a well-defined positioning and communication strategy emerged, just in time for the game’s global launch.