We release about 20 games every year and Apple Search Ads has become an essential part of our marketing strategy, because both the quality of iOS acquisition and return on ad spend keep getting better over time.
Reach new audiences by expanding
keyword coverage.
With search results campaigns separated by keyword theme, the SohaGame team captured strong intent on the App Store. Focused on brand protection, they prioritized bidding competitively on keywords related to their developer's brand, a pioneer in mobile game publishing in Vietnam. The team closely monitored metrics like impression share and click-through rate to optimize keyword bidding based on campaign performance as well category trends, placing lower bids on nonbrand and more generic keywords.
"Apple Search Ads delivers a large volume of quality iOS traffic and consistently shows a positive impact on our organic growth," says SohaGame User Acquisition Manager Vu Dzung. "We also value the ability to measure performance in real time because we can use Apple Search Ads insights for campaign optimization and to drive success."
Optimize for creative relevancy with
ad variations.
During the weeks following the game’s release, the team at SohaGame further optimized for conversions and captured player engagement with ad variations based on custom product pages that they set up in App Store Connect. These custom ads featured the cute chibi art of the game and enticed players to download by highlighting new in-game characters, app updates, and special promotions. When potential players tapped the ad, they landed on a custom product page that matched the ad creative — creating a seamless customer experience.
In fact, the team found that the best-performing custom product page lowered cost-per-acquisition by as much as 10 percent. When they added the best-performing custom product page as the default product page, cost-per-new-user also decreased by over 10 percent. “Testing different ad variations not only helped improve performance, but also gave us actionable insights into what creative best captures the attention of our core players and motivates them to download our game,” says Dzung.
Increase reach and impact with ads on the Today and
Search tabs.
The team at SohaGame also promoted their app on the front page of the App Store with a Today tab ad. With this prominent placement, their app was some of the first fully visible content that people saw when they began their App Store journey to discover new games. “The Today tab is an extremely premium location and the number of players we can reach increased exponentially,” says Dzung. “Our Today tab campaign drove a high volume of installs with high return on ad spend.”
To further boost awareness, the SohaGame team invested in ads on the Search tab. Featured at the top of the suggested apps list, these ads helped influence intent before people narrowed in on a search. With product page ads, the team was able to reach people when they were actively researching apps, capturing strong intent. “With these two ad placements, we were able to easily increase visibility, reach more gamers, and gain incremental downloads. We have continued to increase investment in Search tab ads every quarter, and have found cost-per-acquisition to remain consistent,” says Dzung.
Company Snapshot
- SohaGame
- Games category
- Launched in 2011
- Based in Hanoi, Vietnam
Start your
first
campaign.
Apple Search Ads Advanced gives you easy and flexible
campaign management
options and a variety of ad placements
designed to drive visibility and
downloads of your app. Try it for
free with a 100 USD credit.*