Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game app icon

Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game

Players make music.
Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game grows
ROI globally.

Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game on the App Store

With Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game, anyone can be a musician and play their favorite songs. The game’s developer, Amanotes, used Apple Search Ads to reach more players globally while improving efficiency, return on ad spend, and lifetime value. 

The Results

20% of all iOS downloads globally comes from Apple Search Ads.
50% increase in return on investment (ROI)
in the U.S.

55% increase in acquisition during the week of Christmas and
New Year’s Day.
136% increase in downloads.

The Challenge

To scale quality acquisition around the globe, the Amanotes team needed to understand new markets quickly and to efficiently localize a strategy. Improving app discovery with players interested in similar music gameplay would be crucial for ensuring strong return on investment. The team also wanted to capture strong intent from gamers already searching for their brand on the App Store — especially during their peak season.

With Apple Search Ads, we expanded high-quality acquisition globally and increased downloads by 136 percent, reaching more engaged customers at
scale with ease.

The Solution

Understand new markets with Search Match.

To easily monitor performance, the team at Amanotes created separate Apple Search Ads campaigns for each market. In every country or region, they started with Search Match to discover relevant local terms. “When testing out new markets where we don’t know much about volume and customer behavior, we continuously review our Apple Search Ads performance and adjust budgets,” says Amanotes Performance Specialist Tien Bui.

 

After seeing strong conversions in a market, the team would place the best-performing keywords in exact match and then bid competitively for these terms. They’d continue running discovery campaigns to further explore trends in the market. To optimize brand campaigns, the Amanotes team used impression share reports and ensured they were capturing interest from players searching for their brand terms.

Increase efficiency by including all users.

The Amanotes team included all users in their Apple Search Ads campaigns. This helped them serve their ads to a wider audience of potential players, including both new and returning ones. By not refining audiences, the team attracted engaged gamers with higher retention rates across the U.S., Japan, and the UK.

 

“Apple Search Ads has been the most effective platform to test and understand search behavior in new markets before scaling up campaigns,” says Amanotes Head of Product and User Acquisition Daehyun An. “It has been invaluable in determining quickly what markets have the most potential around the globe as well as reaching more engaged players.”

Adjust bidding to capitalize on seasonality.

In preparation for the year-end holidays, the Amanotes team customized creative assets to reflect the season, and they updated keyword sets to include trending terms that gamers search for on the App Store. To maximize impressions during Christmas and New Year’s Day, they also adjusted bids to capitalize on strong intent on the App Store. 

 

“Apple Search Ads is our highest-performing iOS acquisition channel, and helped us reach 55 percent more new players during our peak season,” says An.

Company Snapshot

  • Amanotes
  • Games category
  • Founded in 2010
  • Based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
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