Creative strategies are vital in driving user acquisition (UA) performance. At Miri Growth, our collaboration with Supercell, the creators of Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Hay Day, allowed us to test over 500 ads and uncover valuable insights. This post explores our top tips based on findings, takeaways, and our methodologies in optimising creatives, aimed at helping UA managers and creative strategists discover new creative winners and drive performance.
Tip 1: Understanding the Game
To create compelling and relevant creatives, it’s crucial to understand the game from the inside out. It may seem obvious, but it’s especially important for games with great depth, like Supercell’s titles. This involves not just knowing the mechanics but immersing yourself in the gameplay and lore.
- Engagement Through Play: Our team spends significant time playing the games we market. For instance, I’ve reached Town Hall 14 in Clash of Clans within a year, which has given me invaluable insights into the game’s dynamics and user experience. This hands-on experience allows us to understand the player journey, the pain points, and the moments of satisfaction, all of which can be crucial in creating relatable and appealing ads.
- Keeping Up with Updates and In-game Events: In-game events also play a crucial role in creative strategy. Staying updated with new game features and mechanics allows us to integrate these elements into our creatives, ensuring they are relevant, align with the game’s ongoing narrative, and maximise our capacity to experiment with new assets, storylines, and in-game mechanics to amplify our learnings. This involves not just playing the game but also following developer updates, patch notes, and community discussions, making them more appealing to the game’s dedicated player base as well as attracting new players.
- Character and Meta Lore: Understanding the game’s characters and lore helps pinpoint which aspects resonate most with the audience, allowing for targeted and effective creative strategies. This is particularly relevant for mid-core and strategic games, where potential players often appreciate the game’s depth and character stories. For example, in Clash of Clans, certain characters or events might be particularly popular at a given time, and focusing on these can help create ads that feel timely and enhance ad performance.
Tip 2: Understanding the User Base
Understanding why players are drawn to Supercell’s games is fundamental for crafting effective UA strategies.
- Gameplay Appeal: Mid-core games like Clash of Clans offer a balance of strategic depth and accessibility, appealing to both new and experienced gamers. Additionally, the game’s combination of base-building, strategic battles, and social clan wars caters to diverse player preferences, which can be highlighted in creatives. For instance, ads that showcase the thrill of strategic battles can attract competitive players, while those highlighting the satisfaction of base-building can appeal to more casual gamers.
- Community Insights: Monitoring community channels such as Reddit helps us stay attuned to player interests and discussions, which can inform our creative direction. Understanding the memes, fan art, strategies, and base designs that players share can inspire ad creatives that feel authentic and resonate with the audience. This can be relevant for your own game, as well as looking at the community of your competitors.
Tip 3: Sourcing and Prioritising Ideas
Balancing proven strategies with innovative approaches is key to finding new creative winners.
- Cross-Genre Inspiration: While focusing on mid-core strategies, we also draw inspiration from casual games to introduce fresh elements that can make our creatives stand out. For example, integrating casual game mechanics into mid-core ads can attract a broader audience. This could take shape by focusing on the relaxing and satisfying aspects of a game (very casual themes) whilst still showcasing some strategic depth for mid-core enthusiasts. This approach helps discover new creative winners while maintaining consistency.
- Experimentation: It’s important to balance proven concepts with new ideas. We structure our monthly and quarterly creative testing plans to prioritise high-performing themes (60%) while leaving room for experimental ideas (40%).
- Scaling Production: Once we identify successful creatives, we scale them by diversifying themes and making incremental changes to maintain engagement. For example, if a particular ad concept performs well, such as highlighting the satisfaction of base-building or the strategic depth of game tactics, we might create multiple variations of it. Each variation could emphasise different aspects of the game, such as the intricate design of player bases, popular characters, or the excitement of real-time battles. This approach allows us to keep the core successful idea while exploring different angles to continually engage and attract players.
- Authenticity vs. Alternative Gameplay: It’s essential to strike a balance between engaging gameplay representations and staying true to the actual in-game experience. Ads with alternative gameplay can attract initial interest, but authenticity ensures long-term engagement. We often pair eye-catching, slightly exaggerated elements with actual gameplay to maintain retention and credibility.
Tip 4: Applying an Iterative and Data-Driven Approach
Data is at the heart of our creative optimization process. A data-driven approach is essential to avoid creative fatigue and maintain high performance.
- Performance Analytics: We use performance data to guide our creative iterations, looking for trends and patterns that indicate what resonates with our audience.
- Focus on Scalability: At high volumes of testing, it’s crucial to identify and focus on ads that scale well. While granular A/B testing results are important, skewing production towards creatives that demonstrate scalability can significantly enhance overall campaign performance.
- Avoiding Fatigue: Regular brainstorming sessions and creative reviews help us avoid complacency and continuously improve our work. Feedback from these sessions is invaluable in refining our strategies. We also track ad fatigue metrics to ensure that our audience isn’t seeing the same creative too often.
- Iterative Success: We believe in the iterative process. Even when an idea doesn’t initially succeed, we rework it based on feedback and try new angles. This iterative approach allows us to continually refine our strategies and discover new winning creatives.
Case Study: Clash of Clans
Our work with Clash of Clans exemplifies these principles in action. By testing hundreds of ads, we’ve gathered insights that have significantly enhanced our creative strategies.
- Community Engagement: Our ads have not only driven user acquisition but also sparked discussions within gaming communities, further amplifying their reach and effectiveness. Engaging with these communities and incorporating their feedback has been a key component of our strategy.
- Diversified Creatives: We introduced static creatives for Clash of Clans, integrating elements from high-quality cinematic productions with engaging gameplay visuals, resulting in improved engagement and performance. By experimenting with different concepts and execution styles, we were able to identify the elements that resonate most with players.
- Brand Loyalty: Supercell’s high-quality productions and celebrity collaborations create a strong brand loyalty. By showcasing the game’s production quality and star-studded endorsements, we can tap into the aspirational elements that attract players to Supercell’s games.
Conclusion
Our collaboration with Supercell provided valuable insights into effective UA strategies for mobile games. By leveraging data-driven insights, cross-genre inspiration, and a commitment to continuous improvement, we have developed a robust approach to driving user acquisition for mid-core games.
For more insights on scaling your UA efforts and finding new creative winners, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Our expertise in creative strategy and performance marketing can help you achieve scalable and sustainable growth.
