Facebook released a new tool that predicts creative fatigue. In this post, we will explain the details of this new feature and help you do the following:
Diagnose creative fatigue patterns early
Receive improvement recommendations from Facebook
Recover campaign performance faster
Avoid increased costs per action
New Facebook Tool Predicts Creative Fatigue
Facebook Ads Manager introduced new guidance for when an ad set is predicted to fatigue, before and after starting a campaign. During ad creation, advertisers will receive a “creative limited” prompt if Facebook predicts the ad set will likely fatigue within 7 days. Once an ad set is published, the prompt may surface as early as 3 days post-launch in the Delivery column and Account Overview if the ad set appears to be nearing fatigue. With this early detection from Facebook, advertisers can update their ad creative before declining campaign performance is unrecoverable.
Facebook can determine if an audience has seen the same ad too many times. Facebook analyzes the cost per result for all recent exposures of the ad’s image or video. This includes those from other campaigns. If the cost per result is approaching twice as much as past ad performance, the ad will be flagged with “creative limited” status. If the cost per result is twice as much or more than past ads, the ad will have a “creative fatigue” status.
If ad creative receives a limited or fatigue prompt, Facebook provides some recommendations. Increase audience size or create a new ad materially different from the original creative, while keeping the original creative running to maximize results. Facebook also recommends dynamic experiences. Facebook uses a proven algorithm to distribute dynamic creatives personalized by user predictive measures. By using the same image or video in each dynamic ad, reach is maximized through result-driven variations.
Source: Facebook for Business
Every Ad Will Eventually Fatigue and Die
As dramatic as it sounds, no ad will perform forever. Based on over 100,000 videos and images we produce and test yearly for our clients, our research has shown that winning ads last only 10 weeks, before they burn out. We have performed over 25,000 A/B and multivariate tests on Facebook, Google, TikTok, and Snap and have learned that 85-95% of new creative concepts fail to outperform the best ad in a portfolio. To survive in this volatile ad ecosystem, 20-50 new concepts are needed to find the next winning creative. And you’ll need to keep developing new concepts to stay ahead of creative fatigue.
How We Can Help
Our Creative Studio provides clients with bespoke ad creative driven by Hollywood storytelling and quantitative analysis at scale. Mobile app marketers and web-based performance advertisers come to us for end-to-end, outcome-oriented creative, integrated user acquisition, and creative optimization. Through our proprietary technology AdRules, we also make creative and media buying decisions based on our clients’ real-time financial performance. Also, to help our clients stay ahead of creative fatigue, we use our proprietary Ad Concept Model. This creative development tool pairs creative trends with motivational drivers to guide creative exploration aligned with target audiences.
Creative Expertise
Our creative expertise comes from managing $150m in monthly ad spend across Facebook, Google, TikTok, Snap, and Apple Search Ads. We also create and test 100K videos and images each year for clients. This provides us unparalleled insights into the evolving mobile advertising ecosystem. From our strategic analyses of IDFA loss and media buying automation to tactical guidance for A/B testing, we ensure our clients can adapt and thrive. Contact us at sales@consumeracquisition.com to work with our team.
In-game advertising has proven benefits for advertisers seeking contextual placement, brand-safe environments, and captive audiences. Setting aside “gamer” stereotypes, mobile games appeal to hugely diverse audiences and offer marketers an increasingly flexible environment to reach them. “As marketers contend with the deprecation of cookies and changes to other identifiers, an embedded approach in gaming could have greater appeal. Gamers, after all, are held at rapt attention given the interactive nature of the medium,” says MarketingDive.
Want better results from video ads for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or Snap?
Our industry expertise comes from managing over $3.5 billion in creative and paid social spend for the world’s largest mobile apps and performance advertisers, including Glu, Roblox, Wooga, Zynga, and Skillz. Our proprietary full-stack marketing platform AdRules provides real-time business intelligence and creative research from 3.5 million video ads across social channels.
As the mobile advertising ecosystem has evolved, we have focused on being a reliable source of mobile app industry insights and trends. Our strategic analyses of IDFA loss and media buying automation, along with tactical guidance for user acquisition and creative teams, has helped advertisers remain profitable during an unprecedented era of change. Our industry expertise has earned coverage from CNBC, Forbes, SeekingAlpha, Business Insider, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Mobile Marketing Magazine, and many more.
Working with a knowledgeable marketing partner that can provide extensive quantitative creative testing ensures you get the best performance from your UGC ads. Email us at sales@consumeracquisition.com to discuss your user acquisition goals.
With Mother’s Day almost here, Facebook for Business shared with us some timely tips for advertisers to make the most of the holiday.
Understand market opportunities
Provide inspiration to gift-givers
Get creative recommendations
Facebook Tips for Mother’s Day Advertising 2022
A key growth opportunity
To understand the value of the Mother’s Day market, consider participation at the national level: 83% percent of U.S. adults celebrate the holiday, translating to an enormous brand growth opportunity that boosts sales averages and increases visibility. The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported a $2B increase in consumer Mother’s Day spending from 2020 to 2021, with average spending increasing every year since 2018.
Online spending continues to increase, even compared to pre-pandemic numbers. Facebook notes that 34% of consumers plan to shop online and have their Mother’s Day gifts delivered directly. This presents a massive opportunity for eCommerce marketers, in particular.
32% of Mother’s Day gifters always/very often look to retailers to provide inspiration for their gift-giving. Irrespective of demographics, NRF identifies core purchase motivators as convenience, uniqueness, cost, and creating a special memory.
With consumers looking for retailers to inspire them, advertisers must craft campaigns and utilize ad creative that addresses those top motivations. Persona-led and motivation-driven ad creative will improve direct response results. Create “special memories” by evoking care, wonder, or nostalgia. A Mother’s Day celebration isn’t typically an ordinary, everyday experience, so gifters seek out unexpected and unique gifts. While jewelry continues to dominate gift spending, consumer electronics is a competitive category, following after special outings and experiences. Self-care and fitness gifts are also on the rise. Advertisers must understand the underlying values, desires, and behaviors of target customers to inspire their purchase decisions.
Creative Facebook Tips
Facebook for Business recommends the following tips for Mother’s Day creative.
When incorporating seasonal assets (as many eCommerce advertisers will be doing), include strong, attractive branding to ensure your offering stands out
Highlight the value of the experience (not the product) to inspire the consumer
Remember that your product encapsulates a set of emotions from a gifter to the receiver
Appeal to the human (not the wallet) with great storytelling and alignment of values
Leverage user-generated content for a sense of community and authenticity
Make it beautiful, says Facebook: “Inviting, captivating visuals followed with direct pushes towards your desired action allow for the merging of performance and branding in a flawless way”
Source: Facebook for Business
Want better results from Facebook performance advertising?
Working with a knowledgeable marketing partner that can provide market resources and Facebook expertise ensures you get the best performance from your platform ads. Email us at sales@consumeracquisition.com to discuss your user acquisition goals.
Rewarded video ads are universally popular among advertisers, publishers, and mobile game players, alike. Read our latest blog post to learn more about the most loved in-app ad format, rewarded video.
Understand different types of in-app advertisements
Discover why in-game advertising is gaining traction among non-gaming companies
Find out which in-app ad formats bring in high-value users
Most Loved In-App Ad Format?
Rewarded Video
In-game advertising among non-gaming companies is gaining notable traction among marketers. According to MarketingDive, major brands such as Unilever and American Eagle are “using gaming to support commerce goals and court favor with hard-to-reach audiences.” Setting aside “gamer” stereotypes, mobile games appeal to hugely diverse audiences and offer marketers an increasingly flexible environment to reach them.
In-game ads have great benefits for advertisers seeking contextual placement, brand-safe environments, and captive audiences. And the market is only growing. By 2027, the in-game advertising market is expected to grow by a healthy 19.5% up from $5.29 billion in 2020, according to Report Ocean. “As marketers contend with the deprecation of cookies and changes to other identifiers, an embedded approach in gaming could have greater appeal. Gamers, after all, are held at rapt attention given the interactive nature of the medium,” says MarketingDive.
As users playing a mobile game are actively participating in something they enjoy, they tend to accept ads in exchange for a free-to-play (F2P) experience. When interviewed, 82% of users said they’d much rather play free games than purchase paid ones and the higher volume of F2P users makes measurement and tracking at scale more efficiently. Users are accustomed to ad monetization models and generally understand how ads factor into the free-to-play mobile game experience. In fact, players often actively seek out opportunities to view ads if they unlock a reward within the game.
“For media buyers running in-app campaigns, I recommend maxing out rewarded video before anything else. Prioritize SDK networks like IronSource, Unity, and Applovin. Then run banners, interstitials, and rewarded video on Facebook audience network, Google display, YouTube for mobile and TikTok’s Pangle.”
– Bo Jacks, Director of UA, Consumer Acquisition by Brainlabs
REWARDED VIDEO ADS
Players served rewarded video ads receive an in-game benefit for watching, such as hard currency or extra lives. This format is a win-win situation for all parties involved. Because advertisers get high CTRs while developers enjoy the ad revenue. No matter what kind of rewards or apps are being advertised, the opt-in nature of rewarded ads means players are very likely to stick around for the duration of the ad after starting. If a player quits early, they forfeit the reward. Users are generally supportive of this kind of ad, with 77% of them willing to sit through a 30-second ad if it means getting retail discounts. According to eMarketer, rewarded video ads are the most prevalent format, given their high completion rates. Unity Ads calls rewarded video as the “hottest revenue generator” in in-game advertising.
INTERSTITIAL ADS
Interstitial ads have been around since the early days of F2P. They take up the viewer’s full screen for a certain period of time, after which the viewer can skip the ad or elect to install the app. While both static images and video can be used in this format, it’s highly recommended to use video content as it provides a more entertaining experience for the user. Compared to rewarded video, players typically don’t get anything out of the experience so they tend to be neutral about interstitials. From a developer perspective, the key to successful interstitials lies in making them as unobtrusive as possible, ensuring the ads are placed within natural gameplay pauses and at predictable locations.
BANNER ADS
Unlike interstitial ads, banner ads do not interrupt gameplay or app activity since they are designed within the user interface. When executed well, banner ads can even feel like a part of the game’s universe. Portrait-mode apps tend to favor these ads since they are usually discrete and do not take much space. Banner ads benefit advertisers with their cheaper costs and simple production process. This format tends to be less favored by developers and publishers due to lower revenue. So it’s usually better to employ them as part of a comprehensive advertising strategy, rather than as standalone performers.
OFFER WALLS
Similar to rewarded video ads, offer walls allow users to claim a reward for completing a specific activity. For example, engaging with another app or filling out a survey. Offerwalls are often located within an app’s store and provide many options to users. Although offer walls are less popular than they used to be, there are still plenty of reasons to use them. With the promise of high-quality users, advertisers only pay publishers when the target goal is reached. So there’s little risk of wasting an investment.
PLAYABLE ADS
Playable ads are the most production-intensive type of ad and are specifically for mobile games. They introduce a mini-game that showcases the core features of the app being advertised. Upon completing it, players are prompted to install the application. Users generally perceive playable ads as the most enjoyable of all ad types. Advertisers should note that the CPI for playable ads is at an all-time low ($1.98), making them a highly competitive option even when compared to rewarded ads. This is especially true on Android as the CPI is at $1.41 over there, much lower than the iOS average at $3.66. Playables also tend to acquire high-quality users since players who have tested a game are far less likely to quit after installing it.
HOW WE CAN HELP
Our Creative Studio provides clients with bespoke ad creative driven by Hollywood storytelling and quantitative analysis. Mobile app marketers and web-based performance advertisers come to us for end-to-end, outcome-oriented creative, integrated user acquisition, and creative optimization. Through our proprietary technology AdRules, we make creative and media buying decisions based on our clients’ real-time financial performance.
Our creative expertise comes from managing $150m in monthly ad spend across Facebook, Google, TikTok, Snap, and Apple Search Ads. Creating and testing 100K videos and images each year for clients provides us unparalleled insights into the evolving mobile advertising ecosystem. From our strategic analyses of IDFA loss and media buying automation to tactical guidance for A/B testing, we ensure our clients can adapt and thrive. Contact us at sales@consumeracquisition.com to work with our team.
This month we celebrated our 9-year anniversary as a company and are thrilled to enter our tenth year with the support of Brainlabs. Want to discuss our full suite of mobile app marketing services? Let’s talk!
Every game genre can drive viral installs with episodic ads and deliver the promise of “to be continued…” Discover the pitfalls and pointers from our team of Hollywood storytellers and animators.
TikTok, Snapchat, and Reels are increasingly popular channels for contextual video ads, particularly for mobile games. But testing new channels and mastering their respective formats can be daunting, especially for a UA team with limited creative resources. Check out the infographic to maximize your efficiency with video assets that work across channels without extra revisions.
Leveraging video assets across TikTok, Snapchat, and Reels
Influencer advertising creative trends
Motivational triggers for UGC ads
The growing influencer market
From micro-influencers and reaction videos to captions and meta-commentary, UGC ads across social networks— and on TikTok in particular— are a critical part of any successful growth marketing strategy. Bring your questions!
In today’s post, we explain how to make the best episodic ads for your mobile game. If you are considering a series of narrative ads to drive new players and profit, read on to hear about the following pitfalls and pointers from our team of Hollywood storytellers, animators, editors, and producers:
Appeal to specific gaming motivations
Build out your main characters
Use a three-act structure
Don’t skip the storyboard
Establish a memorable visual style
Leverage an agile production process for live action
How to Make the Best Episodic Ads for your Mobile Game
Virality. Profit. Suspense. Scandal. Mobile games Lily’s Garden and Merge Mansion reached international meme status through provocative episodic ads for their match-3 and merge games, respectively. More often associated with AAA console games, sophisticated narrative-based commercials are increasingly popular for mobile game user acquisition. As app marketers diversify their portfolios to YouTube pre-rolls and connected TVs, high-quality video is critical. (Interestingly, this trend stands in stark contrast to the massive popularity of ads with scrappier user-generated content, which we’ve reported on as well.) Just as cinematic mobile game trailers gain momentum and attract spenders, ads that tell a story over several “episodes” are proving to be successful for app marketers. Every game genre can drive viral installs with episodic ads and the promise of “to be continued…”
If you’re considering a series of narrative ads to drive new players and profit, read on for pitfalls and pointers from our team of Hollywood storytellers, animators, editors, and producers.
Appeal to Specific Gaming Motivations
To attract high-quality top-of-funnel users, persona-driven creative is critical. Ad creative tailored to users’ motivations, behaviors, interests, and preferences ensure media buyers can understand what is working and how to do more of it. This insight is crucial in light of aggressive privacy regulations.
As part of our creative process using our Ad Concept Model, we identify different user motivations within an app category to target users based on their emotional drivers. Below are typical user motivations for playing games. It’s easy to stereotype how certain game genres map to user motivations. But critical to the success of Lily’s Garden and Merge Mansion ads was the excitement of a narrative-driven scandal inside of these otherwise calm and casual mobile games. Irrespective of game genre, test ad creative targeting different motivations and you might be surprised with what actually works.
Build Out Your Main Character
After analyzing target users and their motivations to play your game, consider what type of character will appeal to those motivations. A relatable main character is foundational for a viewer to connect with your content. Remember that relatable doesn’t have to mean likable. The main driver of your story could be a protagonist, antagonist, or a morally ambiguous mysterious other. Even if your game doesn’t have one main character or even a narrative, creating one for this type of ad is a proven tactic. The main character should be recognizable and idiosyncratic enough to be memorable throughout a series of ads. And they must be interesting enough to lead a three-act drama.
Three-Act Structure of Episodic Ads
Before attempting a thirty-episode arc, work the tried-and-true three-act structure: introduce the conflict, build to the climax, then offer a resolution. The main character should embody the user motivation you’re trying to trigger and the story will bring the audience along. With typical episodic ads running from 10 to 30 seconds, the full story arc needs to be tight and punchy and each individual episode needs a clear focus.
Don’t Skip the Storyboard
You’ve thought about what you want to happen, who it’s happening with, and now it’s time to visualize it. A storyboard ensures the whole production team understands the expectations and acts as a tool for collaboration. It also reveals inconsistencies or missed opportunities, and ultimately helps keep everyone focused on the same goal. Our storyboard for Wooga’s Switchcraft is below and you can read the full case study here.
A critical part of making episodic ads work is that each ad on its own is instantly recognizable as part of the larger narrative arc. Art-heavy games like RPGs can use their best in-game assets for their paid social advertising. This includes cutscenes animated in 2D and 3D, resting-state 2D character sprites, and open-world third-person exploration. Other examples include game footage battles and rigged character illustrations. But what if your game has no 3D assets or lacks truly cinematic cutscenes? Then you may need a little help to tell the story.
Casual games studio, Wooga, was seeking compelling ad creative for the soft launch of their first story-driven puzzle match-3 game, Switchcraft. They were striving for market differentiation among competitors such as Gardenscapes, Lily’s Garden, and Small Town Murders. Wooga wanted to highlight their dramatic relationship-driven storyline, diverse characters, and magical gameplay. In-game assets had a unique painterly art style. But Wooga wanted to bring the story to life with 3D cinematics that combined realism and comic-book aesthetics.
Through our creative partnership with Wooga, Consumer Acquisition developed a 30-second CGI game trailer, 50 original concepts, and over 150 videos. We created entirely original 3D computer animation along with motion graphics. We also created 2D animation and FX, text animations, lighting effects, character rigging, illustrations, and character design.
Agile Production Process for Live Action
An agile production approach to live action will ensure UA and creative teams have multiple variations of an ad to test, while efficiently capturing hundreds of video and photo assets during the shoot. Be sure to include different character reactions, different narrative progression, and different gameplay or app features. Shoot in 4K and you can capture still photos from the digital footage for social posts and single-image or carousel ads. An agile shoot also means post-production resizes and optimizations across channels will be easier.
How We Can Help
Our Creative Studio provides clients with bespoke ad creative driven by Hollywood storytelling and quantitative analysis. Mobile app marketers and web-based performance advertisers come to us for end-to-end, outcome-oriented creative, integrated user acquisition, and creative optimization. Through our proprietary technology AdRules, we make creative and media buying decisions based on our clients’ real-time financial performance.
Our creative expertise comes from managing $150m in monthly ad spend across Facebook, Google, TikTok, Snap, and Apple Search Ads. Creating and testing 100K videos and images each year for clients provides us unparalleled insights into the evolving mobile advertising ecosystem. From our strategic analyses of IDFA loss and media buying automation to tactical guidance for A/B testing, we ensure our clients can adapt and thrive. Contact us at sales@consumeracquisition.com to work with our elite creative team.
As mobile app marketers diversify their media buying, UA budgets are splitting out across channels. TikTok, Snapchat, and Reels, on both Facebook and Instagram, are increasingly popular for contextual video ads, particularly for mobile games. However, testing new channels and mastering their respective formats can be daunting, especially for a UA team with limited creative resources. In this infographic, we’ve summarized video ad specs and recommendations across channels so you can get the most traction out of your best video assets.
We create and test 100K videos and images each year for clients so we know it takes 20-30 new concepts to find your next winning creative. Resizing, localizing, and scaling across channels before you have a winner simply multiplies your failure rate. However, if you want to try a new channel or test across channels, you can maximize your efficiency by making video assets that work on TikTok, Snapchat, and Reels without extra revisions. Here are the video ad specs that will work across these channels.
Want better results from video ads for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or Snap?
Our industry expertise comes from managing over $3.5 billion in creative and paid social spend for the world’s largest mobile apps and performance advertisers, including Glu, Roblox, Wooga, Zynga, and Skillz. Our proprietary full-stack marketing platform AdRules provides real-time business intelligence and creative research from 3.5 million video ads across social channels.
As the mobile advertising ecosystem has evolved, we have focused on being a reliable source of mobile app industry insights and trends. Our strategic analyses of IDFA loss and media buying automation, along with tactical guidance for user acquisition and creative teams, has helped advertisers remain profitable during an unprecedented era of change. Our industry expertise has earned coverage from CNBC, Forbes, SeekingAlpha, Business Insider, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Mobile Marketing Magazine, and many more.
Working with a knowledgeable marketing partner that can provide extensive quantitative creative testing ensures you get the best performance from your UGC ads. Email us at sales@consumeracquisition.com to discuss your user acquisition goals.
Mobile RPG Genshin Impact attracts U.S. spenders through Instagram at record rates. Read our newest report on Genshin’s ad creative used to acquire these high-value players. Get expert analysis on:
The Explosive Growth of Genshin Impact
Genshin’s Monetization Structure and Gameplay Mechanics
Growing the Playerbase through Cinematic Ads on Instagram
Analyzing Genshin’s UA Ad Creative
How to Leverage Assets Without Cinematics
How Genshin Impact Attracts US Spenders With Cinematic Ads
Mobile RPG and Open World UA Creative Trends
In an app industry shakeup, U.S. consumer spending in mobile action games rose 69% in 2021 largely driven by one open-world RPG: Genshin Impact. This report analyzes how Genshin Impact attracts high-value users in the United States and how RPG games can leverage that proven success in their own user acquisition.
Genshin Impact
Launched in September 2020, Genshin Impact quickly became a major contender in the mobile game market. The innovative gameplay combines an alluring open world with long-term RPG progression mechanics, proving to be a very successful formula. As of January 2022, Genshin Impact had earned over $3 billion in revenue from mobile players, while enjoying very high user retention rates by gradually releasing new characters and areas to explore.
Genshin’s main genre competitors in the US are Raid: Shadow Legends and RPGs built on strong IPs such as Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Dragon Ball. Genshin remains the most profitable anime-based game by far, as its main competitors are mostly Western releases. By revenue, Genshin is bested only by Western app giants PUBG and Honor of Kings, reaching a comfortable third place in top-grossing App Store games in February 2022.
The game has had an important influence on the mobile action genre and is largely responsible for the massive boost in mobile action game revenue in 2021, reaching $966.8 million. Player spending in the open-world adventure subgenre increased by 3.5x last year, a category in which Genshin enjoys little to no competition whatsoever.
Source: Genshin Impact gameplay
Genshin Impact is developed by miHoYo, a Chinese company that incorporated typical elements from the Japanese video game industry into the game. However, Genshin has a key advantage over most games in the Japanese market: the substantial revenue generated overseas. In 2021, Genshin’s US revenue was a whopping $400 million, nearly double its closest competitor in the US market. The New York Times said Genshin’s “success points to a shifting balance of power in the $200 billion-a-year global video game industry, which has long been dominated by Japan and the United States.”
Monetization Structure
Savvy in current mobile game trends, miHoYo takes a simplified approach to monetize its free-to-play game. The game caters to both small and large spenders alike, offering few but enticing options that cleverly blend with the game’s progression system. Genshin Impact’s core monetization mechanic is through the Japanese-inspired gacha, a random lottery where players spend virtual currency for a small chance at getting desired characters, weapons, and gear. The term derives from gachapon, the real-world vending machines that tempt buyers with limited-edition collectible toys in plastic capsules. Gacha monetization is growing in popularity among US mobile games, including those with known IP.
Genshin’s currency can be purchased directly in bulk, but small spenders can take advantage of two lower-cost deals as well:
The monthly package lets players earn small amounts of currency every day they play. Players forfeit the reward for any day they don’t log in which drives retention and DAU.
The season pass offers substantial in-game resources to facilitate progression, together with a useful amount of premium currency.
Genshin employs the tried-and-true mechanics of the stamina-based progression and the cycling of time-limited content, typical of free-to-play mobile games. With the stamina system in place, players can play the game in short bursts every day, unless they choose to pay. This leads to both higher user retention and monetization since meaningful progress can only be seen after having played for an extended period of time.
Source: Genshin Impact gameplay
Growing the Playerbase through Cinematic Ads
Genshin Impact is an award-winning mobile game that could easily pass as a AAA release. Irrespective of later-game monetization, the rich world-building and anime aesthetics on their own are striking enough to attract new players. In fact, Genshin has substantially increased its player base month-over-month since its release, reaching nearly 60 million monthly active users by March 2022. The quality of the initial open-world experience, heavily inspired by Nintendo’s beloved 2017 release “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” has allowed the game to reach communities that may not typically engage in mobile gaming.
Source: Genshin Impact in-game scene
For years, anime-style mobile RPGs have consistently included the highest quality animated cutscenes and cinematics, often resulting in longer load times than typical mobile games. However, as devices, networks, and mobility capabilities evolve (see Nintendo Switch), visually arresting storytelling on mobile will attract more and more players. A clear benefit of in-game cutscenes and cinematics is the ability to use those high-quality assets for user acquisition. And Genshin Impact does just that.
Analyzing Genshin Impact’s UA Ad Creative
Based on MobileAction data, Genshin Impact is advertising almost entirely on Instagram and Facebook. Facebook Ad Library and MobileAction show that the ads leverage the most popular creative trends for RPGs, open world, and gacha games. Some of these ad creative trends include:
Cinematic Trailer: Dramatic, high-quality story showcasing characters and action, often 3D animation
Gameplay: Game overview showcasing user experience, core objectives, and game features or mechanics
Characters: Highlighting game character personalities, powers, origins, and vignettes
Player Focused: Player types, player interviews, and PVP gameplay
Testimonial: Leveraging player experiences, influencer reviews, and user-generated content
Level Progression: Footage of mastering levels, increasing stats, or unlocking the content
Competitive: Comparing the game against other similar games or gameplay experiences
Genshin Impact uses all of its best in-game assets for its paid social advertising: cutscenes animated in 2D and 3D, resting-state 2D character sprites, open-world third-person exploration, game footage battles, and rigged character illustrations. Based on MobileAction, two of their most popular styles of ads are cinematic trailers and gameplay, with a strong focus on character vignettes.
Many of the video ads incorporate several types of assets and art styles at once. The still shots below show several art styles that were utilized in one high-performing Genshin Impact cinematic trailer on Instagram. This ad focused on one character’s personality, style, and capabilities in battle.
Source: MobileAction
Ad Concept Model
As part of our creative process using our Ad Concept Model, we identify different user motivations within an app category to target users based on their emotional drivers. Below are typical user motivations for games.
As evident even in the still shots from video ads, Genshin Impact’s creative appeals to users driven by many of these motivations.
For players seeking escape, open-world ads show an immersive fantasy land to explore; character-driven ad creative offers rich lore and story progression to live the fantasy firsthand.
Source: MobileAction
Genshin’s gameplay ads appeal to players seeking excitement by showcasing fast-paced battle action and thrilling elemental reactions. For the success-seeker, footage of acquiring and leveling powerful characters, completing quests, and beating bosses are very attractive. Players wanting to exercise their expertise will be drawn to challenging content and mastering game mechanics strategically.
Source: MobileAction
No cutscenes? No problem.
One of the most impactful ad creative trends gaining momentum is the high-fidelity cinematic trailer. More often associated with AAA console games, mobile games are employing increasingly sophisticated commercials for user acquisition. As mobile app marketers diversify their portfolios to YouTube pre-rolls and connected TVs, high-quality video is critical. (Interestingly, this trend stands in stark contrast to the massive popularity of ads with user-generated content, which we’ve reported on as well.)
An anime-style RPG like Genshin Impact naturally lends itself to visually arresting, dramatic cinematic trailers. And, it already has plenty of in-game assets to use. But what if your game has no 3D assets or lacks truly cinematic cutscenes? Then you may need a little help.
2D Assets Get a 3D Makeover
Casual games studio Wooga was seeking compelling ad creative for the soft launch of their first story-driven puzzle match-3 game, Switchcraft. Striving for market differentiation among competitors such as Gardenscapes, Lily’s Garden, and Small Town Murders, Wooga wanted to highlight their dramatic relationship-driven storyline, diverse characters, and magical gameplay. In-game assets had a unique painterly art style but Wooga wanted to bring the story to life with 3D cinematics that combined realism and comic-book aesthetics.
Through our creative partnership with Wooga, Consumer Acquisition developed a 30-second CGI game trailer, 50 original concepts, and over 150 videos. We created entirely original 3D computer animation along with motion graphics, 2D animation and FX, text animations, lighting effects, character rigging, illustrations, and character design. View the official Switchcraft trailer below.
Nathalie Wood, Marketing Manager at Wooga praised the results:
“Consumer Acquisition was able to provide us with fresh, breakthrough ad creative that performed to meet different goals, from installs at scale to targeting high-value players. We were truly impressed by how Consumer Acquisition took our 2D assets and brought them to life. The creative process was collaborative and Consumer Acquisition tested all types of concepts and art styles to ensure we found what worked best. For our official game trailer, Consumer Acquisition created compelling 3D assets from scratch under a very tight deadline and we are thrilled with how it turned out. Consumer Acquisition’s commitment to creative research and rigorous creative testing was evident in the excellent results.”
We are hiring across all departments for fully-remote positions! Read our blog post to hear firsthand from our animation team in Mexico, and learn why we keep actively pursuing international talent, year after year.
As the mobile advertising ecosystem has evolved, we have focused on being a reliable source of mobile app industry insights and trends. Want to discuss how UGC ads can improve your marketing mix? Let’s talk!
As advertising ecosystems increase Paid Search automation, Responsive Search Ads are a critical capability to drive higher performance.
TikTok UGC Ads Creative Guide
From micro-influencers and reaction videos to captions and meta-commentary, UGC ads across social networks— and on TikTok in particular— are a critical part of any successful growth marketing strategy. Get insights on this massive opportunity for marketers in our newest white paper: TikTok UGC Ads: 2022 Creative Guide.
Download this comprehensive report for details on:
The current state of UGC on social media platforms
Latest industry investments in video content and creator ecosystems
Current UGC trends and motivational triggers
Updated best practices for UGC ads for TikTok
Google Paid Search Best Practices
Paid search is a darling of data-driven marketing for good reason: it is a user-initiated opportunity to provide value. For each user query, an advertiser can provide the right answer to a declared need. Similar to Programmatic Dynamic Creative Optimization, Responsive Search Ads use contextual signals to assemble text assets predicted to perform best for each individual user’s search query.
We offer Paid Search through Brainlabs! Contact us at Sales@ConsumerAcquisition.com to discuss the benefits of adding Paid Search to your marketing mix.
To stay ahead of creative fatigue, we developed the Ad Concept Model as a tool for creative teams to overcome creative slumps. This reusable framework uncovers fresh ideas to discover “where to go next” when you think you’ve tried everything. David DeJong, Group Creative Director for Consumer Acquisition by Brainlabs will discuss how to develop your own Ad Concept Model that supports 30-50 new concepts. Create lanes for your creative team to explore while eliminating unfocused ideation that doesn’t align with your target personas, motivations, or trends. Use this tool and find your next winning ad!
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Our employees with families appreciate having the flexibility to attend their children’s events or family appointments as they need to. Employees who love to travel enjoy working from anywhere they like. Working with us, night owls and early birds all have a chance to thrive. And everyone benefits from working with people from different cultures and different perspectives.
Influencer marketing and UGC advertising on TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram are driving profitable UA across all app categories and present a massive opportunity for marketers. From micro-influencers and reaction videos to captions and meta-commentary, UGC ads across social networks— and on TikTok in particular— are a critical part of any successful growth marketing strategy.
Our white paper 2022 Creative Guide to Influencer Marketing and UGC Ads shares expert recommendations on influencer marketing with user-generated content. Data from the white paper is summarized in this infographic Influencer Marketing and UGC Advertising in 2022.
Want better results from UGC for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or Snap?
Our industry expertise comes from managing over $3.5 billion in creative and paid social spend for the world’s largest mobile apps and performance advertisers. These include Glu, Roblox, Wooga, Zynga, and Skillz. Our proprietary full-stack marketing platform AdRules provides real-time business intelligence and creative research from 3.5 million video ads across social channels.
The mobile advertising ecosystem has evolved. During this evolution, we have focused on being a reliable source of mobile app industry insights and trends. Our strategic analyses of IDFA loss and media buying automation, along with tactical guidance for user acquisition and creative teams, has helped advertisers remain profitable during an unprecedented era of change. Our industry expertise has earned coverage from CNBC, Forbes, SeekingAlpha, Business Insider, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Mobile Marketing Magazine, and many more.
Working with a knowledgeable marketing partner that can provide extensive quantitative creative testing ensures you get the best performance from your UGC ads. Email us at sales@consumeracquisition.com to discuss your user acquisition goals.
![In-Game Advertising Trends [Infographic]](https://www.consumeracquisition.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/InGameAdTrends_Banner_1920x940.png)
![TikTok + Reels + Snapchat: Video Ad Specs That Work Across Channels [Infographic]](https://www.consumeracquisition.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/video_ad_specs_banner.png)
