Case study: how Playgendary increased the payback of Hitmasters and Perfect Cream by 20 when promoting to TikTok%

Hitmasters Release of two games and campaign goals

Before the case, we will give a small introduction to the company and the games discussed.

In August, the Belarusian Playgendary entered the top 10 mobile installation companies in the world. As for its total number of downloads, it has exceeded 1 billion, and the monthly audience is more than 250 million players.

In March 2020, the company launched two new products on the world market — Perfect Cream and Hitmasters.

• Perfect Cream is a hyper—casual game in which the player squeezes cream onto various sweets. The studio tried to make a universal product and reach the maximum audience. Classic video networks and social channels worked well, but an additional total amount of traffic was needed, which would be converted into installations.
• Hitmasters is a hyper—casual game designed for a young audience — a mixture of a puzzle and a shooter. Here, it was important for Playgendary to reach the most relevant audience in all channels and get the most out of the players involved.

As can be seen from the AppMagic graph below, the main campaign to attract and the main growth of Perfect Cream installations occurred in March (March 16 release), and Hitmasters — in April (March 19 release).

The common goal for the two projects when promoting on TikTok was to attract the audience involved in the gameplay from the new channel (at that time the game was already being promoted on Facebook, Google Ads, Unity and ironSource).

The studio did not set clear goals to reduce the cost of installing TikTok software, as well as the ratio of traffic to other sites — this was regulated by the auction at each of the sites.

It was also important to enter at least the top 50 on the App Store and Google Play as part of the campaign. Approximately, in order to achieve this, it was necessary to make at least 20 thousand installations on iOS (US) and 10-15 thousand installations on Android (US). Remember: these figures are not static and change depending on the level of competition in the market.

Getting Started with TikTok

The studio contacted the TikTok team directly without intermediaries and used the In-Feed format through the platform’s personal account. TikTok has other promotion tools, but they involve more reach and less binding to targeted actions, such as installing or selling products. Therefore, the focus was on In-Feed.

The overall creative idea for the promotion of Perfect Cream and Hitmasters was to show the most delicious parts of the gameplay of Perfect Cream and Hitmasters in the most complete and without mislides, because clean gameplay is key for such games. Today’s generation of consumers craves honest, real and exciting forms of entertainment, so the studio refused creative digressions that people would not be able to find in the game later.

Perfect Cream Launch of an advertising campaign and the first month of work

In an advertising campaign in TikTok around the world, the studio started with low target bids and gradually increased the price of the impression until it achieved the desired volume of traffic. And although the cost of installing the application eventually turned out to be comparable with competitors, the payback was higher. The difference with other channels was about 20%. These indicators fluctuated from market to market. For example, in China, the CPI turned out to be 30% less than in Google Ads; in Arab countries — by 10% relative to Snapchat.

Over the course of a month, the studio selected the most working creatives with gameplay and removed them as they burned out. Full rotation took 1-2 weeks. At the same time, TikTok’s algorithms found an audience relevant to games, which not only played, but also made purchases inside applications, which had a positive effect on the predicted and final LTV.

This picture lasted about a month. Then the traffic at the current rate began to fall — this can be seen from the AppMagic charts above. Replacing creatives with similar ones did not bring significant results, it was unprofitable to increase bids in terms of payback compared to other channels.

HitmastersContinuation of work in TikTok and conclusions

Despite a significant drop in traffic without raising bids, the studio continues to buy ads for Perfect Cream and Hitmasters at the same price, only now at lower volumes, which are regulated by the auction, since the CPI still remains within the payback.

In TikTok, the Engagement Rate is slightly lower than on other traffic sources. Most likely, this can be explained by a younger audience, which impulsively makes decisions about downloading the application and subsequently can also quickly stop using it. But even adjusted for this, users attracted through TikTok make more purchases in the game.

If we compare the effectiveness of the promotion of these two games with each other, then Hitmasters performs noticeably better on TikTok than Perfect Cream. First of all, this is due to the stronger metrics of the game (for example, LTV), which allows you to purchase traffic in a larger volume.

Following the results of the campaigns, the studio is considering the possibility of using TikTok in the future along with other channels when promoting in all world markets, and in China as the first channel.