Gaming / PLAYRIX CASE STUDY
A case of positive incrementality with Playrix’s Gardenscapes
+300-400% Incremental ROAS
+21.4% Incremental Conversion Rate
With its games consistently ranked in the top 50 grossing apps, Playrix is a pioneer in user re-engagement. They started implementing app retargeting in their marketing strategy in 2016 and have seen great success with their Remerge campaigns.
Their results have shown positive ROAS and return rates but - even the innovator - Playrix also wanted to begin analyzing success with Incremental KPIs in order to asses the real value app retargeting was bringing them on top of their other marketing campaigns.
To make sure that organically-occuring purchases were not being cannibalized nor falsely attributed, Remerge ran incrementality tests to increase campaign transparency and prove added value.
« Over 300% incremental ROAS - validated and measured with a reliable methodology. We love it! »
Irina Zhukova, UA Manager, Playrix
The Challenge
Playrix was interested in having more transparency and insights. They wanted to learn more about the incremental value app retargeting was providing on top of their other marketing activities.
- Target previous purchasers
- Test incremental uplift
- Gain insights
Data
Playrix provided a real-time event stream of their data. This is the first step in setting up a successful retargeting campaign and incrementality test. The previous purchaser group was later divided into a control and a test group to track all incremental conversions.
Pro Tip! When sharing first-party data to a partner, make sure that they are GDPR-compliant, ideally running as a processor (not controller) of your data, and that all data is siloed per customer.
Creatives
In the initial campaign, we ran concept-level A/B tests on the creatives to find the best converting combinations. Creatives for the game were updated on a monthly basis to keep the users interested.
Changes included either seasonality (Christmas collaterals) or app updates such as new storylines and elements.
Measurement
A continuous uplift test was kept running in the background of the live campaign. For this, we used a methodology called ‘Ghost Bids’, based on the Ghost Ads concept developed by Google .
Within the target segment, the total audience found in RTB was split into two groups: control group and test group (10% and 90%).
The test group was targeted by our ads.
The control group was not exposed to ads resulting in no additional costs (as opposed to other models).
With a scaling factor, the results from both groups were compared to determine the uplift.
Next Steps
By verifying and measuring the real contribution of app retargeting to the overall marketing revenue, Playrix and Remerge will continue to optimize campaigns to make sure that the right users will be reached at the right time with the right creatives at the right price, to make sure that incremental ROAS will be maximized at all times.