Moloco's VP of EMEA, Ben Jeger, offers his insights into the success factor of creatives, with a specific insight into how each global region carries its own set of nuances and cultural preferences.

Every attendee of a Gamesforum conference knows that having a global strategy for your mobile game is no longer a nice to have, it’s a must-have. However, to do this well you ideally need to have a deep understanding of local markets, trends, and user preferences. It can be a daunting challenge to navigate these complexities, but the opportunities are vast and, done right, there is massive potential for exponential growth and a far broader reach. I wanted to share with Gamesforum some top line insights from a session we ran with Data.ai at GDC where we discussed Data.ai’s latest report and some learnings from recent campaigns we ran with Gamehaus and Big Fish Games. 

Starting with a quick dive into the State of Mobile Gaming report from Data.ai showed a number of key findings that highlighted the current global opportunity: One stand out metric was that total consumer spending in the global games industry had reached $107.3Bn. Digging a bit deeper, Google Play accounted for 80% of all downloads with India, Brazil and Indonesia as its leading markets, The US continued to lead in total iOS mobile game downloads. Overall hyper casual still leads the charge. 

We also discussed how to meaningfully address each region without exhausting internal resources. The first and most obvious way of addressing individual geos is finding the right creative approaches for each and at Moloco we see that leading advertisers are identifying and bundling regions with ads that reflect their shared interests: Moloco has drawn on data derived from billions of impressions that shows where mobile games advertisers have segmented creatives based on geos. Our data has shown the following patterns when it comes to success factors in creatives: 

EMEA: Ads where the game’s characters are put in challenging situations or where compelling narratives are integrated are particularly effective. 

US: Placing an emphasis on a big reward - text skewed to the “Win $2,500,000” boosted ad effectiveness. 

US and APAC: Gameplay demonstrations work well and promotional content as above is highly compelling for both. 

APAC: Upgrades and enhancements for characters is very popular 

OVERALL: Video formats are the most preferred globally, with banners coming a very close second.  

While this data is interesting and helpful the creatives do not move the needle alone: Understanding regional nuances, adapting strategies accordingly and utilizing machine learning for automated UA leads to real campaign efficiency as Gamehaus and Big Fish Games went on to discuss: 

Gamehaus in APAC - expanding globally 

Gamehaus was challenged with acquiring high-value users for its diverse game portfolio including Whispers, Double Win Slots Casino, and Grand Cash Casino Slots, while adhering to strict creative policies.  

First, Gamehaus optimized its ad spend with ML: Collaborating with Moloco, Gamehaus targeted users with high LTV, focusing on improving D7 ROAS. It used Moloco’s weekly budget optimizer feature to allocate more to high-performing campaigns and reduce spending. 
Gamehaus also used Moloco's multi-geo targeting feature to replace its individual focus on single geos. This broadened its user reach and provided more data to further educate the ML models which then could inform on which geo had high-value users who yielded the best ROAS. 

The campaign resulted in a 58% increase in ROAS and a 37% reduction in CPI for 'Whispers' (14% reduction for other slot titles). Additionally, total installs for these games increased by 2.6X).

Big Fish - a soft launch in the US 

Casual games publisher Big Fish Games needed audience insights for Puzzles & Passports. It initiated a soft launch to gather data and feedback before a broader market launch. Starting with CPI, Big Fish moved down the funnel to CPA for a deeper analysis of the UA funnel and data insights. It then refined the ad targeting by integrating first-party data from the soft launch into Moloco's ML models to deliver relevant ads to the right high-value user. 

‍Then, with Moloco’s multi-geo targeting feature, it expanded to key English-speaking markets, including the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand further broadening the user base and enriching the dataset for further ML optimization. 

The strategy led to high-value user engagement during the soft launch which provided essential data insights, setting a solid foundation for the Puzzles & Passports wider market launch. 

No more guesswork 

At Gamesforum the emphasis is on collaborating to learn from each other’s experiences. Collaborating with Moloco helped Gamehaus and Big Fish create impactful and successful regional campaigns and cash in on the global acquisition opportunities that ML presents in mobile gaming. ML strategies take the guesswork from targeting and bidding and help fine tune campaigns with precision targeting, acquiring high value users across various regions. All publishers of any size can thrive in diverse global markets by using ML to adapt to regional nuances and user preferences. ‍