Introduction
The following is a guide to creative inspiration for Facebook & Google Match 3 game advertisers.
We’ve all seen big changes in user acquisition (UA) advertising in the last few years. Artificial intelligence (AI) is automating more and more of media buying, as the best practices outlined in Facebook’s Structure for Scale framework demonstrate.
As a result, the AI optimizing the ad platforms has gotten better and better, it’s leveled the playing field for advertisers big and small. Now, creative is the key differentiator driving profitable UA.
And, while quality and volume of creative are key factors in success, we’ve discovered that they’re not the only factors that drive UA success.
Creative Trends and Competitive Analysis
Monitoring creative trends and doing an in-depth competitive analysis is a must within any UA or creative team today. We’ll share the latest trends and best practices we’re seeing.
But, cutting edge advertisers don’t stop there. They also incorporate market segmentation analysis by integrating player profiles and user motivations into their creative strategy.
Player Profiles and Emotional Hooks
Player profiles are actually an old idea in game design, but they’re a very new idea in advertising. As of late last year, only about 10% of the UA teams we reached out to were using player profiles, and they tended to be the most elite advertisers.
Understanding player profiles and emotional hooks may change how you see ads forever. It’s a wickedly effective framework for motivating users, but also a great lens to use as you analyze competitors’ creative.
Media Buying
There are also media buying implications to a player profile methodology. Player profiles may favor different copy/calls to action websites, apps, and even YouTube channels. So, if a UA manager wanted to squeeze every possible drop of ROAS from an audience, they would segment that audience based on different player profiles.
It will take some experimentation to figure out whether it’s appropriate to segment creative and audiences for player profiles, or if it’s better to just make different ads for the different personas and to let the algorithm figure out optimal performance.
Creative Testing
And, all of this from creative trends research and competitive analysis to deep dives into player motivations, is further fueled by the power of creative testing.
We’ve developed a new approach to creative testing that solves the adage of “why the control always seems to win” through extensive research, which we’ll reveal in this guide to creative inspiration for Match 3 Game Advertisers.
Table of Contents
Section 1: Why Creative is So Important
- Creative Tunnel Vision and How to Overcome It
Section 2: Inspiration for Match 3 Game Ads – Facebook and Google
- Competitors We Studied
- Competitor Trends
- Creative Concepts We Recommend
Section 3: Using Player Profiles for Market Segmentation and Creative Targeting
- Pasta Sauce, Pickles, and Howard Moskowitz
- Horizontal Segmentation for Facebook User Acquisition
- Game Theory and User Behavior Models
- People Can’t Always Tell You What They Really Want
- Player Profiles as UA Creative Strategy 2.0
Section 4: Creative Testing and Why the Control is So Hard to Beat
- Statistical Significance vs Cost-Effective Approach
- How We’ve Been Testing Creative Until Now
- Creative Testing 2.0
Conclusion
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