Applovin Tutorial: Launching your first UA Campaign

Overview

Learn how you can be successful in launching your first hyper-casual user acquisition (UA) campaign with Applovin

With this training, we provide an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide on how you can achieve success in launching your hyper-casual user acquisition (UA) campaigns with Applovin.

Why is Applovin important?

Applovin is ranked #1 in the latest Tenjin hyper-casual report and can provide a massive amount of reach very quickly. It is a crucial channel for developers to scale a new install base and is also among the top sources of installs for game developers across the world—following the duopoly of Facebook and Google.

The key advantages of Applovin and other video networks in general are:

• The hyper-casual audience in those apps is open to discovering new titles and receptive to watching ads
• Applovin algorithms are fine-tuned to run CPI-based campaigns versus FB or Google, where you pay per impression. This means you pay for exactly what you want.

Summary

Here’s a 7-step guide for some of your first campaigns with Applovin—if you do not use the Day 0 ROAS Optimizer Tool:

Step 1: Prepare a creatives pack

Step 2: Define your max LTV

Step 3: Define your bid

Step 4: Iterate early in your bids

Step 5: Iterate on IPM

Step 6: Run a creatives test plan

Step 7: Run some early Sub ID/Site ID optimizations

Setup

What you will need

This training requires an active Applovin account.

How to create an Applovin account? 

You can create an Applovin account by signing up here.

How to

Step 1: Prepare a creatives pack

• 3 videos + End Card (gif or a playable, but the second option is better*).
• Getting ideas from the Facebook Ad Library is a good idea.
  • Normally these will be your top-performing creatives from other channels. However, as a rule of thumb, include diverse video content.
  • E.g., gameplay (lose-win-win or different combos) a caption with one objective (pass level 10 in 1 try) or a caption that aims to challenge the viewer (can you solve it in less than five moves?)

Note: We’ll have a separate training about creatives that will include what kind of video or End card content is recommended.

Step 2: Define your max LTV

This is the maximum revenue you’ll expect to extract from your average user. In other words, calculate the maximum lifetime value your users generate on average in the given country-platform.

Before starting your campaign on Applovin, you should have run monetization on Facebook and have an idea of how much LTV you can achieve with the game. If you don’t have any benchmark, you can ask your Applovin AM for the recommended CPI of your niche.

Step 3: Define your bid

Your bid should be 1.5-2x of your max LTV* and set the daily spend cap at $100-500.

* Why should I bid more than my expected LTV? Won’t I lose money doing that?

This is to ensure you get a higher eCPM than you would if you use your LTV as the bid value. The network algorithm uses your initial bid to predict the eCPM the source app will get and ranks the available ads to show from the highest to lowest predicted eCPM. You should bid aggressively at the beginning, so that your ad is the one with the highest predicted eCPM.

Step 4: Iterate early in your bids

Change bids towards your LTV goal in installments every 1-2 hours after your campaign gets 10k impressions.

Step 5: Iterate on IPM

Regularly swap creatives to improve your IPM. IPM is important, as it can produce higher eCPM with the same CPI; otherwise, you’ll have to pay more to keep the volume up.

Step 6: Run a creatives test plan

• 3 videos – 1 EC
• 1 best video – 1 EC + 1-2 new ECs
• 1 best video + 2 new videos – 1 best EC

You can follow a similar pattern.

Step 7: Run some early SubID/Site-ID optimization

Start SubID optimization after 100 installs per source-country, but only if you have granular user-level revenues.

FAQ

When is this training from?

This training was created based on client feedback in summer ’20. Applovin, for example, since then released the Day 0 Budget Optimizer Tool to selected clients and has adjusted their advice to clients.

Do hyper-casual developers sometimes use Applovin for testing their Ads, instead of Facebook?

Some studios do. However, the level of tools Applovin provides is lower than FB (ex: targeting, bidding options). You will pay a higher learning fee on Applovin than on FB. It can be used in combination with FB, but not instead, provided you have enough resources.

Feedback

Do you have any feedback for us?

We at Growth FullStack are always happy to receive your valuable feedback. Whether it’s about requesting additional support on optimizing your workflows, building a customized dashboard, or anything else, feel free to reach out to us and let us know how we can support you further.

Iterate & Maintain

Iterate

There is a more advanced training available for scaling your campaigns with Applovin data.

Maintain

Please be aware that Applovin frequently updates its technology and guidance.