01 The Client
Gearbox Entertainment came to The Threadgill Agency in July of 2022 with an important task: promoting the international launch of their new videogame, Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Case of One Victoria Bloom. That’s where we came in…
02 CHANNELS & SERVICES
...to drive user clicks to purchase Eyes in the Dark.
Google Display and YouTube ads received the highest distribution of paid media ads, at 50%; Meta Platforms (Facebook and Instagram) received the next highest distribution at 30%; TikTok received 20% of paid ad distribution.
03 SUMMARY & CLIENT GOALS
04 RESULTS
Ad Impressions with a $4.18 CMP
YouTube watch rate with an average CPC of nearly 2x higher than we've seen in other campaigns
of traffic to the Steam page came directly from paid channels
05 STRATEGIC INSIGHTS
Right away, we noticed a split in device performance, with mobile having twice the reach and conversion rate compared to desktop despite having 50% of desktop’s CPM. Due to the limited spending rate of desktop conversion campaigns (capped at $1K per day), we concluded that desktop should prioritize reach-only campaigns, while mobile focuses on campaigns that lead to conversions. Across platform and delivery modals, ads with short, clear, and concise messaging led to higher conversion rates as users clicked to learn more about the game.
We also came away from this project with platform-specific insights that continue to carry over into our paid media strategies:
YOUTUBE: Run both a reach campaign and a conversion campaign so you can leverage click and impression traffic. During the first 48-72 hours, the conversion campaign will underperform; we recommend setting a higher budget on the reach campaign to balance this, but don’t fluctuate the daily budget by more than 20%. Long-term consistency is key. On a technical level, ensure that 300x250 and 728x90 ads in particular are well designed and consider animated ads, such as gifs, to capture audience interest.
META: Provide the platform with your target audience and interests, but let the algorithm choose where to push the ads. Static ads have a greater reach across Meta’s platforms, specifically on Instagram Stories, while video ads have a higher CTR; following this trend, desktop ads see higher conversions while mobile ads have greater views. We recommend leveraging on-platform measured engagement through a Lookalike audience, 1-3% in size, after the initial launch to reach a wider number of targeted users. After the initial launch, review the metrics and condense creative options down to those that are showing successful outcomes with audiences, cutting those that are underperforming.
TIKTOK: We ran four creative ads total using 15- and 30-second videos. 30-second ads featuring creative that immediately showed the character, got straight to the point with messaging, and had larger game and logo graphics outperformed the other ad versions.