Alice Guillaume (Sr. Director of Marketing at AppLovin) heads up AppLovin’s in-house creative studio, SparkLabs, where she and her team build creatives for Lion Studios, for gaming studios worldwide, and for AppLovin’s partner studios to help developers grow their businesses. Alice talks about the process she uses for creatives, the levers you have and how to find out-of-the-box ideas.
Process for a long-term approach to marketing the game:
1. Research to understand the playing ground and what the market is like
2. Play the game and watch people play the game to understand the gamers’ motivations for playing
3. Develop a hypothesis: define what you are seeking to understand with the ad
You want to bring the motivation to play the game, to the creative. If there is a mismatch, it means you are casting a net in the wrong pool and driving the wrong users.
Find out player motivations by having people that are not from the team play the game and watching them interact.
Have creative meetings at least once a week where you review everything that’s been made for a campaign, from the first ad do the latest ad:
- What’s doing well
- What’s not doing well
- What doesn’t matter (which is typically a lot of things)
Lack of direction results in vague ideas and poor results. You need to find out where your creative is falling short so you can define the objective you need to achieve and have a direction for what you need to brainstorm. Example of a directive: this is the top performing creative, but it is falling short because despite the CTR being strong, drop-offs in installs are too high. So we need to boost install rates by 15%.
If you want to boost install rates, authentic-to-game marketing is the way to go: using game assets, game mechanics, etc. This will however often come at the cost of volume.
If you want volume, your primarily goal for the creative is mass appeal (widest net possible). Use engaging captions, humor, “what happens next?”. Fake ads are an extreme example of this.
If you leverage creatives at scale to assess the marketability of games, you need to control for variables between your tests: it’s very important that the ad be as raw as possible in capturing the gameplay. It shouldn’t be fancy (audio, transitions, etc.) because that would introduce a bias.
Every creator (designer, developer) needs to also be able to wear the hat of a performance marketer. If you’re siloed as a creator, you’re relying on someone to tell you the results, which slows you down, and you run into friction between beautiful art vs. a creative that gives results.
You should allocate 80% of time towards granular changes or iterating off what works (safe zone), and 20% of time towards “moonshots” (new ideas).
You want to focus on creatives that are huge wins or huge losses. There is no value in creating something that’s in between because you don’t learn from it.
Out-of-the-box ideas can still be grounded into something. Figure out what the player motivation is to play a specific game (e.g. puzzle game -> solving a problem) and extrapolate to come up with a concept that taps into this motivation (e.g. hidden object puzzle).
Process for a long-term approach to marketing the game:
1. Research to understand the playing ground and what the market is like
2. Play the game and watch people play the game to understand the gamers’ motivations for playing
3. Develop a hypothesis: define what you are seeking to understand with the ad
You want to bring the motivation to play the game, to the creative. If there is a mismatch, it means you are casting a net in the wrong pool and driving the wrong users.
Find out player motivations by having people that are not from the team play the game and watching them interact.
Have creative meetings at least once a week where you review everything that’s been made for a campaign, from the first ad do the latest ad:
- What’s doing well
- What’s not doing well
- What doesn’t matter (which is typically a lot of things)
Lack of direction results in vague ideas and poor results. You need to find out where your creative is falling short so you can define the objective you need to achieve and have a direction for what you need to brainstorm. Example of a directive: this is the top performing creative, but it is falling short because despite the CTR being strong, drop-offs in installs are too high. So we need to boost install rates by 15%.
If you want to boost install rates, authentic-to-game marketing is the way to go: using game assets, game mechanics, etc. This will however often come at the cost of volume.
If you want volume, your primarily goal for the creative is mass appeal (widest net possible). Use engaging captions, humor, “what happens next?”. Fake ads are an extreme example of this.
If you leverage creatives at scale to assess the marketability of games, you need to control for variables between your tests: it’s very important that the ad be as raw as possible in capturing the gameplay. It shouldn’t be fancy (audio, transitions, etc.) because that would introduce a bias.
Every creator (designer, developer) needs to also be able to wear the hat of a performance marketer. If you’re siloed as a creator, you’re relying on someone to tell you the results, which slows you down, and you run into friction between beautiful art vs. a creative that gives results.
You should allocate 80% of time towards granular changes or iterating off what works (safe zone), and 20% of time towards “moonshots” (new ideas).
You want to focus on creatives that are huge wins or huge losses. There is no value in creating something that’s in between because you don’t learn from it.
Out-of-the-box ideas can still be grounded into something. Figure out what the player motivation is to play a specific game (e.g. puzzle game -> solving a problem) and extrapolate to come up with a concept that taps into this motivation (e.g. hidden object puzzle).
Process for a long-term approach to marketing the game:
1. Research to understand the playing ground and what the market is like
2. Play the game and watch people play the game to understand the gamers’ motivations for playing
3. Develop a hypothesis: define what you are seeking to understand with the ad
You want to bring the motivation to play the game, to the creative. If there is a mismatch, it means you are casting a net in the wrong pool and driving the wrong users.
Find out player motivations by having people that are not from the team play the game and watching them interact.
Have creative meetings at least once a week where you review everything that’s been made for a campaign, from the first ad do the latest ad:
- What’s doing well
- What’s not doing well
- What doesn’t matter (which is typically a lot of things)
Lack of direction results in vague ideas and poor results. You need to find out where your creative is falling short so you can define the objective you need to achieve and have a direction for what you need to brainstorm. Example of a directive: this is the top performing creative, but it is falling short because despite the CTR being strong, drop-offs in installs are too high. So we need to boost install rates by 15%.
If you want to boost install rates, authentic-to-game marketing is the way to go: using game assets, game mechanics, etc. This will however often come at the cost of volume.
If you want volume, your primarily goal for the creative is mass appeal (widest net possible). Use engaging captions, humor, “what happens next?”. Fake ads are an extreme example of this.
If you leverage creatives at scale to assess the marketability of games, you need to control for variables between your tests: it’s very important that the ad be as raw as possible in capturing the gameplay. It shouldn’t be fancy (audio, transitions, etc.) because that would introduce a bias.
Every creator (designer, developer) needs to also be able to wear the hat of a performance marketer. If you’re siloed as a creator, you’re relying on someone to tell you the results, which slows you down, and you run into friction between beautiful art vs. a creative that gives results.
You should allocate 80% of time towards granular changes or iterating off what works (safe zone), and 20% of time towards “moonshots” (new ideas).
You want to focus on creatives that are huge wins or huge losses. There is no value in creating something that’s in between because you don’t learn from it.
Out-of-the-box ideas can still be grounded into something. Figure out what the player motivation is to play a specific game (e.g. puzzle game -> solving a problem) and extrapolate to come up with a concept that taps into this motivation (e.g. hidden object puzzle).
Notes for this resource are currently being transferred and will be available soon.
Alice worked on creatives for a lot of games, in very different genres.
Process
[💎@03:07] Process for a long-term approach to marketing the game:
Alice referenced a Talk at GDC from Quantic Foundry, probably this one: A Deep Dive into the 12 Motivations: Findings from 400,000+ Gamers.
Players have specific motivations for playing specific types of games. Example: if you are drawn to story-based games, why is that? You love being immersed in another world, etc. Another example: if you love games where you can complete tasks, manage resources, etc. maybe you like feeling in control.
[💎@07:11] You want to bring the motivation to play the game, to the creative. If there is a mismatch, it means you are casting a net in the wrong pool and driving the wrong users.
[💎@08:10] Find out player motivations by having people that are not from the team play the game and watching them interact.
[💎@09:40] Have creative meetings at least once a week where you review everything that’s been made for a campaign, from the first ad do the latest ad:
At SparkLabs they look beyond surface-level results to see if the ads are hitting the KPIs.
You will always be falling short somewhere because it’s a competitive landscape.
[💎@10:21] Lack of direction results in vague ideas and poor results. You need to find out where your creative is falling short so you can define the objective you need to achieve and have a direction for what you need to brainstorm. Example of a directive: this is the top performing creative, but it is falling short because despite the CTR being strong, drop-offs in installs are too high. So we need to boost install rates by 15%.
People you need in this meeting: designers, creators, product marketers, growth person and even just people that love gaming.
There are 2 key levers you can play with:
Now that the industry is more sophisticated in the usage of creatives, creative testing to evaluate marketability of a game has become critical. Game studios want to predict this before they put money behind a game.
Creatives are now being used to test marketability because they are relatively easier to produce and allow you to get you answers. You can build a creative that represents the game, whether the game itself is fully developed or not.
[💎@16:30] If you leverage creatives at scale to assess the marketability of games, you need to control for variables between your tests: it’s very important that the ad be as raw as possible in capturing the gameplay. It shouldn’t be fancy (audio, transitions, etc.) because that would introduce a bias.
Metrics for marketability vary across studios but you’re typically looking at CTR, install rates, CPIs. Most of these ads are sending users to a different game.
If one title has profitable CPIs but only at a small volume, you need to evaluate how much more volume you’d need, and how much you’d have to pay. If it doesn’t look profitable, you’d most likely have to walk away from this game.
Alice has a background in finance and served as a bridge between the two teams.
You have to marry creative and performance.
[💎@20:00] Every creator (designer, developer) needs to also be able to wear the hat of a performance marketer. If you’re siloed as a creator, you’re relying on someone to tell you the results, which slows you down, and you run into friction between beautiful art vs. a creative that gives results.
Every single person at SparkLabs needs to understand campaign metrics and how creatives impact those metrics. In day-to-day projects, they work closely with product marketers to understand how creatives are performing against goals.
There’s a tradeoff between understanding why a hideous creative is performing and trying to find the next big lift.
For hypercasual games you see more creatives that convert very well without being tied to a rational hypothesis. For more complex games, you see this less, so Alice does not worry about this too much.
Fake ads can drive a lot of volume, but it can be at the expense of quality, and now we’re starting to see a trend back towards more authentic ads.
This is critical. You have your safe zone, but you need to take risks in order to get huge lifts.
[💎@25:56] You should allocate 80% of time towards granular changes or iterating off what works (safe zone), and 20% of time towards “moonshots” (new ideas).
[💎@26:13] You want to focus on creatives that are huge wins or huge losses. There is no value in creating something that’s in between because you don’t learn from it.
Some ads can be very different one from the other yet appeal to the same emotion or feeling.
[💎@26:44] Out-of-the-box ideas can still be grounded into something. Figure out what the player motivation is to play a specific game (e.g. puzzle game -> solving a problem) and extrapolate to come up with a concept that taps into this motivation (e.g. hidden object puzzle).
Full example: ad for puzzle-based games that are accurate to gameplay usually perform well. But you can also think about why people like these games: solving a problem and feeling in control. You can extrapolate that by making a hidden object puzzle that is very different yet tap into that same motivation.
Everyone can make a video or a playable now, and you need to find how to differentiate yourself and create innovative content. People are quick to replicate innovations and always staying ahead is a challenge.
Another challenge is how to produce fast at scale.
How can you find what is the next ad type?
The technology that goes into playable ads is getting more sophisticated and starts to allow for dynamic optimizations. We could soon be able to have multivariate tests with playables.
Alice worked on creatives for a lot of games, in very different genres.
Process
[💎@03:07] Process for a long-term approach to marketing the game:
Alice referenced a Talk at GDC from Quantic Foundry, probably this one: A Deep Dive into the 12 Motivations: Findings from 400,000+ Gamers.
Players have specific motivations for playing specific types of games. Example: if you are drawn to story-based games, why is that? You love being immersed in another world, etc. Another example: if you love games where you can complete tasks, manage resources, etc. maybe you like feeling in control.
[💎@07:11] You want to bring the motivation to play the game, to the creative. If there is a mismatch, it means you are casting a net in the wrong pool and driving the wrong users.
[💎@08:10] Find out player motivations by having people that are not from the team play the game and watching them interact.
[💎@09:40] Have creative meetings at least once a week where you review everything that’s been made for a campaign, from the first ad do the latest ad:
At SparkLabs they look beyond surface-level results to see if the ads are hitting the KPIs.
You will always be falling short somewhere because it’s a competitive landscape.
[💎@10:21] Lack of direction results in vague ideas and poor results. You need to find out where your creative is falling short so you can define the objective you need to achieve and have a direction for what you need to brainstorm. Example of a directive: this is the top performing creative, but it is falling short because despite the CTR being strong, drop-offs in installs are too high. So we need to boost install rates by 15%.
People you need in this meeting: designers, creators, product marketers, growth person and even just people that love gaming.
There are 2 key levers you can play with:
Now that the industry is more sophisticated in the usage of creatives, creative testing to evaluate marketability of a game has become critical. Game studios want to predict this before they put money behind a game.
Creatives are now being used to test marketability because they are relatively easier to produce and allow you to get you answers. You can build a creative that represents the game, whether the game itself is fully developed or not.
[💎@16:30] If you leverage creatives at scale to assess the marketability of games, you need to control for variables between your tests: it’s very important that the ad be as raw as possible in capturing the gameplay. It shouldn’t be fancy (audio, transitions, etc.) because that would introduce a bias.
Metrics for marketability vary across studios but you’re typically looking at CTR, install rates, CPIs. Most of these ads are sending users to a different game.
If one title has profitable CPIs but only at a small volume, you need to evaluate how much more volume you’d need, and how much you’d have to pay. If it doesn’t look profitable, you’d most likely have to walk away from this game.
Alice has a background in finance and served as a bridge between the two teams.
You have to marry creative and performance.
[💎@20:00] Every creator (designer, developer) needs to also be able to wear the hat of a performance marketer. If you’re siloed as a creator, you’re relying on someone to tell you the results, which slows you down, and you run into friction between beautiful art vs. a creative that gives results.
Every single person at SparkLabs needs to understand campaign metrics and how creatives impact those metrics. In day-to-day projects, they work closely with product marketers to understand how creatives are performing against goals.
There’s a tradeoff between understanding why a hideous creative is performing and trying to find the next big lift.
For hypercasual games you see more creatives that convert very well without being tied to a rational hypothesis. For more complex games, you see this less, so Alice does not worry about this too much.
Fake ads can drive a lot of volume, but it can be at the expense of quality, and now we’re starting to see a trend back towards more authentic ads.
This is critical. You have your safe zone, but you need to take risks in order to get huge lifts.
[💎@25:56] You should allocate 80% of time towards granular changes or iterating off what works (safe zone), and 20% of time towards “moonshots” (new ideas).
[💎@26:13] You want to focus on creatives that are huge wins or huge losses. There is no value in creating something that’s in between because you don’t learn from it.
Some ads can be very different one from the other yet appeal to the same emotion or feeling.
[💎@26:44] Out-of-the-box ideas can still be grounded into something. Figure out what the player motivation is to play a specific game (e.g. puzzle game -> solving a problem) and extrapolate to come up with a concept that taps into this motivation (e.g. hidden object puzzle).
Full example: ad for puzzle-based games that are accurate to gameplay usually perform well. But you can also think about why people like these games: solving a problem and feeling in control. You can extrapolate that by making a hidden object puzzle that is very different yet tap into that same motivation.
Everyone can make a video or a playable now, and you need to find how to differentiate yourself and create innovative content. People are quick to replicate innovations and always staying ahead is a challenge.
Another challenge is how to produce fast at scale.
How can you find what is the next ad type?
The technology that goes into playable ads is getting more sophisticated and starts to allow for dynamic optimizations. We could soon be able to have multivariate tests with playables.
Alice worked on creatives for a lot of games, in very different genres.
Process
[💎@03:07] Process for a long-term approach to marketing the game:
Alice referenced a Talk at GDC from Quantic Foundry, probably this one: A Deep Dive into the 12 Motivations: Findings from 400,000+ Gamers.
Players have specific motivations for playing specific types of games. Example: if you are drawn to story-based games, why is that? You love being immersed in another world, etc. Another example: if you love games where you can complete tasks, manage resources, etc. maybe you like feeling in control.
[💎@07:11] You want to bring the motivation to play the game, to the creative. If there is a mismatch, it means you are casting a net in the wrong pool and driving the wrong users.
[💎@08:10] Find out player motivations by having people that are not from the team play the game and watching them interact.
[💎@09:40] Have creative meetings at least once a week where you review everything that’s been made for a campaign, from the first ad do the latest ad:
At SparkLabs they look beyond surface-level results to see if the ads are hitting the KPIs.
You will always be falling short somewhere because it’s a competitive landscape.
[💎@10:21] Lack of direction results in vague ideas and poor results. You need to find out where your creative is falling short so you can define the objective you need to achieve and have a direction for what you need to brainstorm. Example of a directive: this is the top performing creative, but it is falling short because despite the CTR being strong, drop-offs in installs are too high. So we need to boost install rates by 15%.
People you need in this meeting: designers, creators, product marketers, growth person and even just people that love gaming.
There are 2 key levers you can play with:
Now that the industry is more sophisticated in the usage of creatives, creative testing to evaluate marketability of a game has become critical. Game studios want to predict this before they put money behind a game.
Creatives are now being used to test marketability because they are relatively easier to produce and allow you to get you answers. You can build a creative that represents the game, whether the game itself is fully developed or not.
[💎@16:30] If you leverage creatives at scale to assess the marketability of games, you need to control for variables between your tests: it’s very important that the ad be as raw as possible in capturing the gameplay. It shouldn’t be fancy (audio, transitions, etc.) because that would introduce a bias.
Metrics for marketability vary across studios but you’re typically looking at CTR, install rates, CPIs. Most of these ads are sending users to a different game.
If one title has profitable CPIs but only at a small volume, you need to evaluate how much more volume you’d need, and how much you’d have to pay. If it doesn’t look profitable, you’d most likely have to walk away from this game.
Alice has a background in finance and served as a bridge between the two teams.
You have to marry creative and performance.
[💎@20:00] Every creator (designer, developer) needs to also be able to wear the hat of a performance marketer. If you’re siloed as a creator, you’re relying on someone to tell you the results, which slows you down, and you run into friction between beautiful art vs. a creative that gives results.
Every single person at SparkLabs needs to understand campaign metrics and how creatives impact those metrics. In day-to-day projects, they work closely with product marketers to understand how creatives are performing against goals.
There’s a tradeoff between understanding why a hideous creative is performing and trying to find the next big lift.
For hypercasual games you see more creatives that convert very well without being tied to a rational hypothesis. For more complex games, you see this less, so Alice does not worry about this too much.
Fake ads can drive a lot of volume, but it can be at the expense of quality, and now we’re starting to see a trend back towards more authentic ads.
This is critical. You have your safe zone, but you need to take risks in order to get huge lifts.
[💎@25:56] You should allocate 80% of time towards granular changes or iterating off what works (safe zone), and 20% of time towards “moonshots” (new ideas).
[💎@26:13] You want to focus on creatives that are huge wins or huge losses. There is no value in creating something that’s in between because you don’t learn from it.
Some ads can be very different one from the other yet appeal to the same emotion or feeling.
[💎@26:44] Out-of-the-box ideas can still be grounded into something. Figure out what the player motivation is to play a specific game (e.g. puzzle game -> solving a problem) and extrapolate to come up with a concept that taps into this motivation (e.g. hidden object puzzle).
Full example: ad for puzzle-based games that are accurate to gameplay usually perform well. But you can also think about why people like these games: solving a problem and feeling in control. You can extrapolate that by making a hidden object puzzle that is very different yet tap into that same motivation.
Everyone can make a video or a playable now, and you need to find how to differentiate yourself and create innovative content. People are quick to replicate innovations and always staying ahead is a challenge.
Another challenge is how to produce fast at scale.
How can you find what is the next ad type?
The technology that goes into playable ads is getting more sophisticated and starts to allow for dynamic optimizations. We could soon be able to have multivariate tests with playables.
