Hi, it’s Dennis Kogan. I want to tell you about the project with which we have been working for more than 3 years. I will share with you the features, conclusions, and reasoning on the project.
The project is an entertaining product, one of the leaders in offline VR entertainment in the world.
Game locations are open in Germany, France, the USA, Great Britain, Brazil, Colombia, Belgium, and other countries.
Strong brand, games of own development.
The client came to us for effective Facebook/Instagram Ads Management.
We have been cooperating since July 2019.
Total budget spent: ~$11,687,000.
Monthly budgets: $300,000 – $350,000.
Results
We get an average of 200-300 sales per day at the 15 locations we work with.
Average check: $250.
Leads: 1,000+ daily, 2,000+ per day during the high season (from December to March).
KPI: Marketing costs in business below 25%.
Facebook and Instagram are the main sources of traffic. Therefore, these 25% mainly included the advertising budget. The rest for wages.
We also helped sell the franchise around the world. A total of 2,657 franchise prospects were attracted.
For several years, we have developed an ideal advertising campaign structure that helps to fill all the sessions at the location and thanks to this, the business pays off.
*Our advertising experience is now used in many locations around the world.
What was before us
For several years, in-house specialists worked for the previous owner.
When the owner changed, the site was replaced, the specialists left.
There was only Ads Manager with old advertising campaigns that no longer worked, since that time the landing page has changed and the whole logic of work too.
First, the client turned to the large digital agencies. Both agencies could not last more than 1 month on the project because the advertising did not pay off.
At this point, we begin to work. Our goal is to create an advertising campaign that will pay off. We started in the lowest season. May, June, July, August – the least sales in offline VR entertainment. Demand is low, but businesses need to earn money to pay rent and pay salaries to employees.
We needed to act.
What was in the Ads Manager before us
Everything was as simple as possible:
- Several ads for cold traffic for an audience of 18-50.
- Several remarketing ads for everyone who was on the site for 180 days.
- There were no exceptions in acquisition and remarketing campaigns.
- There was no traffic funnel.
- Traffic was going on the site page that had an 80% bounce rate.
- There were no tests of texts, mechanics, and audiences.
After some time, we created the traffic funnel, made multi-stage remarketing with stages and cycles, thought out offers and found approaches to the audience. But at the start there was none of this and it was difficult to work.
What was done
- Audit of the advertising campaign in Ads Manager. We drew conclusions and made the first strategy.
- Gave recommendations to improve the CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) of the site.
- Prepared an advertising campaign based on the RACE model.
Confirmed KPI and started.
Within 3 years we have changed the logic of work and the structure of the advertising campaign many times.
What we found out quickly
Atypical goal optimization.
Cheap “Clicks” – it does not mean that advertising works effectively. We tested and left ads only with the highest ROAS.
If we then looked only at the cost of a click, then the payback of the entire project would be lower.
Customer journey
- From the acquisition, traffic decides to buy within 3-7 days.
The product is an entertaining VR quest in multiplayer at the client’s location. Teams of 4 players. If you want to play in VR, you must assemble a team. This is a long process, because adults are always busy.
Therefore, acquisition “Purchase” is a hard move.
Static banners without immersion in the product gave a click at a cost, like a video. But on acquisition, banners paid off badly. Because there was no immersion in the product, there was no emotional charge.
All agencies have made this mistake. I saw this while analyzing the work of the agency in Germany. €6,000 was not enough for them to make a simple conclusion. All the time they worked with static banners and changed only audiences =(
Even banners of this level did not pay off if they were used as the basis for banners, unlike live videos. True, this is exactly for this project 🙂
At the same time, the cost of traffic (that is, the cost per click) of the funnel always tends to rise in price. Change or don't change the content, you still won't be able to keep a click as cheap as it was when you launched your ad campaign.
Therefore, you need to use ads that pay off the best, and do not give a cheap click. It does not matter how high the cost per click will be.
We always focus on payback, and not on the cost per click.
Making thousands of cheap leads per day on a project is not difficult. But it will be unconscious leads which will not buy.
You can use a lead form, issue discount coupons, but people in this project don’t buy right away. They want to come and play, but they don’t have a team yet.
People here do not buy on emotions, although it is emotions that inspire them. Paradox.
But everything changes when you change landing to informative and immersive in the product.
So, the point is to get a higher ROI per funnel click.
That’s why we
- Use emotional immersive video ad with emotions from the game
- Use a multi-step retargeting chain in several cycles.
- Use separate website retargeting and Instagram Direct retargeting.
- ROAS analysis was done.
- Constantly testing new videos and texts.
- Landing pages tested.
- We made new landing pages for tests.
- Worked separately for birthdays and corporate parties (these are destinations with an average check of $2,000).
Instead of conclusions
Optimize your ad campaigns for ROAS if you can customize the pixel and convey value. This is important for ad campaign to pay off.
On large projects, many things are done slowly because many people are involved. For example, the creation of a new landing site may take six months or a year.
We must not wait but take matters into our own hands. Offer creation of landing pages, offer solutions that will increase the overall payback of the project.
We are not shy and always take the initiative.
So, if you need those who burn with their work and work for payback. We have a strong traffic team. Our cases confirm this.
If you need a contractor who can be trusted with hundreds of thousands and millions of budget and top professionals with extensive industry experience who will work with the project, this is about us. We have a strong traffic team.
Write to me on Telegram (active link directly to my chat if you are reading from a mobile phone), we will discuss the situation, there are cases on the adjacent pages, I personally had a hand in each of them, as a strategist or senior specialist.
