This is part 3 of a 4-part series about mobile game growth featuring Animal Revolt Battle Simulator (ARBS). In part 1, learn about Lam Trinh Trong’s journey to create ARBS. In part 2, find out how he optimized mobile game revenue and maximized his profit with MAS. Now, in part 3, we’ll explore ARBS’ publishing deal with Yodo1 and how our continued partnership contributed to the acceleration of his game’s growth.
It’s no secret… in the mobile gaming world, growing your user base is not a simple task.
With so many games vying for people’s attention, it can be tough to get your game in front of the right people. And even if you do manage to get your game in front of potential players, there’s still no guarantee they’ll actually download and play it.
So, what do you do as an independent mobile game developer to accelerate growth?
You get a little help of course.
As a busy—and successful—solo game developer, Lam Trinh Hoang had a lot on his plate.
When you’re running a small team (or with no in-house team at all like Lam), it’s important that you understand and recognize your strengths and weaknesses so you can plan and adjust course as needed. For Lam, he knew marketing his game and growing the user base would be crucial to ARBS’ mobile success; but, after a few attempts to attract a new audience, he quickly discovered that taking on this immense task by himself was more than he could handle.
He needed a partner that could help him rapidly accelerate his game’s growth.
But this partner would need to bring more than just the financial resources he would need to help his game grow faster, they would also need to have knowledge and expertise gained from being there before. Not some cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach—someone who would work with him to create a customized strategy tailored to fit his game’s specific needs.
Having used Yodo1’s MAS platform to optimize his game economy and maximize ad revenue already, it was an easy choice when it came to making a decision about whether to partner with the company again for a publishing deal. For Lam, there was a clear benefit in dealing with one partner through every stage of his game’s growth. This–in addition to increased game revenue–is a major benefit of integrating with MAS: it enables game creators to get more exposure with Yodo1’s Publishing team who can help you unlock more growth opportunities faster.
How did it work out for Lam and ARBS? Well, in less than 12 months of working with Yodo1 to acquire more users, the game’s player base grew by 50x—and it’s still going.
Let’s see how it all happened.
After joining forces on their new publishing deal, a team was set up at Yodo1 dedicated to just one thing: accelerating ARBS’ growth. This new team included a user acquisition specialist, product manager, creative artists, game monetization experts, app store optimization (ASO) specialist, community manager, and player support specialist.
Once the team was assembled, they started working with Lam to begin research on a comprehensive user acquisition strategy, one specifically designed to fit the needs of this particular game and its users.
When it comes to mobile game user acquisition, one size does not fit all—especially for the simulation and strategy types. Each individual genre requires its own customized approach to UA strategy.
What did this kind of data-driven approach to UA look like for a game like Lam’s? First of all, it meant getting to know ARBS’s player base, and taking a deep dive into its mechanics and gameplay.
This research formed the backbone of a successful—and scalable— user acquisition campaign that helped bring the game to the top of the Simulation and Strategy charts in both the US and Japanese markets!
Evaluating the game`s marketability even before launching ads, something made possible by strong connections with ad partners, was also key to a UA strategy that would not only help ARBS acquire new players, but keep those players engaged and active.
Building a strong campaign—testing and tweaking as needed—has certainly paid off for ARBS: in less than 12 months, the game’s user acquisition increased by more than 50x, reaching almost 1.5 million monthly downloads with a CPI of less than 30 cents.
Targeted, creative social media campaigns focused on both platform audiences and specific regions, like Korea and Japan. Reaching these key audiences has boosted ARBS popularity there—for example, a series of interactive ads featuring actual live gameplay resulted in more than 15,000 new followers on TikTok alone in just a single week!
And after a game’s UA campaign is launched, the work doesn’t stop.
The focus remains on the game’s growth. The goal is not to sustain popularity, but to thrive, and monitoring player feedback in the community and making changes based on that feedback are all part of what is helping ARBS acquire even more players on its path to becoming a global sensation.
Another key pillar of the marketing strategy for ARBS was influencer marketing, working with social media influencers who have a large following in specific regions and are trusted by players.
ARBS already had a presence on Youtube, and after targeted marketing campaigns, it soon went viral on Tiktok, led by influencer-driven campaigns that included specially created content madae to introduce ARBS to their followers.
In less than 12 months of working with Yodo1 to scale user acquisition, the results were clear: the strategy was a resounding success.
ARBS saw a 50x increase in user acquisition, growing from 140,000 downloads across the Apple App and Google Play stores to nearly 7.75 million downloads and counting.
“It’s such a relief to know that Yodo1 is taking care of my user acquisition strategy and I don’t have to worry about that on top of everything else I’m focused on,” said Lam. “They have more than ten people working on my user acquisition campaigns, and there’s no way I would be able to do all of that alone, so I’m absolutely delighted with the incredible work we’ve achieved together to acquire so many engaged players and scale the ARBS brand as a truly cross-platform gaming experience.”
But that’s not all. The game also continues to perform well in terms of player retention and engagement. In fact, ARBS’s DAU/MAU ratio is now above 35%, which is more than 3x the industry average.
The team at Yodo1 is proud to have played a part in the success of ARBS. We’re looking forward to seeing what the future holds for this amazing game—and we’re excited to see how our UA strategy will help it continue to grow.
If you think your game has reached the point where you’re ready to dramatically increase the number of active players and engaged players so you can rapidly scale your revenues, get in touch with the Yodo1 Publishing team today to find out how YOU could grow by 50x, too!
Accelerate your game’s growth with one partner—Yodo1.
