Video game launch uses advertiser audiences to increase sales

Objective

In preparation for a 2017 release of an action video game, a major video game company partnered with Amazon Advertising to run a dedicated and targeted ad campaign promoting the release. In addition to leveraging Amazon’s audience of video game enthusiasts and shoppers, the game producers also wanted to specifically reach gamers who had played the pre-release beta game since they were considered most likely to purchase based on their direct trial experiences.

Solution

To do so, they used advertiser audiences to incorporate their existing audience of beta players into their campaign. This way they could be included in the cross-screen media plan to reach video game enthusiasts, helping to drive higher consideration and downstream purchase action with greater relevance. The file was automatically hashed in the tool, prior to being shared with Amazon, to anonymize and protect beta gamer information.

quoteUpAdvertiser audiences enabled us to talk to some of our most passionate gamers and fans. With this tool we were able to securely marry Amazon’s rich shopper audience information with our own customer expertise.quoteDown
—Video game customer

Results

Specifically including customers who already signed up to play the early beta drove significant campaign performance:

  • Greater initial awareness: Beta gamers who had been incorporated into the campaign were more likely to interact with the ad, with a click-through rate of 1.5-2x the rest of the campaign.
  • Driving consideration with relevance: Pre-release players drove 9x higher consideration rate (detail page views) versus the campaign average.
  • Leading with purchase intention: Matched beta gamers had the highest purchase rate of any audience segment, with a 700% lift over the campaign average. This means beta gamers experienced a ROAS (return on ad spend) approximately 8x larger than the campaign average.

With this initial success, this game studio is looking to repeat their use of advertiser audiences in future releases as it allows them to leverage their best customers to build relevance and drive campaign results at no additional cost.