Facebook can be an effective channel for acquiring new mobile game users. While initial campaigns may see success, maintaining performance over time and scaling up can be challenging without the right tools. Using programmatic bidding, bulk campaign management, and real-time optimization allows marketers to test thousands of audience segments and continuously adjust bids and budgets. This enables acquiring higher volumes of users at lower costs. Case studies demonstrate how these techniques helped games drive user growth, visibility, and ROI.

1. User Acquisition for
Mobile Games on Facebook
How to go from good to great when
marketing your game
NEXT LEVELFACEBOOK APP MARKETING

2. Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................2
Why Facebook should be part of your app marketing strategy........... 4
Study: How Facebook stacks up vs. other media sources..................... 5
But can you do better?........................................................................................ 7
How to get maximum performance on Facebook.................................... 8
Tools to maximize benefit from Facebook................................................... 13
Case studies............................................................................................................ 18
Driving volume and ROI – action/simulation game.............................................................. 19
Driving sustained user growth – sports simulation game................................................ 20
Driving volume and visibility – puzzle game........................................................................... 21
Test your mobile game with Fiksu for better results............................... 22
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3. Introduction
Facebook has become a leading traffic source for mobile game marketers. For most games,
Facebook mobile app ads are the most productive way to acquire high quality, transaction-
oriented players.
While most marketers see successful initial results with Facebook, increasing scale and
maintaining momentum over longer periods can be a challenge. Marketers need help to:
• Ramp up volume while maintaining sustainable player acquisition costs
• Maintain performance, avoid saturation, and keep campaigns relevant for their
target audience
With initial successes, marketers may not realize that by applying the right tools they can achieve
additional volume and cost efficiencies. Unfortunately, there is no easy way for marketers to
validate if their campaigns are reaching their full potential.
In addition, Facebook has almost limitless ways to segment audiences and optimize ad buying.
Leveraging those capabilities, however, can be complex. Finding a partner with deep mobile
ad technology and expertise can help marketers get to the next level of performance.
As the industry’s largest mobile app marketing platform, Fiksu has a unique view on the
performance of different media sources. Fiksu is a Facebook Ads API partner with mobile
measurement access, and provides both programmatic buying and mobile measurement for
Facebook mobile app ads. Fiksu also works with hundreds of leading mobile ad networks, real
time bidding exchanges, and social media channels, and has generated over 2.2 billion app
downloads to date.
In this report, we’ve used Fiksu’s unique vantage point to share:
Results from a study of a sample of 8 million mobile game downloads comparing
Facebook performance to non-incent ad network and DSP alternatives.
Tips on how to generate performance improvements of 30% or more on Facebook,
even with campaigns that are already optimized.
Three mobile game case studies illustrating how Facebook can impact rank
and visibility and cost effectively generate high quality players in volume.
1
2
3
3

4. Why Facebook should
be part of your app
marketing strategy
Many game marketers have found Facebook to be
a valuable source of new users. It’s easy to understand why:
Reach
Facebook reaches over 1 billion mobile users. That makes it
one of the largest channels available for user acquisition.
Volume
With the right tools and tactics, you can generate
unprecedented volumes of high quality users.
Long Term Value
Facebook’s highly granular segmentation and targeting tools
let you reach players with the unique characteristics and
interests that make them a fit for your game.
If you’re a game developer, you’ve probably tried marketing on
Facebook, either on your own or through a marketing partner.
If you haven’t, you should. Facebook can help you accomplish
a variety of player acquisition goals, frequently more cost
effectively than other sources. And with the right tools,
you can sustain performance over time and reach even higher
levels of performance.
About Fiksu
Fiksu is the leading programmatic
mobile app marketing platform:
• Used by 40 of the top 50 grossing apps
in 2013
• Over 1200 successful burst campaigns
• Over 2.2 billion mobile app installs
generated worldwide
• Works with all leading mobile
ad networks and real-time
bidding exchanges
Fiksu Facebook Integration
Fiksu is a Facebook Ads API
partner with advanced technology for:
• Programmatic media buying
and optimization
• Mobile measurement
Other UsersFacebook Users
WW Smartphone
and Tablet Users
51%
49%
4
Source: eMarketer, Fiksu estimates
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5. Study: How Facebook stacks up
vs. other media sources
Fiksu studied the performance of Facebook mobile app install ads versus non-incent networks
for marketing mobile games.
The study was based on a sample of 8 million downloads for 124 mobile game marketing
campaigns using Facebook and alternate media sources.
Results
The analysis shows that Facebook delivers conversions and purchasing users at significantly
higher rates. Cost per purchasing user, a key ROI metric, is significantly lower than other mobile
media sources. It’s important to note that for raw media costs, Facebook is not the cheapest
source: it is significantly more expensive on a cost per click basis than many ad networks.
However, it is clearly the most productive source for generating ROI.
Facebook is not the cheapest source.
However, it is clearly the most productive
non-incent source for generating ROI.
Methodology: sample based on 8 million downloads from cross section of game campaigns.
Media sources compared: non-incent banner networks, non-incent video networks and real time bidding exchanges.
Measurement: conversions were measured based on users clicking on an ad, downloading and opening the app.
No view-through conversions were included. 5
Cost
per Click
Conversion
Rate
Purchasing
Rate
Cost per
Purchasing
User
Over
Higher
Improvement Improvement Improvement

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But can you do better?
Facebook can drive improved results, but as with other ad platforms, game marketers can
encounter challenges when trying to grow and maintain their campaigns. These include:
• Getting volume: most game marketers find they can run smaller campaigns
successfully, but see costs rise when scaling up.
• Maintaining momentum: Facebook can initially deliver users cost effectively, but campaigns
can saturate, so sustaining performance over time can be difficult.
• Getting high-value users: obtaining downloads is important, but only if they result in users
who take actions that drive profits. The best way to accomplish this is to measure in-app
events such as purchases, and to understand the associated audiences and targeting
variables. Putting this data to use, however, requires that you measure these events
and have the analytical tools to optimize at a detailed campaign level.
• Using Facebook tools to best advantage: the Facebook ad platform provides
a seemingly infinite number of ways to reach users. Identifying the most productive
segments and optimizing campaigns is much easier with programmatic tools that
facilitate data-driven decisions.
7

8. How to get maximum performance
on Facebook
There are numerous ways to improve performance on Facebook.
Some key questions to consider include:
How granular should your campaigns be?
The more granular your targeting, the better your results. There is a trade-off,
however, between finding the best-performing combinations and the effort to test
and identify them. Consider the variables in play:
• How many attributes are you using for targeting?
(Demographics, interests, device types?)
• Are you layering in advanced Facebook capabilities such as custom audiences
and lookalikes?
• How many different combinations of those attributes are you testing?
• How many geographies are you targeting?
In typical scenarios, combinations of demographic attributes, device types, geographies,
and interests can quickly reach the hundreds or thousands. Adding in variants for creatives,
text copy, and custom audiences can push this to hundreds of thousands or even millions
of testing combinations.
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Example:
The campaign shown above, which uses simple demographic information along with interests,
very quickly becomes 1000 discrete campaigns.
In a real-world example, Fiksu identified 3.6 million potential campaign variants in a large international
campaign for a hidden object game. Fiksu tested thousands of variants, including combinations of
10 demographic segments, 200+ interest targets, and 6 custom audiences. These were iterated for
multiple geographies and combined with over 300 text and creative variants, including local language
versions. Optimization algorithms quickly narrowed the target audience down to approximately
3,000 high success campaigns in 11 different geographies.
2 Genders
5 Age Groups
10 Interests
5 Geographies
2 Platforms
1000Discrete
Campaigns
Male
5AgeGroups
10Interests
5Geographies
2Platforms
2Gender
Female
15-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
15-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
9

10. Can you segment your user base to intelligently create
custom and lookalike audiences?
Facebook can help you reach an audience with attributes similar to your current users. This helps
you find more users like those who monetize best, and is a great way to expand your audience
and generate additional volume. Combining lookalike audiences with demographic and other
attributes is also a great way to generate granular campaigns that yield superior performance.
Are you bidding and budgeting to achieve the lowest
cost possible?
Finding the right audience can make your campaigns successful, but only if you can acquire those
users at the right cost.
LTV: Each campaign can have its own productivity dynamics and goals. In addition, each campaign
may address an audience with a different long term value. For example, you should be willing to
pay more to reach a segment where player long term value is $40, versus one with a value of $10.
The $10 segment still has value, but only if acquisition costs are in line with that lower value.
Media cost variability: Media costs can fluctuate significantly. Fiksu has seen variances up to
300% for a single campaign — in one recent campaign, CPM varied between $3.80 and $9.90.
Unless you are monitoring costs continuously, you may find you are spending more or less
than desired.
Avoiding saturation: In addition, campaigns can saturate their audience, leading to reduced
performance over time. Attention to detail and the ability to react quickly can make a big
difference: Fiksu has seen performance improvements of 20% or more simply by managing
budgets more effectively.
To get optimal results, then, you’ll want to manage bids and budgets at a detailed ad set level.
Unless you can value each segment and make appropriate economic decisions, you may filter
out profitable users or pay excessively for unprofitable ones.
5
10
Example:
Fiksu recently improved performance for a card battleling app by creating hundreds of lookalike
audiences combined with other targeting criteria. By systematically combining multiple tactics with
lookalike audiences, overall CPI was reduced by 60%.
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11. How are you employing the different bidding methods?
• CPM (cost per thousand impressions) gives you the widest pool of users but may be costly
if your campaigns are not successful in identifying the correct users.
• CPC (cost per click) narrows to those likely to click on your ad.
• CPA (cost per action) finds those most likely to download, but may limit your volume.
It also can’t be used unless you’ve previously run CPM campaigns.
11

12. How often are you testing and refreshing creatives
and text copy?
Creatives: Creatives need to be switched out regularly to avoid creative fatigue. For large-scale
campaigns with many targeting combinations, this can be a significant task to manage.
There’s no hard rule for how often to refresh creatives: some campaigns may need refreshing in
days. Others may be productive for as long as a month or more. Make sure you’re monitoring
performance to detect saturation. That way, you can take action before it becomes a drag on
your ROI.
Text copy: Optimizing the copy on your mobile app ads can also have significant impact on
conversions. Fiksu has seen changes in CPI up to 40% simply by optimizing copy.
LTV: How are you optimizing for purchase
events and downstream metrics?
Are you able to optimize your campaign on the metrics that drive your
business, such as in app purchases or registrations? Optimizing on these
metrics is a key driver of ROI.
In order to do so, you need an SDK that is able to track these metrics via
Facebook and feed this data back into your segmentation and
media optimization strategy.
Are you re-engaging users?
It’s a fact of life that players can lose interest in a game and become
dormant. Facebook’s retargeting capability lets you remind players to visit
your game. Use it to promote major updates, special events like game
tournaments, or special offers.
Players can be re-acquired for a fraction of the cost of a new
acquisition, so this should be an integral part of an overall
marketing strategy.
12
Example
In a recent Facebook campaign for a sports/simulation game, 5 sets of
copy were manipulated, identifying one set of 2 variants that yielded a CPI
improvement of 34%.
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13. Tools to maximize benefit from Facebook
As discussed, taking performance to the next level on Facebook requires the ability to manage
tens of thousands of combinations of audience segmentation criteria, and constant monitoring
of bids, budgets and campaign results. Keeping up with campaigns can be a significant effort.
Using manual methods doesn’t take advantage of the full range of tools available to improve
performance. It also means that changes in conditions, such as campaigns that are saturating,
may go undetected until they have a significant impact on cost.
Programmatic buying and campaign management with Facebook APIs: The key to getting the
best performance is to automate the processes of segmentation, creative testing, optimization
and campaign management. Facebook offers APIs that allow marketing integrators to do just that.
Using these APIs, Fiksu has developed an extensive range of tools to enable programmatic
management of all of these key processes – all in concert with one another.
While any one of these tools can improve results, systematic use of the full suite takes maximum
advantage of Facebook’s segmentation and audience management capabilities. Fiksu’s clients who
have employed this strategy have:
• reduced mobile app ad costs up to 60%
• increased volume by 2X or more while maintaining costs within target ranges
These technologies and tools include:
Micro targeting and bulk campaign management: Generally, the more granular
and personalized an ad campaign is, the more effective it will be. Intelligent tools that can
evaluate large numbers of audience segments and test them efficiently are key to driving
top performance.
Fiksu’s campaign management system automatically generates and tests thousands of
granular audience targeting combinations, using dozens of variables as shown below.
Audience segmentation criteria used by Fiksu programmatic algorithms
Demographics Countries, regions, cities, zip, radius, locales, gender, age
Education Education status, college networks, college majors, work networks, college years
Relationship status, interested in
OS version, user device (brand), wireless carrier
Broad interests and behaviors
Lookalikes, phone numbers, email addresses, IDs
Relationships
Device
Behaviors Interests
Custom Audiences 13

14. The diagram below shows an example of how programmatic bidding and budgeting
lowered CPI by 22%.
On the left: an example of Facebook campaigns managed with manual bidding. The width of each line represents
the percentage of spend being allocated to a particular campaign
On the right: the same campaigns once real time bidding and budgeting were enabled. Fiksu technology automatically
balances budgets and bids for maximum value. Spending varies depending on the productivity of each targeting
combination, ad rates, and expected results for the various targets. Using this technology, CPI fell to $0.74,
a reduction of 22%.
Programmatic budgeting and bidding: As noted, achieving the best results also depends
on making the right budgeting and bidding decisions. There is a constant balance between
conversion rates, the value of a particular type of user, and the cost of an ad.
Fiksu’s intelligent bidding system provides the ability to test large numbers of targeting
combinations in real time, and dynamically adjusts bids and budgets to maximize ROI.
This is particularly helpful in preventing saturation. As a particular strategy’s performance
drops, budget is reallocated to more productive campaigns.
22% reduction in CPI from managing budgets and bidding in real time.
How real-time programmatic bidding improves performance
Static bidding and budgeting -
CPI $0.95
Real time dynamic bidding -
CPI $0.74
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15. The bar graph on the bottom shows the volume of traffic purchased. As CPMs drop, purchasing
volume increases to take advantage of the price fluctuations.
Scaling campaigns while keeping costs within target ranges can be a challenge on any ad
platform. Because Fiksu can access Facebook data in real time, optimization decisions can be
made and implemented instantly.
The chart below shows the relationship between CPM, CPI, and volume of ads purchased. You
can see that CPM rates, in orange, fluctuate significantly. Despite this, CPI, in blue, stays within
a relatively small range.
To get the best results, use real-time bidding and budgeting to take
advantage of changing ad rates.
How real-time programmatic bidding scales campaigns
Fluctuating CPM
Algorithms increase buying
when cost is lowest
Programmatic control keeps
CPI within desired range
15

16. Measurement: Fiksu’s lightweight, mobile-first SDK tracks conversions and links audience
segment data to monetization and LTV events. Fiksu’s optimization and measurement
systems are integrated, enabling immediate response to changing market conditions.
LTV/Loyal Users: In addition to managing targeting, bidding and budgeting, Fiksu also tracks
key monetization metrics and optimizes spend to maximize long term value. Measuring in-app
purchase events and feeding this back to your media buying strategy is one of the most critical
things you can do to improve your ROI and reduce wasted downloads. Campaigns leveraging
this capability have seen ARPUs (average revenue per user) at scale up to 40% greater than
alternate sources.
Fiksu’s SDK leverages Facebook’s mobile measurement capabilities and links monetization
events to the optimization process.1
Interest Exploration Tools: Facebook is unique on mobile as it allows you to segment
audiences by interests and behaviors. For example, you can reach people who are interested
in golf, music, or thousands of other subjects. As a first step, simply targeting an interest
can boost performance. With the right tools, you can use this capability to get even better
performance and increase volume significantly.
There are often statistical correlations between interests that can
help target additional users. Some of these correlations can be
non-intuitive, so it takes content mining tools to identify new
high value audiences. Fiksu uses a statistical correlation
tool that evaluates large numbers of these relationships
to identify better segmentation strategies.
1
For more information on the optimizing on monetization
events and how it affects your ROI, see Fiksu’s ebook:
“How to Acquire Loyal App Users”
16
Example
Fiksu recently achieved a return on ad spend of over 65% for a fighting game by combining
multiple segmentation tactics with LTV optimization.
fiksu.com/ebooks

17. The Mummy
Returns Zombie
Walk
The Zombie
Survival
Guide
Dawn
of the
Dead
The Mummy
The Mummy
Returns
2012
(movie)
Terminator
Salvation
The Witcher
(video game)
Ghost
The
Americans
Breaking Bad
Homeland
The Killing
Revolution
Grimm
Justified
Falling Skies
The Shield
Fringe
Supernatural
Vampire
Ghoul
Zombie
Zombie
(fictional)
Apocalypse
Xbox One
Obstacle
course
Stampede
Moroi
Folklore
Slayer
King’s
Bounty
Philosophical
Zombie
The
Walking
Dead
Undead
Zombieland
Zombie
1,000,000
Audience Size
1,000,000 - 10,000,000
10,000,000 - 100,000,000
100,000,000
How Fiksu Interest Explorer
expands your audience
In this example, an exploration of zombie-related
terms uncovered additional key words such as
“Undead,” “Zombieland” and “Xbox One.” These in
aggregate expanded the potential audience from
76 million to 846 million - an 11-fold increase.
Engagement and retargeting: Retargeting is a great way to reactivate players and promote
game events. It is typically most effective with specific groups of users, so Fiksu offers tools that
help you segment based on player usage frequency, in app behavior, purchase habits, etc.
These can be combined with Facebook’s vast array of segmentation capabilities to develop very
specific audiences and relevant calls to action that maximize performance. For example, one Fiksu
client recently ran Facebook retargeting campaigns and found that the cost to reactivate
was one-third that of a new user acquisition.
Diagram is a subset of a larger search
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These case studies illustrate how with the right infrastructure
Facebook can be used effectively to achieve common goals
of game marketers:
• Generate quality users in volume
• Sustain profitable campaigns over long periods of time
• Generate sufficient volume to support burst campaigns
Facebook
Case Studies
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19. Driving Volume and ROI
Action/Simulation Game
Goal
Results
Tactics
Drive player volume at
low cost per loyal
user and generate ROI -
positive downloads.
Tested and implemented Facebook campaigns to generate
strong player response and low CPIs. Supplemented with other
media sources.
• Segmented based on engagement metrics of heavy users
• Developed a series of high-quality lookalike audiences
• Implemented interest targeting using Fiksu interest correlation
tools and demographics
Sample criteria:
– Males in a select age brackets
– Interested in beer and action movies
• Began campaign with a burst strategy
– Facebook drove more than 50% of installs
• Optimized on creative, interests, lookalike audiences, and LTV
Cost per install
Cost per loyal/returning user
Average revenue per user
Return on advertising spend
$0.78, as low as $0.65 for select segments
$1.43, as low as $1.02 for select segments
$1.72
0ver 60%
19

20. Driving Sustained User Growth
Sports Simulation Game
Goal
Results
Tactics
Drive steady stream of
new players at low CPIs
in multiple countries over
an extended period
of time.
Used Facebook exclusively for a long-term campaign (over 100 days).
• Applied Fiksu interest correlation tools to identify a series of interests
and audiences most likely to be receptive to this app
• Tested a series of lookalike audiences based on prior marketing
experience
• Segmented audience based on combination of demographics
and interests
– Selected sports (tennis, skiing)
– Luxury goods, high end autos, other criteria
• Managed budgeting and targeting with Fiksu automated technology
to optimize for low CPIs
Conversions
Conversions per day
Conversion rate
Cost per install
Over 500,000
Average of 4,000 per day, peaking at over 11,000
40-55%
$0.76; as low as $0.49 in a key US segment
CPMs fluctuated by as much as 300%. Despite this, CPI was held within
desired range
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21. Driving Volume and Visibility
Puzzle Game
Goal
Results
Tactics
Acquire over 300,000
quality non-incent
players in one week in
19 countries.
Leveraged 24 different non-incent sources to drive high quality
players, including Facebook as a key source: it drove the largest
number of installs worldwide.
• Generated hundreds of discrete micro-segments
• Targeted unique interests, demographics, and lookalikes
• Continuously managed bids and budgets and dynamically
allocated media spend to the most productive segments
Volume
Rank
Cost per install
Average revenue per user
Return on advertising spend
Exceeded client goals in three days
Drove 141% of volume goal (460,000 conversions)
Drove top 5 rank in several Asian markets and top 25 and 30 in
several major markets, including the US
Below $2 – 22% less than client goal. Segments as low $0.77
Over $3.50
Over 50%
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Test Your Mobile Game with Fiksu
for Better Results
Effective marketing means testing out alternate strategies to identify the
best performers.
If you are not marketing your game on Facebook:
Consider running test campaigns on Facebook to take advantage of high quality targeted
audiences at a highly effective cost per purchasing user.
If you are already marketing your game with Facebook:
You may in fact have the opportunity to significantly reduce your costs and increase
your volume.
One tactic used to validate performance is to benchmark against a high performance
platform. Results will yield some combination of three valuable outcomes:
1. Confirmation of peak performance.
2. Opportunity to reduce player acquisition costs.
3. Opportunity to accelerate growth.
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Running campaigns with programmatic infrastructure designed to leverage the full range of
Facebook’s capabilities can identify new audiences and increase ROI. With Facebook’s
vast reach and large volume of active users, you can run many campaigns using different
approaches and still generate industry-leading performance. We’ve seen app developers
successfully run as many as three sets of campaigns in parallel.
As a mobile-first company with advanced infrastructure for programmatic management
of Facebook campaigns, Fiksu excels in driving mobile app installs and reaching the best users
at the lowest cost.
The prospects for improving marketing performance on Facebook are significant, both for
new titles and for games already being marketed on Facebook.
Fiksu can help you establish, validate, and improve the
performance of your mobile game marketing on Facebook.
To learn more, contact us.
23

24. Copyright © 2014 Fiksu. All rights reserved. Fiksu, the Fiksu logo, and FreeMyApps are registered trademarks of Fiksu, Inc.
All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective holders.
Fiksu, Inc.
31 St. James Ave.
Suite 1150
Boston, MA 02116
Phone: 855-463-4578
Email: sales@fiksu.com
US
Fiksu, Inc.
61 Robinson Road
#13-01 Robinson Centre
Singapore 068893
Phone: +65-6372-9538
Email: sales-apac@fiksu.com
APAC
Fiksu, Inc.
First Floor
130 City Road
London, EC1V2NW
Phone: +44 208 434 7051
Email: sales-emea@fiksu.com
EMEA
Fiksu is used by 40 of the 50 highest-grossing
game publishers to achieve exceptional app
marketing results:
• 60 percent reduction in media costs
• 300 percent increase in loyal user acquisition
• Over 2.2 billion downloads generated to date
Clients that use Fiksu