Whatwapp

The Objective

Driving high-quality user acquisition

Whatwapp is a successful gaming studio based in Milan, renowned for creating popular mobile games on both iOS and Android, attracting millions of active players and a rapidly expanding community. Among their titles is Scopa, an adaptation of one of Italy’s most beloved traditional card games.

Scopa offers players a range of game modes, diverse card decks and real-time PvP tournaments, providing an immersive and authentic experience. The game’s monetization strategy relies primarily on in-app purchases, complemented by in-app advertising. Players can enhance their gameplay through purchases in-game currency, in game skills and specific items for challenges.

Given this revenue structure, Whatwapp’s primary objective is to attract high-quality, paying users. To achieve this, the studio partnered with TikTok, aiming to connect with and engage a valuable user base on the platform.

The solution

Enhancing campaign impact with TikTok's AI-Powered Smart+ solution

The brand’s journey on TikTok began with an iOS-only campaign, initially focused on Mobile App Installs (MAI) before advancing to App Event Optimization (AEO) aimed at purchases. Positive results on iOS led the brand to expand its efforts to Android.

To maximize campaign impact on the Android platform, TikTok suggested the Smart+ solution, a tool designed to optimize ad delivery and enhance performance. Smart+ is AI-powered performance solution designed to maximize returns by automating campaign management across targeting, bidding, and creative. Smart+ automates the performance advertising process across targeting, bidding, and creative to deliver the right ad to the right person to offer the best performance.

After assets input budget, and targeting goals set up Smart+ automatically creates or selects the best creative asset (with the help of TikTok Symphony), chooses the right audience, and puts the best ad in front of the right customer at the right time.For a thorough evaluation, the campaign team ran two parallel tests on Android—one with Smart+ and one with manual settings—ensuring identical budgets and creatives across both campaigns.

For the campaign’s creative approach, Whatwapp leveraged a diverse range of content tailored specifically to resonate with the Italian audience. They used TikTok’s Creative Exchange (TTCX, now available in TikTok One) to produce localized Italian-language creatives, ensuring authenticity and cultural relevance. Combining these TTCX assets with their own in-house creatives, Whatwapp utilized a diverse and engaging set of visuals.

The Results

Smart+ driving higher retention and cost efficiency

Over a 12-day test period, the Smart+campaign delivered impressive outcomes. It achieved a 16% higher day 1 retention rate compared to the non - Smart+ campaign, while the cost per install (CPI) dropped by 14%, underscoring increased efficiency.

Additionally, app install conversion rate (CVR) for the Smart+ campaign were 15% higher than those of the non - Smart+campaign, highlighting its effectiveness in acquiring high-quality users at a cost-effective rate.