SEGA

The objective

Driving efficient sales across SEGA’s gaming catalogue

SEGA is a global entertainment and gaming publisher, home to a portfolio of iconic and long-standing franchises including Sonic and Warhammer.

The objective of this campaign was to support multiple promotional sales moments throughout the year, driving efficient performance across SEGA’s full games catalogue while maintaining brand quality and scale. While SEGA regularly advertises on TikTok for new game launches and maintains an active organic presence on the platform, this campaign aimed to go further by capturing high-intent demand and driving users directly to its promotional landing pages during key sales periods.

TikTok was identified as the ideal partner due to its growing discovery-led ecosystem, where entertainment, gaming culture, and search behaviour increasingly intersect, offering an opportunity to reach users actively seeking relevant gaming content.

The solution

Capturing high-intent demand with TikTok Search Ads and Carousel formats

To test TikTok’s ability to capture lower-funnel intent, SEGA trialled TikTok Traffic Search Ads in the UK for the first time, combining them with the Carousel ad format to showcase multiple gaming titles within a single placement.

The campaign leveraged:

• Traffic Search Campaign objective, optimised for Clicks

• Carousel ads featuring nine static images, highlighting SEGA’s diverse game portfolio

• A comprehensive keyword strategy aligned to high-intent gaming searches, including terms such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Yakuza, Total War, Persona, Football Manager, Two Point Museum and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

The campaign targeted adults aged 18-45, with no restrictions on operating system, connection type, or gender, allowing for maximum reach and scale. This setup delivered strong ad group health, with an estimated 3.3 million monthly search volume and near-perfect keyword relevance across ads.

A clear “Learn More” call-to-action directed users to SEGA’s promotional Steam landing page, ensuring a seamless path from search intent to purchase consideration.

The results

Delivering higher CTR and lower CPC across sales campaigns

The introduction of TikTok Search Ads delivered highly efficient performance, outperforming both campaign averages and SEGA’s internal benchmarks.

• +157% CTR vs campaign average

• -35% CPC vs campaign average

• +267% CTR vs SEGA benchmark

• -65% CPC vs SEGA benchmark

Static Carousel assets drove most of the performance, accounting for 78% of total traffic, Overall, the strategy successfully attracted a highly qualified and intentional audience, driving efficient traffic directly to SEGA’s sales landing pages.

The strong results reinforced TikTok Search Ads as a powerful performance lever, encouraging SEGA to continue using this strategy for future sales campaigns.