Twin Harbour Interactive

The objective

Driving efficient user acquisition with a focus on long-term value

Twin Harbour Interactive, the publisher of Conflict of Nations, a real-time modern strategy game, set out to reach new performance heights on TikTok. With gameplay sessions often spanning several weeks, acquiring high lifetime value (LTV) users at scale is essential to their long-term engagement and monetization goals.

As a performance-focused publisher, efficiency and scalability are key—user acquisition efforts must consistently bring in players who convert, retain, and deliver strong LTV.

While TikTok had long been a valuable part of their growth mix, the evolving gaming landscape introduced new dynamics, including increased competition and the need for more agile creative strategies.

To stay ahead, Twin Harbour Interactive made a strategic move to reinvigorate their TikTok approach, doubling down on ROAS optimization, creative flexibility, and scalable growth.

The Solution

Combining Smart+ with dual-source creative for sustained performance

To meet their goal of acquiring high-LTV users at scale while maintaining efficiency and creative freshness, the publisher adopted a multi-faceted approach. They implemented the Smart+ solution with App Event Optimization (AEO) focused on purchases.

Smart+ is an AI-powered solution that automates campaign setup and real-time optimization across targeting, placements, and bidding. This ensured cost-effective acquisition aligned with deep-funnel user actions. Creative strategy was also key to sustaining performance. Twin Harbour Interactive adopted a content model combining fresh, platform-native videos from the TikTok Creator Challenge (TTCC)—sourced through TikTok One (TTO)—with in-house UGC-style assets. This approach allowed them to scale production quickly while staying aligned with TikTok’s authentic style. Crucially, the focus on variety and rapid iteration resonated with players and kept performance strong.

TTO provided consistent access to top-tier creators who understood the nuances of TikTok’s creative language and gaming audience. It delivered both high-quality assets and strong content volume, helping the publisher scale effectively.

At the same time, Twin Harbour Interactive internal team produced TikTok-first creatives to quickly test new ideas. While TTO delivered outstanding quality, the internal team added flexibility—reacting to trends and producing fast, focused variations of top-performing assets. This allowed them to continuously feed Smart+ with fresh content, further enhancing optimization. These internal creatives closely followed TikTok's best practices, leaning into UGC formats, authentic gameplay, and editing styles that matched the platform’s tone and pace.

This setup ensured a steady flow of high-performing creatives, reduced fatigue, and kept performance strong.To maximize impact across diverse audiences, the publisher also leveraged the Multilingual Feature Toggle, automatically translating English creatives based on device language preferences—even within a US-only campaign—ensuring more personalized, localized user experiences.

The results

Higher quality UA and ROAS boost

The campaign delivered a 4x improvement in ROAS compared to previous non-Smart+ efforts, establishing TikTok as one of Twin Harbour Interactive top three performance channels. Improvements were seen across every key performance metric, demonstrating the full-funnel impact of combining Smart+ with a creative strategy built for scale and relevance.

One of the most telling signs of success was the 51.51% increase in installs per mille (IPM)—the number of installs per thousand impressions. This reflected a significant increase in creative effectiveness, indicating that the ads reached the right audience and compelled them to act. The creative approach played a decisive role in lifting performance metrics, signaling a strong connection between content quality and user acquisition outcomes, as the cost per install (CPI) dropped by 41.37%.

Equally critical was the improvement in the install-to-pay rate, which increased by 10.32%. This metric tracks the percentage of users who make a purchase after downloading the game—an essential KPI for a long-tail game like Conflict of Nations. The uplift indicated that the chosen approach was not just driving more installs, but higher-quality installs from users who are more likely to monetize over time.