Top Creatives: The Big Game in Sports

Are you an advertiser looking for high value users in a segment that many ignore? Well, sports is where the action is! Sports publishers have extremely valuable users, yet their eCPM is typically around average for the Chartboost Network. This segment offers a wide open field of gamers who may be an ideal targeting opportunity for your next campaign.

?For Sports AdvertisersIf your game is in the Sports category, you have a built in advantage, and connecting to players of Sports games with your games should be a snap. The affinity for your game is likely to be higher due to established player interest in the category. A well developed creative should communicate this connection clearly to players - reducing the chance of disinterest in the advertisement.Filling inventory from Sports publishers with an advertising campaign is a great path to success. After a few exploratory campaigns to test the market, you may want to work toward a Direct Deal with the most productive publishers. You can pair that with excluding companies in your general advertising campaign, ?putting the focus on partners who produce results.Non-Sports Advertisers with AffinityIf your game isn?t sports related, but you know your audience has heavy overlap, the Sports category can still be quite productive for advertising. Be sure to run campaigns that not only target this category for advertisements, but also segment by region, platform, etc. to validate what areas are working best for you. Focused targeting like this can raise the odds that you will properly identify where your hot zones are, giving follow-on campaigns even better focus.Not Sure if Sports is for You?If you aren?t sure that your game would be interesting to Sports category publishers you can explore it without going in too deep. A general campaign in the category can tell you if there is any interest in your game. If you identify general success, you can then implement deeper targeting to hone in on where the best players are finding your game.TOP CREATIVES & BEST PRACTICESGrab AttentionSports gamers are passionate about the games they play and they don?t like being disturbed. Advertisers? creatives need to grab a players attention or else they will quickly close your ad to get back to their game. Here?s a good example:

It only takes a glance to know what sport the game is about (football) and players who view the ad can quickly judge their interest in clicking through to the App Store and installing the game.Accurately Portray the GameAfter the click, users from Sports publishers have a higher likelihood of installing. This suggests that they?re open to new options once their interest is piqued. By accurately portraying your game in your creative you can further boost your Install Rate performance.

When a player expresses their interest in an ad and clicks it, seeing a game that clearly matches what the advertisement implies puts the focus on their interest and install.The Power of Sports LicensingMany Sports games gain popularity through the use of legal licenses of popular sports brands. If you?re an advertiser that has one of these agreements make sure you use it. Major sports brands are a source of trust for players, an advertisement that can showcase this connection gains the advantage of the players existing brand affinity in your advertisement - even if they are seeing your game for the first time.

ADDITIONAL IDEASTry Other ?Active? CategoriesIn the Chartboost Dashboard advertisers can target categories that they?re interested in. If you have a game in the Sports category not only can you perform well with other Sports games but some of the other categories as well. We?ve found that Sports games often do well in the following categories: Racing, Action, Role Playing, Simulation, Adventure.Play to Local FavoritesTarget by country because every country has its favorite sport or sports. Why not do a little bit of research and target a country that is more likely to love your Sports app? Did you know that Basketball is the most popular sport in the Philippines? The ROI that you get from these users might be higher than any other advertiser.Chase the Major EventsRide the interest wave of major sporting events. We have found that apps for the same sports see significant increases in bootups around these events. If you know when your sport?s in the public eye, you can build a campaign in anticipation of the event!For example, checkout how Focused Apps took advantage of Wimbledon 2013 for their app Hit Tennis 3. In June, Golf had the U.S. Open, Soccer had the World Cup and Ice Hockey had the Stanley Cup, these are just a few of the opportunities that Sports advertisers had to take advantage of. Keep a sports event calendar on hand for your relevant sports.Get the games featured in this article:Football Rush (Google Play, iOS)League Star Football (Amazon, Google Play)Power Pool Mania Billiards (Google Play, iOS)PBA Bowling Challenge (Amazon, Google Play, iOS)