UA Bites #6 —MakeYour Ad Look Like a Post
Welcome to UA Bites, a series where we analyze the creatives apps and games use to acquire more users, and catalyst growth.
We’re taking ad creatives under the microscope to understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to paid performance.
1. Sleep Watch by Bodymatter
Seems like SleepWatch really benefits from carousel ads as this is the format they mostly use. In this case, it’s a pretty simple showcase of the features. One feature per slide.
Couple of things to note: the UI/UX is in the focus each time. Nothing else really draws away your attention. Simple yet calming (dreamy) backgrounds are there to give you a vibe but nothing else. Plus, they’re all in great contrast with the white text.
A simple concept overall that really pays attention to small details and that makes this ad great.
If you have features like this to showcase, testing a carousel is an obvious choice. We see them work especially great on Android.
2. Fabulous — Daily Self Care
This is a great example of how to create an ad that seamlessly blends in and looks like a simple post on your feed.
How are they able to achieve that? Simple, it provides value. You see by only looking at the ad you’ll get some additional value — this is way before you download the app, the actual product.
We like these types of ads on 2nd 3rd touchpoints — when the audience is already aware of the brand but haven’t tried it yet.
Overall, great color combinations — it’s really in contrast to catch attention. Great use of a large amount of text on the creative.
Also, they currently A/B test app store screenshots on this creative using ASO Giraffe. Great stuff!
3. Simple: Fasting & Meal Tracker
This one is pretty similar to Fabolous’ in terms of seamlessly blending in and somewhat providing additional value.
However, you can’t really learn much from this ad you still feel like it’s valuable! Its complexity gives you the feeling that it’s something worth reading.
The “test” part is something we’ve seen a lot work great — especially in the H&F industry. People just love filling out tests — especially women, which is usually the target market.
I assume this creative is somewhat a winner for them as they’ve been running it for quite some time and now they’re testing different color combinations, slight changes, copy, etc.
4. Sanity & Self: Stress Relief
Copy: ”Sanity & Self is the #1 Self-Care app for women, by women. *JOIN THE SELF-CARE REVOLUTION* Real self-care is caring for your WHOLE self — from the inside out. Join more than a million women like you on their self-love journeys. From taking the shame out of taboo topics to diving deep into emotion..”
This could be a really strong ad — it calls out a huge pain point: anxiety and it immediately offers somewhat a solution.
The white background and its simplicity break the noise of social media — pretty much gives you a break. Which is a true attention grabber.
The visual doesn’t give away too much alone so they had to focus on the copy part too — did a nice job there as well! It contains credibility, gives away more context on the product.
However, it’s still an ad that doesn’t show a whole lot of the product. Once you click on it, you just don’t really know what to expect. Except, if you’re already brand-aware — then it’s all good.
Although, if this is your 1st touchpoint without any prior knowledge of the brand you might click on the ad and end up now downloading the app. So I imagine it has a high CTR (Click-through rate) but way lower IR (Install rate).
5. Drink Water
This ad from Drink Water starts great — addresses a pain point in a nice, visual way.
Then the next visual is a great idea but feels like it could have done better in terms of production.
Then comes a slight downside — the notifications. The constant voice of “time to drink water” is quite annoying.
You see, it’s crucial to realize what emotions your ads are waking cause these will be the ones they will associate with your app as well.
I’d def try a version with slightly better production value.
Tools we used
I did this entire analysis relying on our 21-point Creative Checklist, the same one our team uses every time creating new ads.
If you want to give some tweaks to your ads on your own then go ahead and download our checklist.
If you’d like our direct help planning and implementing these strategies for your app, then click here 👈💰
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