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How a Chinese action game expanded to Russia & reduced CPI 37% in a month

Learn how Yandex Direct’s AI-powered targeting helped a multinational game developer launch its Multiplayer Online Battle Arenamobile (MOBA) game during the New Year holiday season in Russia, then doubled the number of installs per week and lowered CPI by 37% in just a month.

Meet the game developer

Location:
China
Initial release of the game:
2016
Total downloads of the game:
500M+

— Why did you choose Yandex Direct?

— We were planning to expand to Russia, so we chose Yandex Direct as the major player on the market.

— What were the challenges you faced?

— We launched our ad campaign right before the New Year holidays, which is a key period for game developers. At this time, people spend more time at home and are more likely to install and play games. Along with this, during the holiday season most companies pause their advertising, easing competition in ad auctions and lowering user acquisition costs. However, the short timeframe posed a challenge: it takes some time for the ML algorithm to train and optimize performance. In our case, the campaign risked missing opportunities for excellent results during the peak period.

— What was your strategy?

— We localised our game and the ad messages to better resonate with Russian audiences. Then, we optimized the campaign by testing multiple video ads and ad messages to maximize engagement.

— What were the results?

— Our approach to creatives secured high engagement rates from the start and provided the targeting algorithms of Yandex Direct with plenty of data for further optimisation. Initially, we scored 3,200 installs per week with the CPI standing at $3.20. A month later, the number of installs per week doubled, while the CPI dropped by 37%, reaching $2.01.

— What would you recommend other companies who seek to launch ad campaigns in new markets?

— Do not introduce too many limitations from the very beginning: your ad campaign should first score enough impressions and conversions to learn from them and reach optimal performance. Another important point is localising your creatives and testing multiple versions: this way, you ensure that you use only the most appealing ones.

*Exchange rates as of March 2025

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