# Pixel Federation: Reinforcement of Pre-Launch Store Optimization Phase with A/B Testing Results in 25% Conversion Boost ## Product Used [SplitMetrics Optimize](/content/optimize/index.html) ## Scaled By 25% ## Publisher Pixel Federation ## Category Games Pixel Federation used SplitMetrics to port their hit desktop games to mobile. Thorough pre-launch A/B testing helped to identify ideas that resonated with the mobile audience. As a result, winning concept got 25% better conversion rate. Pixel Federation is a game development company founded in 2007 in Slovakia. More than 21 million players all over the world enjoy their biggest hits TrainStation, Diggy’s Adventure, Seaport and Emporea: Realms of War & Magic. ## **Problem** **Porting games to mobile** is never easy, even for such powerhouses as Pixel Federation. A successful product launch follows a **thoughtful market research**, store optimization and deep understanding of the behavioral models that **different segments** of mobile audience share. There’s nothing worse than pouring months of effort into **creating engaging icons, screenshots, descriptions** to launch the app to the App Store or Google Play… and realize that the creatives do not resonate with the target audience. Store optimization is not only about a **fancy design of product page elements**. What developers need is to see how the creatives perform before launching an app, and **pre-launch A/B testing** is right here for them. Including **pre-launch A/B tests** to their store optimization process helps app developers to: - Evaluate a product. - Develop an initial vision and positioning. - Validate different audience segments. A/B testing can tell you how well you **connect with your target audience** and helps to succeed in store optimization efforts. Matej Lancaric, Head of **Mobile Marketing** at Pixel Federation, shares a case study on **pre-launch app marketing activities** and mobile A/B testing that allowed to develop high converting app pages for their products **porting to mobile**. ## **Solution** Store optimization is impossible without **thorough research**. Market research is the process of looking at the game market with numbers, facts, and opinions. It’s about **finding the equation** between what people want and what you want to do. It provides **insights about**: - What do people like to play nowadays? - What can you produce? - Why would people buy your game? Tons of developers have done market research and **failed tremendously** in their store optimization efforts. That’s totally fine. This step will **give you ideas** about what you can expect while building your game. You’ll discover **core challenges** you’ll encounter in production and marketing. > We haven’t done any **market research in our past**. We didn’t pay attention, mostly because the games by Pixel Federation are old and were designed for **desktop and canvas**. Now we were porting them to mobile which is totally different from when you are developing the **mobile-first game**. The most **crucial part** of development starts at the very beginning. We are a **data-driven company**, therefore before releasing our **match-3 game** we’ve decided to test themes and visuals to choose elements that **resonate best** with our target audience. At the same time, we didn’t want to make a harsh decision. We **evaluated results** and chose the winning theme for store optimization with the **help of SplitMetrics**. It was also important for us to identify the best [user acquisition channel](/content/blog/how-to-choose-user-acquisition-channels-for-soft-launch/index.html) for a **Soft Launch**. ### **Coming up with app store optimization ideas** Not many app developers think about testing **creative aspects of the game**, especially when it comes to pre-launch marketing activities. Even though it can give **valuable insights** and change a direction of store optimization and app marketing in general. For instance, we’ve found during the **AppAgent academy** that Space Ape Games have tested the **name** **tagline** of the Transformers game using Facebook Ads. What they did was three fan pages with three different names and launched **three Facebook campaigns** using the exact same audience for each. To get actual results and ensure that Facebook does not adjust the audience, they **set Cost Per Mile bidding**. The winning name is well known today: Transformers: Earth Wars. That was a moment when we understood the importance of the **pre-launch theme testing** for app store optimization! **Facebook ads** is a nice testing tool for names, descriptions or individual elements. However, Facebook ads **do not give context**. For our match-3 game, we wanted to go further and **test the visual theme** to see how people interact with it right in the store. > SplitMetrics combined with Facebook ads provided **exactly what we were looking for** our store optimization strategy. Although the main goal for us was to **evaluate the Click Through Rate**, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and **measure a conversion rate** our app gets on the store. The main reason for it was that an app conversion rate is something that ultimately affects the **user acquisition cost** but can be influenced and improved by timely app store optimization. For our tests in SplitMetrics, we have chosen **three visual themes** (each with a different character): 1. Button Blast, 2. Music Match, 3. Yummi Blocks. ## **Result** Our experiments with SplitMetrics showcased how app store optimization can **raise the chances of success** for your upcoming game. The winning concept called Button Blast reached **1% better CTR**. In terms of conversion rate, it won with **25% by far ahead** of the second concept Music Match with **17.5%** and Yummi Blocks with remaining two **below 12%**. SplitMetrics **gave us metrics** you’d see neither in your Google Analytics nor in [Apple iTunes Connect](/content/blog/apple-app-analytics-latest-feature/index.html). With results we’ve got, I would definitely recommend you to **preoccupy yourself with app store optimization** even before [soft launch app testing](/content/blog/how-to-choose-user-acquisition-channels-for-soft-launch/index.html). Test everything possible from a **theme** and visuals to **icon** and screenshots. App store optimization can make a **huge difference**!