Top 10 Creative Development Tips to Increase ROAS

Creatives are the jet fuel for your user acquisition rocket. The difference between a mediocre and an amazing creative concept can be the difference between massive growth or going out of business. Luckily, you can use this guide of our top creative tips and tricks to help you get maximum ROI on your user acquisition initiatives!

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4 Top Creative Development Tips

Leverage Authentic UGC (User-Generated Content)

Why it Works: UGC-style ads that mimic organic social media content resonate because they feel authentic and relatable. Examples include:
- Casual, unscripted gameplay moments.
- Developer interviews showcasing passion for the game.
Best Practices: Avoid over-polished or scripted UGC, as it can appear forced. Keep it relatable, like showing someone playing while waiting in a car or using first-person voiceovers.

Blend Data with Innovation

How to Balance: Use data insights to refine top-performing creatives but don’t rely solely on past performance. Continuously experiment with bold, innovative concepts to discover new winners.
What to Avoid: Over-reliance on incremental changes (e.g., color tweaks) that don’t drive significant performance shifts. Focus on creating distinctly differentiated ad concepts. The Upptic platform provides a robust suite of tools, allowing you to create more new concepts in less time – plus, it allows you to identify top performers and iterate on them quickly.

Optimize Team Collaboration

Effective Synergy: Build strong connections between creative, growth, and analytics teams. Aligning these pillars ensures data-driven decisions that fuel creative success.
Practical Approach: Encourage direct communication between creative leads and UA managers to fine-tune strategies and make informed creative adjustments in real-time. The Upptic platform allows all these teams to work together in one place and quickly share data, insights, creatives, and more.

Break the Design Rulebook (Occasionally)

Why it Works: Audiences are inundated with polished content. Something unconventional can disrupt their scrolling behavior and pique curiosity.
Example: Experiment with “sensory overload” ads, combining multiple dynamic elements like ASMR, gameplay, and over-the-top animations. It may feel counterintuitive, but such “chaotic creativity” can outperform meticulously refined ads by being memorable.
Caution: Use this sparingly and in alignment with your brand identity to ensure it feels intentional and not careless.

3 Top Things to Avoid

Using Misleading or Fake Gameplay

Why to Avoid: Misrepresenting gameplay in ads leads to user disappointment and erodes trust when the actual game doesn’t match the advertisement. This creates poor retention and negative reviews.
Alternative: Show authentic gameplay that accurately reflects the in-game experience to build long-term trust and attract loyal players.

Overusing AI Voiceovers and Avatars

Why to Avoid: AI-generated voices and avatars can feel robotic and inauthentic, which turns audiences away. Their novelty has worn off, and they no longer perform as well.
Alternative: Use real human voices and authentic visuals, which resonate more deeply with audiences seeking genuine connections. Upptic can assist you in building authentic creatives featuring real gamers.

Focusing Only on Volume Over Differentiation

Why to Avoid: Producing a large quantity of minimally varied ads dilutes efforts and rarely improves performance. Minor tweaks (e.g., slight changes to colors or intros) often fail to drive meaningful results.
Alternative: Prioritize creating distinct, conceptually differentiated ads. Test bold, innovative ideas alongside proven formats for a balanced approach. The Upptic platform helps you quickly build distinct creatives – plus, we offer creative development services if you need additional resources and expertise.

2 Things to Watch Out for

AI Overreach in Creative Production

Why: While AI tools can enhance efficiency in tasks like captions or minor edits, over-reliance on AI for voiceovers, visuals, or music risks producing content that feels inauthentic or robotic. Audiences increasingly recognize and reject overly synthetic content.
Action Point: Balance AI’s efficiency with human creativity. Use AI for repetitive tasks but maintain human oversight for ideation and storytelling to preserve authenticity. The Upptic platform streamlines tasks and projects so your humans can spend more time on the act of creation.

Demand for Transparent, Personal Connection

Why: Audiences value transparency and personal connection, as seen in the rising success of “developer-style interviews” and authentic user-generated content (UGC). Highly polished, staged, or corporate-feeling ads risk alienating users.
Action Point: Showcase the human side of your games by emphasizing team passion and player-centric moments. Ensure creative assets blend naturally with user feeds and steer clear of over-branded intros and outros.

1 Company to Help You Shine

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