Expedition Agartha
How to Leave Early Access
Matrioshka Games
How to Leave Early Access
Matrioshka Games
Expedition Agartha, the second title from Matrioshka Games, had struggled to generate hype in the build-up to its 1.0 release. The studio faced a challenge: how to revitalize the Steam store page and launch a strong paid media campaign to get lots of eyeballs on the game. That's where we came in.
SEO
CRO
Web Design
Paid Media
Steam Store Optimization
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Challenge: Expedition Agartha, a unique and ambitious title from Matryoshka Games, was struggling to generate hype in the build-up to its 1.0 release. The Steam store page, which is often the first point of contact for potential players, was not providing enough clarity about the game's genre or gameplay. This was leading to a low click-through rate (CTR) and a low visit-to-download conversion rate.
Solution: We worked with Matrioshka Games to optimize the Steam store page by changing the main store imagery to provide more clarity about the game's genre, and we changed the game screenshots to show more action and gameplay elements to highlight the game's addictive gameplay loop. We also made major changes to the copy to highlight the game's unique selling point as a medieval melee extraction game.
Results: The changes to the Steam store page resulted in a significant increase in CTR and visit-to-download conversion rate. CTR increased from 2.5% to 3.5%, and visit-to-download conversion rate increased from 4.4% to 7.6%. The optimization of the Steam store page was a key factor in the successful launch of Expedition Agartha. By providing more clarity about the game's genre and gameplay, and by highlighting its unique selling points, we were able to attract more players to the game and increase the number of downloads.
Maximizing a Tiny Paid Media Budget
Matrioshka Games had an extremely lean budget for their paid media campaign for Expedition Agartha, but they needed to reach their target audience and drive downloads.
We decided to focus on Reddit advertising, as it is a platform with a large and active user base that is highly targetable. We also decided to run our ads after midnight, when CPCs are lower. We created a number of different ad creatives, and we tested them carefully to see which imagery performed best with our audience. We also used Reddit's subreddit targeting options to ensure that our ads were seen by hardcore extraction PvP players. For example, we targeted communities like Dark and Darker, Escape from Tarkov, Battlebit Remastered, and Deeprock Galactic.
Results: Our paid media campaign was a success. We were able to get our cost per download down to $1.02, and we generated a significant number of downloads for Expedition Agartha in the days before the official release out of early access.
The success of our paid media campaign came down to two key factors: