In today's mobile gaming industry, success requires a deep understanding of market demands and the strategic application of data insights. Homa's strategy intersects innovation with market intelligence, delivering games that are both engaging and profitable. For this, we focus on achieving a high LTV and long-term user engagement through continuous optimizations and data-backed decisions.

The success of Homa with 'Agent Hunt', developed by Gnarly Game Studio, is not just the story of scaling a shooter game, but a testament to our collaborative approach to success. Monetization, User Acquisition (UA), Creatives, and LiveOps teams worked in tandem to “boost” this game through strategic actions including:

• LiveOps: Adjusting the game's difficulty to optimize its potential, and strategically placing RVs
• User Acquisition: Executing targeted UA campaigns
• Creatives: Crafting innovative content for ads
• Monetization: Balancing the economy & leveraging seasonal events for monetization

The teams leveraged insights from Homa’s previous FPS success 'Wild West Cowboy,' being able to quickly overcome initial challenges maintaining a long-term engagement. As a result, 'Agent Hunt' was included in the top #8 US free games ranking in December 2023 and became Homa's top revenue generator in Q4 2023.

1. Unlocking the Potential: Agent Hunt's LiveOps Optimization

Agent Hunt had a promising start: a solid Day 7 retention rate of around 11%; a very strong metric given the competitive hypercasual FPS genre.

Unlike many games in this category, which experienced a sharp decline in player numbers after the initial launch, ‘Agent Hunt’ smashed the odds showing a consistent increase in downloads and reaching its biggest scale three months after the release.

Adjusting Game Difficulty

After Agent Hunt’s first launch date, the LiveOps team released five distinct game versions within two months, each refining product metrics and the overall scaling strategy to sustain momentum through the holiday season. Thanks to the detailed audit of the team and the work of Homa’s data analysts on dissecting player behavior, the team identified that Agent Hunt's flat difficulty curve was hindering player retention and growth.

To address this challenge, the LiveOps team integrated a new weapon upgrade path and character progression, to instill a sense of achievement and depth. They also fine-tuned the difficulty level to ensure a steady increase in challenge, aiming to engage the FPS/TPS audience that values skill development and a rewarding challenge curve.

These optimizations were supported by the N-testing module inside Homa Lab, which allowed the team to iteratively refine the gameplay, making each level feel more rewarding and aligned with player expectations. As a result, there was a 10% uplift in LTV and a 12% increase in Day 3 retention rates for Android users in the US.

Strategic Reward Video Placement

Homa's team also conducted an in-depth analysis of the game's economy system to further enhance the game’s revenue and player retention. They identified points in the game where players amassed resources—crucial moments that presented an opportunity for strategically placing Reward Videos (RVs). Drawing inspiration from the successful tactics employed in 'Wild West Cowboy,' the team introduced RVs for weapon acquisition that surpassed traditional currency multiplication rewards. This resulted in a 20% uplift in the game's LTV during December's push and an impressive 8% increase in Day 3 retention for Android users in the US.

2. User Acquisition Strategies: Precision-Targeted Growth Efforts

The UA team's strategy in making 'Agent Hunt' to the top 10 US Free Games Chart was simple yet dynamic. They focused on playable, interactive ads that offered a sample of the game's action.

• Weekly Playable Innovations. The team crafted around 10 new playables each week. They experimented with elements like weapons used, enemy count, and the time when the ad would redirect players to visit the app store. All to enhance user engagement.
• Creative Iterations. The team had their first win with a V1 “night-level” playable ad that displayed 3 waves of enemies with a redirect to store on the 2nd wave click. This ad was further refined into a more engaging version by altering the character's appearance and weapon, enhancing player interaction, and increasing the likelihood of players downloading 'Agent Hunt' (V2 of the “night-level” playable ad).

• Expanding Reach. The team looked beyond the US (which made around 45% of the ad spend for the game), identifying growth opportunities in Tier 4 geographies like India and Brazil. By expanding the ad spend to these areas, they managed to nearly double the revenue from these countries within just a few months, representing more than 20% share of voice for ‘Agent Hunt’ Android.
• Diverse Campaign Approaches. The UA team didn't stop there; they explored every campaign type available on ad networks and social networks.

In a nutshell: they launched advanced (blended ROAS) campaigns on various gaming ad networks targeting high-quality users likely to engage in IAP. They diversified spending on various campaign types on social media running parallel to maximize reach across targeted goes. Through these campaigns, we were able to tap into a high-quality audience thus increasing the conversation ratio and achieving higher retention.

Our UA team's strategy was amplified by the inventiveness of our Creatives team, crafting playable ads that were not just engaging but also deeply integrated with ‘Agent Hunt’'s core gameplay, thanks to ongoing feedback and collaboration.

3. Creative Inventiveness: Visuals that Captivate and Convert

Since the prototyping phase of the game, the Creative team crafted over 1000 videos aiming to capture the user’s attention. Below is a recap of the biggest wins:

Best Creative and Raw Recordings Achievements:

• “No wifi” creative emerged as the standout creative, commanding ~35% of the overall spend. It featured a unique combination of a 3D intro with a gun on a gray background and a clever "no Wi-Fi" message, paired with gameplay footage depicting a street level with a failed gameplay scenario.

• “The headshot” was recognized as the best ‘raw recording’ ad across networks, a format that captures gameplay in its most authentic form, often showing unedited, real-time player experiences. The raw recording showcased a street level with an enticing gameplay fail that captivated audiences.

Playable dominance:

• The “night-level” playable (mentioned in the previous section) became the top performer for the quarter. It proved to be most effective in combination with the best creatives, taking over the majority of spend in the final two months.

As a result, the compelling visuals and playables were instrumental in amplifying 'Agent Hunt's' market presence. This led to an impressive increase in its revenue and user acquisition metrics, with over 1.9M new players joining on different operating systems (OS) in the US alone.

4. Monetization Wins: Balancing the economy & leveraging the end-of-season holidays to elevate LTV

Capitalizing on the festive season's heightened eCPM rates, Homa's monetization team introduced a series of strategic initiatives, built upon the LiveOps, User Acquisition, and Creative teams' groundwork, that propelled 'Agent Hunt' to become the top revenue generator in Q4 2023.

• Dynamic eCPM and Waterfall Optimization. The team's attentive monitoring of eCPM trends led to continuous and detailed optimization of the ad waterfall for networks such as Google Admob and Ad Manager. The team focused on optimizing the best-performing ad formats and leveraging seasonal trends effectively. Thus improving the game’s LTV and overall revenue.
• High-Value Ad Unit Optimization. Continuous optimization of high-value ad units, despite initial concerns, led to favorable results, reversing previous negative trends.
• Ad Placement Refinement. The strategic refinement of ad placements, including removing underperforming ads, led to an improved Impressions Per Daily Active User (IMP/DAU) ratio. This adjustment positively influenced the Average Revenue Per Daily Active User (ARPDAU) and was a cornerstone in increasing overall game revenue.

The monetization team's efforts to enhance ad visibility and user interaction within the game not only resulted in a lift in eCPM rates but also drove a remarkable ~30% increase in player LTV. This significant achievement was further amplified by timed initiatives during the holiday season—Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas— when the team leveraged the natural spikes in player spending to bolster the game's revenue, reinforcing the post-Day 3 monetization strategy.

Conclusion: Continuous optimization for ongoing success

The journey of 'Agent Hunt' from a promising launch to a market leader encapsulates the essence of Homa's approach: a blend of collaboration, innovation, and strategic depth. This saga is not just about a game's success but a testament to our commitment to crafting engaging, profitable gaming experiences. The seamless teamwork between Monetization, User Acquisition, Creative, and LiveOps has been pivotal, transforming 'Agent Hunt' into not only a top contender but also Homa's top revenue generator in Q4 2023 with a significant uplift in LTV. And the work is still ongoing!

Currently, the game is in the hands of our Game Ops team which is testing more packages and strategies to continue making it a long-term satisfying experience.

Facing an increasingly challenging landscape for game launches, Homa stands out by consistently delivering hits. With 15 titles launched in 2023 alone, our focus sharpens on fostering long-term player engagement through a strategic, LTV-focused, and endlessly optimizing approach.

If you’re ready to publish your own marketable hit, submit your prototype or get in touch with our team today at business.development@homagames.com !

And if you haven’t played Agent Hunt, go download and play now! Available on IOS & Android