Runtastic Decreased User Acquisition Costs with Playable Ads

How to Engage Effectively with Potential Users?

The Austrian company has been a part of the Adidas family since 2015 - the two companies share the vision: Through sport, we have the power to change lives. Runtastic wants to create the best possible running and training experiences to encourage every individual to live a more active lifestyle, leading to a longer and happier life. 

Runtastic has always focused on storytelling and user acquisition, while having ambitious growth targets.  They were facing challenges in engaging potential users with their Runtastic Results app and driving new users with aggressive cost targets. They were looking for innovative ways to attract prospective users' attention, engage with them, and turn them into loyal users.

Increased Interaction with Smartly.io's Playable Ads

The Facebook ad format, Playable Ads, gives users a preview of your app before downloading or buying it. Facebook's studies show that the format helps advertisers drive higher-intent installs and thus a higher return on investment.

Runtastic used Smartly.io's Playable Ads to reduce the costs of newly acquired users and to boost user engagement. Users answered a series of questions within the ad to find out which workout was the most suitable for them. The Playable Ads were gender and operating-system-specific for the users to get personalized results.

1. First, users choose their preferred type of exercise, their target zone, and when they wanted to start working out. 
2. Second, the Playable Ad calculated the users' most suitable form of exercise based on the answers. 

The interactive ad gave potential users a preview of the app and personalized results to help them understand the benefits of the application.

Runtastic Attracted and Retained New Users While Reducing Their CPI by 10%

The campaign with Playable Ads as a part of the asset mix had a 10% lower cost per install and a 5% higher conversion rate compared to the campaign with only video ads. The campaign with Playable Ads also had a 10% higher CTR.

The campaigns featuring Playable Ads had a 10% higher conversion rate from install to start using the app. The cost for such an activity (which equals to cost for an engaged user) was 23% lower compared to regular campaigns with only videos. Higher activity rates after the install was the most important indicator that Playable Ads spur user engagement.

“Playable Ads turned out to be a great asset to use not only for diversifying the creative mix but also for decreasing acquisition costs and improving conversion rates if you’re optimizing for user engagement."

- Ekaterina Shpadareva, User Acquisition and ASO Manager
- Luca Stefanutti, User Acquisition and ASO Manager