STAGE
After experimenting with Meta’s automated app advertising solution, the Indian regional content streaming provider saw that running a campaign of Advantage+ app ads delivered 43% more subscription purchases than manual app ads.
Founded in 2019, STAGE is a streaming service that delivers specialized content to regional dialect speakers in India. After the founders appeared on Shark Tank India, the entertainment platform grew in popularity. Currently, STAGE offers most of its content in two local dialects: Haryanvi and Rajasthani.
more subscription purchases for Advantage+ app ads, compared to manual app ads
lower cost per subscription for Advantage+ app ads, compared to manual app ads
less time needed to exit the learning phase for Advantage+ app ads, compared to manual app ads
more app installs for Advantage+ app ads, compared to manual app ads
The STAGE team wanted to find a solution that would help them attract new customers at a lower cost, while also reducing time spent creating campaigns manually.
THE SOLUTION
Using Advantage+ app campaigns
The STAGE team typically updated its marketing campaigns manually, which required them to make changes multiple times a day. As a result, the team found it challenging to keep its operating costs under control, and was eager to remedy this.
The STAGE team decided to experiment with Meta Advantage+ app campaigns. These campaigns prioritize machine learning over manual adjustments to optimize for more installs and can help reach people who are most likely to take a valuable action, as well as to help simplify and streamline the campaign creation and management process.
Since this was STAGE’s first Advantage+ app campaign, its ads were marked as “learning” during the first few days of being active to indicate that the ad was in the “learning phase.” The learning phase is the period when Meta's ad delivery system is exploring the best way to deliver the ad sets, and the machine learning capabilities are trying to find the best audiences. During this phase, the campaign budget is not being used as efficiently as possible—and the percentage of ad spend remains higher—until the system learns to deliver ads to the right audiences. Ad sets will exit the learning phase as soon as their performance stabilizes.
Run as a series of photo ads in Feed, Stories and Reels placements on Instagram and Facebook, as well as in-stream video on Facebook, the Advantage+ app campaign used 15 creative assets from select Haryanvi and Rajasthani TV shows and movies. All ads encouraged people to download the STAGE app by clicking the Install button, which led people to either the Google Play Store or the App Store.
To reach people who were most likely to resonate with its content, the STAGE team delivered the ads to a broad audience of people ages 18–65 residing in Delhi NCR, Haryana and Rajasthan.
To measure campaign effectiveness, the streaming platform ran a Meta A/B test comparing the performance of the Advantage+ app campaign to the usual manual app ads between August 16–26, 2023, and saw the following results:
- 43% more subscription purchases for Advantage+ app ads, compared to manual app ads
- 19% lower cost per subscription for Advantage+ app ads, compared to manual app ads
- 15% less time needed to exit the learning phase exit for Advantage+ app ads, compared to manual app ads
- 9% more app installs for Advantage+ app ads, compared to manual app ads