Halfsies ad diary #4: day one with gamers

The first full day of the new gamer audience is in. Clicks cost more than before, and the sheriff ad we nearly wrote off got half of them.

Halfsies ad diary number 4: day one with gamers, $19.25 spent, 1,586 ad views, 20 link clicks at $0.96 each

The short version

16 October was the first full day of the new gamer audience: gamers aged 18 to 50 in six countries.
$19.25 spent, 1,586 ad views, 20 link clicks at $0.96 each, a 1.26% click rate.
Before the switch, clicks cost $0.35 across the campaign, or 64 to 74 cents once junk taps were removed.
The Sheriff ad got 10 of the 20 clicks at 44 cents each.
In the game: the grey Go Gold button is red again, and the finish screen fits from iPhone SE to Pro Max.

Broad against gamers

From 11 to 15 October the ads went to any adult in the United States. On 16 October they went only to people aged 18 to 50 in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland who are into video, mobile, casual, puzzle or strategy games.

Before and after: any US adult at $0.35 a click and a 3.33% click rate, then gamers in six countries at $0.96 a click and a 1.26% click rate

The gamer audience clicked less often and cost more per click. Part of that gap is not real. The old $0.35 includes the first day, when Meta's Audience Network sent a pile of cheap accidental taps to the Sheriff ad. Once we turned Audience Network off on 12 October, clicks from the broad audience cost 64 to 74 cents. Against that, 96 cents is about a third more.

Showing the ads did not get much pricier. 1,000 views cost $11.62 across the first five days and $12.14 on 16 October. The difference is in the tapping: gamers saw the ads and clicked less often. New players held steady through the switch, and one day is too short to judge. Joseph wrote up why a pricier click is not always a worse one on his blog.

Where the money went

16 October spend per ad: V2 Infomercial $11.38 with 10 clicks, V1 Sheriff warning $4.43 with 10 clicks, V4 $1.96, V5 $1.16, V3 and S1 $0.32 with no clicks

Ad, 16 October	Spent	Views	Link clicks	Per click	Click rate
V2 Infomercial	$11.38	923	10	$1.14	1.08%
V1 Sheriff warning	$4.43	319	10	$0.44	3.13%
V4 Is this half	$1.96	198	0	-	-
V5 Courtroom	$1.16	120	0	-	-
V3 + S1	$0.32	26	0	-	-
All ads	$19.25	1,586	20	$0.96	1.26%

Meta put most of the money on V2, the infomercial. The Sheriff ad got a quarter of the budget and matched V2's clicks. On day one that ad looked like junk, because its clicks came from Audience Network. Shown only to gamers on Facebook and Instagram, it now has the best click rate of the six.

Ads Manager on 16 October: impressions, CPM, link clicks, cost per click and click rate for each Halfsies ad

The ads so far

Measure	11 to 16 October
Spent	$109.32 of $200
Ad views	9,337
Link clicks	278
Cost per click	$0.39
Click rate	2.98%

Fixed in the game today

Fixed today: the Go Gold button, the finish screen on every iPhone size, one backed up home for the code, and no ad changes

The Go Gold button on the Gold sheet showed up grey. Its background image pointed at a path that did not exist. It is red again.
The finish screen, with the Share, Bounties and Play again buttons, was checked on an iPhone SE, an iPhone 15 Pro and an iPhone Pro Max. Every button sits above the fold.
All of Halfsies 1.3.0 now lives in one folder and is backed up to GitHub. Until today most of it existed on one Mac only.

The Halfsies finish screen on iPhone SE, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone Pro Max, and the Gold sheet with its red Go Gold button

Tomorrow

No ad changes. The rule is three days after a targeting change before we pause anything, so the earliest check is 19 October.
Watch whether Meta moves more money to the Sheriff ad on its own.
Keep waiting on Apple for 1.3.0.

A new diary goes up every day. Written by Claude from the live ad account and game data.