App & game ad production

Ad production for subscription apps and mobile games, by Growth Therapist.

Creative strategy and production, built from your product, your audience, your competitors and what your account already rewards. We write the concepts, hooks and scripts, decide what each version tests, and direct production through to the finished ad and the next round.

Book an intro call

Apps and games subscription apps and mobile games, briefed differently2 weeks from booking to live4 formats UGC, AI, gameplay, 2D motion

Ece DurgunCreative StrategistCopy and scripts, screen and POV footage, hook videos, and the creators and editors through production.

Brands we have worked on

Google

Deutsche Telekom

Zalando

Volkswagen

Bosch

Intel

Oracle

Wooga

Recent resultsHorse Racing Solitaire14 of 175 ads under £1.00 per install Faction PackedROAS up 74% on an icon test DiressCPI down 40% with a UGC ad

How we brief

If the product is good, the ad usually fails in the first three seconds.

That is where the concept work goes, and it is why games and apps are briefed differently.

For games

Show the product in the first second

A game can put the mechanic on screen straight away and the viewer understands it. The ad opens on the moment that makes the mechanic obvious, and the caption does the rest.

For apps

Name the problem before the screen

An app usually has to say what is wrong in the person's own words before the screen means anything. That changes the script more than it changes the format.

Ad examples

UGC, AI and gameplay ads that won their test.

Ten winners from four apps and games. Tap one to play it.

The projects

Four apps and games behind the ten winners.

One block per app or game, with its ads and what happened. Tap a still to play it.

Horse Racing SolitaireMobile game

UGC talking headAI hookGameplay capture

Salto Games' mobile game. From December 2025 to April 2026 we ran 175 test ads in one Meta install campaign. From March an outside studio ran its 16 in the same account. The talking head ad keeps a creator's face in the corner, first over a horse in a barn, then over the game on a phone. The AI hook ad opens on a generated horse running through flying playing cards, then cuts to real gameplay.

14 of the 175 ads came in under £1.00 per install. The talking head ad cut CPI by 22% against the account baseline. The AI hook ad reached an IPM of 15.

How Meta split the budget against the studio →

Faction PackedMobile game

Gameplay captureAI footage

A strategy RPG where players draft items, pack them into bags and settle duels with dice. The duel ad is gameplay with captions that walk through one duel, from the dice toss to the rewards screen. The icon test ad is gameplay as well. The item ad opens on a run of generated items under the line "Magic. Steel. And one perfectly packed bag." and then cuts to the game.

ROAS up 30% on the duel ad and up 74% on the icon test ad. The item ad reached an IPM of 21.

DiressApp

UGCApp capture

One UGC ad. It opens on someone photographing a dress on a hanger, with a red cross drawn over the shot, then cuts to the app showing the same dress on a model.

CPI down 40% against the account baseline.

SubtextApp

UGCAI presenterApp capture

Subtext is the AI writing assistant for hard messages that Samet cofounded, with ads by the same team. Three UGC ads with Ece on camera and one AI presenter ad, each built around one message people dread sending: a text to a crush, a reply to someone who blames you, a boundary over text, a text written in the heat of the moment. The UGC ads open on the problem, then show the app. The presenter ad stays on the presenter.

About Subtext →

The formats

What the ads actually are.

Four formats. Which ones you get is decided by what your account, your product and your competitors show.

Gameplay and app capture

Recorded from the product

Footage taken from inside the product, cut with captions, text and motion graphics.

gameplay hooks
app walkthroughs
screen recording integration

For games gameplay, usually the moment that makes the mechanic obvious in three seconds.

For apps the screen doing the one thing the person downloaded the app to do.

UGC

A creator on camera

A real person films on their own phone, in the everyday style that reads as a post, not an ad. We handle the direction, the script and the opening line, and the person on camera comes from our creator network. Their fee is quoted on top of the Sprint.

talking head delivery
reactions
voiceover

For games a reaction, or someone playing and talking over it.

For apps someone naming the problem in their own words before anything gets shown.

AI UGC

AI footage and avatars

AI presenters and AI footage, with no shoot behind them. Cheap enough to put an opening line in front of a real audience before anyone books a camera.

AI presenters
avatars
AI voices
multilingual versions

For games rarely the finished ad, useful for finding which claim is worth filming.

For apps a presenter reading a script, useful for testing which promise lands first.

2D motion ads

Animated concept ads

Short 2D animations that tell the idea without product footage. Useful when the promise is the story, or when the real product is not ready to show.

animated concepts
overlays
UI callouts
end cards

For games the mechanic explained in motion before the polished gameplay exists.

For apps the problem and the promise drawn out when the screen alone does not carry them.

What is in every ad

The opening, written for the first three seconds
The script
Captions burned in
Voiceover where the idea needs one, AI or a real voice
Music and sound design
An end card
9:16 plus one secondary ratio, as 1080p MP4 with named files
A note of which variable that version tests

Gameplay is captured from your build. 2D overlays and animation, AI presenters and a creator on camera come in with the format that needs them. All of it is inside the price; only the ad spend and a creator's fee sit on top.

3D renders and playable ads are not something we produce. If a test points that way we will say so and point you to a studio that does.

The process

What happens after you book

1
Brief
The app or game, who it is for, and a look at the ad account if there is one.
2
Ideas
Written from what the account has already rewarded. For a launch, from the product and the competitors.
3
You approve
The ideas and the scripts, before anything is produced.
4
Production
Test versions of every idea, live in your account in about two weeks.
5
Fourteen days live
Next to the ads you already run, each with a fair share.
6
The read
What won, what lost, what to make next. The winner gets full production.

The same six steps run in the Sprint and every month of the Loop. How many ideas and versions each round holds is what the two prices decide.

Case study

We put an external creative studio on the same account. When Meta chose, it moved the budget to our ads.

Horse Racing Solitaire

Mobile game

One mobile game, one Meta account, December 2025 to April 2026. The studio got the brand kit, the gameplay footage and a written brief. It did not get the account.

	The studio	Our team
Best CPI, ads over £10 spend	£1.21	£0.65
Ads under £1.00 per install	0 of 16	14 of 175
Share of budget once Meta chose	30% to 4.5%	about 70% to over 95%

The studio's ads entered in March, so the first two rows set 175 of ours against 16 of theirs, and only four of theirs passed £10 of spend. In March alone, blended CPI was £1.34 on our side and £1.49 on theirs, a gap of 11 percent. The budget row compares like for like over 22 days in the same value optimization campaigns. The account ran in pounds; the prices on this page are in euros.

Every ad started in an install campaign. The best ads from each side then moved into the value optimization campaign, where Meta decides how to split the money. The chart below is that campaign.

Each bar is one full day in the value optimization campaign. The colored part is the studio's ads, the rest is ours.

CPI only hints at quality. The proof is where Meta puts the money: it tried the studio's ads, gave them 30% of the day's budget on 28 March, and had taken that back to 4.5% by 12 April. In the accounts we run, a new ad takes about a week to find its share and a winner can hold it for weeks, so we judge on the week, not the day.

The studio's craft was fine. Its concepts were guesses, written from a brief and a portfolio, not from what the account had already rewarded. Here the concepts are written by the person who reads the spend allocation, the CPI by concept and the fatigue curve. The edit is the cheap part. Deciding what to edit is where the CPI moves.

Read the full comparison, caveat included →

We've worked closely with Growth Therapist, led by Samet, for the past two years as we scaled our first product. He led creative and UA strategy through our soft launch and beyond, and consistently drove fast, high-quality creative experimentation. He's proactive, communicative, and very transparent.
Brad Grievson · COO & Cofounder, Salto · LinkedIn

Why one house

The ads and the campaigns, in one house.

Most creative is briefed across a gap. The people who see the numbers write a document, and the people who make the ads work from the document. Here the same people do both, so the work is faster and it starts from data.

Ideas come from the account

The concepts are written by the person who reads the spend allocation, the CPI by concept and the fatigue curve. The brief is the data, not a document about it.

No handoff

The person who sees an ad tire is the person who writes its next version. No brief to write, no account manager in between, no waiting for a reply.

Every round starts from the last read

Each test ends in a written read, and the next ideas are written from it. Winners become versions, losers are not made again.

Inside a UA retainer this is the default. On the Sprint and the Loop we read your account before writing, and hand the read back with the ads.

Work together

Two ways to buy the ads.

One time

The Sprint

Fifteen ads, one time. The way in.

We go through your ad account, your product and the ads your competitors are running
3 ad ideas written from what that shows
5 versions of each idea, so 15 ads ready to run
Test versions first. Only the winner gets full production
Live in your account in about two weeks, then fourteen days of testing set up so the ads get a fair read
A written summary at the end: what worked, and what to make next
Credited against the monthly plan if you continue within 60 days

€2,000one time

15 ads

Book a call about the Sprint →

Month to month

The Loop

Ongoing creative for the account, sized to how much you want to run.

2 new ideas a month, 5 versions of each, so 10 new ads
5 new versions of the ad that won, so 15 ads a month
The winner itself finished properly, on top of the 15
Bigger loops: more ideas and more versions a month, quoted to the account
Creators on camera as often as the ideas need them, their fees on top
14 days notice, no long contract

from €2,000a month

15 ads a month and up

Book a call about the Loop →

On top of either price: the ad spend, which runs in your own account, and a creator's fee when an idea needs a person on camera, typically EUR 100 to 300 per creator per Sprint. Other languages, raw footage and project files are quoted on request. On a UA retainer, the ads are made and tested inside the campaigns Samet runs, quoted on a call.

Pricing, in full →

Questions people ask.

Who is this a good fit for?

Apps and games with an ad account already running, or a launch with a product ready to show, and a team that wants the ideas written from its numbers instead of a brief. We start on Meta, with the ads running in your own account next to the ones you already trust. It is not the right fit if you want a single finished ad without versions, because the versions are how the test finds the winner.

What do you need from me to start?

The app or game itself, your audience, and read access to your ad account if you have one. The ideas come out of what is already running. For a new launch with no account yet, they come from the product, the audience and your competitors, and the first test sets the baseline. Alongside that: brand assets (logo, icons, characters, item animations, sound effects, music and an end card if you have one), two or three reference ads, anything the ads must not claim, and for gameplay capture a build that reaches the moments worth filming. If you already have creator footage or clean screen recordings, they go into the Sprint where they fit an idea, at the same price, and the same goes for concepts or hooks of your own that you want tested.

How long until the ads are live?

About two weeks from booking to the fifteen ads running in your account. The fourteen days of testing start after that.

What does the price include, and what is extra?

Both prices cover the ideas, the scripts, the editing and the test. The ad spend is yours and runs in your own account. When an idea needs a person on camera, the creator's fee is quoted on top, typically EUR 100 to 300 per creator for a Sprint, depending on the creator and the market.

What differs between the five versions of an idea?

It depends on the idea. Usually the opening, sometimes the length, the format or the person on camera. We decide per idea from what the account shows, and the brief says which, so the test reads one variable at a time.

Which languages can the ads be in?

English by default. Any other language is quoted per language, with a native speaker reviewing the script and the captions before anything is produced.

What length and format do the ads come in?

Every delivery is 9:16 plus one secondary ratio decided by your placements, as 1080p MP4 with captions burned in. Length and revisions are agreed in the brief for each project, and the brief can override the defaults.

Where do the ads run?

In your own ad account, alongside everything else you have live. That is what makes the result comparable to the ads you already trust.

Who owns the finished ads?

You do. The final files are yours once the work is paid for, and you keep running them whether or not we carry on. The one exception is a creator's face. Their paid ad usage runs for a term that is agreed per creator and written into the quote before production, and it can be extended.

Do I get the raw footage and the project files?

On request, quoted on top. Both the Sprint and the Loop deliver the finished ads.

Do you guarantee a CPI or a ROAS?

No. The test tells you which idea earned the spend, and the comparison on this page shows what that looked like on one account. The result also depends on the product, the offer and the budget behind it, which is why the ads run in your own account, where you read them yourself.

What happens if none of the ideas win?

The summary says so plainly and sets out what the test ruled out, which narrows what is worth making next. A round that kills three ideas is still a result you can act on.

Do you make ads for games or for apps?

Both, and they are briefed differently. A game can put the product on screen in the first second. An app usually has to name the problem before the screen means anything.

Writing

What Samet has written about ad creative.

Articles by the person who reads the account and writes the ideas behind our ads.

Sep 11, 2026 · 2 min