The Challenge
Acquire new subscribers at a consistent, profitable price
Headway monetizes its edtech app through a subscription model. Traditionally, Headway found new users and maintained its top-10 position in the education app category by running search and social media advertising campaigns. To grow their bottom line, they sought new UA channels that could deliver new subscribers at a cost point that would indicate a healthy ROI.
The Solution
AppLovin’s AI advertising engine consistently delivered new subscribers with minimal manual intervention
To drive more scale for their app, Headway ran Cost Per Event (CPE) campaigns on AppDiscovery to optimize for subscriptions at their target cost goals. Leveraging the fast learning capabilities of AppDiscovery’s AI, Headway was able to launch advanced campaigns without a dedicated learning phase.
Their iOS campaign exceeded their CPE target in the first week and has consistently delivered on this goal while increasing subscriber volume rapidly.
Because their campaigns were automatically optimized by AppDiscovery, and there were very few fluctuations, Headway didn’t have to spend time on daily campaign management. Instead, their team was free to focus on other growth-driving areas of the business. This automated, reliable performance has made AppDiscovery a low-effort, high-volume source of new subscribers.
The Results
AppDiscovery quickly proved to be a consistent stream of new subscribers for Headway
AppDiscovery’s AI technology enabled Headway to immediately run advanced campaigns optimized for a CPE that would allow Headway to acquire subscribers profitably. They hit their CPE goals right away, and AppDiscovery’s highly accurate targeting enabled the campaign to deliver on goals for 9 consecutive weeks, to the time of writing.3
Meanwhile, subscription volume increased by 5x within the first month due to the speed at which AppDiscovery is able to learn and optimize. Pleased with the early success of their campaign, Headway increased their spend by 72% month over month.
In Summary
Campaigns consistently hit goals
AppDiscovery’s highly accurate targeting and ability to calibrate quickly enabled Headway’s CPE campaign to hit goals immediately and to continue to deliver on goals reliably.
Increased scale with efficient spend
Headway successfully increased subscription volume by 5x without the need for manual optimizations and increased campaign spend by 72% after the first month.
AppDiscovery has surpassed our expectations and opened up new scale for Headway.
AppDiscovery has been a strong source of new subscribers for us, and we were surprised to see how quickly and consistently our campaign goals were met. Because their AI advertising engine optimizes campaigns so efficiently, and the performance was so stable, we’ve been able to keep manual management and oversight to a bare minimum. Since we trust AppLovin to profitably deliver on our ad spend, we’ve been able to scale our campaigns without significantly drawing on our team’s resources.
Yana Kostiuk
User Acquisition Manager
2 AppLovin platform, iOS: Aug 2023 to Sept 2023
3 AppLovin platform, iOS: Jul 31–Aug 6 to Sept 25–Oct 1, 2023