Case Study: How Starborne Frontiers Scaled with User Centric Performance Marketing

Over the last 12 months, Starborne Frontiers achieved strong, profitable growth. The strategy was simple. Start by improving the player experience. Then build a user acquisition system that targets the right audience and scales efficiently. Read how App Sampo secured a strong ROAS-driven growth for the game. One of the most important lessons was this: do not scale before the game is ready. Therefore, the growth journey began with a deep analysis of the player funnel, from install to early monetisation. The initial data showed a major drop during onboarding. Too many players left before getting to the core gameplay. To fix this, the tutorial was redesigned and made more intuitive. UI elements were cleaned up. Early missions were improved to deliver action faster. As a result, the retention increased. More players moved into deeper gameplay and monetisation.

Once the user funnel was solid, the focus shifted to acquisition. Early campaigns aimed for volume by targeting installs. As more data came in, the strategy evolved to event based optimisation. Later, campaigns moved to target ROAS on ad spend, attracting higher value players. Bidding was tied to real time monetisation data, which helped the campaigns focus on users with real potential. The key to success here was allowing the campaigns to gather enough meaningful signals to optimise properly. That’s when ROAS positive scaling became possible. One of the biggest growth drivers behind Starborne Frontiers was learning how to read and react to ROAS curves over time. Short-term metrics like Day 7 ROAS are useful, but they do not tell the full story. What truly matters is long-term payback and profit. Image 1: Illustration of a ROAS curve

First party data played a key role throughout. Players were segmented by behaviour, engagement, and lifetime value. These insights powered better audience creation and improved signal quality across ad platforms like Google Ads and Meta. Campaigns became more efficient with improved delivery and stronger return over time.

The results were clear. Retention improved. Conversion to paying user doubled. ROAS stayed strong even as spend scaled across markets. The full funnel from install to monetisation became more effective.

This growth was not driven by a single channel or trick. It came from aligning product and marketing, fixing what did not work, and letting data guide each step. Success came from treating the player journey as a system.

Of course, performance marketing is not only about data and bidding. Marketing creatives play a massive role in driving results. For more on that, read from collaborative case study how AppSampo's creative partner AppAgent approaches performance-driven creative production. Their process has been a key part of why our campaigns continue to convert and scale efficiently.