Dentsu Group Inc. is a Japanese multinational advertising and public relations agency, one of the largest in the world. Headquartered in Tokyo, it is a global leader in the marketing and communications industry.
The Dentsu UK team is a key part of its international business. Its App Performance & Gaming team is a tight-knit, fast-expanding group of app growth specialists who work across a diverse client mix, from QSR and finance to retail, blending paid and organic strategies to drive performance. Growth, upskilling, and forward-thinking are baked into everything they do, and the results speak for themselves.
Dentsu’s App Performance & Gaming team, located in the United Kingdom, mainly Thomas Tierney, a Senior Manager, and Sara Ahmed Abdel Karim, an Associate, recognized the need for a solution to manage, automate, and optimize Apple Ads campaigns more effectively. They sought a platform that could streamline their workflows, save time, and, at the same time, provide deeper insights about the App Store and Apple Ads competitive landscape.
Apple Ads are a critical user acquisition channel in the wide mix of channels the agency manages for its clients to grow mobile apps, due to their strong performance and high engagement among iOS users.
Apple Ads tends to be one of the main acquisition tools that we use across all of our clients within our mobile team. A lot of clients tend to prioritize Apple Ads as well because that’s where we see a lot of the performance come through.
While time management was critical, the priority was to improve the scalability of the multiple apps under the agency’s care, grounding their bidding strategies in more data and market insights.
Dentsu chose SplitMetrics Acquire for its automation capabilities, user-friendly interface, and robust market intelligence features. The platform enabled the team to automate 64% of processes, saving an estimated 277 working hours in management per month on average, based on analysis of the platform’s Optimization Hub.
With thousands of keywords bid on automatically by the platform, either through automation rules or AI bid strategies, the App Performance & Gaming team was able to pursue more strategic endeavors:
I use SplitMetrics Acquire pretty much daily. In terms of reporting, it helps a lot to see the competitive reviews, who’s bidding on us, and where we’re showing up. It’s also good to see the insights on how we’re spending and at what times we’re spending. We’ve implemented AI and automation rules to maximize our spend when we’re showing up and reduce it in other cases.
For me, SplitMetrics Acquire is a tab that’s never closed now. I do it as part of my morning hygiene checks, ensuring everything’s running smoothly and making any necessary adjustments. I love diving into the bigger picture, like keyword expansion or custom product page insights, which are also interesting and valuable for my clients.
The following features were critical to the success of the platform’s implementation:
To summarize, various automation methods provided by the platform were critical to both reducing the workload and ensuring that decisions were data-driven and accurate, for both bidding and keyword optimization.
Free from these tasks, the team could focus on strategy, such as examining custom product pages on both creative and performance levels.
A full-funnel performance overview, made possible by MMP integration, allowed them to focus performance optimization on profitability.
The success of the implementation was made possible through tight collaboration with SplitMetrics Acquire’s Customer Success team. Through weekly syncs, Dentsu was able to introduce some best practices regarding bidding or discuss the market and competitive landscape.
The cooperation between Dentsu and SplitMetrics Acquire has led to impressive results, with an app belonging to a popular British food-on-the-go retailer being a great example of how data-driven and automated bidding, as well as regular market and competitor research, can translate to efficient scaling.
SplitMetrics Acquire allowed us to scale while maintaining efficiency. We adopted a highly data-driven approach, utilizing automated bidding and day-parting to capitalize on peak times. Competitor segmentation (delivery, QSR, coffee), and the results were pretty unreal: +226% increase in spend with CPT holding steady at £2.43, +1,162% more impressions and +227% more clicks, +158% boost in installs, which showed we were reaching way beyond just brand terms and even had a strong organic uplift. We also did loads of creative testing and adapted in real time thanks to the visibility we had across campaigns. The refresh of the App Store journey, Today Tab placement, and tailored creative per competitor type really helped us stand out, even against huge brands
To wrap up, the Dentsu App Performance & Gaming team was able to achieve the following results for a reward app belonging to a British food-on-the-go retailer:
Dentsu also utilized creative testing and real-time adaptation, along with App Store journey refreshes, Today Tab placements, and tailored creative per competitor type, to enhance their performance.
The partnership between Dentsu and SplitMetrics Acquire demonstrates how effective automation and insightful market intelligence can drive significant growth and efficiency in Apple Ads campaigns. The team’s data-led approach, combined with the power of SplitMetrics Acquire, has allowed them to achieve remarkable results for their clients and optimize their workflows.
Our relationship with SplitMetrics goes beyond just using their platform — it’s a genuine partnership built on ongoing collaboration and shared expertise. Both teams are always open to exchanging ideas, which helps us stay sharp and ahead of the curve in Apple Ads. Integration with their platform is smooth and intuitive, making it easy for our teams to get up and running quickly. One of the biggest wins has been their rule-based bidding system, which gives us the flexibility to tailor strategies that hit client KPIs while keeping spend efficient. On top of that, they’re constantly rolling out new features, and the regular training and support we get means we’re always making the most of what’s available. It’s a setup that really helps us treat Apple Ads as a high-performance channel.
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