Scaling Alice Legends From Soft Launch to Apple Game of the Day Across Ten Countries
Alice Legends is a tactical card battler set in a Wonderland universe, developed by Bear Hug Entertainment Limited and targeting a female-skewed casual-core audience across North America, Europe, and Asia. With US iOS CPI averaging $2.50 and rising 15% year on year while ATT reduces audience targeting signal, the challenge is acquiring players who convert to payers through a five-life energy system rather than churning before their first purchase impulse. We run experiment-led acquisition across Meta, Google UAC, TikTok, and Apple Search Ads with sprint-based creative testing, ASO, and clean SKAdNetwork measurement.
Bear Hug's Wonderland Card Battler Competing Against Royal Match's 500 Million Downloads
Alice Legends is a tactical card battler developed by Bear Hug Entertainment Limited as their first mobile title. Players form runs and sets from cards to battle the Queen of Hearts, rescue cute creatures, and rebuild Wonderland through page-themed roads, teacups, and giant mushrooms. The game targets a female-skewed casual-core audience aged 25 to 44, monetising through in-app purchases, rewarded video via optional prize wheels, and an energy system of five lives regenerating every half hour. Average sessions run 25 minutes daily.
Apple featured Alice Legends as Game of the Day in ten countries during soft launch. Competitors include Royal Match with 500 million downloads and sub-$1 tier-one CPI, Gardenscapes at $4 billion lifetime revenue, Solitaire Stories with 50 million downloads, and Candy Crush Saga as the genre benchmark with D30 retention above 10%. US iOS CPI averages $2.50, up 15% year on year, while ATT has reduced targeting signal across iOS. Bear Hug engaged us to engineer soft launch optimisation, identify audience subsets through competitor analysis, and scale acquisition across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Meta Google UAC TikTok and Apple Search Ads Each Serving a Distinct Acquisition Role
We structure Alice Legends' UA across Meta, Google UAC, TikTok, and Apple Search Ads with each channel targeting a different player segment. Meta reaches puzzle enthusiasts and Wonderland IP fans via Advantage+ App campaigns with purchase-optimised bidding through Aggregated Event Measurement. Google UAC feeds video into YouTube and AdMob with tROAS bidding against the $2.50 US iOS CPI benchmark. TikTok captures the casual female audience aged 25 to 44 at 2.5x lower CAC than Meta.
Budget rebalances weekly by channel based on D1 retention cohorts and ARPDAU, not install volume, concentrating spend where players convert to payers.
Creature Rescues and Queen of Hearts Battles Tested on Weekly Sprint Cycles
Our creative pipeline ships video, static, and playable concepts on weekly sprint cycles mapped to four hooks: cute creature rescues, Queen of Hearts boss battles, Wonderland rebuilding with page-themed roads and giant mushrooms, and card run and set mechanics. The 55% female puzzle audience responds strongest to creature rescue and rebuilding themes while midcore players engage with tactical card gameplay.
AI-driven dynamic personalisation lifts conversion 30% by serving variants matched to audience segment. Each sprint retires fatigued concepts as ad fatigue rises 25% year on year and graduates winners into scaling budgets across Meta, Google UAC, and TikTok.
SKAdNetwork Conversion Values Encoding Payer Signals Within Apple's 6 Bit Privacy Schema
SKAdNetwork's 6-bit conversion value schema and delayed postbacks make real-time ROAS invisible on iOS. We built a measurement framework encoding three priority events: tutorial completion, first in-app purchase, and 24-hour return session. This lets bid algorithms distinguish a retained payer from a one-session churner within Apple's privacy constraints.
Meta's Aggregated Event Measurement prioritises first purchase at the top of four tracked events. Soft launch data from seven simultaneous test markets benchmarks D1 retention against the 45% midcore standard and ARPDAU against the $0.08 industry average, graduating only qualifying cohorts into scaled budgets.
Optimising Toward First Purchase in a Post ATT Landscape Where Install Volume Misleads
The core technical challenge is acquiring players who convert to payers when SKAdNetwork limits conversion data to a 6-bit schema and 24-to-48-hour postback delays obscure real-time ROAS. Standard install-optimised campaigns flood the funnel with users who churn before the energy system creates its first purchase impulse at life five.
We structure campaigns across Meta, Google UAC, TikTok, and Apple Search Ads with event-optimised bidding targeting the first in-app purchase rather than the install. SKAdNetwork conversion value mapping encodes three tiers: tutorial completion, first IAP, and second session return within 24 hours. Meta's Aggregated Event Measurement runs four prioritised events with first purchase at the top. Google UAC uses tROAS bidding calibrated to the $2.50 US iOS CPI benchmark, feeding video creative into YouTube, Display, and AdMob inventory. Soft launch tested seven markets simultaneously, rotating audiences across puzzle enthusiasts, Wonderland IP fans, card game players, and Royal Match and Gardenscapes lookalikes. Each market ran two-week sprints measuring D1 retention against the 45% midcore benchmark and ARPDAU against the $0.08 industry average, graduating only combinations that cleared both thresholds to global scale.
D1 Retention Up 23% as Hybrid Casual Overtakes Hyper Casual in Mobile Gaming
The engagement has delivered 23% higher D1 retention, 4x ROAS, and 18% lower CPI. The D1 retention lift matters most because every percentage point above the 45% midcore threshold compounds into higher D7 and D30 curves, directly feeding the ARPDAU that sustains reinvestment. Reaching 4x ROAS means every dollar of UA spend returns four in revenue, enabling continuous scale.
We adapted mobile UA for a hybrid casual title where the Wonderland IP provides 15% higher organic share rates but ATT limits the lookalike signals that historically powered puzzle game scaling. Creative testing isolates which emotional hooks convert: cute creature rescues outperform card battle mechanics with the 55% female puzzle audience, while Queen of Hearts boss encounters drive higher ARPDAU among midcore players. The hybrid casual genre grows 28% year on year as hyper-casual sunsets with a 50% CPI spike, favouring titles combining casual accessibility with strategic depth. Weekly live ops events boost D7 retention 20%, and tier-two CPI arbitrage in Mexico and Brazil at 40% lower costs opens scale beyond the saturated US market.
