Experiment context
Hypothesis. Dedicated retention campaigns were expected to lift CTR, CR trans, and ROAS by separating warm audiences from broad acquisition.
How the test ran. All four project/direction combinations are preserved below with _retention/_all suffixes kept because they identify the audience group.
Comparison design. Retention vs all-traffic baselines across 2 projects × 2 directions.
Visual summary
Retention campaigns consistently separate warmer demand from broad acquisition. Percentage differences compare the average metric value across all retention campaigns against the average value across all all-traffic campaigns.
Performance results
| Campaign | Impr. | Clicks | CTR | Cost | Avg. CPC | Transactions | CPO | Total revenue | AOV | ROAS | First purchasers | CR (first purchasers) | CR (transactions) | CAC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01.02.26 - 30.06.26 | game-2_service6_retention | 6,015 | 720 | 12.00% | 1,766.93$ | 2.45$ | 72 | 25.00$ | 6,203.80$ | 86.00$ | 351.00% | 11 | 1.53% | 10.00% | 161.00$ |
| 01.09.25 - 31.01.26 | game-2_service6_all | 232,250 | 14,983 | 6.50% | 24,112.85$ | 1.61$ | 593 | 41.00$ | 49,129.90$ | 83.00$ | 204.00% | 118 | 0.79% | 3.96% | 204.00$ |
| Campaign | Impr. | Clicks | CTR | Cost | Avg. CPC | Transactions | CPO | Total revenue | AOV | ROAS | First purchasers | CR (first purchasers) | CR (transactions) | CAC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01.02.26 - 30.06.26 | game-2_service3_retention | 13,958 | 4,218 | 30.20% | 9,714.09$ | 2.30$ | 859 | 11.00$ | 47,954.70$ | 56.00$ | 494.00% | 45 | 1.07% | 20.37% | 216.00$ |
| 01.09.25 - 31.01.26 | game-2_service3_all | 380,314 | 73,453 | 19.30% | 168,683.62$ | 2.30$ | 6,519 | 26.00$ | 316,812.10$ | 49.00$ | 188.00% | 2,405 | 3.27% | 8.88% | 70.00$ |
| Campaign | Impr. | Clicks | CTR | Cost | Avg. CPC | Transactions | CPO | Total revenue | AOV | ROAS | First purchasers | CR (first purchasers) | CR (transactions) | CAC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01.03.26 - 30.06.26 | game-3_service6_retention | 11,593 | 3,688 | 31.80% | 10,807.26$ | 2.93$ | 523 | 21.00$ | 41,128$ | 79.00$ | 381.00% | 14 | 0.38% | 14.18% | 772.00$ |
| 01.11.25 - 31.01.26 | game-3_service6_all | 109,633 | 16,287 | 14.90% | 31,364.88$ | 1.93$ | 1,362 | 23.00$ | 68,884.10$ | 51.00$ | 220.00% | 239 | 1.47% | 8.36% | 131.00$ |
| Campaign | Impr. | Clicks | CTR | Cost | Avg. CPC | Transactions | CPO | Total revenue | AOV | ROAS | First purchasers | CR (first purchasers) | CR (transactions) | CAC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01.02.26 - 30.06.26 | game-3_service3_retention | 16,064 | 5,508 | 34.30% | 11,934.18$ | 2.17$ | 1,155 | 10.00$ | 71,629.80$ | 62.00$ | 600.00% | 37 | 0.67% | 20.97% | 323.00$ |
| 01.09.25 - 31.01.26 | game-3_service3_all | 293,721 | 49,945 | 17.00% | 70,767.02$ | 1.42$ | 6,477 | 11.00$ | 303,868.20$ | 47.00$ | 429.00% | 1,278 | 2.56% | 12.97% | 55.00$ |
Conclusions
Separating retention traffic made the performance of warm audiences easier to control and compare with acquisition. Retention should remain in dedicated campaigns where its stronger intent supports better CR and ROAS, with exclusions used to keep acquisition and retention audiences distinct.
Limitations. Retention and all-traffic campaigns cover different historical periods and audiences with different intent. The comparison demonstrates segment efficiency but does not isolate the causal effect of the campaign split.