It's Golf, but Better

18Birdies, an app that makes golf more engaging and social, needed more users. For a start-up without a huge budget, the most cost-effective and measurable way to do that was to reach their audiences in social media.

EVERGREEN CAMPAIGN

The first step was to create a campaign that’s simple and relevant enough that they could run it throughout the year.  They needed to tell avid and aspiring golfers about unique features that make18Birdies the best choice in a crowded market for golf apps.

The challenge wasn't reaching this audience, but getting them to stop scrolling through their feed long enough to get the message. So, the approach was to create thumb-stopping visuals that would make users wonder what the ad was about.

DREAM GAMES

Later, 18Birdies added a new feature called DreamGames that gives users a chance to win gear, golf trips, and even a trip to the Arnold Palmer Invitational to play in the pro-am.

They needed to let existing and lapsed users know that now the app actually rewards you just for playing the game you love. The idea explains to users that they could win, even when they lose, just for using 18Birdies on the course. 

LANDING PAGE

Digital ads from 18Birdies were simply directing users to the home page, which could potentially send users off in unintended directions, rather than focusing them toward a single “download the app" call to action. The new landing page strategy was to show and tell users about the best features of the app, enticing them to download it by presenting them with one simple action to take.

The page used parallax scrolling and animation to demonstrate the app’s most powerful features. Behind the content, backgrounds take the user on a journey from tee-off to the clubhouse.

Results

In the first six weeks, they saw ten times more downloads. In three months, 300,000 downloads could be attributed to their paid social efforts.