Web3 Game, Web2 Marketing—How Upland Used TikTok to Increase User Flow 45x

• Upland, a Web3 game focused on building a digital economy, has been featured as one of the biggest success stories of TikTok marketing.
• The game used TikTok to target its user base, increasing its user flow by 45x while slashing its cost per purchase 1.7 times.

Web3 games have become a big hit in recent years as blockchain adoption has soared. However, Web3 gaming companies still face a big challenge—reaching the targeted audience. For Upland, a popular Web3 game and parallel multiverse with over three million users, the answer was TikTok.

Upland was recently featured by TikTok for Business as one of the platform’s stellar success stories.

At Upland, we believe #GameFi will bridge Web2 to Web3.

To succeed, #Web3 companies must master marketing for both Web2 and Web3 users.

We’re proud to partner with @tiktok_us to optimize our user acquisition. @hackernoon https://t.co/JDyOpYGNZS

— Upland (@UplandMe) August 7, 2024

Upland boasts over 30,000 daily active users. It allows them to build virtual empires, which consist of properties that are linked to actual addresses in the real world. They can also engage in a diverse range of activities, such as manufacturing or trading items, to boost their in-game economies.

Being a Web3 game, Upland records the ownership of the gaming items on its blockchain as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), giving rise to true ownership. The game has signed a partnership with Tilian Inc., the creators of Second Life, that allows players to sell their in-game properties for actual US dollars, although the feature is currently only available to a select few.

While it’s a Web3 game, Upland’s target audience extends beyond the blockchain sphere. This makes it critical to devise marketing campaigns that can reach the non-blockchain audience, and TikTok has emerged as the premier platform for Upland.

TikTok and Upland—A Success Story

Upland’s biggest market is the US, and the company began by conducting marketing campaigns on TikTok US. Initially, it relied on tools such as App Event Optimization and Mobile App Installs, and while these worked, it failed to address a massive market.

Upland then started leveraging the TikTok Creative Challenge to target creatives on the platform. This allowed the game to quickly increase the volume of content produced, which significantly affected their campaign performance.

Initially relying on English creatives, Upland expanded to Portuguese and Spanish to target the Latin American (LATAM) market.

Upland relied on the TikTok Creative Exchange (TTCX), an offering from the social media giant which enables companies to connect with creative experts and generate native-looking videos for ad campaigns. TTCX was especially helpful for Upland in targeting LATAM, a region with a rich and diverse local cultural context.

According to the company, this approach was so successful that it started phasing out all the other avenues it had been relying on. In LATAM, the user flow shot up 45 times. In the US, the game decreased its cost per install by 1.4 times while its cost per purchase dropped 1.7 times.