32% Lower CPI: A UGC-Style Video Creative Strategy for Winning in Competitive App Markets

“UGC-style video (video that looks like user-generated content) acquires users at low CPI and CPA.” That conventional wisdom is fast becoming a thing of the past. In fields like the point-reward app market, where competitors are packed in, many companies have already adopted UGC-style ads, and simply making an “amateur-looking video” gets you buried.

Here is a creative strategy that significantly cut CPI and CPA, built on thorough market research and a redefinition of product value.

Case Summary

• Challenge: CPI and CPA rose as competition intensified
• Approach: Thoroughly analyzed UGC videos from competitors and the market, and put into words “why they work.” Rediscovered the app’s own distinctive “resonant appeals” and built them into the creative
• Result: CPI and CPA reduced by 32% in a red-ocean market
• Key point: We competed not with surface-level UGC styling but with “creative with a reason to exist,” backed by extensive research and analysis

Challenge: Getting Buried in a Red Ocean

In a fiercely competitive market, many competing apps run ads, and users see a flood of ads every day. As a result, conventional methods failed to hook users (spark their interest) strongly enough, and CPI and CPA tended to climb. What we needed was not just video production, but videos that instantly capture users’ attention even in an environment oversaturated with ads.

Approach: Thorough “Dissection” and “Redefinition”

1. Thorough Research of Competitor and Industry Creatives

We comprehensively researched the huge number of creatives flooding the market, including UGC videos in the same genre. We broke them down into elements, looking not only at “what is trending” but also at “why does that video stop the scroll (what drives view retention).”

• The hook in the first second: visual impact, or impact from copy or spoken lines
• Scenario structure: empathy-driven, benefit-driven, or failure-story-driven
• Execution: how on-screen text is used, music selection, the performer’s tone

2. “Redefining the Value” of the Product

We dug back into the app’s features. Beyond the generic benefit of “earning points,” we analyzed deeper psychology (insights), such as “which gaps in the user’s life can it fit into” and “in what emotional state do people want to use it,” and uncovered strengths that competitors do not have.

3. Fast PDCA to Test the “Resonant Appeals”

We produced creatives based on the “winning hypotheses” drawn from research and analysis. Not as “just UGC” but as “calculated UGC,” we ran PDCA while making fine changes to the opening hook and the appeal, and mass-produced winning patterns.

Results: Significant Reduction in CPI and CPA

Comparison	Typical operation	This initiative (research x analysis)
Appeal accuracy	Relies on gut feeling and trends	Based on competitor analysis and understanding of the service
User response	Feels familiar and gets skipped	Watched because it feels personally relevant
Results (CPA/CPI)	Stays high	Significantly reduced and optimized

Why Only This Approach Delivers Results

Many agencies and in-house teams tend to spend their time on creative production itself, but 80% of results are decided by “preparation before production (research and design).”

Now that UGC-style video is commonplace, simply filming on a smartphone will not produce results. Our strength lies less in video-making skill than in “competitor research capability” and “analytical power to uncover the app’s appeal.” If you have tried UGC video and it did not work, please get in touch.