Case Study · Mellow

From October 2021 to May 2022, Mellow’s best ad brought 8,480 installs. It was 23 seconds of paintings melting into each other.

Mellow is a mindfulness app that gives you one piece of art a day, picked for your taste. In February 2021 it was getting three to five downloads a day. Sociallyin ran its app-install ads from April 2021, and this study covers them through July 2022.

Effect Art v2, video ad, 23 seconds
  • 68,721installs from Facebook and Instagram ads, May 2021 to July 2022
  • $15.34 → $4.82cost per install on Facebook and Instagram, August to November 2021
  • 8,480installs from one video ad, at $4.85 each, October 2021 to May 2022

Installs as reported by the ad platforms

01 · Three to Five a Day

Van Gogh, Café Terrace at NightVan Gogh

An iPhone-only app with about a thousand downloads.

When we first spoke to Mellow, in February 2021, the app had about a thousand downloads, from users in Japan, Taiwan and Brazil. It was getting three to five a day. It ran on iPhone only, and it didn’t yet have the code that lets Facebook count the installs its ads bring in.

Mellow’s brief asked for installs at $5 to $8 each. By April we had set the target at $4 to $5.

Calm and Headspace had the budgets for entertaining ads. Mellow had something they didn’t: the art itself.

02 · April to July 2021

Monet, Water LiliesMonet

Four months of tests to learn what made people install.

We started small and on iPhone only. Mellow had set aside $10,000 to $15,000 for testing. From mid-April to late July we spent $15,234.62 on Facebook and Instagram and got 1,364 installs, about $11 each. We spent it finding out what worked.

The art

We tested the art. Pop art brought in 346 installs at $12.06 each. A video of paintings shifting into one another, which we called Effect Art, brought 249 at $8.35. A simple graphic brought 217 at $7.53.

  • Pop art

    $12.06346 installs

  • Effect Art

    $8.35249 installs

  • Graphic

    $7.53217 installs

Swipe for more

The words

We tested the words. In July’s caption test, “Joyful” was cheapest, at $5.51 an install. When we scaled the copy up later, a “Relax” caption won: 1,006 installs at $5.19.

  • “Joyful”

    $5.51July caption test

  • “Relax”

    $5.191,006 installsAt scale, later

Paint level shows cost per install, one scale for every card, $0 to $16. The $4 to $5 target.

The audiences

The audiences told us the most. Lookalike audiences, built from Mellow’s app users, site visitors and engagers, did better overall than any interest targeting, including art students and art teachers.

03 · August 2021

Van Gogh, The Starry NightVan Gogh

The new campaigns started at $15.34 an install.

We launched the new campaigns in the last week of August. New campaigns start in a learning phase, and these did: 243 installs at $15.34 each. September came down to $7.70.

04 · October and November 2021

Van Gogh, Almond Blossom in a GlassVan Gogh

New ads made from the winners, and Android.

From October we built new ads from the ones that had already won, the moving paintings and the pop art, and ran them against the audiences that had already worked. In late October we launched Mellow’s Android campaigns, and they were the month’s best performers. Across every platform, October came in at $6.89 an install.

In November, cost per install dropped sharply. The best campaign that month, on Android, brought 4,000 installs at $3.80.

On Facebook and Instagram, November came in at $4.82. The first month inside the $4 to $5 target.

Pop-up, Android cut, video ad, 16 seconds, December 2021

Cost per install across all ad platforms, 2021

One stroke, drawn to scale. The $4 to $5 target.

A single brushstroke descending month by month, drawn to scale: cost per install across all ad platforms, 2021. August $15.34, September $7.70, October $6.89, November $4.84, December $4.29. A band marks the $4 to $5 target.$0$5$10$15$15.34Aug$7.70Sep$6.89Oct$4.84Nov$4.29DecA single brushstroke descending month by month, drawn to scale: cost per install across all ad platforms, 2021. August $15.34, September $7.70, October $6.89, November $4.84, December $4.29. A band marks the $4 to $5 target.$0$5$10$15$15.34Aug$7.70Sep$6.89Oct$4.84Nov$4.29Dec
$15.34 → $4.82 cost per install on Facebook and Instagram, August to November 2021

05 · December 2021

Rousseau, Woman Walking in an Exotic ForestRousseau

16,616 installs across every ad platform in December, at $4.29 each.

December was the biggest month of 2021. Facebook and Instagram brought 12,609 installs, at $5.27 each. Google, once its install reporting was fixed, counted 4,007 more at $1.21 each.

From August to December the ad platforms counted 38,872 installs on $207,201 of spend: $5.33 an install.

The winning ad was the second cut of Effect Art: 23 seconds of painted landscapes melting into each other. From October 2021 to May 2022 it brought 8,480 installs at $4.85. A pop art video brought 3,330 more at $4.94.

Opening frame of Effect Art v2: a painted waterfall in mist.
Effect Art v28,480 installs

at $4.85, October 2021 to May 2022

Pop Out Art, story cut, December 2021. One of the pop art cuts.

06 · Through July 2022

Monet, Water LiliesMonet

Fifteen months of Facebook and Instagram.

From May 2021 to July 2022, Mellow’s Facebook and Instagram ads brought 68,721 installs on $359,175 of spend, $5.23 each. Android installs cost $4.45. iPhone installs cost $6.13.

  • Android

    $4.45

  • iPhone

    $6.13

Same paint scale as the tests above.

Luxembourg Effect, video ad, January 2023

An app made of paintings gets installed when the ad is a painting.

Paying too much per install?

Let’s find your $4.85 ad.

Talk to us about Paid Social

Ready to Maximize Your Social Media
Potential?

We’d love to hear about your organization’s goals on social media. Get in touch with us today!
If submitting an RFP, please use the email below.

rfp@sociallyin.com