Cash Frenzy Analysis: How to Acquire Casino Players?

by Andrea Knezovic, March 7, 2023

#adcreatives

#advertising

Wondering how to advertise a casino game?

Start by figuring out how your competitors do it.

Luckily, I’ve done the job for you – in our Cash Frenzy analysis, you’ll learn what it takes to grow a casino game.

So, how is Cash Frenzy earning the big bucks and pulling in a substantial number of new players each month?

Let’s find out.

About Cash Frenzy

Cash Frenzy is a casino game in the slots subgenre, published by SpinX Games in August 2018. This developer has been active since 2017 and has seven games in its portfolio, all of which are casino games.

Furthermore, SpinX Games’ games appear among the top 100 games on Google Play in more than 10 different countries. Lotsa Slots and Cash Frenzy are the two most successful games from this publisher.

Cash Frenzy’s gameplay is painfully simple. All players need to do is place their bet and hit the spin button. The game even has the option to auto spin, which results in simply watching the slots spin and tracking your earnings.

The slots have five spinning reels and players are paid when they achieve a winning combination of symbols. Players can also earn free spins, a chance to play special slots, or spin the wheel mini-games. Each slot has a different theme and symbols, and there are many to choose from in the main menu.

To make the game more interesting, there are certain missions players need to complete. For example, bet a total of 3 million coins and you’ll get a free game, this is a one-time deal. Once the mission is complete, a special slot machine is unlocked and the player progresses. Players also get a big cash prize after completing each slot, which gets bigger after every slot.

Furthermore, there are daily missions players need to complete, e.g., spin 26 times or gain 88,200 coins. Players can also choose to complete the missions right away, but that costs emeralds, which players need to buy with real money.

This is a part of the game’s monetization strategy. Read more about it in our Cash Frenzy monetization dissection.

How Successful Is Cash Frenzy?

Even though the casino market is very competitive, Cash Frenzy is doing quite well in terms of downloads and revenue.

Data source: AppMagic, a leading mobile intelligence provider. Get 3 days of free access to all AppMagic’s features, as well as 10% off, by clicking this link.

All-Time Cash Frenzy Downloads

If we look at Cash Frenzy downloads, they peaked at the beginning of 2020, reaching almost 2 million in January. In the following years, the downloads weren’t as high. However, there’s still a steady stream of new users. For example, in 2022, Cash Frenzy was downloaded around 300 thousand times each month.

Since its release, Cash Frenzy was downloaded more than 25 million times.

All-Time Cash Frenzy Revenue

While the number of downloads is high, it’s not as impressive if you compare it to top-performing games from other genres. However, Cash Frenzy’s revenue is something to boast about.

So far, this casino game earned more than $480 million. Furthermore, its RpD, lifetime revenue divided by lifetime downloads is as high as $19.08 globally. It’s even higher in Tier 1 West – $28.01!

Cash Frenzy Competitors

Above, you can see a list of top Cash Frenzy competitors. As you’d expect, you’ll find top-performing casino games in the slots subgenre like Cash Tornado, House of Fun, Jackpot Party, and Slotomania.

Who Is Playing Cash Frenzy?

The next big question is who is playing this slots game?

In this section, I analyze who are the existing Cash Frenzy players and who’s the target audience for this game. More specifically, we’ll look at player demographics, motivations, and archetypes.

Data source: GameRefinery

Player Demographics

Who do you think plays casino games – women or men?

Well, the answer is – both.

However, in Cash Frenzy, and most other casino games, there are slightly more male players. More specifically, 60% of Cash Frenzy players are men and 40% are women. (GameRefinery)

Furthermore, casino games usually attract mature players. Cash Frenzy demographics confirm this – 55% of players are older than 45. 36% of players are 25 to 44 years of age, while only 9% of players are younger than 25.

Thus, casino mobile games have the same target audience as real-life casinos, as both attract the same demographic – Gen X and Baby Boomers.

Player Motivations

There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to the motivations of casino players.

Generally speaking, people who love playing casino games, whether virtual or real-life, enjoy the thrill of gambling. It’s not so much about winning money or rewards (even though it’s a powerful motivator), but the excitement of placing big bets and trying one’s luck. It’s about beating the odds and the possibility of high returns.

Mobile casino games confirm this because players can’t win real money, but the thrill of betting and getting lucky is there, which is what casino players enjoy the most.

GameRefinery identified two main motivators for Cash Frenzy players – escapism (excitement and thrill) and collecting treasure. Competing against others and completing milestones are another two motivators but these aren’t as strong as the first two. This is also the standard for other slot games.

Player Archetypes

Based on player motivations, GameRefinery identified different types of mobile gamers, i.e., player archetypes.

Cash Frenzy players fall into the following groups: Thrill Seeker, Treasure Hunter, and Skill Master.

Here’s some info on each one and how they relate to the game.

Thrill Seeker

Excitement, suspense, adrenaline, and the sheer thrill of gambling. These are the main emotions players experience when playing casino games like Cash Frenzy. It’s also what drives Thrill Seekers.

For these players, thinking and planning are not as exciting. They like a game that’s quick, full of action, and gives them a rush.

Below, you’ll find a list of features that can be found in Cash Frenzy that affect excitement as a motivation for playing.

Quick tournaments
Progressive jackpot
Dynamic competitive league/ladder
Five or more gachas

Treasure Hunter

For Treasure Hunters, it’s all about a wide array of different items, characters, and other findings. They love to explore and enjoy collecting valuables.

In Cash Frenzy, there are coins, emeralds, diamonds, collectibles albums, bonuses, and special rewards players can collect. Furthermore, players can unlock new slots with exciting themes and characters. All of that appeals to Treasure Hunters.

Here are genre-relevant features Cash Frenzy has that affect motivational drivers of Treasure Hunters:

More than five gachas
More than seven different materials to purchase
Triggerable autoplay
Rarity class system
Special PvE modes/levels
Special live event currency
Salvage characters/items
Special rewards from live events
Premium currency
The ability to donate/borrow characters/items/units

Skill Master

Even though there isn’t a lot of skill involved in slot games, Cash Frenzy also attracts a lot of Skill Masters. These players love tasks and quests, and gain satisfaction from being the best.

In Cash Frenzy, players need to complete different missions and daily tasks to make progress, unlock new slots, and get rewards. This excites Skill Masters.

Here’s a list of genre-related features Cash Frenzy has that influence Completing Milestones as a motivational driver.

Task/quest system
Player level system
Collectibles album
Non-competitive co-op tasks
Periodical gift/quest
Special rewards from live events
Daily quests
New game mechanics introduced as the game progresses
Progressive IAP rewards

Cash Frenzy Analysis: Advertising Strategy

Now that we have mapped out who Cash Frenzy players are and who’s the target audience for this game, let’s move on to user acquisition.

The way a game is advertised plays one of the biggest roles in how many users it will acquire.

For that reason, I have analyzed Cash Frenzy’s video creatives.

Cash Frenzy Analysis: Facebook Creatives

Cash Frenzy ads can be grouped into a couple of different categories. There are standard slot game ads that show different slots and give players the experience of earning a lot of coins and hitting the jackpot.

Then there are video creatives that feature people who talk about the game and represent players, i.e., testimonials.

Additionally, some Cash Frenzy ads use references to popular internet culture to garner attention.

Some are more successful than others.

Ads Featuring Slots and Big Wins

The ad you see above is a typical ad for a slots game. It features a themed slots machine (Rise of Egypt) and shows a huge win.

But even though it’s quite basic, it does demonstrate the main game features – themed slots and the possibility of winning big. It also speaks to the main motivation of casino players – excitement and thrill.

This creative takes the basic concept of showing off different slots to a new level. Instead of just showing simple gameplay footage of the zombie-themed slots, the creative looks like it could be for a zombie shooter game.

It’s full of action, monsters, and most importantly, slots and coins.

Testimonials

Many Cash Frenzy ads feature real people in the role of players, like the one you see above. The main goal with this type of ad is to let players know they get a lot of free coins if they download the game.

That’s a smart strategy because free coins are a good incentive. Plus, players tend to listen to recommendations from other people.

However, the choice to include a non-native English speaker in the video is questionable. It makes the ad seem a bit strange due to bad English and subtitles that accentuate it further.

And keep in mind, these ads are for the US market. It’s a peculiar choice.

We see the same issue in this ad (there are even more variations of it). The concept for the ad is good – having real people explain the benefits of Cash Frenzy is a good strategy.

But once again, the bad English makes it less understandable and somewhat confusing. The result seems a bit amateur.

The ad above is a bit more successful. The main idea behind it is to show that men whose wives are not at home are playing in secret.

It zeroes in on a specific segment of the target audience, which is good.

But the problem here is that it’s not as relatable as it should be because the man in the video looks very young, like a boy. And as we know, the majority of casino players are older than 45.

This is another missed opportunity.

It seems that the main downfall of these Cash Frenzy ads is the bad choice of actors. The ideas are good, but the execution is sub-par.

SpinX Games made some good choices for this creative. We see a native English speaker explain why they play the game and what are its benefits. We also see some big wins, as it’s expected with casino game ads.

Two other people on a separate screen are reacting to an “apocalyptic win”. As you probably know, reaction videos are huge online, which is why it’s a very smart choice.

Ads Referencing Internet Pop Culture

Many game publishers take advantage of memes, funny videos, and other pop culture phenomena when creating ads.

Because that grabs people’s attention, it has become somewhat of a trend in mobile game advertising.

Cash Frenzy also tried it with some of their creatives.

In the example above, we see a so-called oddly satisfying video. The internet went crazy about these videos because they usually portray scenes that evoke order, harmony, symmetry, smoothness, and beauty. Sometimes, they’re about squeezing food items made out of a squishy material, like in this Cash Frenzy ad. They’re so satisfying and make people glue to their screens, which is very desirable for an ad.

But once again, even though the idea for this creative is great, it’s lacking in execution. Captions in bad English make it look amateurish. Furthermore, there’s no clear connection between the oddly satisfying video and the gameplay footage that follows it, which makes the ad look a bit random.

The video ad above is much more successful in making a connection between the viral video and gameplay.

The video shows people who have cheated death and managed to miraculously avoid a horrific accident. The caption above says, “Are you lucky like this?”

Then we see Cash Frenzy gameplay and some lucky wins.

All of it makes sense together because the creative made the connection between getting lucky when avoiding an accident and being lucky when playing casino games.

Retargeting

I’ve also included some retargeting ads because Cash Frenzy runs a lot of them.

All feature the game’s mascot but in different variations. More specifically, the character is wearing different clothes, while the ad copy and design stay the same.

These image ads are geared towards people who have already installed the game but stopped playing it. The goal is to get them back and reengage them by offering a huge welcome back bonus (coins and gems) and reminding players there are new slots available.

Getting people to come back improves a game’s user retention and thus allows for more monetization opportunities.

Cash Frenzy Analysis: App Store Optimization

Paid advertising is not the only way to get more users for a mobile game. There are also organic user acquisition strategies publishers can leverage.

App store optimization is a no-brainer when it comes to organic UA. It drives conversions for browsing, searching traffic on app stores, and increases rankings while lowering CPI costs and increasing ROAS.

As you might know, the main elements of a successful ASO are a catchy and descriptive game title, appealing icon, keywords, as well as an attention-grabbing app promo video and screenshots.

Game Title

The full title of this game on Google Play is Cash Frenzy™ Casino – Free Slots Games and on Apple, it’s Cash Frenzy™ – Slots Casino.

Notice the smart use of keywords in both titles – “casino”, “free”, “slots games”, “slots”, etc. Because the keywords are descriptive, it’s instantly clear what the game is about. Even just Cash Frenzy describes it well.

Additionally, including keywords in the title improves the game visibility and rank in the app stores, which, of course, aids app store optimization.

Game Icon

Cash Frenzy’s icon features the game mascot. We see his smiling face, flashy sunglasses and a hat, which evoke a casino feel. There’s also the game name in the title and 2021 in the upper left corner.

Even though this game is not new, adding the current year in the title makes it seem fresh.

Screenshots/Graphics

On Apple, players can see the actual screenshots of the game. On Google Play, the images feature slots from the game, but they’re designed graphics, rather than straightforward screenshots.

The visuals are very colorful and flashy, like something one would see in a real-life casino. That, of course, attracts casino players and is a logical choice.

However, what’s missing on Cash Frenzy’s app store pages is the app promo video. It’s a missed opportunity because promo videos can significantly boost conversions for mobile games.

Social Media

Cash Frenzy has a big following on some of the main social media networks – Facebook (more than 110k followers), Twitter (3.6k followers), and YouTube (16.3k subscribers). There’s also an official Facebook group for this game with 12.5k members.

Being active on social media and creating communities around a mobile game is another way to boost organic user acquisition efforts as well as keep existing players engaged.

Cash Frenzy publishers have done a great job of engaging their followers with great content.

For example, there are different games, like the one you see above, where users need to guess where the cocktail is by commenting on the post. It’s a simple but effective way to increase post engagement.