--- static_export_time: "2026-07-30T17:45:04+00:00" title: "How PrizePicks achieved a 71% lower CAC on Apple Ads ahead of Super Bowl LX" description: "PrizePicks partnered with AppTweak to rebuild their Apple Ads strategy ahead of Super Bowl LX—reducing customer acquisition cost (CAC) by 71%." url: "/en/case-studies/prizepicks" locale: "en-US" image: "https://www.apptweak.com/img/2026/07/PrizePicks-featured-image.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&w=2400&h=2400&fit=crop" --- # How PrizePicks achieved a 71% lower CAC on Apple Ads ahead of Super Bowl LX Company: PrizePicks Industry: Sports Products used: - [![](/img/2025/03/Consultancy-Circle.svg) ASO and Apple Ads Consulting Services ](/en/aso-mobile-growth-consulting-services) - [![](/img/2025/03/AD-intel-Circle.svg) Campaign Manager ](/en/apple-search-ads-manager) - ###### Get Started for Free Join the top mobile leaders using AppTweak [Start free trial](https://app.apptweak.com/accounts/new?locale=en) [Request a demo](/en/request-schedule-a-demo) - -71%customer acquisition cost (CAC) - +155%tap-to-install conversion rate (CVR) [PrizePicks](https://www.prizepicks.com/) is a sports entertainment platform that offers fantasy sports and regulated prediction markets, giving users a unified way to engage with major leagues such as the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and college sports. Users can make predictions on player performances, team outcomes, and cultural events, with opportunities to win real money based on their picks. _For reporting and analysis purposes, states are segmented into tiers (e.g., Tier A, B, C) that reflect differences in regulatory environments, product availability, and business performance._ ## Challenge For **fantasy sports** **and prediction markets apps** , the App Store is where high-intent users become customers. Someone searching for a fantasy sports or prediction markets app during football season isn’t just browsing: they’re ready to pick a lineup. Apple Ads is how PrizePicks reaches that audience. In PrizePicks’ most important markets,** customer acquisition cost (CAC)**—the cost of acquiring a user who takes a meaningful action after installing—was running at more than twice the team’s internal targets for non-brand keywords. Spend was high, but installs from those terms weren’t following at the rate they needed. PrizePicks’ previous approach was highly complex, requiring the team to manage multiple campaigns and ad groups, with all budget allocations and bid adjustments handled manually. As the number of campaigns and ad groups continued to grow, this approach became harder to sustain as a long-term strategy. The year before, one of PrizePicks’ main competitors had increased bids on their brand keywords as search demand spiked around Super Bowl LIX. With Super Bowl LX six weeks out, the team couldn’t afford to enter that window with non-brand underperforming—not when they needed to **perform across brand, discovery, and competitor-related search terms**. ## Solution PrizePicks partnered with AppTweak to rebuild their Apple Ads bidding strategy across priority markets. Using [Campaign Manager](https://www.apptweak.com/en/apple-search-ads-manager), AppTweak’s consultants built **custom automations** —rules that automatically adjust keyword bids based on performance. Rather than applying one set of automation rules across all campaign types, the team built **separate logic for Brand and Non-Brand**. Brand campaigns ran on tighter CAC thresholds, while Non-Brand ran on flexible rules with more room to pursue new users, even at a higher initial cost. Each set of rules had different CAC targets depending on the market. **Day-parting** —scheduling bid adjustments to run at specific times—was added for peak hours before Saturday games, when users were most likely to download. As the weeks progressed, **automation rules were refined**. Conditions that had been filtering out viable brand keywords were loosened; rules for cutting bids were tightened so budget could shift faster toward more efficient terms. This strategy also improved budget pacing, enabling the team to distribute spend more evenly throughout the day and avoid exhausting budgets too early. In parallel, the team used AppTweak’s **Ad Intelligence** to analyze estimated competitor activity and keyword trends from the previous year’s Super Bowl period. Those insights allowed PrizePicks to set bid ceilings and allocate budget in advance, rather than reacting to competitive pressure after the fact. In the final days before kickoff, CAC ceilings were adjusted and budgets scaled **+140% on Brand** and **+218% on Non-Brand**. ## Results PrizePicks started seeing results within the first week of activating the automation rules. **Customer acquisition cost (CAC)** Within the first seven days, non-brand CAC had already fallen 32% in Tier A markets and 42% in Tier B markets. By game week, non-brand CAC was down **71%** from baseline in Tier A, and non-brand CAC was down **78%** in Tier B. Brand CAC dropped **87%**. ![PrizePicks started seeing results on Apple Ads campaigns within the first week of activating the automation rules in AppTweak; within the first seven days, non-brand CAC had already fallen 32% in Tier A markets.](/img/2026/07/prizepicks-graph-cpa-blurred-1.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&w=1500&h=1000&_v=1783331785) _PrizePicks’s non-brand CAC in Tier A markets fell steadily over six weeks, down 71% from baseline by game week._ **Conversion rate (CVR)** At Super Bowl peak, non-brand ad campaigns were converting **155% more users** in Tier A markets. For brand campaigns, conversion rates increased **53%** in Tier B markets. **Scale and efficiency** With non-brand budgets up **218%** and brand up **140%** for the event window, CAC on both stayed below the targets set in advance. As the automations kept running after the game, brand CAC in Tier A markets continued to fall. Over six weeks, AppTweak ran **4,452** optimizations for PrizePicks— **93%** of them automated—allowing the team to consistently improve performance against their original CAC targets. ![](/img/2026/07/John_Ross_image.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&w=200&h=200&fit=crop) John Ross | Sr. Manager, Digital UA at PrizePicks > AppTweak changed how we manage Apple Ads. What used to require daily manual reviews now runs through hundreds of automated optimizations each week across our key markets. That gave our team more time to focus on strategy, and it paid off. By the time Super Bowl LX came around, we were in a strong position to scale efficiently and deliver our best results yet. ## More case studies - [ ### How King restored 100% of keyword installs by uniting ASO & Apple Ads Read the story ](/en/case-studies/king-aso-apple-ads) - [ ### How Bolt achieved +8.6% incremental installs with organic custom product pages Read the story ](/en/case-studies/bolt) - [ ### How Zupee grew organic downloads by 134% after rebuilding its ASO for free-to-play Read the story ](/en/case-studies/zupee) - [ ### How AstroChat.com improved conversion rates by 30-40% on Google Play Read the story ](/en/case-studies/astrochat) - [ ### How Amen increased Apple Ads installs by 93% and reduced CPI by 27% Read the story ](/en/case-studies/amen-augustine-institute) - [ ### How The Economist grew app downloads by 44% with automation and custom product pages on Apple Ads Read the story ](/en/case-studies/the-economist) [See all case studies](/en/case-studies)