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What to Look For (Powerful Insights)

When reviewing results from Boa, you’re not just looking at creatives — you’re looking for patterns that correlate with performance. This guide helps you identify the signals that matter most.

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Tone and theme patterns

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What to look for:

Tone is the emotional feel of the creative. Common tones include:

• Epic / Cinematic — Grand, aspirational, heroic
• Cozy / Casual — Warm, relaxed, approachable
• Urgent / FOMO — Time-sensitive, competitive, exclusive
• Playful / Humorous — Light, fun, entertaining
• Mysterious / Dark — Intriguing, atmospheric, serious

Theme is the core narrative or concept. Common themes include:

• Hero’s journey — Ordinary to legendary transformation
• Social bonding — Community, teamwork, belonging
• Conquest / domination — Power, strategy, competition
• Escape / relaxation — Stress relief, calm, mindfulness
• Discovery / exploration — Wonder, curiosity, adventure

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Why it matters:

Tone-theme alignment is critical. A mismatch (e.g., cozy tone with conquest theme) often underperforms. Top performers show strong alignment.

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Character and framing patterns

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What to look for:

Character types:

• Lone hero — Single protagonist, personal journey
• Team / party — Group dynamics, cooperation
• Aspirational figure — Someone the viewer wants to be
• Relatable everyperson — Someone the viewer identifies with
• Mentor / guide — Expert or coach figure

Framing choices:

• Close-up — Intimate, emotional, personal
• Wide shot — Epic scale, world-building, cinematic
• Action shot — Dynamic, energetic, exciting
• Over-the-shoulder — Player perspective, immersive
• Third-person cinematic — Storytelling, narrative-driven

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Why it matters:

Character framing affects emotional resonance. Close-ups create intimacy; wide shots create awe. Top performers in different genres use different patterns:

• RPGs — Often lone hero, wide cinematic shots
• Puzzle games — Relatable everyperson, close-up or mid-shots
• Strategy games — Often third-person overview, showing scope

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Pacing and narrative structure

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What to look for:

Hook timing:

• Fast (0-3 seconds) — Immediate action, visual impact, or intrigue
• Medium (3-5 seconds) — Brief setup, then hook
• Slow (5+ seconds) — Atmospheric build, world-building

Narrative structure:

• Problem → Solution — Show pain point, reveal game as answer
• Transformation — Before → After journey
• World-building — Immerse in universe, then invite to join
• Gameplay showcase — Pure action, features, mechanics
• Curiosity → Reveal — Tease, build intrigue, payoff

Pacing rhythm:

• Fast-paced — Quick cuts, constant action, high energy
• Slow-burn — Gradual build, atmospheric, patient
• Crescendo — Builds intensity toward climax
• Steady — Consistent energy throughout

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Why it matters:

Genre expectations vary dramatically:

• Action games — Fast hooks (0-3 sec), fast-paced rhythm
• RPGs — Medium hooks (3-5 sec), crescendo pacing
• Puzzle games — Variable (depends on positioning — cozy vs competitive)
• Strategy games — Medium hooks, steady or crescendo pacing

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Visual and audio elements

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What to look for:

Visual style:

• Color palette — Dark/moody, bright/vibrant, pastel/cozy, realistic/gritty
• Composition — Symmetrical, dynamic, minimalist, complex
• Lighting — Dramatic, natural, flat, high-contrast
• UI presence — UI-heavy (shows interface), UI-light (cinematic)

Audio cues:

• Music genre — Orchestral, electronic, lo-fi, rock, ambient
• Music energy — High (epic, intense), medium (steady), low (calm, atmospheric)
• Voiceover — Present or absent; if present: tone (authoritative, friendly, urgent)
• Sound effects — Prominent (action sounds, impacts) or subtle

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Why it matters:

Audio-visual alignment reinforces tone. Epic music + cinematic visuals = consistent epic tone. Mismatches (e.g., cozy visuals + intense music) confuse and underperform.

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Callouts and CTA patterns

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What to look for:

Callout types:

• Feature callouts — “New hero,” “PvP mode,” “100+ levels”
• Social proof — “10M players,” “Game of the Year,” “#1 in genre”
• Urgency — “Limited time,” “Download now,” “Event ending soon”
• Benefit callouts — “Relax your mind,” “Become a legend,” “Test your strategy”

CTA patterns:

• Explicit CTA — “Download Now,” “Play Free,” “Join the Adventure”
• Soft CTA — “Discover your destiny,” “Start your journey”
• No CTA — Pure brand/world-building, no direct ask

Placement:

• End-screen CTA — Appears in final 2-3 seconds
• Mid-roll CTA — Appears during creative
• Persistent CTA — Visible throughout

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Why it matters:

CTA presence correlates with conversion goals:

• Performance marketing — Explicit CTAs usually required
• Brand campaigns — Soft or no CTA may perform better
• Genre norms — Some genres (puzzle, casual) benefit from explicit CTAs; others (RPG, strategy) may not

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Emerging motifs and trends

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What to look for:

Motifs are recurring visual or narrative elements that appear across top performers:

• Specific character archetypes (e.g., “stoic warrior,” “quirky sidekick”)
• Visual tropes (e.g., “glowing eyes,” “dramatic slow-mo,” “first-person perspective”)
• Narrative beats (e.g., “underdog victory,” “last-second save,” “reveal twist”)

Trends are patterns that are gaining or losing velocity over time:

• Rising — Appearing more frequently in recent top performers
• Declining — Appearing less frequently or underperforming
• Stable — Consistent presence over time

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Why it matters:

Motifs help you understand genre language. If top performers consistently use “glowing eyes” as a power-up visual cue, adopting that motif signals to viewers: “This is a powerful character.” Trends help you time your creative. Test rising trends early (before saturation); avoid declining trends (already played out).

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How to use these patterns

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When running Discover:

1. Identify the top 3-5 patterns across top performers
2. Check for consistency — Do 80%+ of top performers share this pattern?
3. Compare to your work — Are you using these patterns? If not, why?
4. Note outliers — What do unique top performers do differently?

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When running Diagnose:

1. Benchmark against genre patterns — Does your creative match expectations?
2. Identify gaps — What patterns are missing from your creative?
3. Find misalignments — Are tone, theme, pacing, and visuals consistent?
4. Propose specific fixes — “Add fast hook,” “Shift to epic tone,” “Include CTA”

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When running Forecast:

1. Track pattern velocity — What’s rising vs declining?
2. Assess saturation — Is the pattern crowded or fresh?
3. Evaluate brand fit — Can you execute this pattern authentically?
4. Prioritize tests — High velocity + low saturation + strong fit = test now

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Pattern cheat sheet

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Related resources