12 tips for killer mobile User Acquisition (Q3 version)

Here we go again! The previous UA killer articles were super successful, so I started writing a UA killer tips segment. I will keep sharing these tips; don’t worry.

Keep reading the tips to improve your UA. Simple, practical & efficient! That’s it, no bullshit & brutally honest! No fluff intro, straight to the point.

1. Google Ad groups performance

Always check Google Ad groups performance. Ideally, on 7 or 14 days window (depending on your conversion window setup)

In my newsletters, I discussed how many active ad groups you should have. If I spend between $250 and $1000/day, I try to have 3 to 5 active ad groups. If you spend $1000+/day, then use five ad groups.

It should be a mix of different angles (gameplay, UGC, 3D, altered gameplay, upgrades, whatever else..). Check the creative framework here

• try also different lengths (30-60 seconds)

But what to do if we have the scenarios below:

Scenario A

Adgroup No.1 is questionable in the “not great, not terrible” area. In this specific case, I will leave it live another 3-5 days and then make a decision.

Adgroup No.2 is performing well.

Adgroup No.3 is going to be paused because of bad performance.

Adding Adgroup No.4 and Adgroup No.5 into this campaign with 2 different creative angles, as mentioned above.

Scenario B

This is an interesting case. Adgroup No.3 takes the majority of spending, but ROAS is low. Adgroup No.1 ROAS is also low. I am going to kill these two groups and leave the No. 2 live. This is what might happen to the Adgroup No.2:

1. Adgroup No.2 will get the majority of spend, but ROAS will drop significantly
2. The campaign might die because Adgroup No. 2 is not getting enough events

Going to add 3 ad groups with totally different creative angles, as mentioned above.

Here we go again! Another paid newsletter filled with Tips & Tricks! Let’s dive into the Match 3D UA Playbook. While match-3 games have been around for years, Match 3D adds a more recognizable dimension. The game takes the proven match-3 gameplay and pushes it into 3D. The difference is more than superficial; it profoundly affects gameplay and the strategies players need to conquer the gaming table. Read full story

2. Creative trends & inspiration

Where to get inspiration for creatives? What is the correct process?

Well, there is no correct process that suits everyone.

As discussed in our latest podcast about trends, I usually have a monthly exercise. Considering few industry leaders in creatives, I check their shit and its’s absolutely mindblowing every month.

Creative trends checklist:

• Township
• Royal Match
• Coin master (recent Beckham creative is awesome)
• Hero wars
• Pizza Ready / Outlet Rush
• Whiteout Survival
• My Perfect Hotel
• Gold & Goblins

I started doing it for you, so you can work on more important things:

Creative trends in Mobile Games – August 2024

As the UA landscape evolves, so do the creative trends that shape how games communicate with their audiences. Read full story

Some recent trends!

Unconventional Elements: Supercell’s Brawl Stars is leading the charge with creative use of unconventional characters, like a poo character in a diaper. This unexpected twist grabs attention and differentiates the game in a crowded market.

Longer Video Creatives: Nexters’ Hero Wars has shifted to longer creatives, with lengths ranging from 2-4 minutes. These are designed to engage viewers in the news feed rather than the typical Rewarded Video ad unit, suggesting a strategic move to capture and retain attention in a different format.

Hypercasual Elements in Non-Hypercasual Games: We’ve noticed that Playrix, Dreamgames, and Supercent are incorporating elements from hypercasual hits like Bus Jam 3D and Park It into their creatives. This crossover technique leverages familiar themes to draw in a broader audience.

High-Quality, In-Game Engine Rendered Ads: The meta takeaway is the rise of high-quality ads rendered directly in the game engine. This approach produces superior creative quality and more realistic physics, enhancing viewer engagement and effectiveness.

3. UA is hard

Figuring out Facebook or TikTok is really hard. It requires time and lots of testing:

• GEO combination (US only, US+T1, ROW or WW only?)
• campaign optimization (AEO Purchase, AEO engagement events, VO or AEO+VO?)
• bidding (auto bid or cost cap/minROAS)
• creative formats (videos, statics)
• creative concepts (UGC, AI, CGI, story-driven, fake ads, progression, customization, collection, etc.)
• budget

It takes a while to figure out the best combination of the above. It took me a few months to get to a stable level of spending ($4-5k/day on Facebook or TikTok), but now those channels are pillars of the UA.

E.g game no.1 – Facebook (WW campaign AEO cost cap, 4k/day, AI static images, weekly creative refresh)

game no.2 – TikTok (iOS only, T1, VO, autobid, 5k/day, UGC creatives only)

game no.3 – Facebook (T1 iOS, WW Android, minROAS VO, 3.5k/day, AI static images + AI UGC Ads, weekly creative refresh)

How about you?

4. AI everywhere

if you are not working with AI on the creative side, stop everything you are doing and open mid-journey or ChatGPT 4o immediately. The prompt is obviously the most critical part. Prompt is the art!

Clear prompt = clear, direct output!

• AI statics work really well on Facebook!
  • Engaging content – likes, shares, comments -> better position in the auction
  • You always want to have something ridiculous/funny/unreal etc., to spark the conversation.

AI Winning Creatives – Real data inside!

Producing a creative winner is not an easy job. There is this tactic when you create multiple different creative concepts – static images. You test them against each other. You take the winner and make a video out of that creative concept. Read full story

• Always check cohort metrics of new visuals
  • Retention numbers
  • ROAS benchmarks

• Pro TIP Facebook – Use A+C campaigns for testing new statics
  • Increase the campaign limit to run more of Advantage+ app
    • This help you run more campaigns with the same country, language, operating system and optimization goal settings at the same time
    • Possible launch TOP A+C campaigns with the same settings with new creatives or with creatives that didn’t get a chance in ongoing campaigns

Here is the video from the screenshot! Starting with AI statics and then transforming into easy video.

• Get inspiration from Midjourney library
  • Use “search” to type specific keywords
  • Find out interesting visuals
  • Get inspired by different prompts in the library
• Pay attention to prompts!
  • The more detailed the prompt, the better!
  • Try negative keywords
• Combine different tools 
• Start with static images then expand to videos
  • Transform statics to videos easily by Adobe AI tools
• Test different people
  • Male vs female / young vs old 

5. TTCC as a source of inspiration

Use the TikTok Creative Challenge as a source of inspiration! Transform the best-performing ads into ads that you can use on other channels as well.

TTCC creators are using your own assets, so you can just replace them with AI people and recreate the same creative angle that works well on TikTok.

My go-to AI tool for this purpose is Synthesia. Works like a charm!

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6. Google audiences FTW!

Audiences in Google Ads! It is an interesting targeting option that has not been discussed enough. Expect a picture dump for a step-by-step guide here:

Why should you care? Besides the Google case studies, it looks like for some games I manage it really works. Helped to improve performance quite a lot. (a lot = 10-30%)

Go for it right away, its definitely worth testing! Got another confirmation from our 2.5gamers fan!

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7. How to approach Steam UA?

Performance marketing for PC games is not so different from the classic mobile UA everybody knows.

You have the same campaign logic, budgets, geo structure, UA channels (to a certain extent), and creatives. The main difference here is the optimization goal on the campaign level.

You mainly use Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok, and Reddit as UA channels. Instead of running mobile app install campaigns, you have a few campaign options:

• pMAX on Google
• website clicks (everywhere)
• landing page views
• conversions (you have to implement a tracking pixel to your landing page)
  • FB tracking pixel, TT tracking pixel and Google Analytics click tracking

Conversion targeting here makes a lot of sense. You can compare this to App Event Optimised campaigns. Your Landing page leads to the Steam page via the “Get on Steam” button. You track this button with your pixels; therefore, you can use it in your campaign optimization instead of just website clicks!

Conversions —> website clicks

Enjoy!

Plug for Playablemaker

If you don’t have the capacity to build your own playable, try the tool I am building with my playable team. playablemaker.com

Ping me if you need more credits!

8. Cost cap vs Autobid

Cost cap on FB vs Autobid? I was always very skeptical about limiting the bids on the Facebook campaigns, but in the recent weeks I started experimenting with it and its actually bringing interesting results.

In the past, as soon as I put bidcap the campaign died. But I was doing it wrong. You should start with autobid, then look at the Cost per action and start putting 5-8xCPA you are seeing and then lower the bid to get traffic, but also limit the spend/aim for the quality traffic.

Stay Ahead in UA for 2024: My Top 43 Tips Revealed

I’ve decided to share all the top learnings from 2023. All those made the most impact on my UA ops! It’s quite a lot of learnings so buckle up & enjoy”! How to do a proper UA & Creatives review? Channel performance Campaign structure/campaign type (AAA vs regular)

Read full story

9. iOS shenanigans

Hi all! I’m scaling a game on iOS. But it’s such a challenge because  I have to use SKAN and the data is delayed. Anyone has tips to optimize campaign with iOS, please give me some advice!

Thanks to the privacy changes on iOS, you won’t be able to see any installs coming through in the first 72 hours. Installs are happening in the meantime; you just won’t be able to see them. Don’t worry; you won’t lose any data.

What can you do?

Don’t make any changes in the first 72h => 0 installs = Facebook is not optimized at all. Wait until you get data, then make changes!

Also, the privacy threshold on Facebook is 88 installs per day per campaign. As you can see, the campaign above was not anywhere close to passing that threshold, which means we also don’t see the full picture in terms of postbacks. What can be done here?

• Slowly increase the budget until you hit 88 installs
• creative refresh!
• Add more countries into the mix (lower CPIs, more installs, more postbacks)

GEO expansion, performance & goals! Super important topic. I discussed the campaign tiers where you have Tier 1, Tier 2 (sometimes Tier 3), and Rest of the World to cover everybody.

You have to keep in mind that expanding from Tier 1 will definitely help you scale, but think about setting up new (most likely higher) goals because the LTV and retention curves are not the same as with Tier 1 countries.

Look at the overall Tier performance each quarter to move countries around. E.g.:

CA, AU underperforming in the last 90 days → move from Tier 1 to Tier 2

MY, PH, SA, SE, DK, BE, ID, RO, UAE, BR, PL, CH, KR → remove from iOS ROW. Create separate campaign on TikTok

ID, UA, IT, NL, ZA, CZ, AT, BR, RS → remove from Facebook iOS ROW.

10. KPIs

When it comes to deciding KPI goals, here’s what you need to consider:

Focusing on ROI over time is crucial. If there’s no gain, it’s just money down the drain. The data always shows that you need distinct D7 ROAS goals per UA channel. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Applovin and Unity outshine Facebook and Google in long-term retention.

However, you also need to check your D60, D90, and D120 retention. You can’t set a D120 payback period when your D90 retention is 0%.

Each network demands unique KPI goals. That’s why you need detailed retention data at D60, D90, and D120, which are easily accessible in your BI tool or MMP. Not only retention data, but also ROAS/LTV curve.

Understand that higher goals typically mean lower spending. I always analyze how ROAS evolves over time, especially post-D90, to see the growth trajectory.

D90payback could be tight, but it could work. I always try to be cautious. Once you gather enough cohort data at D120, 150, and 180, you can adjust. Just play it safe!

So, what do you need to consider? Retention profile, LTV curve, and money in your bank account!

11. How do you utilize Google Ad Groups most effectively?

I usually separate ad groups by creative concepts, but there are also schools of thought for motivational segmentation and/or placement optimization.

With the absolute growth of Shorts, Google started pushing bumper ads, also known as short-form videos, to get more inventory on YouTube. Don’t forget to tick this box in the conversion tab!

So, how to think about different adgroups:

1. Text only (headline & description)
2. Text + statics
3. Short videos (vertical format)
4. Longform videos = 30+sec (ideally around 1 minute long)
5. Audiences (competitor games)
6. Audiences (broader mobile games interests)
7. Custom store listingsThanks for reading this piece!

12: How to use Creative Assistant on TikTok?

TikTok Creative Assistant is an AI-powered virtual assistant designed to intelligently collaborate with brands and creators throughout their creative journey on TikTok. The latest evolution of creativity and productivity has led us to new paths of innovation. We’ve been working on a model that allows you to converse and collaborate with when creating for TikTok. It draws information from a wealth of TikTok-focused creative knowledge, providing you with the most relevant responses for when you’re creating ads or videos for TikTok.

TikTok Creative Assistant is designed to spark creativity and be a launchpad for curiosity. It works alongside you, integrated in TikTok Creative Center, the platform where TikTok creative ideas are born.

• If you’re new to TikTok, Creative Assistant can guide you through TikTok creative best practices and advise you on how to get started.
• If you’re conducting research on the creative landscape on TikTok, Creative Assistant can showcase and analyse inspirational and top ads based on data sources on Creative Center.
• When you’re facing writer’s block, Creative Assistant can brainstorm TikTok ideas with you, write and help refine your TikTok scripts.

With Creative Assistant, you’re now empowered to continuously create a meaningful and valuable presence on TikTok through never-ending ideation and brainstorm sessions. This tool means brands and creators worldwide can harness the power of artificial intelligence to better ideate and create TikTok creatives like never before.

See what’s trending

Creative Assistant searches and presents what’s trending on TikTok. Now, when you ask “what’s trending”, you will be able to:

• View concepts that have been trending in the past day
• Understand the concept and the potential reasons why it went viral
• View all related videos to this concept
• View all related audio to this concept

Please do me a favor and share this with someone in your network who you think would benefit from the insights and brutal honesty. It would mean a lot to me!

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