User Acquisition & Creative learnings with comments – 2023

User Acquisition & Creative Learnings with Comments – 2023 is the ultimate guide to staying ahead in the ever-evolving world of mobile marketing. In 2023, user acquisition (UA) strategies witnessed a transformative shift, driven by innovations like TikTok Creative Challenges, AI-powered optimization tools like Google DV360, and the rise of adaptive ad creatives. This article dives deep into the essential techniques, tools, and trends reshaping how brands attract, engage, and convert users. From exploring the role of AI and machine learning in refining campaign strategies to understanding the nuances of organic versus paid UA, we cover it all. Whether you’re looking to boost your app downloads, optimize ad performance, or master micro-moments, these insights and expert commentary will empower you to elevate your marketing game.

In 2023, successful user acquisition (UA) hinged on producing high-performing creative videos and leveraging innovative strategies. To create winning video ads, focus on three key elements: a powerful hook in the first 1–4 seconds to capture attention, engaging meat that highlights gameplay or unique features, and a compelling call-to-action to drive user engagement. Platforms like TikTok proved transformative, especially through the TikTok Creative Challenge (TTCC), where creators submitted video ads for brand challenges, making authentic content a game-changer. Ensuring clear and detailed creative briefs was essential for generating quality submissions.

Creative pacing emerged as another vital factor. Testing different speeds revealed that slower, relaxing content resonated with female audiences, while action-packed, fast-paced creatives engaged males. Creative inspiration drew from competitors, hypercasual mechanics, ASMR trends, and memes, emphasizing the importance of unique and differentiated concepts. Meanwhile, UA channel strategies demonstrated the continued relevance of platforms like Facebook for early-stage testing, complemented by Google, Unity, TikTok, and Applovin for broader campaigns. On iOS, Automated App Ads (AAA) helped optimize campaigns by balancing installs and purchases, addressing the challenges of post-IDFA privacy changes.

In the soft launch phase, optimizing device targeting by excluding older models with insufficient RAM or outdated OS versions significantly improved performance. Monitoring retention ratios, such as D1, D7, and D30, provided more actionable insights than focusing solely on benchmarks. Seasonal creatives proved effective only when seamlessly integrated across ad visuals, app store pages, and in-game content. Building the right creative team structure, scaling production to match the UA budget, and balancing skill sets across motion designers, animators, and illustrators further streamlined campaign efforts.

Effective communication was pivotal, fostering collaboration across UA, product, and creative teams. Transparent, empathetic discussions ensured alignment on campaign performance and creative strategies. For iOS campaigns, patience during the initial 72-hour optimization period was critical to accommodate privacy thresholds and delayed postbacks. Consolidating geographies and leveraging broad targeting strategies helped meet these challenges.

Writing detailed creative briefs with defined project goals, audience insights, and comprehensive assets significantly enhanced creative outputs. Fake ads, though controversial, played a role during monetization, balancing low CPIs with high-value players through value optimization. Finally, maintaining a clear perspective on industry advice, prioritizing tasks effectively, and embracing innovation underscored the lessons of 2023. By adopting these strategies, UA managers can navigate the evolving landscape, ensuring campaign success and scalability.Started this tradition three years ago, half drunk after the Christmas dinner when I saw a lot of predictions flying around. I sat down and wrote about what I’d learned that year. Here we go again since you can’t predict almost anything in our ever-changing gaming industry!

Sit back, relax, grab a Christmas Margarita or eggnog, and enjoy the learnings of 2023 with my lovely comments!

But where to start? There were so many important things that worked so well. I already shared a bunch of them in my previous tips, so this time I am going to mention those that made the most impact on my UA ops! It’s quite a lot of learnings, definitely get that eggnog. Here you go:

What Makes a Video Ad Perform Well for Mobile Games?

A video ad performs well for mobile games when it effectively grabs user attention, showcases gameplay, and drives engagement.Producing a creative winner is not an easy job. Thank you, captain obvious! What a great start to the article. Nevertheless, So let’s look at the anatomy of a well-performing creative:

• Hook
• Meat
• Call to Action

The hook:

The first 1-4 seconds of your ad are the most important part. Make the most of this time window by captivating your audience with a powerful, attention-grabbing hook that draws them in to keep watching. Ensure the hook is related to your game at least in some way. This will ensure a smooth transition from the initial hook to the following key message of your creative.

Attractions of the game itself are highly effective selling points of the game. Show gameplay recordings and share strategies, extraordinary characters, and your unique artistic style. Reveal the elements within your game that make it memorable and unique to new audiences. Also, you can use altered gameplay in your creatives. Not every level you show in the creative needs to be in the game.

Call-to-Action

Don’t forget to add a compelling call-to-action at the end of your video ad. Use your game slogan, a catchy slogan, and a clear button to direct users to the next step. Keep up the momentum and transfer your audience’s attention to the next action – try next level, achieve level XYZ, purchase?!

What Is TikTok Creative Challenge and How Does It Work?

The TikTok Creative Challenge is a performance-driven advertising feature where brands collaborate with creators to promote products or services through unique, engaging content.Unlocking TikTok? Seems like a big challenge. Oh wait, have you said challenge? Do you mean TikTok Creative Challenge (TTCC)? Badumtss! Jokes aside. If you are not listed for a TTCC, you are missing out heavily.

TikTok is transforming the way people discover new ideas and products while creating a new way for games to engage with creators to reach and connect with diverse communities around TikTok.

TikTok Creative Challenge is a new in-app feature that allows creators to submit video ads to brand challenges and receive rewards based on video performance. Creators can browse through the list of challenges, read the challenge’s brief, which displays the reward pool and details rules and requirements, and submit their video ad.

The Creative Challenge gives creators full creative freedom over their ads, unlocking more opportunities for creators to collaborate with brands in a way that’s most authentic to them.

Easy! Sit down, write to your TikTok rep, and get on this ASAP. Then you prep a creative brief for creators. Don’t forget! Brief is the key to receiving quality videos!

I must say, I saw some pretty weird shit in the TTCC for many games. But there is also gold in there. Your performance (and scale) improves heavily when you find that gold!

How Can You Leverage Effective Hooks in Your Creative Strategy for Better User Acquisition?

Effective hooks are critical for capturing audience attention and driving user acquisition. Here’s how to use them strategically:Hooks make a difference in your creatives. There are masters of hooks at Century Games using real-life hooks combined with their game Whiteout Survival. How could you leverage hooks a bit more in your creative strategy? Which one of these grabbed your attention?

I would say the last one, right? There is definitely a story behind it you would like to explore. Run these as static images in the creative testing and take the winner, and connect it to the video creative showing a similar gameplay. Voilá! One of the best videos in my campaigns at the moment!

Take videos, use the first 1-3 seconds, and bam.

Crazy idea for a hook? Is anyone out there with a train game? *wink wink*

How Does Creative Pace Impact User Acquisition Metrics Across Different Audiences?

Creative pace directly influences user acquisition metrics by affecting how audiences engage with ads. Faster-paced creatives tend to capture the attention of younger, fast-scrolling audiences, while slower-paced creatives may resonate better with older or more detail-oriented users.How to improve creatives? There are 2389273872362 ways how to make that happen. What is not discussed too often, but has a significant impact on the performance (at least in my view) is the pace of the creative. What do I mean by that?

Different audience segments resonate with different creatives, right? Yeah, we know that.

Same thing with the pace. Females like to see slower, calm & relaxing creatives whereas males like to see fast, action-packed creatives that catch their attention. Is that so? I usually like to test these hypotheses, so here you go:

Slow

1. CPI: $1.23
2. IPM: 8.2
3. CTR: 1.54%

Faster

1. CPI: $1.76
2. IPM: 7
3. CTR: 1.14%

Where Can You Find the Best Creative Inspiration for Ads?

Finding the best creative inspiration for ads involves exploring diverse platforms and resources where successful campaigns and innovative ideas thrive.Where to get creative inspiration? That is always the hard question. Maybe the hardest one! Lets dig a little bit deeper:

• competitors (no shit sherlock)
  • but don’t copy their ads 1:1, use them as an inspiration and try to add +1 in the concept
  • on the other hand, if you are a small studio with not a lot of resources. You can copy 1:1, it’s okay!

• non-direct competitors A.K.A different genres
  • you can go two different directions in here:
    • look at your target audience interests overlap/affinity and look into the other genres your players play (E.g., Match3 vs. Merge, shooters vs. strategy)
    • you can look outside of your genre for inspiration

• hypercasual mechanics
  • yes, I know, I know. I am talking about this for ages already. Still works like a charm. Some games started even adding whole (hypercasual) GAMES into their games
• Youtube vs TikTok trends
  • ASMR (eating), save the dog, chest opening, dancing, etc.

• Memes & hype (+AI shit)

This category is endless inspiration. Use it wisely!

How Can ASMR Trends Boost User Acquisition in Mobile Gaming in 2023?

ASMR trends can significantly enhance user acquisition in mobile gaming by tapping into the sensory appeal and relaxation that ASMR content offers. Here’s how:This tip is focused on one creative concept I mentioned before. Could you guess what it is? Check the creatives below:

Yes! ASMR. I was talking about this multiple times last year on our two & a half gamers podcast! There was hype around the concept when the ASMR slicing game hit the top 1 in US downloads ranks, but then slowly faded off.

The trend is still pretty big, btw:

There are so many ASMR variations:

How can you optimize User Acquisition (UA) strategies for ad revenue-based games?

To optimize UA strategies for ad revenue-based games, focus on attracting a large and engaged user base while balancing acquisition costs and ad performance.In the last few games UA reviews we did on the Two & a half gamers no bullshit podcast, we saw a strong performance of Applovin. It was on the top of the spending and share of impressions. It was paired with a strong performance of the playable ad format. Then we saw Google and Unity in the UA channel mix.

There is a pattern. All three games were strong on Ad revenue. How does the UA playbook for ad revenue-based games look like? It depends on the IAP vs. Ads revenue split, but let’s say its 50vs50:

1. Applovin AdROAS + IAP ROAS campaigns
   1. US + T1 geos (add WW after stable performance of US+T1)
2. Google AdROAS + tROAS
   1. US + ROW
3. Unity AdROAS + ROAS
   1. US

Diversify the UA as much as you can!

How does effective communication drive success in User Acquisition?

Effective communication plays a crucial role in driving user acquisition by ensuring that the message resonates with the target audience and motivates them to take action. Key ways communication impacts UA success include:Communication is key to success not only in User Acquisition, but because it allows individuals, teams, and organizations to effectively share information, ideas, and feedback.

Effective communication promotes understanding, builds trust, and fosters collaboration between user acquisition, creative and product teams, all of which are essential for achieving goals and making progress.

As simple as it sounds, sometimes we just forget to communicate. Communication always helps to clarify expectations, delegate tasks, and coordinate efforts.

Tell your colleagues what are you working on, what are your struggles or wins, help them understand which UA channel & creative currently performs. Don’t stop and tell this to your product and creative teams. They will appreciate it.

Here are some tips for communicating effectively:

1. Be clear and concise: When communicating, make sure to get to the point and be concise. Avoid using overly complicated language or jargon that may confuse the listener. I often forgot that not everybody knows what IPM, CTR, ROAS or CPI is.
2. Listen actively: Effective communication is a two-way process. Listening actively to the other person helps to understand their perspective and ensures that the conversation is a dialogue rather than a monologue.
3. Be honest & transparent: When you make a mistake, admit it. When you feel something is wrong, speak up. Always tell the truth!
4. Be empathetic: Empathy involves understanding and acknowledging the feelings of the other person. Showing empathy can help build trust and understanding, which can lead to more effective communication. Very tied to the previous point!
5. Choose the right medium: Different communication channels, such as email, slack/discord, hangout/zoon, or face-to-face, have their strengths and weaknesses. Choose the right medium for the situation and make sure that the message is conveyed clearly. I usually don’t have to jump on a call to discuss things, but some people prefer having a call!

Communicate! Tell people what you (dis)like, tell them if they do a good (or a bad) job.

Communication is a very important skill of every Senior UA manager. As simple as it sounds. I know I can do better in communication!

What is the ideal creative team structure for effective user acquisition campaigns?

The ideal creative team structure for effective user acquisition (UA) campaigns should be collaborative and adaptable to rapidly changing trends and insights.I’ve been talking about how to identify trends in creatives multiple times. What I didn’t talk about too often is the creative team structure and the number of creatives they need to produce for a certain level of UA budget.

There is no best practice! Thank you very much for reading …

Ok, jokes aside. There is no best practice, but this is how I usually structure it:

Monthly budget & number of new creatives:

0-50k per month

• 4 new unique creative concepts per month (+ iterations)

50-250k

• 4-10 new unique creative concepts per month (+ iterations)

250k-500k

• 10-16 new unique creative concepts per month (+ iterations)

500k-1Mil

• 16-20 new unique creative concepts per month (+ iterations)

1mil+

• 20+ new unique creative concepts per month (+ iterations)

What should be your creative team structure?

• 1 motion designer
• 2 illustrators
• 3 graphic designers
• 4 flying unicorns
• 5 flamboyant flamingos

Ok, ok, ok, stop with the bullshit. Ideally, you want to have a mix of 2D & 3D motion designers, character animators & riggers. Illustrators & graphic designers are really nice to have, but you can live without them.

As a pair of new eyes, you should be working with an external creative agency. Not because they are going to steal your job but because they have a lot of experience & can produce concepts you would not think about.

I have 10 motion designers on my team – mixing 2D & 3D motion design, character animation & rigging. We have done some crazy shit!

How can memes boost user acquisition in gaming?

Memes can effectively boost user acquisition in gaming by leveraging humor, relatability, and viral potential to capture attention and engage audiences.When thinking about creative ideas, look around – ideally outside of gaming. Maybe browse a little bit on Facebook or Instagram. What is your go-to website for memes?

Try to leverage hype and buzz. Have you see a great meme or video that you could recreate for your game? Use it!

How can iOS 14+ privacy changes affect user acquisition campaigns?

The privacy changes introduced in iOS 14+ (specifically App Tracking Transparency, or ATT) have significant implications for user acquisition (UA) campaigns. Here’s how they affect campaign performance:
“ I don’t see data on iOS! (in the first 72h)”
”CPIs are really high, there must be something wrong?!”

Well, yes & yes. You are not able to see any installs coming through in the first 72 hours thanks to the privacy changes that happened on iOS. Installs are happening in the meantime, you are just not able to see them. Don’t worry, you won’t lose any data.

You just need to be prepared for something like this will happen:

This is how it works now and its completely okay. CPIs are really high! Yep, welcome to the world of UA. As you see, the CPI is going down when you get more data and will come down to stable levels in 5-7 days since the start of the campaign.

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?

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

So again: What could you do to start getting post-backs and meet the privacy threshold?

• increase budget (DUH!) (if I add “increase bid” advice I automatically become Google rep)
• Run campaigns with considerably high budgets. Look at your CPIs on Android, multiply them 5-8x and calculate the budget.
• Simplified, if you run $150-200/day on Android, on iOS you need to start at least on $500-600/day.
• add countries

Consolidate countries and create geo-tier buckets. My current Tiers example:

T1: US, UK, CA, DE, FR, AU, KR, JP, CH

T2: DK, FI, NO, SE, NL, ES, IT, HK, SG, NZ

T3: PL, CZ, SK, BE, AT, IE, TR, UAE, SA, TW, TH

ROW

I usually group all tier 1 countries together not looking at the language, but only LTV (lifetime value), then create tier 2 segment and Rest of the World. This is based on LTV for a specific game.

Don’t copy, do your own homework!

broader targeting strategies

Use broad targeting as much as possible, and consolidate lookalikes, interest or behavior with high overlap into larger groups.

experiment with campaign optimisation

With Facebook consider switching campaigns to AAA (Automated app ads) structure to help overcome the privacy threshold and start getting postbacks.

Use AAA campaign with MAI+Purchase optimization. As such, 50% of the time the campaign will optimise for installs and other 50% will optimise for purchase. Using this campaign type especially on iOS to get lower CPIs, but also quality players.

!!! Important !!!

Don’t make campaign adjustments in the first 72 hours after launching the iOS 14 campaign.

Wait until you see first data, then when evaluating overall campaign performance, please wait for an additional 24 hours (ideally 72 hours) so that the campaign can fully receive all SKAN conversion post-backs.

Expect a longer learning phase for the iOS14 campaigns due to SKAN delays and IDFA loss.

Let’s see what happens when SKAN 4.0 is fully live.

How can you craft a compelling creative brief to boost user acquisition for a mobile game launch?

Crafting a compelling creative brief for a mobile game launch is crucial for aligning the team and ensuring that the marketing materials resonate with the target audience.Alright, buckle up because I’m about to give you a crash course on writing a killer creative brief for your mobile app or game.

First, start with a clear and concise project overview. This is like the opening cutscene that sets the stage for your creative team.

Next, define your target audience. Who are they? What makes them tick? This is like choosing the character class that your game appeals to.

Then, lay out your objectives. Are you looking to increase installs, boost engagement, or monetize like a mobile mogul?

After that, provide insights and inspiration. Think of this as the secret level that unlocks creative brilliance. Fire up those external creative tools (and some internal benchmarks) to prepare with numbers and trends!

Finally, include any guidelines, specifications, or requirements. These are like the rules of your game that ensure a smooth gameplay experience.

Remember, a good creative brief is like a well-crafted tutorial level – it guides your team towards success.

Example:
We have a mid-core game about to launch globally. The main target audience is males 35+ from Asia. We want to use these creatives during the global launch, focusing on the effective budget increase rather than a Big splash. We have some data from the soft launch about the best-performing creatives and would like you to stay relevant to the gameplay as much as possible. Our main competitors are Survivor.io, Legend of Slime, and TopWar. Please come up with 5-6 creative concepts.

What are the best user acquisition channels for early-stage F2P mobile games?

The best user acquisition channels for early-stage F2P mobile games are as followed :Which UA channel to use for early-stage F2P mobile games and selecting appropriate UA channels for each launch phase? This question appeared recently in our 2.5gamers slack channel.

I know I bitch about Facebook all the time, but I still use it for early testing and especially in Softlaunch. Obviously combined with Google and other channels like Unity, TikTok, and Applovin.

Why Facebook? What gives you better targeting options?

Yes, still Facebook. Facebook is still very strong on the global launch day but fades off afterward. And this brings us back to the question if we should not use other channels like Unity or Applovin.

First of all, for Unity or Applovin, you need to implement MMP. With Facebook testing, you only need to implement Facebook SDK.

Second of all, as before mentioned, better-targeting options and the ability to benchmark your KPIs with the games you’ve done before or with other peers that usually use Facebook too.

How can studying competitors’ creative strategies boost user acquisition performance?

Studying competitors’ creative strategies can significantly improve user acquisition (UA) performance by providing valuable insights and allowing for more informed decisions when crafting your own campaigns.

Super effective creative research?

1. Find a very strong competitor and look into the audience overlap.
2. Put a target on their back and assess all their creatives with the most impressions.
3. Look for recent winners (last 30 days) and evergreen concepts in the last year.
4. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
5. Produce 3-5 creatives (could be 1:1 exact copy)
6. Iterate winners from there!

Just look at what Kingdom Guard is doing nowadays. They put a big target on Rush Royale, started copying their ads, and are almost on a third or fourth iteration of winners. Looks like it’s working well – See for yourself!

How does targeting high-performance devices improve mobile game soft launch retention?

Targeting high-performance devices during a mobile game’s soft launch can have a significant impact on user retention for several reasons:

When in soft launch, be sure to think about the whole picture.

Run UA & evaluate.

But dig deeper into your data.

Be sure you are running campaigns targeted at players eligible to play your game on their devices.

What do I mean?

There is a shit ton of Android devices and I am pretty sure games soft-launched in 2023 have high requirements.

Dig deeper, and look into the device performance. Exclude the devices based on RAM, not only OS.

I used to exclude 3GB RAM devices from the campaigns and performance improved quite heavily.

How do you do that? My former colleagues Martin & Tomas did the hard work for you and compiled this list – Request access! Add these to your campaigns and voila, exclusion list is there.

But we are in 2023, excluding 3GB RAM is not enough anymore. After doing some research, there is a hack. Pretty obvious one.

How to exclude older devices that don’t have 6GB RAM? Target only Android OS12!

Google Android 12 Requirements:

At Least 6GB RAM, 1080p Display

At least a 12-megapixel rear camera with support for 4K30 video recording.

With this, you can improve your D1 retention from 20% to 40%. You will stop acquiring players that can’t play your game. Easy!

Always dig deeper!

Are seasonal creatives effective in user acquisition campaigns?

Yes, seasonal creatives can be highly effective in user acquisition (UA) campaigns for mobile games.

Yeah, it is that time of the year when every rep in the world tells you to adjust your creative process to produce Halloween & Christmas creatives.

Honestly, such a waste of time and resources if you don’t do it right. Never worked for me in my whole career and I tried really, really hard. The UA god is my witness! 

It’s actually very similar to the fake ads experience I have been talking about in the last couple of years

You need to create a seamless expectation flow for your players:

• players see Halloween creatives
• they land on your app store page -> they see a Halloween/Christmas screenshot (1st screenshot is enough)
• don’t forget to use the Halloween/Christmas icon & feature image
• players install the game and they see Halloween/Christmas content
• Yay! everybody is happy!

if you know you are going to skip even one step from this list, don’t waste time and resources. Just skip the seasonal bullshit and stick to what works for you.

There is always the additional question: How long should I run Halloween/Christmas creatives?

Well, as long as you see a good performance and you are hitting the goals.

What are the key KPIs for a successful mobile game soft launch?

The key KPIs for a successful mobile game soft launch are as followed :

Soft launch KPIs are always tricky. What kind of retention should you aim for?

It’s not always easy to hit industry benchmarks 40/20/10 (D1, D7, D30 retention)

What if you have lower retention?

• It’s all about the ratios between the D1, D7, D30 and even D60. I’ve seen games with shitty D1 retention (as low as D1 28%) hitting D60 retention 6-8%.
• This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t aim for high retention profile.
• Healthy retention profile helps you retain players and monetize them afterwards

What if you are have super high CPI?

• What does super high CPI even mean? Different genres have different CPIs. If you have a puzzle game and you see $40 CPIs in tier1 or Tier2 countries, that is pretty high.
• But, we need more information. What UA channels are you running? What is the campaign optimisation you are running – MAI / AEO or VO?
• I always look on the CPI evolution (increase through time in SL) – What is the starting CPI, how does the CPI looks like after 7days, how does it look like after 30days?
• if your CPI increases rapidly in first 7days, you most probably have very niche game and you will have hard time scaling.

Can you grow my game? Could it be ROI positive?

• It can be ROI positive, potentially yes.
• But again, what will be the daily spend. If your KPIs suck, you won’t be able to spend a lot of money per day.
• What I actually want to say here is, you can have a profitable game with not being able to spend millions on a monthly basis.
• Some companies are spending few thousands per day, making few thousands on top of it and they are okay.
• You don’t need to spend millions to run a successful business.
• There are always pros and cons.

How does organizing game assets early improve User Acquisition for mobile games?

Organizing game assets early in the development process can have a significant impact on user acquisition (UA) campaigns for mobile games.

Creative production is super important part of the UA. Not all creative concepts are easily created.

Starting the production of a game with outsourcing capabilities in mind can be very hard, but also very helpful for your marketing efforts.

Because let’s face it, your game won’t get any traction without User Acquisition.

What should you think about?

• If your game is in 3D, preparing for a 2D asset pack you could be sharing with agencies and consultants is a very nice bonus.
• build your game with dev console in mind (or GOD MODE)
• think about cheats, toggle off HUD, change camera angles

Organize your assets beforehand! There is nothing more beautiful than a folder with organized game assets. This is what you should prepare:

• Brand rules (does the brand have some non-go zone? / How to use the logo / what colors to use .. etc.)
• Legal lines
• Logos
• Fonts
• Gameplay videos
• End screen/packshots/outro (if you already have them)
• UI game elements (buttons, characters, icons, menu etc.)
• PSD files and source files

If you are not thinking about this in advance, it’s not the end of the world. But! If you do, it will speed up the creative production and help your outsourcing partner quite heavily.

How to spot misleading marketing advice?

Spotting misleading marketing advice is crucial for avoiding ineffective or harmful strategies that can waste resources and damage your brand.

Be careful what you read and what advice you follow. Always try to think about the motivation of the author who provides tips and the context why he/she it doing it. E.g:

Marketing agency tells you you need to have different creatives on different channels, because it doesn’t work.

But is that really true? How come survivor.io uses the same creatives on all the channels and makes $2mil/day?

Why would they tell you a different story? To charge you more for those additional creatives. 

Some blogs or articles are just puff pieces from an agency. Usually starts with super long intro and then you can see a fragment of the article where you actually read a few vague tips without providing any value

These articles always end with “blablbla, you should use our service – please contact us here. We will help you”

If you read this at the end, you know it’s a trap! Plus, you are never going to get any insightful tips only upsell.

When is it effective to use fake ads in mobile game user acquisition campaigns?

Fake ads are effective to use in mobile game user acquisition campaigns in following ways :

Should you even consider those?

There is no right answer to this question. Maybe it is in here. But if you are considering using something not completely related to your gameplay, wait until you are done with the retention tests in the soft launch. If you start using fake ads too soon, your retention will look like shit. And not because your game sucks, but because your creatives are misleading. They are setting different expectations, which in the retention phase is not very appreciated.

When you are entering the monetization phase, you are still using the gameplay-related creatives. But when you have enough data to improve the game, you start experimenting heavily on the creative side. I’ve talked about having at least 4-5 different creative concepts in the soft launch multiple times. Don’t forget about it!

One of these concepts could be a fake ad (misleading) that can drive low CPIs but low retention. How do you mitigate this? You combine fake ads with Purchase or Value optimization on the campaign level. This down funnel optimization takes care of complete “trash” quality traffic you always get and optimizes only for high-value players.

What do you get with this combo?

fake ads = low CPIs, high amount of players, lower retention

Value optimization = high CPIs, high quality, high purchase power, higher retention

Do you see the Venn diagram right there? If yes, please share it in the comments! 

What are the best strategies for running successful iOS campaigns?

The best strategies for running successful iOS campaigns are as followed : This was definitely a highlight of the year for me – AGAIN! I was invited to have a talk at Google x DOF event in Istanbul..

Oh boy! What a great event full of awesome speakers and content. Well, check it out! This time I talked about how easy is to run campaigns on iOS:

Starting at 3:19:40. Big scarf, big success! Enjoy as much as I enjoyed..

Subscribe to the Brutally honest newsletter

Funnily enough, I started sending a weekly newsletter last year. I thought I would never have time to do it or ideas/insights to write about. What started in March with 0 subscribers, is now in late December sitting on almost 8500 subscribers (8427 in fact) with an average open rate of 42%. Thanks a lot! Last year, when I published learnings of 2022 – subscriptions were at 2500! 

If you haven’t done it yet, please subscribe to my newsletter. It’s so honest it might actually annoy you. If you are easily annoyed, please don’t subscribe.

I also just started a paid subscription where I share insights, special UA tips, and creative hacks monthly. Check it out here!

Matej AI

How did ‘No Bullshit Gaming Podcast’ grow its subscriber base in 2023?

No Bullshit Gaming Podcast’ grow its subscriber base in 2023 by following ways:

This little baby has experienced explosive growth this year. Oh my fucking god! We did not expect such a great feedback. Our no-BS podcast is growing thanks to all of you and it pushes us forward. Please subscribe to our channel, if you didn’t already. It would make the world to us since we are putting a lot of effort to produce high-quality content. It’s also so much fun!

Reaching also 8200 subscribers this year across all the platforms is just out of our fucking minds. We were at 1000, maybe max 1500 subs last year. BIG THANKS TO YOU!

Here is also our best podcast:

This is exactly when we introduced our stunning intro. You can say by looking at Felix and Jakub’s face!

How can building an inclusive community space enhance collaboration and innovation in the gaming industry?

Building an inclusive community space in the gaming industry can significantly enhance collaboration and innovation by creating an environment where diverse voices and perspectives are valued.Yes, we actually did this too. We opened up a community space for everybody. Juniors, seniors, developers, marketers, sales people, vendors. The most inclusive community in gaming! Join us here.

What are the key challenges faced by Mobile User Acquisition managers in 2024?

the key challenges faced by Mobile User Acquisition managers in 2024 are as followed : The year 2023 was wonderful, but for different reasons than you might think. It was a fucking hard year! As I mentioned in my Linkedin post below:

The fact that I started last year with 50% less monthly revenue was really hard. But it was an eye-opening experience, which I am super grateful for. I learned a lot about who I am, what is really important to me, and what I can achieve. This year it was very similar. The life of a consultant is a constant roller coaster. That why I wrote about the reality of a UA manager:

The Mobile User Acquisition manager’s job is to make gaming companies a lot of money by driving installs. If you’re good, your salary has no bounds. And if you’re average, you can probably have a steady job for a few months before you hop to another (turnover is very high for this job) and it can be pure chaos sometimes. Here’s an example of one of my calls this past year:

Today was a good day!
Hey hey, long time no see. Could we jump on a call ASAP? We have new UA activities, but we don’t have the internal team to do it. And we would like you to manage it.

Sure thing, let’s discuss.

We have a client with solitaire games. We manage affiliate marketing and other stuff for them. They just approached us to take over the UA as well. Obviously we agreed, because we can’t lose this client.

Alright, how many games?

All of them. They have 3 games right now.

How can you say yes to 3 games, when you don’t have the UA team? 😀

Again, we can’t lose this one. It’s super important, so we will do whatever it takes to keep them. Can you do it for us?

Okay then. I can definitely help. Here is the pricing. Let’s kick it off.

Oh, but we have really small margins on this one. Can you give us a discount?

huh? You don’t have internal team, you approached me, you want me to start ASAP and when I said yes, you ask me for a discount?

(3 weeks passed)

Hey! So we decided to start hiring internally. Thanks a lot.

Today was a good day!

Yeah, most people don’t know what the fuck they’re doing. But that’s okay!

The good news is that phones, apps, and games rule the world, so while the job market is plenty, a true unicorn requires you to be both knowledgeable about the industry and a practitioner (more on this later).

The truth is – the job is difficult and changes so quickly. Whatever worked yesterday won’t work today. Here are a few high-level challenges you may face:

Working with fragmented data
Ensuring your data is trustworthy
Managing upwards and effectively reporting
Ad creative production (resources, scheduling, ideation)
Navigating quickly changing post-IDFA rules
Optimizing and testing the SKAN conversion schema
bla bla bla, obviously much more ..

Let’s not forget, life is hard but great. Enjoy it! 

How can effective time management improve work-life balance?

Effective time management can significantly improve work-life balance by helping individuals allocate their time efficiently across both professional and personal activities.This year, everybody asked me how I can handle all the things at the same time. Work, podcasts, blogs, newsletters, daughter. Last year taught me one important thing. Everything is possible! Being “busy” and not having time is just a state of mind. If you are struggling to find time, sit down, think about your processes, and activities, and organize your time better. It’s a game of priorities! 

If I can be 2nd fastest growing technology company in Slovakia, run a (paid) newsletter, start my own AI, podcast and write frequently while spending 70% of the day with my little daughter, you are doing something really wrong.

I guess that’s it for 2023! All of the above is what I’ve learned. But a lot was happening in my world.

How can humor and personal engagement boost newsletter subscriptions and sharing?

Humor and personal engagement are powerful tools for boosting newsletter subscriptions and encouraging sharing. Here’s how they can enhance the success of your campaigns:Oh wow! You made it here! You must be very engaged. I like that type of players… Ehm, people!

Please share this article with your industry friends. It would mean the world to me.

Also, subscribe to my newsletter. It’s so honest it might actually annoy you. If you are easily annoyed, please don’t subscribe. Subscribe now to podcast

Subscribe to Brutally Honest Newsletter