Brutally Honest #200

Brutally Honest #200 is a milestone edition of Matej Lancaric's newsletter on user acquisition (UA) in the post-IDFA mobile environment, published February 13, 2026. The visible portion is mostly a teaser, since the main content sits behind a paywall for paid subscribers. The author marks the 200th issue with a casual, self-deprecating note about aging and shares enthusiastic feedback from the Gamesforum conference week, describing it as another strong experience with valuable networking.

The tip of the week asks what a modern UA manager looks like and which skills the role now demands. It points readers to a separate piece from February 8, "The 2026 Modern UA protocol: What you SEND is what you get." The central thesis is that UA has shifted away from granular audience targeting, such as pursuing niche interest groups like people who like candles or yoga. Instead, performance depends on building a repeatable creative testing system. The author frames this as a machine that tests roughly 20 ads, eliminates about 17 of them, and scales the 3 top performers that drive profitable returns.

The implication is that signal quality and creative output, what advertisers send into ad platform algorithms, now matter more than manual targeting levers. The UA manager's skill set therefore centers on creative testing discipline, rapid iteration, and scaling winners. The visible text offers no data, survey methodology, or detailed figures beyond the 20/17/3 illustration, and the scope is general to mobile UA practice in 2026 without specific geographic or genre segmentation. The full argument and supporting detail are not accessible without a paid subscription.