Brutally Honest #130: UA in the Post IDFA World

This industry update provides strategic insights into mobile user acquisition (UA) within the privacy-centric post-IDFA landscape. The primary thesis suggests that despite the industry trend toward fully automated campaign setups, manual diversification and the use of lookalike audiences remain highly effective for scaling mobile games. By moving away from the default automated configurations pushed by major platforms like Facebook, marketers can achieve better results through granular audience segmentation.

Key findings emphasize the importance of creating custom lookalike audiences based on specific engagement and monetization triggers. Recommended engagement events include high quest completion rates, frequent app launches, and reaching specific level milestones. For monetization, the analysis highlights the value of targeting "whales" and "engaged payers," specifically those with multiple monthly payments, high-value single purchases, or top-decile spending habits. These data-driven segments allow UA managers to bypass the limitations of broad automation and find high-value users more efficiently.

The scope of the analysis covers the global mobile gaming market as of late 2024, with specific focus on subgenres such as farming, merge, and match-3D games. It notes that merge games have effectively replaced match-3 as a dominant puzzle subgenre, while farming games increasingly rely on integrated minigames to maintain market share. The content is based on professional experience in performance marketing and creative trend analysis, offering a practical playbook for navigating current challenges in mobile growth, creative production, and monetization.