Marketing reports and market data
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S8, E01: Articulating a bull case for the open web (with Gareth Glaser)
The open web represents a significantly undervalued advertising market, currently constrained by legacy infrastructure that prioritizes outdated branding models over the performance-driven strategies that define modern digital marketing.
- The open web is significantly undervalued, with average CPMs ranging from $6 to $15 on platforms like Facebook compared to a fraction of that on the open web, representing a massive potential for economic growth if monetization strategies are modernized.
- The historical development of open web advertising was stunted by an over-reliance on agency holding company budgets and rebates, which favored established walled gardens over the technical innovation required for performance marketing.
- Prebid.js, an open-source framework used by 99% of web publishers, was a critical turning point that allowed publishers to bypass Google Ad Manager's monopolistic advantages, resulting in publisher revenue increases of approximately 70%.
The Age Of AI Copy Cats Is Upon Us. Here's What Game Devs Should Do...
The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence in game development has created a landscape where simple, gimmick-based games are increasingly vulnerable to immediate replication.
- To protect games from being easily cloned by AI, developers must move beyond simple gimmicks and infuse projects with a unique, cohesive artistic voice, personal storytelling, and a distinct perspective.
- A game's defense against replication lies in its 'humanity,' which is achieved by limiting inspirations to a few specific, sharp influences rather than relying on the broad, average data sets used by AI models.
- Developers should prioritize building a dedicated audience, which acts as a 'lever' that ensures a player base exists even if a game's core concept is copied by competitors.
How to Build AI Workflows for App Marketing with MCPs & Skills
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) serves as a transformative architectural standard for mobile app marketing, functioning as a universal interface that bridges fragmented data ecosystems.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP) acts as a universal 'USB port' for AI, allowing LLMs like Claude or ChatGPT to securely interface with external marketing and development tools without requiring the user to switch between dashboards.
- By connecting multiple MCP servers—such as Tenjin for attribution, RevenueCat for subscriptions, and App Store Connect for operations—marketers can perform cross-platform analysis and automated tasks within a single chat interface.
- AI 'skills' are reusable, scriptable workflows that allow users to automate repeatable processes like performance audits, review management, and app store metadata updates, effectively replacing expensive third-party management software.
S07, E35: OpenAI's advertising ambitions (with Asad Awan)
OpenAI is actively architecting an advertising model for ChatGPT that shifts away from traditional keyword-based interruptions toward intent-driven, conversational discovery.
- OpenAI operates under five core advertising principles: democratizing AI access, maintaining strict independence between organic model answers and paid placements, ensuring user privacy, providing opt-out options via paid plans, and prioritizing user value over time-spent metrics.
- OpenAI has scaled its advertising business rapidly, achieving a $1 billion annual revenue run rate in less than 200 days since initiating its careful ads pilot.
- The conversational interface allows for deeper intent discovery than traditional keyword-based search by leveraging user context, constraints, and preferences to deliver highly personalized, relevant ad creative.
🧠 Everything Is AI Now: Mel Gibson From Wish Is Selling You a 4X Game
Mobile game publishers are undergoing a fundamental transformation in user acquisition strategy, shifting toward an AI-first production model to maintain dominance in a saturated market.
- Mobile game publishers are shifting to an AI-first production model to generate thousands of unique advertisements per month, a volume unattainable through traditional creative workflows.
- The strategy prioritizes rapid iteration and high-intensity hooks over gameplay accuracy, as seen in titles like Bulldozer Master and Pizza Ready to drive massive daily download figures.
- Studios are using generative AI to perform regional localization by swapping actor nationalities and integrating viral memes or pop-culture tropes at scale.
Mobile App Trends 2026: Downloads & Revenue by Category and Country
The mobile app market is currently defined by a stark concentration of wealth, where the top ten non-gaming applications on Google Play capture 39% of total revenue.
- The mobile app market is experiencing a high-risk, high-reward environment where top-tier apps, such as TikTok, ChatGPT, and Gemini, account for 39% of total non-gaming revenue.
- New app submissions to Google Play and iOS surged by approximately 100% over a 15-month period, rising from 46,000 new apps per month in March 2025 to 110,000 by July 2026, largely driven by the rise of 'vibe coding'.
- Growth in the non-gaming sector is increasingly driven by maximizing the lifetime value of existing users rather than expanding the total user base, as evidenced by a widening gap between download volume and revenue growth.
These 3 Mistakes Will Destroy Your Game
Achieving a "Very Positive" rating on Steam is a predictable outcome of rigorous product management rather than viral marketing or gimmicks.
- To maintain high review scores, developers must simplify their game's core identity into a clear, concise message—such as a single hook—to ensure the product delivered matches the player's expectations.
- Bugs, Optimization, Pricing, and Settings (BOPS) are the primary factors that destroy review scores, with game-breaking bugs and inconsistent frame rates being the most critical technical failures.
- Developers should conduct thorough playtesting with a diverse group of testers—including critical peers—to accurately predict performance, as evidenced by a 97.5% recommendation rate from 170 playtesters closely mirroring the game's 94.9% Steam score.
Why Rewarded UA Is Built for Indie Studios
Rewarded user acquisition (UA) has emerged as a critical growth strategy for indie and small mobile game studios, offering a viable alternative to the high-cost, long-payback environments of traditional performance networks.
- Rewarded user acquisition (UA) offers indie studios a competitive advantage over traditional performance networks by providing lower breakeven points and faster paths to ROI, which is critical for studios with limited cash flow.
- Rewarded users should be segmented separately from organic or video-network users because they exhibit higher retention rates and a greater tolerance for ad exposure due to their incentivized nature.
- Standard 7- or 14-day segmentation models are ineffective for rewarded traffic, as the majority of user behavior and monetization occurs within the first 1 to 3 months.
🧠 New CREATIVE Trend Everybody will COPY in 3..2..1
The mobile gaming industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation in user acquisition, moving away from traditional 4X strategy templates toward high-frequency, AI-driven creative production.
- Mobile game user acquisition is shifting from traditional 4X strategy templates to high-frequency, AI-driven creative production models.
- Successful titles like Top Force are scaling by using AI to rapidly iterate through hundreds of unique visual variations to identify high-performing mechanics.
- Legacy creative tropes, such as the 'hunting bears' style, are no longer effective due to market saturation and consumer fatigue.
S07, E33: An oral history of mobile user acquisition (with Nebojsa Radovic)
The evolution of mobile user acquisition has undergone a fundamental transformation, moving from the labor-intensive, manual operations of the mid-2010s to a lean, AI-driven landscape.
- Mobile user acquisition has shifted from manual, high-headcount operations—where competitive advantage relied on custom reporting and publisher-level targeting—to automated, AI-driven environments where success depends on creative volume and signal engineering.
- Algorithmic platforms like Google's UAC have democratized access to global audiences, making it easier for developers to launch games but significantly increasing competition and making profitable growth harder to achieve.
- Modern UA performance is heavily dependent on 'signal engineering,' which requires feeding high-quality data (such as 20+ daily purchases per campaign) into algorithms to exit learning phases and optimize LTV.
🎮 Playables Are Now 40-60% of Creative Spend: Here's what's working ńow
Playable advertisements have emerged as a dominant force in digital marketing, currently accounting for 40% to 60% of total creative spend across the gaming and non-gaming sectors.
- Playable advertisements now represent 40% to 60% of total creative spend across both gaming and non-gaming sectors.
- The industry is shifting toward 'Frankenstein playables,' which synthesize multiple proven, high-engagement mechanics like yarn puzzles and rescue scenarios into a single ad unit.
- Non-gaming sectors, including finance and social apps, are adopting gamified elements like obstacle-avoidance and item-catching to drive user engagement through low-friction interactions.
🧙 Solo Dev Journey #1: How to start with UA? From a store link to a LIVE UA Campaigns
This analysis outlines a practical, low-resource approach to launching a mobile game, specifically focusing on a solo developer’s experience with the title One Mage Army.
- In the early stages of a mobile game launch, the volume and diversity of creative assets are more critical to performance than high-polish production quality.
- AI-driven tools can be used to generate ten distinct, story-driven video ads in approximately 90 minutes by utilizing existing store page assets and brief narrative prompts.
- Campaign maturity is essential for cost stabilization, as demonstrated by AppLovin CPI dropping from an initial $60 to approximately $3.60 as the campaign progressed.