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Keynote: Scale Your IAPs With Purchase Behavior Targeting Data Insights, Dale Lawrence, of Bango.
The mobile gaming industry faces a significant challenge in user acquisition due to the deprecation of identifiers like IDFA and third-party cookies.
- In the mobile gaming industry, 95% of users do not make in-app purchases, while the remaining 5% of payers generate over 80% of total revenue.
- The deprecation of IDFA and third-party cookies has forced developers to move away from traditional tracking toward purchase behavior targeting, which utilizes first-party payment data to remain privacy-compliant.
- Purchase behavior targeting allows developers to segment audiences based on actual transaction history, such as payment frequency and volume, rather than relying on demographic assumptions.
Insights into Marketing Trends of Global Mobile Games
Global mobile game marketing reached a pivotal turning point in the second quarter of 2023, characterized by a record-breaking surge in creative volume.
- In Q2 2023, the mobile gaming industry saw a record surge of 9.3 million new creatives, which accounted for nearly 75% of all active advertisements.
- Market leaders like Honkai: Star Rail and MONOPOLY GO! achieved rapid global growth by maintaining high-frequency creative refreshes, with new assets making up over 60% of their advertising portfolios.
- While iOS casual game installs cost $2.23 compared to $0.63 on Android, both platforms yielded a comparable seven-day return on ad spend of approximately 7.7%.
Mobile Growth: IDFA Deprecation Scapegoat or Reality?
The mobile gaming industry has frequently cited the deprecation of the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) as a primary cause for declining marketing performance and the perceived impossibility of successful new game launches.
- The deprecation of IDFA is often used as a scapegoat for internal operational failures, such as poor financial modeling and an inability to adapt to market shifts, rather than being the sole cause of declining performance.
- iOS remains a viable platform for user acquisition, with sophisticated advertisers continuing to achieve scale and profitability despite privacy-related technical constraints.
- The withdrawal of competitors from the iOS ecosystem has created a favorable market environment characterized by lower cost-per-mille (CPM) rates and reduced advertising competition.
Gameloft's Claudia Trujillo On Tuning-Up The Truth About ASO And UA
App Store Optimization and User Acquisition function as deeply interconnected pillars of mobile game growth rather than independent silos.
- Paid user acquisition (UA) directly impacts organic search visibility because increased download volume signals store algorithms to boost the game's organic ranking.
- Poor conversion rates negatively impact UA costs; store algorithms prioritize games with higher conversion rates, forcing competitors with lower rates to bid higher for the same ad placements.
- Maintaining an average rating of at least 4.1 stars is critical, as store algorithms and editorial teams favor highly-rated games, making it cheaper to secure ad placements and featuring opportunities.
A Moderation Guide for Successful Brand Livestreams and Digital Events
Maintaining a safe and professional environment during brand-led digital events and livestreams is essential for protecting corporate reputation, fostering audience engagement, and securing sponsor relationships.
- Effective event moderation requires a structured, iterative framework that replaces subjective judgment with clear community boundaries and actionable protocols.
- Brands must utilize a detailed run book for every broadcast that explicitly defines staff roles, communication channels, and escalation procedures.
- A formal action matrix should be implemented to standardize responses to specific types of violations, ensuring consistent enforcement of community standards.
Growing an Internet Cult: 'Cult of the Lamb's' Social Strategy
The success of Cult of the Lamb demonstrates that effective game marketing is fundamentally rooted in the creation of a high-quality, distinct product rather than reliance on traditional advertising.
- Marketing success is driven by a distinct visual identity and core gameplay mechanics that foster organic engagement rather than reliance on traditional advertising or SEO.
- A three-step content strategy—grabbing attention, converting interest, and rewarding emotional responses—is required to maximize visibility and drive commercial metrics like Steam wishlists.
- Platform-native content on TikTok should prioritize likes and favorites, as these metrics are the primary drivers of algorithmic reach.
Best Advertising Networks for Hyper and Hybrid Games in 2023
The transition from hyper-casual to hybrid-casual gaming represents a strategic evolution in the mobile game industry, driven by the need for sustainable growth and diversified revenue streams.
- The mobile gaming industry is shifting from hyper-casual to hybrid-casual models to combat declining eCPMs, evidenced by a 34% increase in in-app purchase (IAP) revenue.
- Hybrid-casual success requires moving beyond short-term CPI metrics to blended ROAS campaigns that account for both ad revenue and long-term IAP value.
- Developers should utilize mediation platforms like AppLovin or Unity to manage the complex data tracking necessary for optimizing long-term user value.
Product Madness’ Piyush Mishra On Smart Approaches And Seismic Shifts In A Privacy-First Market
The mobile gaming industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation as privacy-centric regulations, most notably Apple’s deprecation of the Identifier for Advertisers, dismantle traditional user-level tracking and attribution models.
- The deprecation of Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) has rendered traditional user-level tracking obsolete, forcing a shift from data-obsessed optimization to a creative-first marketing strategy.
- Growth marketers must prioritize high-performing, contextually relevant assets and synchronized landing pages to maintain conversion rates in the absence of granular tracking data.
- Developers should pivot toward brand building to foster user trust and shorten conversion windows, reducing the reliance on precise tracking by cultivating a loyal, direct audience.
No-Budget DIY Marketing for Indie Games
Indie game marketing is most effective when developers adopt a sustainable, low-cost framework that prioritizes authentic community building over expensive advertising campaigns.
- Steam wishlists are a critical metric, as they typically convert to sales at a rate of 10% to 30% within the first year of release.
- Developers should implement a consistent 'one hour a day' marketing schedule: Mondays for social media, Tuesdays for press lists, Wednesdays for networking and festivals, Thursdays for devlogs and Steam page updates, and Fridays for content creation.
- Game descriptions should prioritize the core player experience and unique setting rather than relying on comparisons to existing titles, which can clutter messaging and confuse potential players.
Rethinking Value During a Cost of Living Crisis
The global cost of living crisis is fundamentally reshaping consumer behavior, forcing a transition from traditional consumption patterns toward a redefined, multifaceted concept of value.
- 81% of consumers report being directly impacted by the current economic climate, necessitating a shift from traditional price-based messaging to strategies that emphasize personal agency and shared values.
- Social capital is increasingly derived from 'knowledge flexing' and DIY expertise rather than material acquisition, with 69% of social media users in the US and UK relying on influencers to find cost-effective alternatives.
- Consumers are adopting 'de-influencing' and 'artisanal peacocking' to gain status through the ability to navigate economic constraints, signaling a move away from luxury spending as a primary status symbol.
The Golden Rule of Game Promotion: No One Cares About Your Game
The fundamental challenge for independent game developers is overcoming the inherent lack of audience awareness that plagues new titles.
- Assume total public indifference toward your game and focus exclusively on capturing the attention of cold audiences who have no prior knowledge of your project.
- Prioritize front-loading promotional content by ensuring trailers and social posts deliver a compelling hook within the first few seconds to minimize viewer attrition.
- Treat every piece of communication as a standalone introduction, avoiding the assumption that the audience has seen previous updates or possesses existing context.
Outfit7’s Nina Oblak & Kayzen’s Ryan Goeden On Harnessing Split Testing To Develop Winning Campaigns
Rigorous A/B testing serves as the cornerstone of successful mobile game development and user acquisition, transforming the production cycle from a speculative process into a data-validated strategy.
- Outfit7 utilizes a 'fake store' environment—a non-live landing page equipped with heat maps—to track user behavior, such as screenshot engagement and review reading, before a player reaches the actual app store.
- To ensure A/B test reliability, Outfit7 maintains a strict control environment by ensuring equal traffic splits across variables, including consistent traffic mixes across platforms, countries, and game genres to avoid bias.
- When evaluating A/B test winners, Outfit7 now incorporates market-specific revenue data, ensuring that high-volume install sources from lower-value markets do not disproportionately influence the decision-making process.