Marketing reports and market data
Documents
UA in iOS 14: Tips for Success in a Post-IDFA World
The transition to Apple’s iOS 14 privacy framework represents a fundamental shift in mobile user acquisition (UA), necessitating a move away from individual-level tracking via the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) toward aggregated, privacy-centric measurement.
- The deprecation of IDFA necessitates a shift from individual-level tracking to aggregated, privacy-centric measurement via Apple’s SKAdNetwork (SKAN).
- SKAN limits conversion data to six bits, restricting marketers to a maximum of 64 distinct values that must be strategically encoded to track critical user milestones like revenue or tutorial completion.
- Because SKAN sends data directly to ad networks rather than MMPs, developers must implement robust internal data aggregation and standardization processes to maintain visibility.
Panel: How to use UA Funding Effectively
Effective user acquisition in the modern gaming landscape requires a departure from simple spending volume in favor of agility, fundamental optimization, and strategic alignment.
- Successful user acquisition now requires prioritizing core fundamentals like app store optimization, retention mechanics, and monetization strategies before scaling any advertising budgets.
- To counter the loss of granular user data due to privacy shifts, studios must transition to predictive lifetime value models, creative-led strategies, and media mix modeling.
- Developers can mitigate post-IDFA constraints by using Android performance data as a proxy and investing in unified SDKs to improve data synthesis.
Panel: Building a Clear Vision for Your Brand
Successful brand building in the gaming industry relies on a long-term vision that prioritizes authenticity and deep empathy for a core fan base over the pursuit of fleeting market trends.
- Prioritize long-term authenticity and deep audience empathy over chasing fleeting market trends to ensure brand sustainability.
- Establish a robust, high-quality product foundation before attempting to expand into broader intellectual property or brand territory.
- Separate business development from brand protection to prevent short-term financial pressures from diluting the studio's core creative vision.
Fireside Chat: Behind the Retargeting Success of Huuuge Games
Huuuge Games utilizes a data-driven retargeting strategy to address the high churn rates inherent in the mobile gaming industry, where approximately 90% of new players cease engagement within the first seven days.
- Huuuge Games combats a 90% first-week churn rate in mobile gaming by prioritizing the re-acquisition of lapsed users, which is more cost-effective than acquiring new players for high-LTV social casino titles.
- The company employs rigorous incrementality testing via internal uplift dashboards to distinguish between paid retargeting impact and organic user returns, ensuring marketing spend delivers genuine incremental value.
- To maximize reach beyond Facebook’s matching capabilities, the company utilizes demand-side platforms (DSPs) to engage the 30% to 35% of their user base not accessible through Facebook.
Introducing Gaming Services: Login, Sharing & Player Finder for Games
Facebook is introducing a new suite of gaming services designed to enhance player acquisition, retention, and social engagement through its ecosystem. The initiative focuses on three core pillars: watch, play, and share.
- Facebook is launching a suite of gaming services targeting its community of over 700 million monthly active users to improve player acquisition, retention, and social engagement.
- The revamped Facebook Login for Games allows players to maintain cross-platform progress while utilizing customizable identities like selectable avatars and player names.
- New sharing integrations enable users to post gaming content directly to Facebook and Instagram feeds, stories, and groups to foster organic growth.
Lessons of Growing into a Large Studio - Three Ways Belka Crushed it to Grow from 30 to 300
Belka Games, a mobile game studio, outlines its growth strategy following a successful expansion from 30 to 300 employees over a three-year period.
- Belka Games scaled from 30 to 300 employees over three years by prioritizing a unified company culture, data-driven operations, and strategic partnerships.
- Successful live operations for hit titles like Clockmaker and Funky Bay require dedicated teams of 30 to 40 professionals per game to maintain a continuous content pipeline.
- Maintaining a flat organizational structure during rapid growth is essential to ensure open communication between junior staff and leadership, preserving core company culture.
How to Nail ASO with Apple Search Ads
Apple Search Ads (ASA) serve as a high-intent user acquisition channel that provides actionable data to refine organic App Store Optimization (ASO) strategies.
- Allocate 20% of your Apple Search Ads budget to a discovery campaign to identify new, high-performing keywords, while reserving the remaining 80% for established, high-conversion terms.
- Optimize keyword selection by targeting a balance of high search volume, high relevance, and low competitiveness, using tools like the SearchAdsHQ Chrome extension to view specific numeric popularity values.
- Maintain a clean campaign structure by adding high-performing search terms to exact-match ad groups while simultaneously adding those same terms as exact-match negatives in your discovery campaigns to prevent data overlap.
Panel: The K Factor - How Your Campaigns can also Improve Your Organic Growth
The K-factor, defined as the ratio of organic to paid user growth, serves as a complex and highly variable metric that defies universal application across the mobile gaming industry.
- The K-factor is a highly variable metric that cannot be reduced to a universal formula because organic uplift is heavily dependent on unpredictable factors like app store algorithms and influencer activity.
- Developers should prioritize optimizing app store listings, metadata, assets, and keywords over chasing a singular growth metric to maintain visibility in evolving store environments.
- Paid user acquisition acts as a catalyst for organic discovery, but the two channels are so inextricably linked that isolating the precise impact of marketing spend on organic performance is functionally difficult.
Love Bros: How Companies Should Stop Wasting Time!
Corporate inefficiency stems primarily from excessive meeting culture and a failure to protect time for deep, focused work.
- Organizations must protect deep work by decoupling the schedules of makers and managers to prevent productivity-killing context switching.
- Replace redundant meetings with asynchronous communication tools, such as status notes and video updates, to reduce operational bloat.
- Mandatory meetings must be strictly limited to 30 minutes, featuring clear agendas, designated owners, and the smallest possible participant list.
Reviewing YOUR GAME TRAILERS
Game trailers serve as the primary marketing vehicle for indie developers, functioning as both a narrative introduction and a functional tutorial that defines a title’s core appeal.
- Trailers must prioritize immediate communication of the gameplay loop, objectives, and cause-and-effect mechanics to hook viewers and reduce drop-off.
- High-impact gameplay footage should take precedence over slow, narrative-heavy introductions or excessive user interface elements.
- Technical execution requires tight pacing and rhythmic synchronization with authentic game audio rather than relying on generic music montages or redundant on-screen text.
Interview with Blackthornprod (20 Year Old Full Time Game Dev!)
Achieving financial sustainability as an independent game developer requires a shift away from relying exclusively on game sales, which are often unpredictable.
- Achieve financial sustainability by diversifying revenue streams beyond game sales, integrating income from YouTube tutorials, Patreon support, and educational courses to mitigate the inherent risks of game production.
- Adjust marketing expectations for indie titles, as actual long-term wish-to-sale conversion rates typically trend between 10 and 15 percent, significantly lower than the often-cited 50 percent benchmark.
- Prioritize digital community building over traditional industry networking, as direct audience engagement on digital platforms is more efficient for long-term success than attending trade shows or conferences.
I need help. (Channel Update 2020)
Following the commercial release of the game Neversong, the channel is pivoting toward a more structured and professional approach to indie game development education.
- Following the release of Neversong, the channel is transitioning from sporadic content to a structured, weekly production schedule focused on professional indie game development education.
- The new content strategy is built on three pillars: comprehensive tutorials for aspiring developers, analytical mini-documentaries deconstructing game design, and community-driven game jams.
- The channel aims to establish itself as a premier resource by focusing on the practical realities of marketing, platform success on Steam, and building a sustainable career.