User Acquisition reports and market data
Documents
The journey of a mobile marketing agency to the Korean gamers
Rebound Mobile, a Helsinki-based marketing agency established in 2016, provides a strategic framework for Western mobile app and game companies seeking to penetrate the South Korean market.
- South Korea is a more accessible market for Western mobile content than Japan or China, offering lower competition and a higher receptivity to foreign gaming products.
- Direct partnership with local Korean ad networks is more effective than using intermediary local marketing agencies, which often suffer from communication barriers and a lack of trust.
- Hiring a native Korean-speaking manager is essential for navigating the market, as it facilitates direct communication and allows for the necessary cultural localization of creative assets.
The Trailer Park Boys success story
The development of Trailer Park Boys: Greasy Money serves as a case study for independent studios navigating the complexities of licensed intellectual property (IP).
- Authenticity to source material is the primary driver of market penetration, helping Trailer Park Boys: Greasy Money reach the number one app spot in Canada, top ten in the U.S., and top 100 status in over 100 countries.
- Maintaining a constant, collaborative relationship with IP holders allows for the creation of original, game-specific content—such as zombie-themed alternate timelines—that extends the brand's lifespan.
- Developers should prioritize strict adherence to established character voices and lore, as deviating from the source material risks alienating the core fanbase.
Crafting promotions that work and how I created one that didn’t
Effective game promotions require a deep understanding of consumer psychology and precise data-driven timing.
- Effective promotions must appeal to both the emotional 'elephant' and the logical 'rider' by combining initial desire with clear value propositions like discounts or exclusive currency.
- Marketing efforts should be synchronized with genre-specific peak usage windows, such as action games peaking during weekday breaks and puzzle games surging in the evenings.
- Developers should monitor the internal balance of soft currency versus power-ups to trigger sales at the precise moments players are most likely to convert.
UA & monetisation trends in 2018
The mobile gaming industry in 2018 is undergoing a fundamental transition from aggressive, short-term conversion tactics toward sustainable, long-term player retention.
- Mobile game monetization is shifting from short-term conversion tactics toward sustainable, long-term player retention strategies.
- Rewarded video has become the primary monetization tool for balancing revenue generation with positive user experience.
- Programmatic advertising and header bidding offer only modest revenue improvements of 5–10%, pushing developers to prioritize LiveOps and interactive ad formats.
How to get your app to the top of the App Store
Achieving a top ranking in the App Store is a deliberate, labor-intensive process rather than a result of accidental viral success.
- Approximately 65% of all app discovery occurs through search, making App Store Optimization (ASO) and paid search the primary drivers of visibility.
- Metadata should be treated as a tool for algorithmic communication rather than human marketing, requiring iterative testing and the systematic removal of underperforming keywords.
- Developers must maximize the use of available character limits across titles, subtitles, promotional text, and descriptions to seed high-relevance keywords multiple times.
The rise and rise of the Chinese mobile gaming market
The Chinese mobile gaming market represents a significant and rapidly expanding opportunity for global app developers, currently serving as a primary growth engine for the industry.
- The Chinese mobile gaming market has surpassed North America in total gaming revenue, generating $27.5 billion with mobile gaming accounting for over 50% of that total.
- The market currently supports approximately 500 million mobile gamers, and the average revenue per user has increased tenfold since 2014.
- Strategic and adventure-based games featuring long-term progression are currently the strongest performers, driven by high engagement rates and word-of-mouth growth.
Maxing out your Facebook user acquisition for games
Effective user acquisition for mobile games on Facebook and Instagram relies on a sophisticated transition from broad, volume-based targeting to highly refined, value-driven optimization.
- Transition user acquisition strategies from broad, volume-based install targeting to App Event Optimization and Value Optimization once sufficient player data is collected.
- Identify and prioritize specific post-install milestones, such as tutorial completion or competitive ranking, to train algorithms to target high-value players rather than just download volume.
- Focus human effort on creative strategy and visual storytelling, as constant iteration of ad content is the primary differentiator for success in a landscape where automation handles technical delivery.
Through the looking glass – Following the rabbit down the data… Whole
This analysis explores a data-driven methodology for optimizing user acquisition (UA) campaigns through transparent, real-time bidding (RTB) platforms.
- Shift user acquisition focus from vanity metrics like click-through rates to value-based outcomes, specifically long-term user retention and monetization.
- High click-through rates are poor indicators of performance, as some low-engagement creatives have been shown to generate double the installs at a fraction of the cost.
- Utilize machine learning systems capable of processing over 24 trillion daily calculations to automate complex decisions regarding country targeting, app selection, and dynamic pricing.
Gamified panel: Which ad won?
Interactive mobile advertising strategies prioritize gameplay-driven mechanics to maximize user acquisition and conversion.
- Granular creative refinement and visual iterations can drive performance improvements of up to 99%.
- Localized creative assets significantly boost performance, yielding up to a 56% uplift in specific markets like Sweden.
- Interactive, gameplay-driven ads consistently outperform static or video-only formats in user acquisition and conversion.
Influencer marketing: The tips that your app needs
Influencer marketing has emerged as a high-growth channel for mobile game user acquisition, driven by increasing consumer trust in content creators and the widespread adoption of ad-blocking technology.
- Influencer marketing serves as a high-growth user acquisition channel that bypasses ad-blocking technology by leveraging the authentic trust between creators and their audiences.
- Mid-tier creators often outperform top-tier influencers in both cost-efficiency and campaign performance, making them a more strategic focus for most mobile game developers.
- Campaign success relies on providing creators with language-specific briefs and in-app incentives to drive conversions, supported by 24/7 communication to manage operational needs.
The unreasonable effectiveness of data for better monetisation
The primary thesis of this analysis is that mobile game developers can achieve significant revenue growth and improved performance by applying machine learning to existing user data.
- Dynamic pricing and data-driven user acquisition strategies can increase total game revenue by 20% to 40% compared to static models.
- Applying predictive lifetime value (LTV) modeling to user acquisition campaigns can drive a 400% increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) over a 45-day period.
- Machine learning models consistently outperform human intuition in monetization tasks, despite the potential for occasional false positives.
Next generation playable ads on mobile
Playable ads represent a high-performing but underutilized format in the mobile gaming industry.
- Playable ads deliver conversion rates two to three times higher than traditional video ads, yet their adoption is restricted by high production costs and technical limitations.
- Current HTML5 playable ad production can exceed $25,000 per unit, effectively pricing out developers with lower lifetime value (LTV) games or smaller user acquisition budgets.
- Next-generation playable ad technology reduces production costs to as low as $1,000 per campaign by utilizing the game’s original user interface rather than building custom mini-games.