User Acquisition reports and market data
Documents
How to Set Up Meta AdROAS Campaigns: Step-by-Step Guide for UA Teams
Meta’s AdROAS (Ad Return on Ad Spend) campaigns represent a significant shift in user acquisition for ad-monetized mobile applications, allowing marketers to optimize directly for ad revenue value rather than relying on proxy events like retention or engagement.
- Meta AdROAS optimization allows mobile apps to bid directly on ad revenue value, replacing previous workarounds that required passing ad revenue as fake purchase events.
- The feature is currently available exclusively for Android campaigns as of Q4 2024, with iOS support expected in the future.
- To unlock AdROAS, an app must record at least 15 attributed ad impression events with distinct values from Facebook-acquired users within a 28-day window.
💰 $400 MIL/Year Genesis: Like Voodoo, but for apps and bigger. App industry’s secret blueprint
Genesis functions as a highly efficient venture builder that has transformed the non-gaming mobile application landscape into a multi-hundred-million-dollar industry.
- Genesis operates as a venture builder that co-founds and scales mobile apps, achieving over $35 million in monthly revenue and 400 million total downloads through a model that provides seed capital, mentorship, and shared services in exchange for equity.
- The micro-learning app Headway, launched in 2019, utilized gamification mechanics like streaks and quests to surpass its primary competitor, Blinkist, reaching 40 million downloads within two years.
- Genesis significantly increases profit margins by driving users to web-based subscription checkouts, allowing them to bypass the 30% platform fee and capture an estimated 50–60% of revenue off-app stores.
Mobile Dreams of Hollywood: Inside Royal Kingdom’s Celebrity Blitz
Dream Games recently launched a high-profile celebrity marketing campaign for its mobile title, Royal Kingdom, five months after the game’s official release and following a two-year soft launch period.
- Dream Games' $30 million to $50 million celebrity campaign for Royal Kingdom resulted in a 112% increase in downloads but only a 6% increase in revenue.
- The campaign's reliance on broad-reach television advertising suggests a shift away from efficient, targeted performance marketing toward a strategy that may indicate market saturation.
- The celebrity spots failed to integrate talent into actual game mechanics or events, leading to a disconnect between high brand awareness and long-term user retention.
TikTok Ads for Mobile Apps: Spark Ads and Best Practices for Creatives
Mobile app advertising on TikTok operates on a model of high volatility, requiring a departure from traditional, polished marketing strategies in favor of authentic, user-generated content.
- TikTok’s algorithm is highly volatile, requiring a continuous, high-volume pipeline of fresh creative assets to combat rapid audience fatigue and sustain engagement.
- Amateur-style, authentic user-generated content consistently outperforms high-production, polished advertisements on the platform.
- Spark Ads are the most effective growth strategy because they leverage organic influencer content to ensure advertisements feel native to the user experience.
Recap: Greatest tips from my conference
The Inside Conference 2025 provides a comprehensive overview of indie game marketing strategies, focusing on practical tactics for Kickstarter management, publisher outreach, and demo distribution.
- Steam developers should aim for a minimum of 7,000 wishlists before launching, with 30,000 wishlists significantly improving performance in the Steam algorithm.
- When launching a demo on Steam, enable the 'separate store page' option to allow for independent user reviews and data collection without risking the reputation of the full game's store page.
- If a publisher reaches out early, use the opportunity to flip the script by asking them to pitch their services, deal terms, and requirements, allowing you to gather market intelligence while maintaining leverage.
Live Q&A (Inside Conference)
The current landscape of the PC gaming market, specifically on Steam, reflects a transition from exponential growth toward a more stabilized release environment.
- Achieving approximately 250 reviews within the first month of release is the critical benchmark for establishing long-term commercial sustainability on Steam.
- Wishlists remain the most reliable metric for predicting potential success, while click-through rates are often misleading indicators of performance.
- Steam’s algorithm prioritizes titles that demonstrate high performance within a narrow one-to-two-week window, making initial momentum essential.
Mobile Gaming by Genre: Midcore
The analysis demonstrates that midcore mobile games—those offering depth while remaining accessible on handheld devices—are experiencing a post-pandemic rebound, with Q1 2025 downloads and revenue surpassing 2024 levels.
- Midcore mobile gaming is experiencing a post-pandemic rebound, with Q1 2025 revenue and download figures exceeding 2024 levels.
- Strategic rewarded video integration can significantly boost performance, as evidenced by Bytro Labs increasing ARPDAU by 32.9% and Day-3 iOS retention by 6.1%.
- Midcore titles achieve higher eCPMs than casual games, with Bytro Labs reaching eCPMs of 23 on iOS and 25 on Android through optimized ad placement.
The Secret Sauce Behind $30M/Month Mobile Hits 🧪 Creative trends in Mobile Games - March 2025
Mobile game developers are currently sustaining massive monthly revenues by prioritizing iterative creative strategies over original gameplay innovation.
- Established mobile games are achieving all-time high revenue by recycling 5-year-old concepts and enhancing them with AI-generated visuals and animations.
- Games like Golden Goblins are hitting record revenue spikes, such as $230k in a single event, by leveraging long-standing gameplay loops.
- Creative strategies centered on 'near-death experiences' and high-stakes drama—such as characters in saunas or burning houses—are currently driving high performance in UA campaigns.
Applovin vs Unity: How Applovin Destroyed the Competition!
The mobile user acquisition landscape is currently defined by a stark divergence in performance between AppLovin and Unity.
- AppLovin has achieved a dominant market position with its MAX mediation platform, which currently holds an estimated 80% market share.
- AppLovin’s competitive advantage is driven by its proprietary Axon 2 algorithm, which utilizes vast first-party data to provide superior performance for ad-revenue-driven games.
- Unity has failed to effectively leverage its ironSource acquisition and engine-level reach due to internal cultural conflicts, technical inefficiencies, and execution failures.
AppLovin Hit by Short Sellers – Behind the $54B Market Cap Drop
AppLovin has faced significant financial volatility following a series of short-seller reports that alleged the company engaged in unauthorized data collection, misleading advertising, and violations of platform policies.
- AppLovin’s market capitalization dropped by 36%, or approximately $54 billion, falling from $150 billion to $96.11 billion between February and April following short-seller allegations.
- The short-seller reports accused AppLovin of unauthorized data collection, misleading advertising, and violations of platform policies, including the targeting of children.
- AppLovin has launched an independent investigation led by the law firm Quinn Emanuel and issued executive rebuttals to defend the integrity of its AXON advertising technology.
Leadership, AI, and Mobile Growth – Insights from AppsFlyer’s CEO and co-Founder, Oren Kaniel
Organizational success stems from a deeply ingrained, customer-centric culture that prioritizes shared values over rigid documentation.
- Organizations must treat AI as a core strategic superpower rather than a simple efficiency tool to avoid obsolescence, as the technology represents a shift more significant than the mobile revolution.
- Successful organizational scaling requires a customer-centric culture that prioritizes shared values and employee empowerment over rigid documentation to prevent mediocrity.
- AppsFlyer is positioning itself for a potential IPO by focusing on enhancing market trust and building secure infrastructure that bridges the gap between privacy compliance and AI innovation.
Your ads are boring! 5 Inspiration Tricks to Ignite Your Creative Strategy by Matej Lancaric
Effective creative strategy in the mobile gaming industry centers on the ability to evoke strong emotions to drive user acquisition and lower cost-per-install (CPI) metrics.
- Creative strategy in mobile gaming has shifted from Forex-style ads to casual and puzzle-based mechanics, with a primary focus on driving user engagement through emotional triggers like near-death experiences or satisfying ASMR-style interactions.
- To identify high-performing creatives, monitor competitor spend using tools like Adscan.ai, Facebook Ad Library, TikTok Ad Library, and Google Ads Transparency Center, as the highest-spending creative is typically the best-performing one.
- Cross-pollinate creative concepts by looking outside your specific genre; for example, adapt hyper-casual mechanics (like gates or sorting) or e-commerce and app-space trends to fit your game's audience.