User Acquisition reports and market data
1,366 documents·55 writers·3,211 charts and tables
Documents
Game Developers Conference39 min
How Great Key Art Can Lead to Doubling Marketing Numbers
High-quality key art serves as the primary visual anchor for video games, functioning as a digital billboard that dictates store visibility, click-through rates, and overall conversion success.
- High-quality key art acts as a primary conversion catalyst, with case studies showing that updating store assets can lead to a doubling of visitor and wishlist numbers.
- Trailers using custom key art thumbnails can achieve significantly higher engagement, as evidenced by a specific trailer that garnered nearly 500,000 views—three times the volume of a version using a generic thumbnail.
- Effective key art should maintain a clear focal point, limit graphical elements to two or three, and ensure the logo is legible and not locked to a single position to allow for easier resizing across different store formats.
Game Developers ConferenceMar 2023
PocketGamer.biz48 min
Panel: A Love Story: Essential Strategies to Attract (& Keep) an Audience.
Establishing a resonant game identity early in development is the foundational requirement for attracting and retaining a sustainable audience.
- Design games with a specific, well-defined audience in mind rather than relying on broad, ineffective demographic labels like 'millennial men.'
- Validate player feedback by investigating the root cause of requests; for example, increasing the volume of a weapon's sound effect can satisfy player demands for 'more power' without requiring actual mechanical changes.
- Prioritize authenticity when partnering with influencers by conducting research to ensure their content and values align with your specific game, rather than simply targeting the largest creators.
PocketGamer.bizFeb 2023
PocketGamer.biz9 min
The value of a user is not only monetary | Alex Pham from Adjust
Mobile marketing analytics requires a strategic shift toward privacy-first infrastructure and holistic performance measurement.
- Mobile marketing must shift from deterministic tracking to privacy-first infrastructure, utilizing predictive modeling and aggregated intelligence to navigate regulations like GDPR and Apple’s SKAdNetwork.
- Success requires moving beyond cost-per-install metrics to evaluate long-term user value, specifically focusing on retention, virality, and delayed monetization patterns.
- Developers are increasingly adopting all-in-one platforms that integrate analytics, visualization, and campaign automation to improve efficiency and manage leaner teams amid industry consolidation.
PocketGamer.bizFeb 2023
PocketGamer.biz8 min
Understanding the important events in your app | Neasa Bannon from Meta
Optimizing user acquisition and advertising performance in the mobile gaming sector requires a strategic shift toward automation, privacy-compliant measurement, and creative innovation.
- Advertisers must shift from granular, user-level tracking to aggregate measurement solutions like conversion lift testing and marketing mix modeling to maintain efficacy in a privacy-centric landscape.
- Developers should refine conversion schemas to prioritize high-value in-app events and analyze customer lifetime value rather than focusing solely on bottom-funnel acquisition metrics.
- Integrating AI and automation tools is essential for achieving liquidity and efficient campaign scaling across Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms, which serve several billion monthly active users.
PocketGamer.bizFeb 2023
PocketGamer.biz23 min
Understanding SKAN 4.0 & Its Implications - David Philippson, Co-founder & CEO, Dataseat.
The primary objective of this analysis is to demystify Apple’s SKAdNetwork (SKAN) 4.0, an attribution framework designed for the iOS ecosystem.
- Apple is phasing out probabilistic attribution and fingerprinting, necessitating a shift toward internal mastery of SKAN 4.0 rather than reliance on third-party mobile measurement partners.
- SKAN 4.0 expands data collection by introducing three distinct postback windows covering Day 0–2, Day 3–7, and Day 8–35.
- To combat data loss from privacy thresholds, SKAN 4.0 implements a hierarchical 'coarse-grained' conversion value system categorized as low, medium, or high.
PocketGamer.bizFeb 2023
PocketGamer.biz21 min
Fireside Chat: Navigating the Evolving World of Influencer Marketing in Mobile Gaming.
Influencer marketing in the mobile gaming industry has evolved from a speculative endeavor into a data-driven strategy essential for community building and user acquisition.
- Prioritize audience alignment and genre-specific relevance over influencer follower counts to ensure higher engagement and conversion rates.
- Integrate creators early in the development lifecycle, such as during alpha or beta testing, to foster long-term brand advocacy and gain actionable community insights.
- Shift from speculative spending to a data-driven model by testing campaigns with micro-influencers and scaling based on verified metrics like chat activity and conversion rates.
PocketGamer.bizFeb 2023
PocketGamer.biz47 min
Curated Panel: Working With Creators at Scale: UGC for Paid User Acquisition
User-generated content has emerged as a critical strategy for mobile gaming studios seeking to optimize paid user acquisition.
- Scaling UGC for user acquisition requires a blended strategy that combines high-profile creators for brand equity with a broad network of long-tail creators to drive measurable return on ad spend.
- Studios should implement a hypothesis-driven framework that tests specific creative variables, such as pacing, visual style, and call-to-action placement, to isolate and optimize performance drivers.
- Authentic, native-feeling content outperforms highly polished traditional advertisements by bridging the gap between brand marketing and performance metrics, ultimately lowering customer acquisition costs.
PocketGamer.bizFeb 2023
PocketGamer.biz21 min
Fireside Chat: In the Sandbox With Adam & Piyush, the Live at PGC One
This discussion, held at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2023, explores the evolving landscape of mobile user acquisition (UA), supply-side mechanics, and the impact of privacy regulations on the gaming industry.
- The supply-side ecosystem—comprising SSPs, ad exchanges, and mediation platforms—functions as a multi-layered auction system where the primary goal is to maximize yield by rendering the highest-paying ad impression for the publisher.
- Publishers should determine their monetization model (IAA vs. IAP) based on game genre and the underlying economy of the title, rather than relying solely on Daily Active User (DAU) volume.
- Privacy-centric changes like iOS 14's ATT framework have forced the industry to shift toward contextual targeting and audience segmentation as alternatives to user-level data for media buying.
PocketGamer.bizFeb 2023
Two & a Half Gamers45 min
Ad monetisation gossip corner, Unity expensive bug, APS, Google 3 waterfall placements (#52)
The mobile advertising landscape is currently defined by a shift toward more granular control over mediation stacks and the mitigation of technical volatility.
- Google has removed the three-placement limit for third-party mediation, allowing publishers to expose more inventory to AdMob demand and potentially reducing the necessity of Google Ad Manager resellers.
- A March 13th bug in Unity’s reporting infrastructure inflated revenue data by over tenfold, forcing publishers to disable placements to prevent UA optimization errors and revenue leakage.
- Amazon Publisher Services (APS) is a high-potential demand source for titles with high-purchasing-power audiences, particularly when publishers secure direct Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM) deals with partners like Xandr, InMobi, and PubMatic.
Two & a Half GamersFeb 2023
PocketGamer.biz42 min
Panel: Getting Your ASO Kicked: Dealing With ASO in the Current Saturated Mobile Market.
App Store Optimization serves as a holistic, long-term strategy essential for navigating the increasingly saturated mobile gaming market.
- App Store Optimization (ASO) is not just keyword optimization; it is a holistic process encompassing creative assets, conversion rate optimization, and localization to ensure users download the app once they reach the store page.
- Developers must maintain a narrow focus on specific ASO goals—such as testing creatives or optimizing keywords—rather than attempting all strategies simultaneously, as doing too much makes it impossible to measure the impact of individual changes.
- Data privacy regulations and Apple's ATT (App Tracking Transparency) have created significant gaps in user data, with only approximately 20% of non-game users and 30% of game users opting into tracking, which complicates attribution and performance measurement.
PocketGamer.bizFeb 2023
PocketGamer.biz30 min
Panel: Accessible Marketing: How to Promote Growth With any Budget
This panel discussion explores strategies for effective game marketing within constrained budgets, emphasizing that financial limitations can be overcome through creativity, authenticity, and strategic planning.
- Integrate marketing into the game development process from the outset to establish a clear brand identity and prevent expensive strategic pivots later.
- Prioritize community engagement as a primary, low-cost growth driver by building platforms that allow players to contribute ideas and feel like stakeholders.
- Leverage the agility of smaller studios to rapidly test multiple creative concepts and use data to identify niche audiences that larger competitors often overlook.
PocketGamer.bizFeb 2023
PocketGamer.biz20 min
Keynote: ASO Trends to Watch out for in 2023 - Emily Sugrue, AppTweak.
App Store Optimization (ASO) in 2023 is defined by a shift toward highly personalized user acquisition and the potential disruption of the traditional app store duopoly.
- Custom store pages are becoming a standard component of user acquisition, with Google Play allowing up to 35 custom listings and Apple supporting custom product pages for Apple Search Ads (ASA).
- Google Play is evolving its 'Live Ops' feature into 'Promotional Content,' which will allow all developers to highlight discounts, giveaways, and new gameplay features to drive monetization by the end of 2023.
- The European Commission's Digital Markets and Digital Services Acts are expected to force Apple to open its ecosystem to third-party app stores in 2023, though developers must weigh the potential for lower commission fees against reduced traffic, trust, and visibility.
PocketGamer.bizFeb 2023