Kevin Bravo is among the few people we know who have pulled SKAdNetwork apart to study how it works.In our conversation today, Kevin talks offers a minute understanding of literally the bits and bytes of how to make use of SKAdNetwork conversion values to offer as much insight as possible within the limited capabilities of iOS 14  . As changes are imminent, app developers are going to have to tap into their creativity and past user activity data to be able design solutions that are uniquely suited to the conversion value framework within their apps. KEY HIGHLIGHTS🛠️ The mechanics of how SKAdNetwork works 🖱️ The journey of a user from click to conversion🌐 How ad signatures enable user attribution⏳ The tale of two timers: understanding how postbacks work💾 The two functions that are critical for tracking on SKAdNetwork📨 How to use your 64 bits of information wisely⛰️ How identifying what makes a high value user high value is key to making the most of SKAdNetwork🔢 Different models for picking conversion values📱 Selecting the right in-app events to send signals💰 Understanding your how your LTV curve is shaped plays a big role in determining the right conversion value model🎛️ What is mixed modelling: tracking revenue and engagement events🧲 How to pick conversion models for ad monetized games⏰ Using some of the 64 bits to connote time elapsed.🎨 How subscription apps can get creative by using events other than free trial and subscription 📏 One size doesn’t fit all: conversion streams play dictate how bits can and should be optimisedCheck out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-design-a-conversion-value-framework-for-succeeding-with-skadnetwork-with-kevin-bravo-co-founder-at-2nd-potion**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

There’s speculation and worry about what marketing will look like in a post-IDFA world - especially since laser-focused targeting of high-value users on platforms like Facebook has been so incredibly successful. But there is no reason that the future should be entirely gloomy without this ability to laser-target users. We’ve all been in a world without hyper-targeting; we just have to look back to lessons from the past to see what the future might look like. KEY HIGHLIGHTS💰 Why we are bidding very high on Facebook’s value-optimized campaigns, but not on Snapchat or TikTok🧮 How marketers justify high CPIs and CPMs on Facebook🔬 Precise targeting is very impactful; but we are going to learn to live without it📜 What we did pre-2016 is going to help us navigate the futureCheck out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/back-to-the-future-how-pre-2016-ua-strategies-prepare-us-for-a-post-idfa-world/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Erich Detert, senior performance marketing manager at InnoGames. Copy is often overlooked because of the great focus on visual creatives, and therefore becomes a missed opportunity for marketers to connect with and persuade potential users. In our conversation today, Erich underlines the critical importance of ad copy in performance marketing, and shares his observations of how his experiments have impacted key metrics and lead to more qualified users and stronger ROAS.KEY HIGHLIGHTS🧪 What inspired Erich to start testing ad copy.🔮 What sort of results you can expect from each type of ad copy.🖱️ Why more clicky or sensational copy may not always be the best performer.✨ Why high quality, representative ad copy can be even more important with iOS 14.📏 How length makes a difference to performance of ad copy.🌱 What early stage startups should do with ad copy tests.🎥  How important ad copy is for video as compared to display or image ads.🎞️ How important video thumbnails are in driving performance.📱 What channels the ad copy matters in. Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/why-ad-copy-is-critical-for-mobile-ua-campaigns-with-erich-detert-senior-performance-marketing-manager-at-innogames**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

We’ve discussed at length about the upcoming changes in mobile measurement as a result of IDFA becoming opt-in in iOS 14.A critical aspect of navigating this change is about managing user consent to make the most of the options in iOS 14. In this episode, we talk about what you can do with consent flows – and why it matters for your iOS 14 strategy.Key highlights: 📋 Why getting consent matters.💬 You can only ask once.🔔 Test soft prompts before a hard one, much like for PNs🎯 Test the right messaging in the Apple-provided prompt⏳ Why delaying opt-in is the best decision in certain casesCheck out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-maximize-idfas-opt-ins-with-thoughtful-user-consent-flows/ **Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Sandra Wu, paid content marketer at Blinkist. In today’s interview, Sandra dispels many of the misconceptions about using these marketing channels. Starting from suggesting an entirely different approach to these ads and understanding the place it occupies in the funnel, to selecting the right metrics to measure success and critically evaluating if paid content marketing is indeed the right user flow for an app, she covers all bases. In this conversation, she highlights the many differences between Facebook and Google advertising and paid content marketing with relatable examples and sharp insights. Key highlights: 🧮How paid content marketing differs from Facebook and Google ads.🔎The user flow on platforms like Outbrain and Taboola.🛬Landing pages and the paid content marketing user flow.🧩Components of a paid content ad.✒️Why the headline is the first touchpoint for a user.🤔Why two seemingly similar headlines can have very different performance.🎯How copy helps qualify the right users.🤞Why it’s important to mirror the style of the top publisher that you expect to work on.🎰Why clickbait traffic can become very expensive.💯How sensationalism or buzzwords can be impactful. 🛣️When to use a direct-to-app store user flow, and when to use a landing page.🗺️How to structure a landing page.⚖️How to strike the right balance between being sales-y and valuable.⚠️The biggest mistakes made by marketers when it comes to paid content marketing.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-unlock-the-power-of-paid-content-marketing-using-outbrain-taboola-with-sandra-wu-paid-content-marketing-lead-at-blinkist/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Paula Neves, product manager at Square Enix. We discuss how psychological models are integral for understanding user personas, which in turn give us data and insights on how to attract, engage and motivate different kinds of users - and change what oftentimes is the essence of a game itself. This is very much a masterclass in gamer psychology - and we’re thrilled to present our conversation with one of the smartest folks in mobile today.Key highlights: 🏅 What inspired Paula to start using psychological frameworks to understand gamer motivation. 🔑 The key psychological models and frameworks that are relevant for understanding gamer motivation.🎮 How psychological models help point to the kinds of players a game will attract.📊 How Paula adapted models originally made for AAA games for an F2P context.📈 How to evaluate a game as per a psychological model prior to its launch.🧐 How psychological models help align on a vision for the game.🤝 How to resolve disagreements that may come up when evaluating a game according to a psychological model.👀 How Paula and her team structure their competitive analysis.🧑‍🤝‍🧑 How to address resistance to applying psychological models within a team.📄 How user testing, surveys and focus groups fit into the process of applying psychological models.⚙️ How UA can be used to test user archetypes.💬 How in-game user behavior can be tied back to the creatives or messaging that brought a user in.🏃‍♀️  How psychological models can be applied to a game that is already live and active.🕹️ How a game developer might start implementing psychological models. Check out the show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/player-motivations-psychological-models-paula-neves-square-enix/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Maor Sadra, co-founder & CEO at Incrmntal. In today’s episode, we dive into how last touch attribution has always been fraught with inaccuracies and how it measuring incrementality might just be the best way to understand what the true impact of your digital marketing is.Key Highlights:🥴 Why last touch attribution has always been problematic🧐 What led to Uber being susceptible to fraud.😤 How there’s a thin line between frauds and self-attribution, when it comes to claiming credit for click and view through installs😯 How last touch attribution enabled fraud🤦‍♂️ You don’t get direct or reliable access to impression or click level data from Facebook, or Google for mobile apps😍 If you own your domain, you’ll get individual data about users and their impressions🤨 How MTA can be challenging to make work on mobile🙄 Marketing measurement is not deterministic👍 Often if an advertiser pauses marketing temporarily, they start to see that they might be spending too much.✌️ With sporadic incrementality testing, one will not be able to optimize marketing on an ongoing basis🤔 Causal inference is critical while measuring incrementality.🥂 The last touch attribution is a good way to understand creative performance..🤵 Is measuring incrementality essential at small scale budgets? Check out the show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-incrementality-helps-measure-the-true-impact-of-marketing-spend-with-maor-sadra-ceo-co-founder-at-incrmntal/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

The pursuit of free growth is much talked about & lauded. However, it's worth keeping in mind that every form of growth comes with some cost attached.In this mini-episode, we explain why that is the case (even if you're not reliant on paid acquisition).We'll be back with our regular programming of interviews starting next week.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/theres-no-such-thing-as-free-growth/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

One of the casualties of iOS 14 and the post-IDFA world will be the concept of LTV as it exists in the current paradigm. In today's mini-episode, we argue that even though the LTV has had a veneer of precision, there was still quite a bit of subjectivity involved in decision making driven by LTVs.LTV has been a made up number - in many ways; and its loss will not be the end of the world.Key Highlights:🙅‍♂️ There is no such thing as ‘user lifetime’.📈 LTV is often projected and estimated.🤼 Different teams calculate LTV differently.🤔 The traditional LTV modeling paradigm also assumes that the last-click paradigm is accurate, which may not be strictly true.🤝 The LTV model that prevails is often a function of corporate politics.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/the-ltv-metric-will-die-with-the-advent-of-ios-14-but-it-was-always-an-imperfect-metric-to-begin-with/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Today’s mini-episode features an article we wrote for our friends at Phiture for their blog Mobile Growth Stack. We talk about some of the limitations of the d1, d7, d30 metrics - especially in evaluating the health of users who have been in your app for a long time already; and we recommend 3 other metrics that fill in the gaps.Key Highlights:👀 d1, d7 etc. metrics tell you how your new users progressed through an app - but not how your existing users reacted. They also tell you if a user returned, but not if a user was retained after they returned.💪 CURR - measures the health of your currently active users.🏋️ NURR - measures the health of your newly(or recently) acquired users.🎗 RURR - measures the health of your resurrected users.3️⃣ All three complement traditional retention metrics.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/the-problem-with-traditional-retention-metrics-and-3-metrics-to-fill-in-the-gap-via-phitures-mobile-growth-stack-blog/Check out the original blogpost here on the Mobile Growth Stack blog.https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-problem-with-traditional-retention-metrics/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Mark Loranger, co-founder of Braavo Capital. Today, we dive into the different financing options for every company, and how VC funding isnt the only financing option for app developers. We’ll look at how app developers should think about financial decisions in the wake of the upcoming changes to the app economy starting with iOS 14.Key Highlights:🙅‍♂️ There’s no one-size-fits-all solution with regards to capital and fundraising for building businesses.👀 At what point should apps start exploring their options with regards to funding?🤷 What are all the different funding options out there for app developers?🤔 What optionality is - and why it should matter to entrepreneurs.💰 What is revenue based financing?👥 What is user acquisition funding?🔍 What sort of app is VC funding right for?⚔️ What are the tradeoffs and challenges of obtaining non-VC funding?📑 Why it’s important to think about the fundamentals of your business all the time.💪 Why a lifestyle business can be very sustainable and healthy.👨‍💼 How it’s smart to seek out other funding that’s not VC funding🤓 How VC funding can backfire and lead to minimal payout to founders and early employees🤩 How you should use capital to build enterprise value vs. for marketing.👨‍💻 How should a developer look at funding if they aren't sure if they will have strong retention?🔥 The risks of venture debt.❗Why receivables financing isnt just for companies that want to pay their bills faster.🗑️ In the light of the upcoming IDFA deprecation, why it’s important to avoid making very long term commitments.✅ Why planning for IDFA deprecation is in some ways similar to planning for handling the pandemic.💡 Why the current changes are similar to when companies started to transition to subscription based models in 2015.💯 What we are advising our clients at RocketShip HQ.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-finance-your-apps-growth-without-accessing-venture-capital-with-mark-loranger-co-founder-coo-at-braavo-capital/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is George Natsvlishvili, Head of Organic Growth at Glovo. Georgy is a repeat guest on the Mobile User Acquisition Show - and I’m thrilled for today’s episode because Georgy and his team are doing what very few teams do, which is automating their ASO KPIs. Very many teams leave this aside as not very actionable or trackable - and this episode is very instructive for the potential it highlights for tracking and actioning these KPIs.As a side note: the audio quality in this episode isn't the best - however it’s all audible. You should also be able to consult the transcript and show notes for details. Thank you for your patience and understanding.Key Highlights:🎛How Georgy’s team collects all ASO KPIs in a single dashboard.📸How to automate the customization of screenshots and metadata for multiple countries.⚡️How seasonal offers and campaigns can be emphasized through app store screenshots.💁🏻‍♀️Every app is different -- why that makes automation of screenshot testing challenging.1️⃣The most important metrics to look at on the ASO KPI dashboard.⚖️Filtering different countries to measure effect of featuring in each country individually. 😄Different ways in which the dashboard is extremely actionable. 🌤How you can track ratings on a day-to-day basis by using the dashboard.🏆How Georgy’s team uses repetitive testing to ensure his winners are reliable - because of the way Google Play measures confidence levels.💸What are some of the ways organics are affected by paid or offline marketing?🌏How Glovo does incrementality tests at a regional or city level.🙌🏽Why Glovo’s team set up a dedicated automation team for paid acquisition.Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-automate-your-teams-organic-aso-metrics-tracking/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

In today’s episode, we have an all star panel featuring the smartest folks we know. The episode features Eric Seufert from Mobile Dev Memo, mobile growth consultant Thomas Petit, and Nebojsa Radovic from N3TWORK.What are advertisers solving for? What kind of advertisers will be the most and least impacted? Of the solutions proposed, what’s real and what isn't? Each of our superstar guests offers their tips, strategies, and opinions on what the mobile marketing world will look like post-IDFA - and more importantly how to prepare. Key Highlights:🤔What strategies are realistic and which strategies are not?🔄Is Apple going to provide loopholes for advertisers and ad tech companies?✨Deterministic measurement has been an illusion all along.🙅🏻‍♀️Why investing in a short-term, potentially fleeting, strategy is not advisable🕸The importance of embracing the complexity of attribution by nature.🗓How figuring out workarounds might help in the short term, but there is a need for a more scalable solution in the long-term📝The importance of a publisher that's really good at technical UA and understands incrementality.👀If you’re a small developer, what sort of publisher should you look for?💰What will be the impact of this change on ad monetization dollars - and specifically hypercasual developers?💡What are some of the reasons other than privacy behind Apple implementing this shift away from iOS 14?🌀What the transition period right after the introduction of iOS 14 could look like.⬇️Why a small drop in costs and efficiency might mean you aren't able to spend anything.🕶What will the opt-in rates and app revenues really look like?👩‍👧‍👧How apps for kids are already dealing with some of these regulations and challenges.🤑Will the spend shift to Android?⚡️Why subscription based apps might have an advantage over others.👊🏽Subscription apps might be much more aggressive on their first time experience.😮Where Apple may iterate with SKAdNetwork.✍🏽Why subscription apps might add signups to their app onboarding flow.🔨One workaround might be to get the IDFAs of only high-value users.🤖What sort of games might be most impacted post iOS 14.🙌🏽How apps might lean into the SKAdNetwork approach.Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-prepare-for-a-post-idfa-world-as-a-marketer-on-ios-14/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Gadi Elisahiv, co-founder and CEO at Singular. Gadi is among the folks who has been deeply involved in conversations about IDFA deprecation - and what the world can look like post iOS 14. Today we talk about what might happen to MMPs - and how we might work with SKAdNetwork in a post-IDFA world.Key Highlights:👉🏽Fingerprinting, attribution hash, and customized popups - can these work under iOS 14?👣The default path that Apple wants us all to use: SKAdNetwork.⛔️The challenges and shortcomings of SKAdNetwork -- conversion values, campaign IDs, postback, deduping, and more.😬How the way the postback is currently architected can result in fraud.👀What will be the role of MMPs post iOS 14?🤦🏼‍Why aggregating data is difficult - and challenging for in-house advertisers to take on.🌟How there will be a lot of innovation once the basics are established post IDFA deprecation.📶Is conversion tracking becoming simpler or more complex with iOS 14?🕰Will Apple release improvements to SKAdNetwork over time?💸What might happen to ad spend and CPMs in October.👩🏻‍💻How important it is for companies’ senior management to understand the IDFA issue and its ramifications.👊🏽How advertisers are preparing for the upcoming changes.🧐What sort of product changes apps are contemplating. Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-mobile-measurement-will-work-with-ios-14-in-a-post-idfa-world-with-gadi-eliashiv/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Gabe Kwakyi, co-founder and CEO at Incipia. I am excited for today’s episode as I have been following Gabe’s blog for years now where I have learned invaluable information and skills with regard to mobile marketing strategies. Today, Gabe and I will discuss the concept that they call the creative hit rate and how to define quantifiable goals for a creative team. Additionally, we discuss how Gabe’s team has adapted to this way of focusing on hit rate as a company-wide goal and how it has been essential for driving very many creative wins. Key Highlights:⚡️Creative as the most important factor that influences scaling - and how that inspired Gabe and his team to define quantifiable goals around creatives.🤔What is the creative hit rate - and what is a ‘hit’?🧠How to think objectively about the hit rate given that algorithms do strange things.💫Base hits, Grand Slam hits, and high performing assets.⚙️Elements of creatives that have been shown to produce hits so far.📍Having a hits-focused target ensures that the building blocks that produce hits are in place.🏷The importance of tagging themes and sub-themes.👯‍♀️How creative hit rates fit into an organizational performance evaluation process.🎯How designers’ targets differ from those of marketers and art directors💭How round tables with ad network reps can help brainstorm and drive idea generation.💢What team process and infrastructure has had to change due to focusing on hit rate as a team KPI.⚖️How to negotiate the balance between branding and performance aspects of creatives.🗝The importance of being hypothesis driven in creative production.Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-improve-your-teams-creative-hit-rate-with-gabe-kwakyi-co-founder-and-ceo-at-incipia/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is David Philippson, CEO of DataSeat, which offers in-house programmatic capabilities and a custom bidding algorithm to app advertisers. David earlier founded one of the first MMPs, Ad-X Tracking, which they sold to Criteo in 2013. We’re excited to host David because he’s seen the evolution of tracking on mobile from the very early days. He’s had a ringside view into the forces that have driven change over the years that have ultimately led us to the impending IDFA deprecation. Today we explore this history - and look at what lies ahead for mobile marketers.Key Highlights:1️⃣When was the first time there was a need for having some accountability for mobile marketing dollars?🤷🏻‍♀️How did marketers attribute performance prior to MMPs?🤔What were the original user acquisition channels?⚡️What was the dynamic that led to the rise of MMPs?☝🏽What is fingerprinting?👀What was the ‘Safari pop’ - and why did this happen?🌏The need for a universal SDK and a common methodology to attribute and de-dupe.🙋🏽‍♂️What was UDID?🌪The period of No Man’s Land -- there was neither UDID nor IDFA. 💫How the No Man’s Land period actually created opportunities for in-house attribution.🔄Very few people knew how to reset the IDFA.📲What was the purpose and function of limit ad tracking? 📍How LAT led to advertisers targeting those users even more aggressively.⬇️What LAT users can become much less valuable post iOS 14.❎How nearly all user acquisition and nearly all campaigns are a form of retargeting⚖️Behavioral vs contextual bidding -- what will prevail post IDFA?🔒What does it take to achieve performance with contextual targeting?💭Which advertisers will be affected by the changes the most?💢How will hypercasual be impacted?Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/a-brief-history-of-device-identification-with-david-philippson/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Cassie Chernin, an experienced UA professional who has had a career in multiple technology companies across various industries. Today, rather than talk about Mobile User Acquisition, we are going to focus on exactly how companies, especially predominantly white companies, can drive more diversity and work to eliminate inherent biases against not only the black, indigenous and people of color communities, but also women. Cassie shares some of her own experiences as a woman in the tech industry as well as some helpful tips and insights on how to think about and use your privilege.Key Highlights:⚖️Why Cassie chose to speak about privilege and dealing with it rather than user acquisition.🤓How Cassie started thinking about her privilege, and understanding it.🤝What does it mean to be an ally?🧠How Cassie suggests that people educate themselves about privilege.📚Cassie’s reading list.🤷🏻‍♀️What does privilege in the workplace look like?👯‍♀️What exactly is culture fit -- and Cassie’s take on it.⚡️Culture add vs culture fit.🔄How both women and men must change to create a more productive conversation and workplace.🗣How Cassie cultivated her outspokenness and directness.🤔What Cassie recommends thinking about and confronting behind-the-scenes decision making in a company.⚠️What Cassie recommends about the phrase: ‘work hard, play hard’. 👎🏻Shortcomings of the tech industry with regards to the expected culture.🙅🏽‍♂️A mentor does not have to be someone above you - and how Cassie suggests finding mentors.Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/what-people-of-privilege-can-do-to-drive-diversity-with-cassie-chernin/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

The dust has settled on the apocalypse. It's clear that the post-IDFA world is here to stay. Marketing isn't going away, mobile apps aren't going away - however we need a new way to operate in the new post-IDFA paradigm. This session offers a playbook - and outlines some of our key recommendations for adapting your mobile marketing strategy. We offer concrete examples, outline exactly how things will be different - and describe what you need to do to adapt.Key Highlights: ⚙️How does SKAdNetwork work?⚖️How is conversion tracking different with SKAdNetwork vs. MMPs?💰How might you define ‘conversion value’ in SKAdNetwork?🔺How does targeting change under SKAdNetwork(vs. the current paradigm)?🏗How does campaign structure change with SKAdNetwork(vs. the current paradigm)?🤑How do you measure and report on performance under SKAdNetwork?SLIDES FROM PRESENTATION HERE** Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/skadnetwork-201-a-guide-for-marketers-for-running-user-acquisition-in-a-post-idfa-world/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Pau Quevedo, Lead (Programmatic Trading) at Goodgame Studios. We’re thrilled to have Pau today because he’s had tremendous success with programmatic both on web and mobile platforms, and we couldn't think of anyone better to speak to about how the programmatic ecosystem will be impacted by the impending IDFA deprecation.Key Highlights:💪🏽The main drivers of performance on programmatic.⚖️The differences between self-served DSPs, managed DSPs, ad networks, and bidders.🤩The most important piece of information in a programmatic bidstream.📝The 2 paradigms in programmatic: probabilistic and deterministic.🖥Machine learning models significantly lag IDFA-based deterministic models.⛔️Why in-housing programmatic can be a huge challenge.🤝What questions Pau recommends asking a potential programmatic partner - and what is the most important question in a pre-IDFA-deprecation world.🤓How Pau’s experience buying programmatic media on the web can inform how things might change with programmatic on mobile post IDFA.☠️How web advertisers have coped with the upcoming deprecation of third party cookies.👀The most important challenge for web brand advertisers in a post-cookie world.👤How first party data can be useful in a post-IDFA world.📈How CPIs and CPMs might change post IDFA-deprecation.Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-navigate-programmatic-advertising-in-a-post-idfa-world-with-pau-quevedo-lead-programmatic-trading-at-goodgame-studios/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

You’ve probably noticed by now: many apps (and websites) prompt you to sign in via Facebook. While it may often seem like a simple ask to make of a user, signing in via Facebook can have significant ramifications for an app’s retention metrics.In today’s episode, we’ll look at why Facebook connect matters - and 3 ways to significantly drive retention.This was a blogpost that we wrote for our friends Phiture for their blog Mobile Growth Stack. They do some great work on mobile growth - and have some great writing up on their blog(including the original Mobile Growth Stack) - so do check them out.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/mini-episode-three-reasons-why-and-how-facebook-connect-can-drive-retention/Check out the original blogpost here on the Mobile Growth Stack blog.https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/three-reasons-why-and-how-facebook-connect-can-drive-retention/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Nebojsa Radovic, Growth Lead for the N3twork Scale Platform at N3twork. I’m excited to have Nebo, as he’s known, today because I’ve known him for many many years - and he’s one of the smartest folks in UA. Nebo talks not just about UA - but also the extended ecosystem in which it can be most effective. We explore how collaboration with product, design and analytics teams can unlock tremendous performance in UA teams.Key Highlights:💡How Nebo's UA team learned to understand how the game performs to unlock growth opportunities👥How UA and game teams can work together to change the appeal of the game, improve onboarding, or build new games🥅The ultimate goal is to improve the revenue and ROAS of the game.🔄How a seamless flow between an ad, the App Store, and the game itself can impact retention and long-term monetization⏰What works on UA changes as a game grows older.🎣How a product team can think about ‘hooks’ that can attract users to a game.🗣The importance of developing a common language between product and UA teams.🛠How game team metrics like DAU, ARPDAU and retention are often a function of UA strategies.🤔How the different infrastructure of UA and game teams is different can be a challenge👀Thinking about analytics and design teams organizationally - along with game and UA teams.🤖Designing in-game characters that can convert well on the UA front.💪🏽The importance of a product marketing manager - and the kind of meeting cadence that makes sense for seamless collaboration.Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/winning-together-how-to-unify-product-and-user-acquisition-teams-with-nebojsa-radovic-growth-lead-at-n3twork-inc/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

On this episode of the Mobile User Acquisition Show, we wanted to share some updates based on Apple’s announcements from WWDC that have the potential of having a significant impact on the mobile app ecosystem. The IDFA, which has formed the backbone of much of mobile ad tech infrastructure, will be rendered basically useless effective September 2020. We will dive into mobile marketers’ most pressing questions surrounding this monumental change. Key Highlights:🤔What exactly is this Apple update?📚The history leading up to this decision📱What is the SKAdNetwork?⚠️What will happen to the different elements of the mobile ad ecosystem? - MMPs, Facebook and Google, DSPs, SDK ad networks, Android, and you and me📍Impact on ROAs and CPM without user level data🏃🏽‍♂️The expectation that Google will likely follow Apple’s track🔄Marketing team transition from last click focused to incrementality focused🛠Very different tools for a post IDFA world💭Looking forward to an era of challenges, change, and opportunity Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/rip-idfa:-how-to-navigate-a-post-idfa-world-with-ios-14/‎**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Michael Jessen, Senior User Acquisition Specialist at Socialpoint. I’m excited for this episode because Michael’s team does something in-house that very few teams do, which is make playables. This is something that they do at significant volumes - and have seen massive performance from - and I’m thrilled to dive into their experience today.Key Highlights: 💡What inspired Michael and his team to look at in-housing playables.📄What teams and resourcing are required to in-house playables.💻How templates and variants are defined for each game.🛠What the most important elements to test are.🔌What the inputs - and the outputs of the playable tool are.📊How Michael and his team measure performance of playables - and the key metrics they track.📉How metrics can help identify drop off points in playable.⚠️The challenges of making in-house playables for smaller companies✅How videos, playables, end cards and in-game experiences can be a single unified experience.📲What the impact of in-housing playables has been.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-in-house-playable-production-with-michael-jessen-senior-user-acquisition-specialist-at-socialpoint/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Kentaro Sugiura, former Head of User Acquisition in APAC at BoomBit and founder of his own game studio Evelong Games. I’m excited for this interview because Kentaro is among the few people who has transitioned from being a game marketer to a game developer. In this interview we discuss what it’s like to be creating your own mobile game studio without a technical background - and how it’s often easy to start making classic games. Key Highlights:🎲The most important element of running a classic game.💯Classic games have very strong long term retention.🗣How Kentaro found development resources to build his first game. What his communication with his developers was like.🤔Should you build a game from scratch or buy source code online to customize it?💪🏽How Kentaro maximizes organics for his apps.🎨How Kentaro thinks about creatives for his marketing.📲Finding opportunity by keeping marketing strategy simple and effective 📈Does long term LTV matter for optimizing a classic game?⚙️What sort of analytics is best for a small game studio.👯‍Does this same approach work for a hyper casual game?⚖️What sort of scale Kentaro is at with revenue and spend.🤷🏽‍♂Why more people don't start their own game studios.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-start-a-game-studio-with-a-500-budget-with-kentaro-sugiura-founder-at-evelong-games-former-head-of-user-acquisition-in-apac-at-boombit/‎**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

With over 800 million monthly active users, TikTok is now the 3rd largest social media platform, just behind Facebook and Instagram. As a channel that is starting to emerge for mobile UA, the potential is massive.What is cool about TikTok is that it has opened up immense creative possibilities for marketers. It certainly has inspired wholly new ways to think about creatives for TikTok - but these strategies for what we call TikTok style videos are equally effective on other platforms.Today we'll look at 5 key ingredients of winning TikTok style videos - and how you might be able to apply these to your own creatives.Winning With Creatives:✅Character driven, narrative driven🎵Lead with music and movement💃Portray primary emotions👌Exaggeration is good.⛰️Raw, unpolished, unfilteredCheck out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/mini-episode-5-key-elements-for-winning-with-tiktok-style-creatives/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

What do you do when your revenues fall off a cliff? Today, we get to the bottom of things - and point to a way out. I'm joined by Sharath Kowligi, Director of Ad Monetization at GameHouse and advisor to RocketShip HQ. This deep dive is based on a discussion that Sharath and I had with the founder of an app sometime ago(we're keeping the app's identity anonymous - although the learnings and takeaways from this discussion are widely applicable). In this deep dive, we will discuss some of the specific factors at play that caused this app's revenue to drop 75%, and what we see as the ways forward to help them recover ground. While it's easy to think organics are hard to impact, this is a masterclass in how they can be moved and impacted, especially when they are central to an app's financial future.Key Highlights:😵 The immediate issue with refunds that the app was facing.🤷‍♂️ What happens when an app’s rating goes below 4.🤑 Why paid advertising isn’t always the answer if organics drop on account of ratings.🤭 What Google’s bad behavior thresholds are.🔢 What metrics Sharath recommends looking at to diagnose organic drops.📋 Benchmark organic to paid ratios for Android and iOS.😲 How Apple perceives ‘bad behavior’ metrics as compared to Google.🔓 Oftentimes just playing by Google’s rules unlocks a ton of organic traffic.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/welp-our-revenues-dropped-75-and-they-were-all-organic-with-sharath-kowligidirector-of-ad-monetization-at-gamehouse/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

My guest today is Anish Shah. Anish is the founder and CEO of Bring Ruckus, a firm focused on attracting, vetting and recruiting the best talent in growth.Today’s episode is one that is very very significant to me. Yes of course, black, Latino and underrepresented folks have vocalized their frustrations against structural racism in American society. I’ve had some personal acquaintance with this sort of systemic racism in many contexts - without going into too much detail, I’ll just say some of these jeopardized my home, livelihood and career in ways that at the time seemed irreparable.For these reasons, everything that’s happening in America today has been very much on my mind - as is the most important question: what do we do about it?I’m glad to have on the show today Anish, who has thought clearly about racial bias and the subtle forms it takes - from the perspective of having seen hundreds of executive hiring decisions from up close. For folks who are asking themselves - “how did we get here? And what can we do about systemic racism in our own companies and professional communities?,” perhaps this episode will provide some answers.Key Highlights:👀 What Anish sees as key patterns of bias when companies he works with are looking to hire a senior level exec.🤩 What most startup founders look for in key hires.🚵 Why more diversity in VC can lead to more diversity among founders - and thus to more diversity among hires.👨 What characterizes founders who are typically open to overcoming their biases.🙋‍♂️ What founders can do once they do realize they may have some bias in their hiring processes.🤔 What form of bias is much more common than ethnicity or gender.👩 For a company that notices they have very few women on their team, is it a good idea to only interview women for their next open role?3️⃣ How to think about culture fit - and the three elements that can make for a clearer definition of culture fit.👍How hiring outside the mold can be beneficial to a company. ✅ There is truth to the fact that underrepresented people are frequently disenfranchised.⛔ What underrepresented people can do as they choose not to work for a company that is not diverse.🔎 How networking can empower underrepresented folks in their job search.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-hire-the-best-and-dismantle-systemic-biases-against-black-latino-brown-folks-in-your-company-with-anish-shah-founder-ceo-at-bring-ruckus/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Natalie Rozenblat, Marketing Strategist at the mobile marketing consultancy Incipia. Natalie and her team have unlocked some significant wins on TikTok - about which she’s written a case study as well. In this interview, we uncover the ingredients of what makes for an effective TikTok strategy - and identify the keys to capitalizing on what is still an early stage platform that is very much exploding.Key Highlights:🎨The challenges with creative approval on TikTok.⭕️What the safe zone is - and why it matters.⬇️TikTok’s download card - and why its timing matters for marketers.🤔What happens when you click on the download card - as compared to when you click on the ad or when you swipe up.⚖️The pros and cons of automatic creative optimization⚡️How to use and optimize TikTok’s ad tags🏷How interest-based audiences with relevant ad tags can be mapped to ad creatives.💡Thinking outside the box to build an organic presence even if you aren't ready to run ads🔐The components of high-performing creatives 👩🏽‍💻Crafting a cost-efficient influencer marketing strategy - by reaching out directly to TikTok users. Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-nail-mobile-user-acquisition-on-tiktok-with-natalie-rozenblat-marketing-strategist-at-incipia/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Warren Woodward, Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer at Upptic.In 2010 Warren quit his day job in the film industry to go full time into building a one-man performance marketing agency, quickly pivoting to mobile around the dawn of the App Store. He has since built marketing divisions and launched massive apps for companies like Nexon, Wargaming and Blastworks. In 2019 Warren co-founded Upptic, a company focused on providing growth services and growth automation technology to app developers. I’m excited for this interview because Warren describes a solution to a significant pain point for marketers - how to optimize their performance on rewarded video networks where there are thousands of source apps. Today I’m thrilled to explore the elegant and effective approach to cut through this complexity that Warren describes.Key Highlights:🗣️ What an engineer at a big ad tech company said that made Warren realize as to what the incentives of ad tech companies were.🤖 What ad tech algorithms typically optimize for.🔗 What channels is it worth building your own algorithm for.📋 The key rules that Warren recommends using for optimizing rewarded video networks.🤔 How to find statistical significance in decisions based on these rules if data is skewed by outliers.💸 Advertisers can lose a lot of money on the long tail of unexplored inventory.📟 How a marketer should begin to approach codifying their work.👨‍💻 The different levels of automation that a marketer can pursue based on their resource availability.💯 The optimal workflow - and the fallback workflow that between them can work with nearly every partner.🤷‍♂️ Do the rules of the algorithm need to change for a completely new network?📈 Does this approach of building rules based on performance of supply pools work on programmatic traffic?Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-build-your-own-algorithm-to-drive-ua-performance-with-rewarded-video-networks-with-warren-woodwardco-founder-at-upptic/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Miray Alanlar, former Mobile Product Marketing Manager at Mozilla. Miray has a wealth of experience in mobile over many years - and something she has particular expertise in is onboarding experiences and improving retention through the first 30 days of a user’s journey, so much of which I’m thrilled about diving into with her today. Key Highlights:💡 Where marketers should look for ideas to help improve their onboarding flow.🎬 The key components of user onboarding flow.🎨 The key types of messages that can be tested in creatives.👥 What extended onboarding means - and how to segment users for extended onboarding.💭 How to think about multiple channels - and which user segments they are appropriate for.🎯 How to think about automation - and what user segments to target with it.🙅‍♂️ When you should not automate your onboarding messaging.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/the-first-30-days-how-to-improve-your-early-retention-with-miray-alanlarformer-mobile-product-marketing-manager-at-mozilla/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Holly Chen, growth advisor and the former Global Head of Digital Marketing at Slack. Before that, she led growth for Google Store & Google B2B websites, served as a product manager at Gucci, and had a brief stint at the UN.I’m excited for this interview because we look at one of the most admired brands of the last few years. We take a closer look at how they looked at mobile marketing while accounting for the numerous complexities of B2B marketing - including longer sales cycles, multiple touchpoints before sale. In the process of orienting their growth to mobile, they turned around a declining mobile growth trajectory - in what I find a very impressive effort. Key Highlights:🧗 How mobile fits into a B2B buyer’s journey for Slack - and why it’s challenging to measure.📉 Why a decline in mobile growth in 2017 was puzzling for Slack - and how they realized this was an opportunity.🚶 The first steps Slack took toward capitalizing on the mobile opportunity - and the success metrics they picked.🔗 The interdependence of mobile and desktop products at Slack.⏱️ How Slack attributed and measured the impact of the mobile marketing program.🖐️ What multi-touch attribution is - and how Google Analytics can be a starting point for products that are considering adopting multi-touch attribution.🏢 The infrastructure needed to be in place for multi-touch attribution.🤔 How Slack’s teams thought about mitigating the risks of multi-touch attribution.👨‍💼 How Holly and her team approached getting executive support for the mobile marketing program.🗓️ Some of the day to day tactical elements that had to change as Slack oriented itself more toward mobile.🔥 The impact of the shift toward mobile.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-slack-reversed-a-declining-mobile-growth-trajectory-on-mobile-by-setting-up-cross-channel-attribution-with-holly-chen-former-global-head-of-digital-marketing-at-slack/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Nadav Ashkenazy, General Manager at Supersonic Studios. Supersonic Studios is a subsidiary company of ironSource, and has had 5 games that have hit #1 on iTunes - and this is just a few months after its launch.I’m excited for today’s interview because Nadav pulls back the curtain on the ingredients of a blockbuster launch - and the exact process and circumstances that go into a top 10 launch. More importantly, he explains why attaining a top rank on the app stores might NOT be a worthwhile goal in and of itself. For these and many other insights into what it looks like at the top of the app store charts, I’m very excited to present today’s interview.Key Highlights:🤔 Why hitting #1 on iTunes is not a good goal - and what is a better goal instead📈 Given that iTunes has deemphasized the top charts, how impactful is a top rank on the app stores?📉 How much has the k-factor associated with a top rank dropped in the current app store compared to the previous version of app stores?🎮 How Supersonic decides which games to promote.💰 How Supersonic runs early marketability tests and soft launches to validate a game’s long term profitability.🚀 When Supersonic launch a game, the key risk is that they may be paying too much for a top rank position.👀 How Supersonic looks at the allocating installs between organics, paid and cross promo during a launch.🧮 What metrics Supersonic’s teams are looking at during a launch - and what their launch cadence looks like.🗺️ How Supersonic evaluate different geos during a launch.🙋‍♂️ Do Android charts behave differently from iOS charts?👨‍💻 How Supersonic’s UA teams are structured so as to drive post-launch growth.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-hit-the-no-1-rank-on-the-itunes-app-store-with-nadav-ashkenazy-gm-at-supersonic-studios/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

"There are as many ways to test creatives as there are to skin cats." - old jungle saying.Today, we’ll look at two different, and equally successful, approaches to creative testing – one led by us, and the another by our friends at Miri Growth. We hope that by discussing the differing advantages and disadvantages of each method we can identify the main levers in the process, and in turn, inspire you to establish your own best practices.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/two-ways-to-skin-a-cat-with-adam-turowski-miri-growth-and-shamanth-rao-rocketship-hq/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Jorge Canga, CMO at eGoGames, and Founder at Kaizen Internet. In today’s episode, we dive into an aspect of mobile growth that seems to have defied complete automation - ad monetization. We look at how ad monetization works - and understand why manual waterfall optimization can outperform completely automated optimization. We also explore other nuances and facets of ad monetization - and understand the levers that can often help easily drive 30%+ improvements in ARPDAU.Key Highlights: 🤔 What is ad mediation?🙋‍♂️ How mediation layers are connected to individual ad SDKs.💡 Why prioritizing a waterfall algorithmically or programmatically can lead to suboptimal revenues.📊 How eCPM floors work.📞 How different calls in the waterfalls work.🙆‍♂️ How many waterfalls an app should set up - and how an app should think about this.👨‍🏫 How an ad monetization manager needs to find the right balance between fill rate and eCPM floors.💵 Why ARPDAU is a more important metric than eCPM floor or fill rates.🎮 How the depth of a game’s content pipeline defines its ad monetization strategy.💰 How some games are built around rewarded videos.🤷‍♂️ In-app ads can result in churn - and also incremental monetization: how developers should think about this.🙅‍♂️ Why blacklisting competitors may not always be a good idea.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-improve-your-arpdau-by-30-by-optimizing-your-ad-monetization-waterfall-with-jorge-canga/ **Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Josh Burns, founder of DigitalDevConnect. Josh founded DigitalDevConnect to partner with game developers, game publishers, and service providers to support key business areas including strategy, market intelligence, marketing, game publishing, business operations, product management and business development. Josh’s specialty is in advising game developers and publishers, and helping them crack international markets. Josh also curates the Gaming Insiders newsletter.Key Highlights:🤔How apps should begin thinking about international expansion.🙇Many developers tend to overthink internationalization by considering local partners when typically Western channels with local inventory can be the best place to begin.🙋How a developer should prioritize among the 200+ countries they could be localizing in - and what their first steps should be. 📋Why getting an iOS app to be approved to be live in China can often take 100-200 pages of paperwork.🌀Why the foreign developer approval process in China is almost humorously complex.🎫The regulation change that will kick in on July 1.📉Why the number of companies releasing foreign games in China has declined over time.😐Why does China make it so hard to publish an app?😓There is significant consolidation in Android app stores in China - yet there are challenges in operating here.🔨How featuring works in the Android stores in China.🕹Some examples of games that have transitioned well to the Chinese market.🤷‍♂️What might happen after July 1, after which you have to have a license to be on iOS in China.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/100-page-documents-source-code-printouts-and-more-how-to-crack-international-expansion-with-josh-burnsfounder-a-digital-dev-connect/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Beth Gilmore, is a marketing consultant and founder at The New Department. Beth has an incredible wealth of experience in the programmatic space from her work as the Head of Commercial Partnerships at MoPub. In today’s conversation, Beth shares some fascinating insights about how many levers marketers have to understand and unpack their programmatic performance, if they only dive deep enough to understand what happens under the hood. From understanding what happens even before an ad is shown to being able to influence where in a publisher’s inventory an ad is shown, there’s so much possibility that this conversation highlights for advertisers - and I’m thrilled to uncover so much goodness in today’s interview.Key Highlights: 🤔 Why it’s important to understand what parameters a DSP takes into consideration in formulating their bids.😲 Why a bidder might correctly identify a bid request that might drive an install or purchase - and yet lose an auction.🤷 Why a bidder might win a bid request and might not end up showing an impression.⏳ What the lifecycle of an ad is like - from when it’s loaded in the system to when it’s eventually shown.🔅 How bidding on lowest-priced inventory can be suboptimal in driving performance.🗄️ What the best way is to think about privacy or confidentiality concerns around sharing data with DSPs.💡 Why DSPs sometimes may not have access to high performing inventory from publishers - and how they should address this situation.💯 What session depth means - and why it’s important for a marketer to be mindful of this.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/unboxing-the-black-box-moving-the-hidden-levers-that-drive-programmatic-performance-with-beth-gilmorefounder-at-the-new-department-former-head-of-commercial-partnerships-at-mopub/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Colette Nataf, CEO & Co-Founder at Lightning AI. Lightning AI helps advertisers find target audiences and advertise to them on Facebook and Google. Lightning AI has worked with more than 500 ad accounts and has managed more than $100M in ad spend.I’m excited for today’s episode because Colette is among the few folks I know that’s transitioned from a user acquisition service to a user acquisition product. She’s not only taken what to many can be a significant leap - but has also grown her business at Lightning AI very substantially since then. Additionally of course, she’s always been a source of great advice to me -> and I couldn't be more thrilled to feature her today.Key Highlights: 🔑 Some of the key triggers that inspired Colette to start automating user acquisition work.🔄 How Colette mapped out her personal process as a precursor to automating it.🕹️ What resources should a marketer find once they understand what to automate.⏰ Figuring out Facebook’s documentation can sometimes be a very time consuming process.🏆 The most common early win for most marketers who are looking at automation.📈 Are products with very high CPAs just bad candidates for automation?👨‍🏫 What a marketer can do to educate themselves to be ready for automation.🛠️ Building the mindset of understanding processes is as important as building hard skills around analysis.⚖️ Why scaling audiences via automation can be challenging - and how Lightning AI approaches this.👩‍🏫 How learnings from audiences can inform creatives. 📊 How parts of creative iteration and execution can be automated.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/taking-the-leap-how-to-get-started-with-automating-your-user-acquisition-with-colette-natafceo-at-lightning-ai/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Matej Lancaric. Matej is the Director of User Acquisition at SuperScale and a mobile user acquisition consultant who has worked on a number of games. He’s worked on soft-launches, on massively scaled campaigns - and on everything in between while managing over $10 million in user acquisition spend.In today’s episode, we dive into the art of the soft launch - and look at the 3 key stages of a soft launch, and why it’s important to nail every one of these. Also: Matej is teaching the course ‘Soft launch strategy for mobile games’ at the Mobile Dev Memo Academy. If you are interested in going much deeper into soft-launches - and dive into every aspect of soft-launches - from ASO to UA to early testing, you should definitely check out his course on the Mobile Dev Memo Academy at http://mdm.academy.Key Highlights: 📲 What goes into the technical stage of a soft launch.👀 What metrics to look for in the technical stage of a soft launch.⏳ What metrics to look for in the retention stage of a soft launch.🤩 Why it’s preferable to soft launch on Google Play before iOS.💸 What metrics to look for in the monetization stage of a soft launch.🔎 What volume of payers to aim for in the monetization stage.✅ Why it’s important to do the retention test before the monetization test.💭 Does this way of thinking about soft launches change for subscription apps or ad monetized apps?😮 The common mistakes that developers make with soft launches.⏱️ Why it’s important to ideally look at a six month time frame for soft launches.🤦‍♂️ One outcome of a soft launch might be that you have to kill your app.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/three-steps-to-a-killer-soft-launch-with-matej-lancaricdirector-of-ua-at-superscale/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Bozo Jankovic, Business Development Manager at GameBiz, a boutique consultancy firm for games.Bozo works with F2P game developers, helping them grow the business by monetizing their games with ads. Some of his clients include studios such as Wargaming, Creative Mobile, Nanobit, Two Desperados. etc..This is also the third episode of the Mobile Dev Memo Academy preview series. Bozo is also presenting the course Ad Monetization 101 for the Mobile Dev Memo Academy - so if you want to go deeper, do definitely check out his course on mdm.academy.This is also our first episode on ad monetization -> and today we’ll talk about an underappreciated yet emerging opportunity in ad monetization - native ads. This is a topic that I’m very very curious about - primarily because it used to be something that used to be accessible only to big brands with massive teams and budgets, but of late this has become much more available to smaller advertisers and app developers.Key Highlights:💡 The 3 stages of evolution of early native ads.💯 The best known native ad examples - Barack Obama, Farmville, Pokemon Go.👨🏻‍💻 How recent incarnations of native ads are accessible to smaller game developers.🤔 The factors that an app should consider evaluating the opportunity with native ads.👀 Most native demand comes from brands - not from games or performance advertisers.🎥 How CPMs for native ads compare to rewarded video or interstitial ads.👌 Why native ads may not be a natural fit for performance advertisers.🧐 Do native ads cannibalize your rewarded video, interstitial and banner ads?🙋 Why revenue impact shouldn’t be the primary criteria for assessing the viability of native ads for a game.😅 The key pitfalls that a developer should watch out for while evaluating native ads.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-capitalize-on-the-native-ad-opportunity-with-bozo-jankovicbusiness-development-manager-at-gamebiz/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Welcome to the second episode of the Mobile Dev Memo Academy preview series.Our guest today is Eric Seufert. Eric is the founder of Heracles and Mobile Dev Memo. Eric is a media strategist and quantitative marketer who has spent his career working for transformative consumer technology and media companies, including Skype and Rovio. Eric most recently sold his mobile advertising analytics company, Agamemnon, to the mobile gaming company N3TWORK. In today’s episode, we get into a macroeconomic perspective on what the current pandemic means for the mobile app economy - and how we might see the world change over the next couple of months. This is absolutely something that Eric has a great deal of perspective on - and I’m thrilled to have him share these. Also: Eric is teaching the course ‘Introduction to Marketing Cohort Analysis’ for Mobile Dev Memo Academy. Check his course out on http://mdm.academy - alongside the other courses taught by some of the smartest folks in mobile. Of course, Eric is the brain behind the Mobile Dev Memo Academy - huge props to him for helping make this project happen. As the pandemic makes massive changes to the retention and monetization profiles of apps, these courses are perhaps timely in helping you adapt, learn and upskill - and I highly recommend checking these out. Key Highlights:🏦 While the pandemic is driven by exogenous non-economic forces, it likely does exacerbate structural weaknesses in the economy.🌪 The pandemic is like Hurricane Katrina hitting every metro area in the world at the same time.📅 What trends are visible from Silicon Valley layoff lists.🤔 Will the app economy’s low-priced digital goods(IAPs) be impervious to recessionary forces?📲 How the ad supported apps are impacted by the increased engagement - and the recessionary forces.📑 Why it might become important to shift thinking from a ROAS standpoint to a profitability standpoint.💡 Why the current crisis might see a migration of advertisers to Facebook and Google from other ad networks.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/inside-the-storm-what-the-coronavirus-pandemic-means-for-the-mobile-app-ecosystem-with-eric-seufertfounder-at-heracles-and-mobile-dev-memo-mdm-academy-preview-special/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Welcome to the first episode of the Mobile Dev Memo Academy preview series.Our guest today is Thomas Petit. Thomas is an independent mobile growth consultant working primarily with non-gaming B2C apps. He is an external consultant for large apps (inc. 2 unicorns), a collaborator assisting several app agencies and an advisor for very early-stage startups.  He’s run campaigns since the first day, spending 7 digits on the platform directly and also run audits on many other accounts, is certified by Apple, SearchAdsHQ & ASOdesk - and is a regular public speaker on the topic.In today’s episode, we dive into a crucial but underappreciated aspect of user acquisition on Apple Search(and also elsewhere) - LAT - or Limit Ad Tracking. Limit Ad Tracking essentially means you cant track your users because their IDFAs show up as zero. In this masterclass, Thomas shows us ways to think about and make estimations to understand and capitalize on LAT, which can have a significant impact on user acquisition strategy. Also: Thomas is teaching the course ‘Apple Search Ads: Beyond The Basics’ for Mobile Dev Memo Academy. If you are interested in going much deeper into LAT and all things Apple Search related, you should definitely check out his course on the Mobile Dev Memo Academy at http://mdm.academy.Key Highlights: 🤔 Why there can be a 30 to 70% difference between Apple Search and MMPs.👀 What LAT is - and how these users are marked by Apple and Google. Why LAT installs don't get seen in MMPs.🚧 How different channels handle LAT. Why LAT can sometimes mean that a significant portion of your audience is unreachable on Facebook and Instagram.⛰ Geowise, OS-wise and vertical wise differences in LAT-on percentages.🔞 Apple turns on LAT by default for anyone under 18.🤷‍♂️ How a marketer might find out what percentage of users have LAT turned on.💸 Why avoiding targeting users with LAT on can be more expensive than targeting them.👍 How Thomas recommends bidding for LAT on users vs. all users.📈 How Thomas recommends estimating LTV/retention/monetization of LAT on users in the absence of perfect tracking.🙅‍♂️ Why attributing organic revenue to LAT on users can potentially open up a Pandora’s box.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/the-mysterious-lat-and-how-to-tame-it-with-thomas-petitgrowth-consultant/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Alice Guillaume. Alice is the Senior Director of Marketing at AppLovin where she heads up AppLovin’s in-house creative studio, SparkLabs, where she and her team build creatives for Lion Studios, for gaming studios worldwide, and for AppLovin’s partner studios to help developers grow their businesses. I'm excited to have Alice primarily because she's seen and experienced so much from working on creatives for a wide variety of games on AppLovin’s client base as well as for Lion studios, which is something I'm very, very curious about, especially given the massive success they've had lately. Key Highlights:🎮 What player motivations are - and how they apply to creative design.💭 How to do directed brainstorming to improve creatives.🎨 What elements in a creative drive high volumes, and what drive high quality.⚖️ Why creative tests can be a powerful way to evaluate marketability before the launch of a game.🧱 Why Alice recommends using raw unpolished creatives for marketability tests.🎩 Why every designer on the SparkLabs team needs to wear the hat of a performance marketer.🤔 How Alice thinks about creatives whose performance is inexplicable - and seem to have no clear reason for doing well.💯 Why ads that seem to be unrelated to gameplay can sometimes work well.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-build-high-performance-creative-teams-with-alice-guillaumesenior-director-of-marketing-at-applovin/ **Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

When we talk to people about advice that is unhelpful or frustrating to them, something that frequently comes up is ‘fix the product’ - or ‘build an amazing product’ or ‘have a strong product before you spend on UA’.This is all good - except - if you pardon my French, WTF does that even mean? Today, we’re going to break down what we look for when we evaluate ‘a strong product’. We’re going to share our 6 point checklist of key metrics that you can review and benchmark to assess if your product is strong enough for you to consider doing paid UA. Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/mini-episode-wtf-does-fix-the-product-mean-our-6-question-checklist-to-assess-ua-readiness/ **Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Today we have a very topical and very insightful episode for you guys. We answer the question- What's it like to be on the inside of an app that is seeing breakout growth in the middle of the crisis that we are in right now. Bunch is an app that allows users to video chat while they play games. Over the last couple of weeks, Bunch has seen a massive increase in usage and engagement. With the DAUs growing many folds and the app breaking it to the top hundred overall on iTunes in nine countries and top 10 in four countries at the time of recording. In today's episode, I'm excited to welcome Selcuk Atli, the CEO of Bunch, and Harsh Kher, the product manager at Bunch to get to know and see what it's like to be in the midst of very heady growth right now. Key Highlights: 📈 Bunch’s growth trajectory prior to March - and what they started seeing in their metrics in mid-March.2️⃣ The two trends that Bunch sits at the confluence of that likely drove a surge in their usage.👥 How the age and gender composition of Bunch’s user base shifted literally overnight.💭 How users’ nostalgia might be a reason they’re adopting Bunch.🤝 Bunch’s onboarding and activation rates are higher than before in spite of there being no change in the product.⚙️ Keeping the servers up is the highest priority right now. 💸 Infrastructure costs start to go up with sudden growth.💡 The qualitative & quantitative factors the Bunch team sees that suggest that this growth trajectory could be sustainable long-term.👨‍💻 How Harsh’s role has evolved and changed from being a growth intern/analyst.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/inflection-breakout-growth-in-the-midst-of-the-coronavirus-crisis-with-selcuk-atliceo-and-harsh-khergrowth-analytics-at-bunch-live/ **Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Samuel Hulick, user onboarding consultant and founder at UserOnboard. I’ve wanted to interview Samuel for a long long time. I’ve read Samuel’s work for over 7 years now. I love his onboarding teardowns of many many apps that are both incredibly instructive and very hilarious. Always incisive, always insightful - I’ve enjoyed so much of Samuel’s work. My interview with Samuel today pinpoints how crucial user onboarding is - and outlines how to improve both upstream and downstream user retention dramatically by improving your app’s user onboarding experience.Key Highlights:🤝 The ‘educational moments’ that Samuel looks for when he analyzes an app or product’s onboarding.🤔 Why Samuel recommends thinking of software as a service rather than a good for sale or an object.🧭 Why Samuel recommends letting users feel in control rather than taking them on a tour of the product’s features.👉 Why Samuel suggests thinking about boiling down your business model to supporting human motivation - or helping people do what they want to do.↘️ How Samuel recommends reducing stress in onboarding experiences that sometimes need to be long drawn - for instance, banks or fitness apps.☝️ Why it’s important to wrap every ask in the context of why a user is better off for having done it.👥 Why it’s important to build different user segments based off of the kinds of things that people are trying to do, rather than the kinds of people that they are.🔄 Why it’s important to value an existing onboarding process and get insights from it before changing it.💯 The concept of POP or ‘point of payoff’.ℹ️ How some products and apps are customizing the onboarding experience based on information they collect earlier in the process.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-win-with-user-onboarding-with-samuel-hulickfounder-at-useronboard/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Today’s episode is a mini-episode - and it punctuates our regular weekly programming of interviews, which will continue next Wednesday.These mini-episodes are short vignettes based on mobile user acquisition topics or themes that we think could be helpful or instructive for you folks.This mini-episode is a mini-case study, and describes a phenomenon we saw recently - and were able to diagnose.Check out the full transcript and show notes here:http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/mini-episode-welp-i-dont-see-my-google-uac-installs-in-my-mmp/ **Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today is Michail ‘Mishka’ Katkoff, the Head of Studio at Rovio. Mishka has worked on hit games at Zynga, Supercell, Digital Chocolate and FunPlus - and is the founder of the very popular and very insightful Deconstructor of Fun blog that is very much an authority on the gaming space - I definitely recommend checking it out if you haven't done so already.In today’s episode, we ask a very important question - how to build a studio that can make genre-defining hit games. Even though game mechanics are powerful forces, what can truly drive massive and sustainable growth are culture, processes and teams that drive high-performing studios - a perspective that I’m excited to dig into today. I’m truly thrilled to get Mishka’s insights distilled from hundreds of games from tens of studios in our interview today. Key Highlights:🤔 Why is it important to know and understand how to build a successful studio, versus, say how to make successful game mechanics?🎮 The seven elements that make for a great studio. ✅ Why ‘right sized’ teams are important to a great studio.👨🏻‍💻 Why Mishka values software and art over presentations.🎨 Why Mishka considers an art director a key early hire.❌ The one common characteristic of unsuccessful games.📐 How engineers, designers and business people on teams look at problems from very different perspectives.💭 Why a PM or businessperson-driven culture can find it hard to release anything genre-defining.✌️ How to change the composition and leadership of studio teams as a game matures.💯 How to think about being design driven vs. metrics driven.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-build-genre-defining-gaming-studios-with-michail-mishka-katkoff-head-of-studio-at-rovio-founder-at-deconstructor-of-fun/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co

Our guest today on the Mobile User Acquisition Show is Andy Carvell, the co-founder and partner at the Berlin based mobile growth consultancy Phiture. Before founding Phiture, Andy led the retention team at Soundcloud, where he helped drive some massive experimentation-driven growth. He is also known for his Mobile Growth Stack, a framework that I’ve found impressive in both its comprehensiveness and simplicity. In today’s conversation we talk about in-app messages, which can sometimes be underappreciated as a retention strategy especially compared to PNs and emails. Andy outlines why they work, when they work - and talks about the tremendous impact they can have. He gives the example of a 4000%+ uplift in engagement that they helped drive even when they were untargeted. I’m very excited for an in-depth view into an underrated but very powerful strategy that this interview with Andy provides. Key Highlights:💬 What are in-app messages?⚡️  The typical use cases for in-app messages - and how they are a part of a multi-channel strategy for Phiture.💯 The 4000%+ engagement lift that Phiture saw when they tested completely untargeted in-app messages for promoted books for Blinkist.💪 Why in-app messages are powerful - and how to measure their impact - both positive and negative.😰 How over time in-app messages can get fatigued.💰How to think about users’ propensity to purchase or lapse - and to think about predictive messaging.💡 Some of the more surprising things that Andy has seen with in-app messaging.🏁 For an app that has never tested in-app messaging, where Andy recommends beginning - and what he sees as low hanging fruit. Check out the full transcript and show notes here:http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/4000-engagement-lift-from-early-tests-the-superpowers-of-in-app-messaging-with-andy-carvellco-founder-at-phiture/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:http://HowThingsGrow.co