Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Shana Sumers, who is the Head of Community at HER, the largest community and dating app for LGBTQ+ womxn and queer people. She’s also the co-host of the Bad Queers Podcast. Questions Shana Answered in this Episode:Talk to me about why the community aspect of your app is so important and how it helps you develop your brand.How do you build a community within an app? What are the functions of your role?What growth have you seen over the last 5 years at HER? And how has HER contributed to that growth?How did you pivot through coronavirus and keep your community engaged?Timestamp:3:50 The mission of HER and the Bad Queers Podcast8:03 Why community is integral to HER and the limitations of spaces for LGBTQ+ people11:36 Shana’s goal in her role as Head of Community13:57 The influence of community on HER’s growth18:12 Pivoting during coronavirus to virtual events, a lot of them26:19 Storytelling and growth marketing30:33 Being real about SEO Quotes (140 characters):(9:07-9:17) “There are only 16 bars in the U.S. that are catered towards queer womxn like period, and that’s if they survive COVID.”(11:38-11:45) “The overall goal is that I’m trying to provide a space where people can build valuable relationships with others who have similar interests.”Mentioned in this Episode:Shana SumersHER appBad Queers Podcast

Today’s guest is Susan Kuo, the COO and Co-Founder of Singular, a key mobile measurement partner. Susan got her start in the industry at Electronic Arts, and from there continued to work in senior mobile marketing and analytics roles at companies throughout Silicon Valley until starting up Singular.Questions Susan Answered in this Episode:What changes is Apple making to IDFA with iOS14?Why do you think Apple is doing this?Apple delayed these changes. When do you think they’ll happen?Do you think the industry will be ready by early spring 2021?What are the attribution solutions that will be available? And the pros and cons?How does Singular improve or mitigate the experience of working with an  SKAdNetwork?Timestamp:4:19 Susan’s experience starting up Singular over the last 6 years5:47 What sets Singular apart from other MMPs8:51 What’s been happening since Apple announced what it’s changing with IDFA with iOS1411:36 Primary reason for Apple’s IDFA changes14:35 Pulse on how ready the industry is17:15 IDFA-based attribution won’t be dead22:21 Fingerprinting24:50 SKAd Network: privacy-first attribution network29:30 The MMPs’ role with SKAd NetworkQuotes (129 characters):(11:36-11:52) “There’s definitely a primary reason, which is very much focused around user privacy. It’s been such a real core focus, not only across Apple, but all the largest media partners are getting tackled with this question in the last couple years.”(15:38-15:48) “Right now, in talking to the top 25 media partners, I get a good sense that most of them are going to be ready.”Mentioned in this Episode:Susan KuoSingular

Patrik Wilkens is the Vice President of Mobile at Azerion. Azerion is a media and tech company based in Amsterdam that provides safe, reliable, and valuable content on a European scale with local presence.Questions Patrik Answered in this Episode:Can you tell us about the organization you work for and what specifically you focus on?What are the challenges of in-app monetization of games?Are the organizations that advertise in your games also game development studios?Why do you think we don’t see more non-game products advertised in mobile games?Timestamp:6:39 About Azerion: producing games, powering with in-house advertisement9:24 Patrik’s role and focus at Azerion11:25 Pros and cons of in-app purchase for monetization14:10 Who is a gamer?16:58 Thinking about what games deliver21:00 The cultural gap between advertising and gaming industries28:50 Growth market opportunities for in-app advertisingQuotes (129 characters):(14:10-14:19) “Who’s a gamer? Honestly, today I think everybody is a gamer. They may not call themselves gamers but they are playing games.”(19:33-19:39) “Gaming is actually a great space, objectively, for brands to do their marketing, yet they don’t do that.”Mentioned in this Episode:Patrik Wilkens - LinkedInAzerion

Want to learn more about the value and challenges of ad networks outside of Facebook and Google? Today on the Apptivate Podcast, @Misha Syrotiuk, Head of Ad Networks and Programmatic on the user acquisition side for @Huuuge Games, breaks down 6 traffic sources beyond the big two. Questions Misha Syrotiuk Answered in this Episode:What’s the mobile tech community like in Warsaw, Poland? What makes Huuuge Games such a successful developer of social casino game titles? Are your strategies for acquiring new users similar across titles?How do you go about breaking down what marketing channels are worthy of investing? Are incentivized media traffic and offer walls valuable to you, and are there any tricks to leveraging them effectively?Which of these 6 pillars would you lean on first if Google and Facebook went away tomorrow? Timestamp:4:10 The growth of Huuuge Games5:05 Staying competitive with social casino games6:29 The Huuuge Games titles you should know7:45 Strategies for acquiring users across titles and genres12:33 The 6 pillars of ad networks, beginning with rewarded video14:21 Leveraging offer walls19:17 The true cost of advertising with DSPs21:34 Pre-load traffic on Androids26:22 Native content advertising29:38 Direct traffic advertising32:52 Prioritizing the pillars beyond Facebook and GoogleQuotes (129 characters):(5:05-5:15) “Casino space is very competitive and it’s very hard to get into for different reasons. One of the reasons is the very high cost of user acquisition and a very long payback period.” [178 characters](33:00-33:06) “I would go mostly with programmatic DSPs, just because the volume there is massive and they can have any reach.” [110 characters]Mentioned in this Episode:Misha Syrotiuk LinkedInHuuuge GamesApptivate Ep30 Scott Tompkins (Digital Turbines)

Cordel Robbin-Coker is the Co-Founder and CEO of Carry1st, the leading mobile games and content apps publisher and developer for African consumers. Cordel is based in Capetown, South Africa. Questions Cordel Answered in this Episode: What are some of the differences between investing in businesses in the U.S. and investing in businesses in Africa or is it the same process across continents?What early-stage tech business investments in Africa stick out to you as successes or failures?How difficult is it for you to localize your products across different African countries? And what is your approach?What is it like for consumers to download apps in any of the key African countries you’re focused on?What does your ideal app partner look like?Timestamp:1:43 Cordel’s story from Sierra Leone to investment banking to Carry1st5:27 Accelerating secular growth across Africa6:46 How investment opportunities compare between the U.S. and Africa10:57 What is Carry1st?14:36 The strategy behind Carry1st Trivia18:06 Tackling the diversity of African countries22:48 User experience for African consumers when downloading apps27:50 Two categories of partners that would be a good fit for usQuotes:(5:40-6:07) “[Africa] is the fastest-growing continent in almost any way you can imagine. People are starting to move into the middle class in a way you saw in Asia probably 20-30 years ago. And as that happens, there is an appetite for a really wide range of goods and services. Everything that you have and use day-to-day, people on the continent aspire to or/and are beginning to have. So, it creates a cool opportunity to build businesses and serve people.”(20:27-20:38) “Kenya has the most advanced mobile money system in the world, called M-Pesa. And, there are statistics that say something like 50% of the GDP of the country flows through M-Pesa on an annual basis.”Mentioned in this Episode:Cordel Robbin-Coker’s LinkedInCarry1st

Alexandra Kleemann is the Head of Marketing at Shpock, an online marketplace for second-hand goods. She is based in Vienna, Austria. Questions Alexandra Answered in this Episode:What was the single greatest challenge of learning performance marketing from the ground up?What sets Shpock apart from other online marketplaces?How do you keep the original sense of community now that you’re a nationwide app? How did adding a delivery feature affect your position as Head of Marketing? How did you adapt to the challenges that coronavirus presented to your app? Where did you deliver your messages around coronavirus and changes to the app? What was the tipping point in which Shpock decided it wasn’t safe for users to be using the app to meet up? Would you have done anything differently?Timestamp:3:30 Alexandra’s start at Shpock4:50 Single greatest challenge diving into mobile app performance marketing6:55 What sets Shpock apart8:27 Evolution of being a local marketplace to nationwide12:45 The risks and opportunities that came with coronavirus 18:58 Communicating big changes with users 23:30 Uplift here to stayQuotes:(16:49-17:16) “It was really successful. We saw a very good uplift in numbers. We even saw a journalist reaching out to us why we did it because they had seen our messages and they had realized that this was a big risk for us. And it actually turned out really well because I think users understand that at this point we weren’t looking out for business, we were actually looking out to make sure it was a safe experience. And I think that was really well received.”(17:39-17:52) “After all the theoretical discussions that we had around ‘we are becoming the U.K’s must trust marketplace, how do we convince our users of that?’--this was the perfect opportunity to prove it, I would say.”(19:18-19:32) “We even implemented new touchpoints within the product because one of the learnings that we had was that, even if you use lots of touchpoints already, there’s still people who are going to miss out on the message because users don’t always read what you send them.”Mentioned in this Episode:Alexandra Kleemann’s LinkedInShpock

Coming back to the Apptivate Podcast is Christian Eckhardt, the CEO and co-founder of Customlytics. Customlytics provides app marketing, analytics, and technology infrastructure consulting and hands-on help.Questions Christian Answered in this Episode:Any particular reason why you think Customlytics was able to be successful during the pandemic?What’s been top of mind for you as a mobile marketer in this space since the last time we talked?What’s the mobile marketer’s role to effectively leverage DPA to impact their growth initiatives?Have you found that most of your app partners are technically set up to execute DPA?When you think of groundbreaking creatives and ads, what does that process look like for you?What are your thoughts on how Apple’s IDFA announcement will change mobile marketing?Timestamp:2:15 Resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic5:43 Rise in the number of Dynamic Product Ads (DPA)8:15 The mobile marketer’s new role in the era of automation12:26 Barriers to building the technical infrastructure needed for DPAs14:47 The value of DPA and the alternative17:15 The gold rule to creative success22:40 Thoughts on Apple’s IDFA announcementQuotes:(8:43-9:01) “I think that other stuff will essentially be two main categories of tasks that are left, if you want to put it like this, for the human being. Number one is something that is essentially the oxygen for the machine to then really run with the data, and that is the technical infrastructure.”(18:00-18:26) “The golden rule is always that small iterations is what you want to do once you’ve found a new concept that works, then you want to iterate that to the point where they’re even better. Then at some point, you want to throw it away again to start with something new. But, it’s definitely not the road to creative success to never start over again and just make endless incremental changes on the tiny, tiny bits and pieces.” Mentioned in this Episode:Ep25 Setting Up Your Marketing Tech - Christian Eckhardt (Customlytics)Christian Eckhardt’s LinkedInCustomlytics

Michael Jessen is the Senior User Acquisition Specialist at Socialpoint, a world-renowned mobile gaming developer and publisher. Michael is currently based in Barcelona, Spain. Questions Michael Answered in this Episode:What would you attribute the success of Socialpoint to?What was your approach to acquisition during coronavirus? How were you able to continue with success despite everything happening in the world?Did particular sources in your UA programs provide more incremental scale than others during this time?What are some of the things you look for when you’re exploring programmatic traffic as a source?How did you change your creative strategy during coronavirus?When selecting the content for your playables, are you generally using content that’s earlier stage funnel in the game or later stage funnel?Timestamp:5:56 Socialpoint’s success8:43 Uplift during coronavirus14:40 Testing new playables during coronavirus17:32 Choosing content for playables23:19 Reasons for building playables in-houseQuotes:(8:58-9:11) “Before the official lockdown in the U.S., we already had some uplift in terms of performance, working very closely with product, like more than ever before. But the thing was basically the whole performance kept on rising. So we’re like, ‘Okay, let’s ride this wave and keep on pushing.’”(16:46-16:56) “If you create a concept video and a concept playable, and especially if it’s aligned with the landing page and the app store, the conversion is the best.”Mentioned in this Episode:Michael Jessen’s LinkedInSocialpoint

Meet Daniel Lopez, Director of Mobile Growth at Electronic Arts (EA), the second-largest gaming company in the Americas and Europe by revenue. Daniel got his start in mobile marketing at Machine Zone and has since worked at DraftKings and GSN Games. Questions Daniel Answered in this Episode:During your time at Machine Zone, what do you think made you effective?What are mobile marketers overlooking? Oversaturation of consumers: Are you more concerned about it from a cost perspective or user experience? Is there value in saturating a market to develop the brand and be top-of-mind to consumers? Have we overvalued Facebook and Google as sources to drive growth? Why do you think MMPs haven’t built a way for marketers to track impressions and clicks across multiple vendors? What are you looking forward to or unsure of in regards to the future of mobile marketing?Timestamp:3:10 What made Machine Zone team very effective.4:15 From customer support role to marketing.10:18 What mobile marketers are overlooking.12:09 Why managing towards a unique, incremental device universe matters.16:02 When mass marketing and saturating the market is useful.19:11 Open exchanges.20:00 What is Facebook good for? 21:35 Incrementality measurement.24:30 IDFA as an opportunity to develop more robust measurements.27:05 EA Future and open Positions.Quotes:(10:18-11:07) “I honestly think there’s not enough attention being paid to drivers of unique traffic and managing towards a unique, incremental device universe as opposed to just managing sources, channels, AT apps, and things of that nature. Because the nature of our business is that we need to identify an audience and then we need to figure out how to get to that audience. And then once we actually figure that out, then we try to scale. And then once we start scaling, we start dealing with this thing called saturation. And we start dealing with losses of incrementality, losses of effectiveness, and whatnot. And I think there’s not enough being done within the industry to challenge the lack of transparency on, let’s just single out, impressions counts.”(25:32-15:58) “The thing that I am most concerned about is--it also goes back to the death of the idea phase--is that that just pushes power more and more into the hands of the big companies, to where it’s going to be like, “Hey, they have all the data. Let’s allow them to do everything.” And then that just kills the spirit of the problem-solving attitude because then everyone can just blame the algo[rithm]. And that’s something that maddens me to no end.”Mentioned in this Episode:Daniel Lopez’s LinkedInElectronic Arts

Luis de la Cámara is the Chief Marketing Officer for Genera Games, a leading developer in mobile games for iOS and Android. Luis previously worked for other gaming companies, such as Outplay Entertainment, King, Gameloft, and 2K.Questions Luis Answered in this Episode:Are your soft launches strong determinants of how successful your games are going to be worldwide?What do you focus on as CMO?Can you tell us your thoughts on alignment between product and marketing teams?What’s your opinion on broader marketing where KPIs can’t be as easily tracked?Timestamp:13:10 Genera Games’ focus & Tuscany Villa15:24 Soft launches for testing retention19:56 What Luis focuses on most as CMO25:37 Value in the long-game of brand marketing30:20 Working at Candy Crush: maintaining a serviceQuotes:(21:35-22:14) “That’s one of my focuses from the very beginning is to tear down those walls. Make sure that everyone’s fully aligned. That we all have the same overall objective. Now, we can then break those down into smaller pieces and then things that are more manageable for a specific team. That’s really important. And then also understand that coordination doesn’t only come from a senior level. I think that at every level in the company there needs to be that bridge between the different teams: product, marketing, analytics, finance, art, HR. I think everyone needs to be continuously always working together as much as possible. Everyone’s got their areas of influence but everyone needs to understand everyone else’s area as well.”(30:58-31:01) “I think that’s the main mentality that people need to have, is that you’re not building a product, you’re building a service”Mentioned in this Episode:Luis de la Cámara - LinkedInGenera GamesTuscany Villa