Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Brian Altman, your host of the Apptivate Podcast’s Mobile Gaming series, brings listeners a roundup of some of the best bits from interviews about how to market your mobile game internationally. In this special compilation episode, you'll hear from Aaron Pietsch, the Senior User Acquisition Specialist at Rec Room; Claire Rozain, a User Acquisition Lead at Rovio; Farhan Haq, Founder of Hyper HQ; and Cordel Robbin-Coker, the Co-Founder and CEO of Carry1st. Find links to all the full-length episodes from the Gaming Series in the notes.Mentioned in this Episode:Ep135 Is There a Winning Formula for Marketing a Mobile Game? with Aaron PietschEp136 Mobile Gaming: Are Your Creatives Inclusive & Accessible? with Claire RozainEp137 Monetization Strategies for Casual Mobile Games with Farhan HaqEp143 Cracking Africa’s Mobile Gaming Market with Cordel Robbin-CokerEp138 Marketing Strategies for Launching a Mobile Game with Dmitry GubanenkovEp144 Prioritizing Countries for an International App Launch with Mert Çamur

Matej Lančarič has been in the gaming industry for 10 years. He’s launched 32 mobile games in the last five years as a user acquisition and marketing consultant, and soft launching mobile games is one of his specialties. In this episode, Matej shares some of the biggest mistakes companies make when soft launching their mobile games. Matej is also one of the hosts of the 2 & a Half Gamers podcast. He and Tommy talk about the show and other mobile marketing industry topics at the top of Matej’s mind.Questions Matej Answered in this Episode:What made you want to switch to working as a consultant as opposed to staying with a major publisher?Do you gravitate towards certain genres or verticals that you seem to have a better grasp of than others or that you enjoy working with more than others?What are some of the big mistakes companies make when strategizing a soft launch for a mobile game?What are fake ads?Why did you launch the 2 & a Half Gamers Podcast? What was the goal? What does it mean to be “no bullshit”?What’s been top of mind for you in the industry? Who is the “half-gamer”? Will you continue focusing on games in your show?Timestamp:2:54 Matej’s background4:21 Why Matej was drawn to consulting6:06 Specializing in soft launch strategies8:00 Mistakes companies make on soft launches9:20 Misleading gameplay ads taint data12:32 Countries where everyone tests tech phase13:31 Building the predictions16:33 About 2 & a Half Gamers PodcastQuotes:(8:01-8:24) “Companies sometimes think they can soft launch a game in one month, and then a global launch, then scale to millions. Well, it’s not how it works. Even if you are in the development of the game for one year, the first build you get out there can have very low numbers in retention, unfortunately, but it’s part of game development.”(8:25-8:47) “Companies try to skip the technical phase and jump right into running a UA in Tier 1 countries where it’s really expensive. You need to be sure you have your tech stack – not 100% – but 200% correct; because there’s nothing worse than making decisions based on false data.”Mentioned in this Episode:Matej Lančarič’s LinkedInlancaric.me - Matej’s Consultancy“How to soft launch a mobile game in 2022” Article by Matej2 & a Half Gamers Podcast

This week we’re rebroadcasting a Growth Masterminds podcast episode with Pan Katsukis, Remerge’s founder and CEO, who talks about contextual targeting – where it works, where it's strong, and where it is weak.  Learn the psychology of contextual versus behaviorally targeted ads, the future of targeting, and how in some cases contextual targets can use up to 100 parameters to get even better than behavioral targeting.Pan's expertise lies in the display advertising market, in particular the field of mobile advertising and programmatic buying. He is well experienced in building technologies, working closely with developers, and fostering company culture during periods of rapid growth.Mentioned in this Episode:Pan KatsukisGrowth Masterminds Podcast

Mert Çamur leads the user acquisition and creative marketing teams at GameGuru, a casual and hyper-casual mobile game publisher based in Istanbul, Turkey. In this episode, Mert shares how he decides which international markets to prioritize and how much of his marketing budget to allocate when launching a casual or hyper-casual mobile game. He also shares his biggest pieces of advice to mobile marketers who are making the switch from working with publishers to self-publishing.Questions Mert Answered in this Episode:How do you optimize your app based on user behavior in different countries and regions?How do you prioritize regions when it comes to games?How do you decide how to allocate your marketing budget?What have been the hardest markets to break into?What advice would you give other marketers who are considering making the switch from working with publishers to self-publishing? What are some things you wish you’d known beforehand?What are your thoughts on creative strategies for international markets?Do you have a favorite country to break into? Least favorite?Timestamp:1:38 Mert’s career journey3:04 About GameGuru5:00 Tracking the right events6:16 Marketing to different geos8:07 Deciding what countries to prioritize9:24 How to allocate your marketing budget10:35 The hardest market to break into?12:18 Making the switch to self-publishing13:45 When to localize your creative strategy15:46 Favorite countries to break intoQuotes:(6:20-6:36) “With our campaigns we try to reach users from different cultures, income groups, genders, education levels, and interests. That’s why we differentiate our creative strategy, media planning, and monetization strategy according to countries.”(9:30-9:43) “The first issue you should pay attention to when you’re allocating your budget between countries is can you allocate a budget that meets the minimum learning threshold in the networks in which you’re working?”(12:18-12:22) “Be brave – Make mistakes and learn from your mistakes.”Mentioned in this Episode:Mert Çamur’s LinkedInGameGuru

Carry1st is on a mission to be the leading consumer content platform in Africa, focusing on mobile games and fintech companies. In this episode, the co-founder and CEO of Carry1st, Cordel Robbin-Coker, shares his firsthand experience with marketing mobile games to the new, emerging markets of Africa. Learn about African trends, influencer marketing, user behavior, and how the African market compares to the world.  Cordel began his career in finance at Morgan Stanley and then the Carlyle Group, where he led a $700 million private equity fund in sub-Saharan Africa. He started investing in tech startups for fun on the side, which led to Carry1st, a marriage between his childhood passion for gaming and the massive potential he saw for mobile content in Africa. He is based in Capetown, South Africa.Questions Cordel Answered in this Episode:How did you get to where you are today? What do you focus on in your role at Carry1st?What types of partners do you work with?What trends do you see in the adoption of mobile games in the African market? What kind of games resonate with users in Africa?How does that demographic affect which gaming titles you choose to support?Does someone on your team do market research on popular games in different regions?If you were to compare Africa to the US mobile market, what year would you say Africa is in currently?How does the access to internet affect the mobile games that you’re putting out on the market?Can you tell us about your experience with influencer marketing in Africa?What are the challenges and solutions with payment services in the African region?Timestamp:1:36 Cordel’s background & Carry1st8:30 What mobile games are trending in Africa10:32 Why Carry1st isn’t depending on performance marketing12:05 Consumer insight strategy13:25 Comparing Africa’s mobile gaming industry17:13 Infrastructure & accessibility22:06 Influencer marketing in Africa27:55 Challenges & solutions with paymentsQuotes:(8:45-9:00) “There are 1.4 billion people in Africa but 1.1 of those are under the age of 40. So you have a median age of 19 years old, which compares to something like 42 or 43 in Western Europe.”(10:49-11:05) “We believe that there is a lot of low-hanging fruit, particularly in a new, emerging region, with organic – finding different ways to drive organic installs, driving community-led growth, influencers, and so on.”(13:34-13:39) “Africa’s mobile game industry is essentially where Southeast Asia’s was six or seven years ago.”(30:05-30:26) “I think crypto and Web3 will be more impactful in Africa than anywhere else in the world. The reason is because there are legitimate day-to-day use cases for the majority of folks whereas, in the West, it tends to be, up until now, primarily a tool for speculation.”Mentioned in this Episode:Cordel Robbin-Coker's LinkedInCarry1st

With Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) opt-in rates at less than 50%, mobile marketers must think outside-of-the-box to decrease signal loss. In this episode, Josh Alvernia, the CEO and co-founder of Clue, shares a novel approach to media campaigns: Rather than launching a campaign, serving ads, measuring, and then optimizing, he suggests working from measurement backward. Josh explains that maximizing the structure of first-party data first makes cookies replaceable, meaning marketers can waste less ad spend.Clue is a leading data analytics and media solution for insights-driven marketing across search, social, and programmatic channels.Questions Joshua Answered in this Episode:How did you get to your current position as CEO and co-founder of Clue?What are companies getting with Clue that they’re not getting somewhere else?What specifically are you measuring before you launch a campaign?How are privacy changes impacting what you do?Is one of your first steps with clients to augment their first-party data?What does good first-party data structuring look like?Does your approach still hold true in a mobile app environment despite more signal loss or are there other strategies that you’ve used to help app businesses?Was it terrifying to become CEO?Timestamp:5:34 Josh’s background and Clue’s journey9:43 The theory behind Clue’s approach14:17 The benefits of migrating from pixels16:26 Augmenting first-party data17:19 Good first-party data structuring20:47 Adaptations for mobile24:28 Taking the leap into CEO roleQuotes:(8:33-8:46) “Anytime you try to enter a new echelon for your business and try to compete at a new level you have to make decisions that drive 10x value. If not, you probably won’t make it there.”(9:51-10:03) “Most people and most media plans start first with how you’re going to buy rather than how you’re going to measure–and that’s the problem.”(15:13-15:32) “If you can figure out a way to structure your first-part data really, really well, there are legitimate replacements right now, today, for cookies. A lot of them have to do with managing customer profiles effectively. A lot of them have to do with augmenting those customer profiles with events that are happening all over the place.” Mentioned in this Episode:Joshua Alvernia’s LinkedInClueClue’s LinkedIn

Eran Friedman is the Co-Founder and CTO at Singular, a next-gen mobile measurement partner and thought leader on SKAdNetwork. In this episode, Eran discusses the three most common issues marketers have with today’s SKAdNetwork – conversion models, time delay, and privacy thresholds – and what to do about them. He also highlights what to expect with Apple’s improvements in SKAdNetwork 4.0. Singular’s intelligent SaaS platform enables mobile marketers to unify, analyze and optimize all of their marketing channels through a single dashboard, without any required SDKs. Eran is based in Tel Aviv, Israel.Questions Eran Answered in this Episode:Why do you think Israel is one of the top markets for innovation in the mobile sector?What makes you all at Singular such a trusted mobile measurement partner?What are the biggest issues we continue to face as an industry as it relates to SKAdNetwork?Walk me through SKAN 4.0.Timestamp:2:08 Israel & mobile innovation4:04 Eran’s background9:43 What makes Singular stand apart as an MMP15:10 Pulse of SKAdNetwork19:53 Conversion models with SKAdNetwork24:40 The timer mechanism challenge29:17 Privacy threshold issues with SKAN33:10 Making the most of SKAdNetwork 4.0Quotes:(25:13-25:43) “So today in the current version of SKAdNetwork, for the conversion, everyone started only using 24-hour windows. And for many companies, that’s really limiting. For example, in-app purchases for gaming companies: not many users decide to make an in-app purchase in the first 24 hours of the game of course. So again, you’re barely going to get anything from SKAN if you’re trying to understand your performance, and you’re not going to get the Day-7 ROAS that you’re used to. That’s a problem.”(36:33-36:53) “My guess is for 2023, the industry is going to evolve to look again at D7, maybe D35, ROAS campaigns for SKAdNetwork, which seems hard to imagine at this point. But based on this very limited signal and all the work that we’ve already done around modeling, I think it’s definitely possible.”Mentioned in this Episode:Eran Friedman’s LinkedInSingularSingular demo

Veteran mobile marketer Ariel Cohen rejoins the Apptivate Podcast to talk about rebranding your app. He tells us why branding matters more than ever, whether it’s the right time to rebrand, deciding how to rebrand, and getting buy-in from your team.Ariel Cohen is a mobile marketing and brand consultant based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ariel first joined the Apptivate Podcast in 2019 when he was the Head of Mobile User Acquisition at Kape. Most recently, Ariel was the Head of Marketing at Tango.Questions Ariel Answered in this Episode:What problem do you see the most in your work as a consultant?What are some of the biggest takeaways you’ve had in your experiences leading rebranding processes?What is it that pushes an organization to go down the rebranding route?What’s the process of coming up with answers to subjective questions like, “Is my brand being perceived the way we want it to be perceived?”Timestamp:1:20 Catching up with Ariel Cohen5:12 Trapped in the “middle position”7:34 Why branding is critical to mobile marketing11:12 Indicators for rebranding13:30 Gauging whether you’re well branded20:45 Getting your team onboardQuotes:(7:53-8:15) “Data is seeping away from our hands as mobile marketers, and we need to try to use other tricks, you could say, in crafting better market. I think as it stands right now, the role of better branding and positioning for each product is going to take a more prominent role.”(9:13-9:40) “How do you make your choice? I think a lot of people feel that they make their choices very rationally, and I think they’re wrong. It’s not usually the case. There’s a lot of subconscious force that’s driving you into making these decisions. And this is where well-crafted messaging and correct branding can change your bottom-line metrics.”Mentioned in this Episode:Ariel CohenEmail: relc242@gmail.com

Offer walls have historically had a reputation for being low quality or associated with fraud in the mobile marketing industry. In this episode, Solomiya Mykoliv, the Global Demand Director at Digital Turbine, debunks these outdated myths about offer walls and explains how their shift to deep, meaningful engagement with users appeals to publishers and advertisers. Also, while offer walls are typically for users who don’t want to spend money, Solomiya reveals when users are willing to open their wallets.Digital Turbine is a one-stop platform for user acquisition growth and monetization. They recently acquired Fyber, where Solomiya has been working since 2016. She’s based in Berlin. Questions Solomiya Answered in this Episode:What’s the experience been going through the Fyber-Digital Turbine acquisition?What was the impetus for Digital Turbine’s rebrand?What makes your offer wall value to the performance marketing ecosystem?Do you find it’s still difficult to get publishers and advertisers to buy into incent as we think about them today is not how we thought about them in 2013-2014?What changes are we seeing with rewards within offer walls?Timestamp:5:15 Solomiya’s background8:56 Digital Turbine’s rebrand and acquisitions14:10 Meaningful engagement with offer walls18:02 Reducing fraud with offer walls20:46 Have attitudes changed about incent25:15 Gamification with offer wall26:19 User behavior with donating on offer wallsQuotes:(17:01-17:15) “At the end of the day, users are incentivized for completing a particular action [with offer walls]. So the goal here is to make sure that users are spending some quality time with the offer, and it’s not just about a quick action and a quick reward. ”(18:21-18:36) “When you start focusing on events that take a week-long and you can track user progression within the app, it’s much more difficult to fraud, to pretend to fire an install and to pretend to it’s a real user. So that definitely helps to improve the overall quality.”Mentioned in this Episode:Solomiya MykolivDigital Turbine

Dmitry Gubanenkov is a Marketing Manager at Space Ape Games, the London-based mobile game developer. He joins Apptivate’s Gaming Series to share his approach to launching new mobile games and install campaigns. You’ll learn how important your audio choice can be, the best ways to measure the performance of influencer campaigns, and where to launch your new game.Dmitry leads user acquisition campaigns for Boom Beach: Frontlines, and previously, Beatstar. Before joining Space Ape Games, Dmitry was in a marketing leadership position at Kakao Games Europe B.V., ChimpWorks, and GamePoint. He’s based in the Netherlands.Questions Dmitry Answered in this Episode:How would you classify Beatstar as a gaming genre? What factors do you think led to the success of Beatstar?How does having music licenses affect the way you target users?How do you leverage community to enhance the ads experience and/or the endgame experience?How do you figure out the best approach to marketing the new mobile game and its release?What is your approach to figuring out which markets to initially push your new game?What are some methods you use to determine media mix? What platforms are working well right now? Not working so well?What is the primary KPI that you use to see success from influencer campaigns?How important do you think creative is in the success of install campaigns, and does that importance vary by channel?Timestamp:1:29 Dmitry’s background3:45 Dmitry’s role at Space Ape Games6:12 Beatstar’s success7:45 Audio choice in creative11:11 Marketing a release of a new mobile game13:33 Launching Boom Beach: Frontlines18:04 Approach to media mix20:34 Influencer marketing with gamers22:47 Creative is kingQuotes:(9:14-9:28) “We can see a big difference between songs. Even if we’re talking about a gameplay video, if you had two different songs CPI could be 10-20 times different. So it’s enormously important to have the right audio.”(21:48-21:59) “You can see the organic uplift from the days the influencer released the video, so you can attribute these organic installs to the specific influencers.”(22:47-22:52) “I would say creative is the king of performance marketing right now.”Mentioned in this Episode:Dmitry GubanenkovSpace Ape GamesBeatstarBoom Beach: Frontlines