In this episode of Remerge’s Apptivate podcast, we chat with Yoni Nijober, the Director of Partnerships at exmox, a platform that helps mobile gaming companies scale their user base through engagement-driven, rewarded user acquisition. You’ll learn why rewarded UA used to have a bad reputation, how it’s evolved, the benefits of working with a rewarded UA network for certain mobile games, how to pick your rewarded UA partner, and much more.

• Can you give us the quick exmox pitch and tell us about what you do there?
• What does your day-to-day look like?
• What makes exmox different from other rewarded platforms?
• Why did rewarded UA have a bad rep five years ago and what’s changed now?
• Are there certain kinds of games that see better results with rewarded UA?
• What are common mistakes to avoid when getting started with rewarded UA?
• Do marketers give you a ROAS target, or are there other data points?
• What should advertisers look for when choosing a rewarded platform to work with?
• How do you think rewarded UA will change in the coming years?
• How do you stay on top of the changes in your industry?
• What’s exmox excited about for the coming year?

• 0:22 About exmox and Yoni’s role
• 3:19 What sets exmox apart from other rewarded UA providers
• 6:15 Why rewarded UA used to have a bad reputation
• 8:42 What types of games have the best results with rewarded networks
• 9:48 Common mistakes to avoid getting started with rewarded UA
• 12:27 Benefits of working with rewarded networks
• 14:15 What to look for in a rewarded partner
• 18:46 Working with rewarded networks
• 21:56 How to spend a weekend in Hamburg

(4:40-4:50) “We found after years of trying and testing that reward flows work the best when you can really engage your users for a long period of time.”

(8:45-9:03) “Most rewarded networks prefer the games that have a higher IP share, mostly because it means you can leverage those reward flows way better. It’s also a matter of how much money a gaming company can pay per user.”

• Yoni Nijboer’s LinkedIn
• exmox

Joshua Javaheri is the CEO and founder of Lucky Day, the mobile entertainment company behind games like Bingo Stars, Solitaire Royale, and Blackjack Royale. In this episode, Joshua shares his story and the strategies behind Lucky Day’s success – from concept, creation, and the development of their flagship titles, to the hard lessons he’s learned along the way.

• What inspired you to create Lucky Day?
• How long did it take to create your app?
• How do you find high-quality users and how do you keep them engaged?
• How do you collect customer feedback?
• And how do you work on improving your product?
• How are you reaching new audiences globally? Are you anticipating any challenges?
• How do you retain customers?
• How is Lucky Day leveraging technology to stay ahead of the curve?
• Looking back on college, did you think you’d be here now?
• What advice would you give kids interested in getting into mobile gaming?
• What’s one lesson at Lucky Day that surprised you the most?
• Are there any books or people who have influenced you?

• 0:57 Lucky Day’s origin story
• 3:30 Launching Lucky Day
• 5:43 Presenting your app to keep users engaged
• 6:51 How Joshua listens to customer feedback
• 7:56 Keeping content fresh in mobile games
• 9:24 Retention, retention, retention
• 11:45 Thinking about the future
• 15:51 Reflecting on the journey and mistakes
• 17:00 Advice to aspiring mobile game founders
• 28:20 Influencers to Joshua
• 29:43 Offer to mentor

(6:12-6:23) “We try the best we can to give players a glimpse into all the awesome things they can unlock as they progress – but that’s what it’s all about. It’s about continuously evolving the experience as a player progresses through their journey.”

(10:12-10:18) “A player should never have an issue when they launch your product. It should always open as quickly as possible and be issue-free. Retention starts with quality.”

(15:28-15:36) “If you give a customer something they love, people will spend money. It’s not hard. It’s more like building something they love that’s hard.”

• Joshua Javaheri’s LinkedIn
• Lucky Day

Aaron Diaz is the Manager of Mobile User Acquisition at 2K, the American video game publisher behind NBA 2K, Borderlands 2, and other popular role-playing, sports, and strategy games. In this episode, Taylor quizzes Aaron on his keys to UA success across the big titles he’s worked on over his career, including how he reached 10,000 users in less than 24 hours for the soft launch of a new game.

• Can you tell us about the game you recently did a soft launch for and some of its unique challenges for you and your team?
• What was your strategy to get 10,000 users within 24 hours?
• How would you approach reaching 10K users differently if you had a month?
• How do you work with other teams to determine the KPIs of success for any launch?
• What works with testing new channels?
• How do previous launches help inform future launches for different types of games?
• How do you define success in the very early stages of testing?
• Are you using AI to do anything at work today?
• What’s something you wish someone would have told you about UA earlier in your career?
• Are there any new channels that you’re thinking about?
• How do you keep up with the industry?

• 0:53 Getting 10k users within 24 hours
• 5:10 Aligning KPIs with other teams
• 6:04 The key to testing new channels
• 8:14 The best way to learn from past launches
• 9:24 Defining success for game launches
• 10:50 How are you using AI?
• 12:04 Advice to emerging UA marketers
• 13:21 Placing bets on CTV
• 15:39 Staying on top of the mobile industry
• 17:55 What Aaron predicts for 2025
• 21:08 What to do in the East San Francisco Bay

(8:51-9:00) “At the end of the day, experience is the best teacher. You’re not really going to learn a lot until you actually get your foot in the door running campaigns.” 

(12:09-12:13) “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself and don’t be afraid if you don't see results right away.”

(12:31-12:47)  "UA is almost like gambling. You make an estimate of what's going to work for you. You don't necessarily have the answers 100% of the time, but using data, you can make the assumption that this campaign is going to work in the long run if you put a little spend on it."

• Aaron Diaz’s LinkedIn
• 2K Games

As the founder and CEO of Yodel Mobile, an international app marketing agency based in London, Mick Rigby brings over 20 years of experience in the industry. In this episode, Mick shares his insights on the evolution of mobile marketing and his approach to today’s greatest industry hurdles, from creative development and AI, to testing channels and diversifying your marketing mix. Mick also highlights the key challenges in retaining user engagement in the competitive app market and what he’s looking forward to in 2025.

• What’s your perspective on the evolution of the mobile marketing industry over the last two decades?
• What are you seeing in terms of trends in creative styles?
• How is AI positively impacting your customer base?
• How do you think about diversifying ad spend for a customer? What portion of it is going to self-attributed networks and programmatic? And where do you see that changing in the future?
• How long do you give a channel before you pull the plug?
• What’s your opinion on retention tactics?
• What predictions do you have for the mobile marketing industry in 2025?

• 1:30 About Yodel Mobile
• 4:00 The evolution of mobile advertising
• 8:55 AI in creative development
• 12:42 Strategies for diversifying ad spend
• 14:39 When to pull the plug on a channel
• 16:55 Mick’s view on retention
• 18:42 A look ahead at 2025

(5:05-5:27) “Millennials are opening 30-plus apps a day, and it’s become an essential part of access to digital information and media support, certainly for that particular target audience; and then the older audiences, like myself, rely very heavily on apps now. So they’ve become integral to the way we live.”

(7:34-7:46) “Now, creatives have become as important as perhaps they were 15-20 years ago in the digital environment, where the creative actually drives the compelling message to get people to download.”

(10:49-11:08) “ We're seeing a lot of businesses start using AI to help with keyword metadata management for ASO. Now, I think it's a good way of short-cutting that process. The challenge though, is that a lot of the direction that AI takes us in is very similar for everybody.”

• Mick Rigby’s LinkedIn
• Yodel Mobile

Remerge presents Apptivate Live – a podcast filmed on stage at the recent App Promotion Summit in Berlin. This episode features Pan Katsukis, the CEO & co-founder of Remerge, and guest, Oğuz Ayar, who leads growth and user acquisition for Voodoo, a Paris-based developer of world-renowned apps and mobile games. In the chat, they cover how to set up and optimize your mobile ads for both UA and retargeting campaigns.

• Tell us about your background with mobile games and non-gaming apps.
• What’s a go-to framework that game and app developers can use to set up a UA strategy?
• How easy or difficult is it to get set up with an MMP?
• What’s the next step after getting set up with an MMP?
• How do you figure out what budget you’ll need for a specific advertising channel?
• What’s your approach to optimizing ad campaigns?
• How do you integrate retargeting and what are you trying to achieve?

• 4:00 Introduction to Oğuz Ayar
• 8:30 Why you need an MMP
• 13:46 Choosing channels for your UA framework
• 17:17 The metrics that count
• 21:25 Estimating budgets for testing channels
• 23:50 Optimizing and testing creatives for mobile ad campaigns
• 35:00 Considerations for retargeting

(8:31-8:47) “The bedrock of the whole operation, from the product to marketing to everything else, is going to be how you set up your data structure and business intelligence structure – and that’s going to fall back down to what’s your MMP.”

(20:00-20:28) “My point is CPI has never been critical, really, especially as a target. As a metric itself, yes, of course, it is something that we need to keep an eye on. But, all that matters in the end is the value you're getting for every dollar you spend. And like I said, this is going to change based on what creatives you're using, campaign type, channel, etc."

• Oğuz Ayar’s LinkedIn
• Voodoo
• App Promotion Summit - Berlin

In this special 200th edition of our Apptivate Podcast, co-host Patrick Eichmann interviews three of Remerge’s regional directors in an insightful discussion about app advertising trends across EMEA, Japan & Korea, and INSEA. You’ll learn about the regional differences and advertising trends across various app verticals. You’ll also get regional insights on retargeting and mobile privacy from all corners of the world. This episode features Hide Cho, Regional Director for Japan and Korea, Kate Taganova, Director of Sales for EMEA, and Maria Latif, Regional Manager for INSEA.

• What app verticals do you mostly work within your region?
• What trends are you seeing for app businesses in your region right now?
• What have you learned about retargeting in your region?
• Is mobile app privacy viewed as an important topic in your region? What are people saying about it?

• 1:54 Introductions to Remerge’s regional directors
• 4:21 Popular app verticals and trending topics in EMEA
• 6:01 Popular app verticals and trending topics in Japan and Korea
• 8:03 Popular app verticals and trending topics in INSEA
• 10:30 Retargeting in EMEA
• 13:13 Retargeting in Japan and Korea
• 16:09 Retargeting in INSEA
• 20:13 Mobile privacy in EMEA
• 22:05 Mobile privacy in INSEA
• 24:27 Mobile privacy in Japan and Korea

(4:40-5:19) Kate - EMEA: 
“App businesses are constantly pushing boundaries to find cost-effective and efficient ways to re-engage their move valuable users, and there are also different goals for different verticals. For gaming, for instance, it’s important to explore strategies to re-engage users post-install with a focus on maintaining engagement, building loyalty, and also increasing lifetime value.”

(14:16-14:32) Hide - Japan & Korea: 
“What we sometimes see is a lot of collaboration. Let’s say a specific game does a collaboration with an anime character, a Disney character, or even specific brands. During these collaborations, game developers want to really push their advertising spend, including retargeting.”

(8.41-9.09) Maria - INSEA: 
"We’ve seen finance apps really taking off. One of the reasons for that is there is a big push across SE Asia for cashless payments, but we also see a trend in microloans as well. Micro loans are really cool in the sense that they actually empower underserved communities and businesses where traditional banking has not reached them yet."

7.22-7.45 Hide - Japan & Korea:  
"Before, we saw a lot of smaller, independent gaming companies publishing new games, and an app is a great way to access all different markets around the world. You develop a great game, put it on the Google Play Store and you reach users all around the world, but marketing it takes a lot of knowledge and financial muscles – so we’ve started to see this consolidation of gaming companies."

• Patrick Eichmann’s LinkedIn
• Maria Latif’s LinkedIn
• Hide Cho’s LinkedIn
• Kate Taganova’s LinkedIn
• Remerge

• If you were a marketing manager focused on creatives at an e-commerce brand, how would you get started using AI to produce ads?
• How do you think creative teams are evolving now that AI is here?
• Will there still be a need to work with humans in a world where AI can create ads on demand, and in what role?
• How is AI democratizing access to high-quality content for small and mid-sized brands?
• What AI tools do you recommend for marketers?
• How much should marketers be on top of new AI tools?
• Tell us about your time at Bluestacks.
• What advice would you give to someone trying to break into marketing today?

• 0:58 John’s background
• 3:20 Footage engineering aka AI-generated imagery
• 4:57 Getting started with AI for making ads
• 7:26 Limitations of using AI for advertising
• 9:38 Will AI take our jobs?
• 12:43 The role of humans in AI-generated ads
• 14:58 The value of AI for creating ads
• 16:47 Recommended AI tools
• 18:28 How much should marketers be on top of new AI tools?
• 21:48 BlueStacks
• 23:43 How to rise to the top
• 27:47 What to do in Silicon Valley

(4:05-4:26) “Yes, the AI orchestrates the script, the voiceover, the performance framework, the footage with the supers, the music – but it needs good ingredients to work with to make the sauce. So, if you can actually engineer footage – particularly with people and products in the frame together (because that’s hard to shoot at scale),  it would be a complete game-changer for the marketing industry.”

• John Gargiulo’s LinkedIn
• Airpost
• Ready Set
• Sleepless

• How do you go about data analysis and storytelling?
• Are there data points or topics you like to dig into that are often overlooked?
• Sometimes the results of internal models don’t match. What do you do when there are inconsistencies?
• What advice would you give to new managers?

• 1:30 Drew’s background
• 4:57 What is Varo Bank?
• 7:00 Pivot tables for storytelling
• 8:28 How to present your story
• 12:30 Choosing the right segments to focus on
• 18:12 When data is inconsistent
• 22:16 Drew’s approach to leadership

(14:33-14:44) “The value of retrospectives is you run a whole campaign and then you break apart everything to find out what the clear wins are.”

(22:22-22:26) “Leadership is a privilege – not a right. Employees are your greatest resource.”

• Drew Hampton’s LinkedIn
• Varo Bank

• How big is the mergers & acquisitions marketplace for mobile apps?
• What advice do you have for app developers at an inflection point with their business where they’re not meeting their goals?
• What categories are BlueThrone’s strengths?
• What can app developers do to increase their odds of being discovered by an acquisition company?
• How do you evaluate an app to determine if you want to acquire it?
• What should founders and developers be cautious about when talking to app buyers?

• 1:24 Josh’s background and a little about BlueThrone
• 4:40 The mobile app M&A marketplace
• 5:47 BlueThrone’s value proposition
• 7:05 What can acquirers do for app developers
• 11:17 How to be discovered by an app acquisition company
• 14:15 What are app acquisition companies looking for in an app
• 17:43 Red flags for app buyers

(14:20-14:28) “A good litmus test is to see how much of your traffic is organic. If you can sustain the business based on its organic traffic, that really signifies product-market fit.”

(15:32-15:46) “A really good piece of advice I often give founders is don’t be shy about the stuff that’s not working. You can very much tell the potential acquirer about it. But the winning formula is to present a game plan on how you’re going to solve that.”

• Josh Peleg’s LinkedIn
• BlueThrone
• email: [email protected] 

• Can you tell me about a significant but small win from your early days as a launcher?
• When did the advertising component of DoorDash’s business begin?
• What role did you play in DoorDash’s transition to including non-restaurant categories in your platform? And how does the advertising strategy differ?
• Can you tell us about a key challenge you faced? Or which milestones you’re most proud of?
• Are there any trends or new initiatives that you see shaping DoorDash or the DoorDash advertising platform in the next few years?

• 0:38 Toby Espinosa’s background at DoorDash
• 1:36 DoorDash’s founding story & Toby’s first big win
• 9:09 Building DoorDash’s advertising CPA model
• 18:54 Expanding into non-restaurant categories
• 22:09 DoorDash’s newest ad solutions
• 23:33 DoorDash’s challenge and opportunity
• 29:28 How to invest in the future
• 31:51 Best of San Francisco

(9:40-9:56) “So we started by building a discounting platform that allowed any one of our restaurant partners to discount an item and target specific outcomes, whether it’s a first-time user, a lapsed user, etc.”

(20:05 - 20:16) “We want to bring consumers a relevant piece of content, and we might also bring them a promotion or discount to help increase the conversion rate of that sale.”

 (23:31 - 23:49) “The way we look at this space is that we were founded on a very simple principle – to help local economies grow. We are probably about two or three percent into that journey.”

• Toby Espinosa’s LinkedIn
• DoorDash
• DoorDash unveils new platform for enterprise restaurants
• DoorDash adds new capabilities for CPG partners