Most mobile UA teams think the algorithm is something you set and surrender to.

Itai Kafri doesn't. He engineers the signal.

Itai leads product growth at Voyantis, a predictive LTV and signal engineering platform for mobile apps. He has been in mobile user acquisition since before Meta introduced oCPM, back when advertisers controlled every bid manually. Since then, he has spent years figuring out what actually replaced that control.

The answer is not the model. It is the signal strategy built on top of it.

In this episode, Itai breaks down signal engineering for mobile UA: how to send predictive LTV signals to automated channels like Meta Advantage Plus, Google UAC, and TikTok in a way that actually moves performance. Why timing matters more than accuracy. Why the channel needs rank, not dollar precision. And the three questions every growth team should answer before investing in a predictive LTV media strategy at all.

If you run paid user acquisition for a mobile app and you are thinking about PLTV, value-based bidding, or tROAS optimization, this episode is the most practical breakdown of signal engineering available.

Video Chapters:  

00:00 Introduction
00:36 Pre-2014 vs post-2014: how automation changed acquisition
02:42 The seven-day conversion window ceiling
04:11 Why marketers and CFOs define a "good user" differently
07:00 Predictions, confidence, and the timing tradeoff
11:11 What actually feeds a prediction: the marathon analogy
16:26 Why proxies like "level 5" break down
17:42 How much data you need to build a model
20:15 Value-based bidding and the accuracy misconception
23:12 Managing outliers without breaking the strategy
25:11 Real client story: Google Search Partners going haywire
28:11 Whales vs outliers, and why hyper-whales backfire
32:03 Signal engineering vs RTB
34:05 User-level data, privacy, and reading the user mix back
38:57 How Black Friday and seasonality hit signaling
40:48 Why casual gaming is tricky for PLTV
41:16 Three questions to ask before investing in a prediction model
45:32 Where to find Itai and Voyantis

Topics covered:

- Signal engineering for mobile user acquisition
- Predictive LTV and value-based bidding on Meta, Google, and TikTok
- Confidence thresholds, latency trade-offs, and signal timing
- How automated channels use signals: Advantage Plus, UAC, PMax
- When D7 ROAS is already your best signal and PLTV will not move the needle

Learn more:

Episode Page : https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-win-with-signal-engineering-itai-kafri/

Connect with Itai on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekafri/

Voyantis gap analysis - https://www.voyantis.ai/signal-engineering-gap-analysis