Intelligent Artifice, formerly the Mobile User Acquisition Show

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/

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Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:
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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/

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Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

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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.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

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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

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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.com
http://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.com
http://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/

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Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

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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.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

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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.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

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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.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

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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.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

**

Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:
http://HowThingsGrow.co