Intelligent Artifice, formerly the Mobile User Acquisition Show

With over 800 million monthly active users, TikTok is now the 3rd largest social media platform, just behind Facebook and Instagram. As a channel that is starting to emerge for mobile UA, the potential is massive.

What is cool about TikTok is that it has opened up immense creative possibilities for marketers. It certainly has inspired wholly new ways to think about creatives for TikTok - but these strategies for what we call TikTok style videos are equally effective on other platforms.

Today we'll look at 5 key ingredients of winning TikTok style videos - and how you might be able to apply these to your own creatives.

Winning With Creatives:

✅Character driven, narrative driven
🎵Lead with music and movement
💃Portray primary emotions
👌Exaggeration is good.
⛰️Raw, unpolished, unfiltered

Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/mini-episode-5-key-elements-for-winning-with-tiktok-style-creatives/

**

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

What do you do when your revenues fall off a cliff? Today, we get to the bottom of things - and point to a way out.

I'm joined by Sharath Kowligi, Director of Ad Monetization at GameHouse and advisor to RocketShip HQ. This deep dive is based on a discussion that Sharath and I had with the founder of an app sometime ago(we're keeping the app's identity anonymous - although the learnings and takeaways from this discussion are widely applicable).

In this deep dive, we will discuss some of the specific factors at play that caused this app's revenue to drop 75%, and what we see as the ways forward to help them recover ground. While it's easy to think organics are hard to impact, this is a masterclass in how they can be moved and impacted, especially when they are central to an app's financial future.

Key Highlights:

😵 The immediate issue with refunds that the app was facing.

🤷‍♂️ What happens when an app’s rating goes below 4.

🤑 Why paid advertising isn’t always the answer if organics drop on account of ratings.

🤭 What Google’s bad behavior thresholds are.

🔢 What metrics Sharath recommends looking at to diagnose organic drops.

📋 Benchmark organic to paid ratios for Android and iOS.

😲 How Apple perceives ‘bad behavior’ metrics as compared to Google.

🔓 Oftentimes just playing by Google’s rules unlocks a ton of organic traffic.


Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/welp-our-revenues-dropped-75-and-they-were-all-organic-with-sharath-kowligidirector-of-ad-monetization-at-gamehouse/

**

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

My guest today is Anish Shah. Anish is the founder and CEO of Bring Ruckus, a firm focused on attracting, vetting and recruiting the best talent in growth.

Today’s episode is one that is very very significant to me. Yes of course, black, Latino and underrepresented folks have vocalized their frustrations against structural racism in American society. I’ve had some personal acquaintance with this sort of systemic racism in many contexts - without going into too much detail, I’ll just say some of these jeopardized my home, livelihood and career in ways that at the time seemed irreparable.

For these reasons, everything that’s happening in America today has been very much on my mind - as is the most important question: what do we do about it?

I’m glad to have on the show today Anish, who has thought clearly about racial bias and the subtle forms it takes - from the perspective of having seen hundreds of executive hiring decisions from up close.

For folks who are asking themselves - “how did we get here? And what can we do about systemic racism in our own companies and professional communities?,” perhaps this episode will provide some answers.

Key Highlights:

👀 What Anish sees as key patterns of bias when companies he works with are looking to hire a senior level exec.

🤩 What most startup founders look for in key hires.

🚵 Why more diversity in VC can lead to more diversity among founders - and thus to more diversity among hires.

👨 What characterizes founders who are typically open to overcoming their biases.

🙋‍♂️ What founders can do once they do realize they may have some bias in their hiring processes.

🤔 What form of bias is much more common than ethnicity or gender.

👩 For a company that notices they have very few women on their team, is it a good idea to only interview women for their next open role?

3️⃣ How to think about culture fit - and the three elements that can make for a clearer definition of culture fit.

👍How hiring outside the mold can be beneficial to a company.

✅ There is truth to the fact that underrepresented people are frequently disenfranchised.

⛔ What underrepresented people can do as they choose not to work for a company that is not diverse.

🔎 How networking can empower underrepresented folks in their job search.

Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-hire-the-best-and-dismantle-systemic-biases-against-black-latino-brown-folks-in-your-company-with-anish-shah-founder-ceo-at-bring-ruckus/

**

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 Natalie Rozenblat, Marketing Strategist at the mobile marketing consultancy Incipia. Natalie and her team have unlocked some significant wins on TikTok - about which she’s written a case study as well. In this interview, we uncover the ingredients of what makes for an effective TikTok strategy - and identify the keys to capitalizing on what is still an early stage platform that is very much exploding.

Key Highlights:

🎨The challenges with creative approval on TikTok.

⭕️What the safe zone is - and why it matters.

⬇️TikTok’s download card - and why its timing matters for marketers.

🤔What happens when you click on the download card - as compared to when you click on the ad or when you swipe up.

⚖️The pros and cons of automatic creative optimization

⚡️How to use and optimize TikTok’s ad tags

🏷How interest-based audiences with relevant ad tags can be mapped to ad creatives.

💡Thinking outside the box to build an organic presence even if you aren't ready to run ads

🔐The components of high-performing creatives 

👩🏽‍💻Crafting a cost-efficient influencer marketing strategy - by reaching out directly to TikTok users. 

Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-nail-mobile-user-acquisition-on-tiktok-with-natalie-rozenblat-marketing-strategist-at-incipia/

**

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 Warren Woodward, Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer at Upptic.

In 2010 Warren quit his day job in the film industry to go full time into building a one-man performance marketing agency, quickly pivoting to mobile around the dawn of the App Store. He has since built marketing divisions and launched massive apps for companies like Nexon, Wargaming and Blastworks. In 2019 Warren co-founded Upptic, a company focused on providing growth services and growth automation technology to app developers.

I’m excited for this interview because Warren describes a solution to a significant pain point for marketers - how to optimize their performance on rewarded video networks where there are thousands of source apps. Today I’m thrilled to explore the elegant and effective approach to cut through this complexity that Warren describes.

Key Highlights:

🗣️ What an engineer at a big ad tech company said that made Warren realize as to what the incentives of ad tech companies were.

🤖 What ad tech algorithms typically optimize for.

🔗 What channels is it worth building your own algorithm for.

📋 The key rules that Warren recommends using for optimizing rewarded video networks.

🤔 How to find statistical significance in decisions based on these rules if data is skewed by outliers.

💸 Advertisers can lose a lot of money on the long tail of unexplored inventory.

📟 How a marketer should begin to approach codifying their work.

👨‍💻 The different levels of automation that a marketer can pursue based on their resource availability.

💯 The optimal workflow - and the fallback workflow that between them can work with nearly every partner.

🤷‍♂️ Do the rules of the algorithm need to change for a completely new network?

📈 Does this approach of building rules based on performance of supply pools work on programmatic traffic?

Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-build-your-own-algorithm-to-drive-ua-performance-with-rewarded-video-networks-with-warren-woodwardco-founder-at-upptic/

**

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 Miray Alanlar, former Mobile Product Marketing Manager at Mozilla. Miray has a wealth of experience in mobile over many years - and something she has particular expertise in is onboarding experiences and improving retention through the first 30 days of a user’s journey, so much of which I’m thrilled about diving into with her today.

Key Highlights:

💡 Where marketers should look for ideas to help improve their onboarding flow.

🎬 The key components of user onboarding flow.

🎨 The key types of messages that can be tested in creatives.

👥 What extended onboarding means - and how to segment users for extended onboarding.

💭 How to think about multiple channels - and which user segments they are appropriate for.

🎯 How to think about automation - and what user segments to target with it.

🙅‍♂️ When you should not automate your onboarding messaging.

Check out the full transcript and show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/the-first-30-days-how-to-improve-your-early-retention-with-miray-alanlarformer-mobile-product-marketing-manager-at-mozilla/

**

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 Holly Chen, growth advisor and the former Global Head of Digital Marketing at Slack. Before that, she led growth for Google Store & Google B2B websites, served as a product manager at Gucci, and had a brief stint at the UN.

I’m excited for this interview because we look at one of the most admired brands of the last few years. We take a closer look at how they looked at mobile marketing while accounting for the numerous complexities of B2B marketing - including longer sales cycles, multiple touchpoints before sale. In the process of orienting their growth to mobile, they turned around a declining mobile growth trajectory - in what I find a very impressive effort.

Key Highlights:

🧗 How mobile fits into a B2B buyer’s journey for Slack - and why it’s challenging to measure.

📉 Why a decline in mobile growth in 2017 was puzzling for Slack - and how they realized this was an opportunity.

🚶 The first steps Slack took toward capitalizing on the mobile opportunity - and the success metrics they picked.

🔗 The interdependence of mobile and desktop products at Slack.

⏱️ How Slack attributed and measured the impact of the mobile marketing program.

🖐️ What multi-touch attribution is - and how Google Analytics can be a starting point for products that are considering adopting multi-touch attribution.

🏢 The infrastructure needed to be in place for multi-touch attribution.

🤔 How Slack’s teams thought about mitigating the risks of multi-touch attribution.

👨‍💼 How Holly and her team approached getting executive support for the mobile marketing program.

🗓️ Some of the day to day tactical elements that had to change as Slack oriented itself more toward mobile.

🔥 The impact of the shift toward mobile.

Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-slack-reversed-a-declining-mobile-growth-trajectory-on-mobile-by-setting-up-cross-channel-attribution-with-holly-chen-former-global-head-of-digital-marketing-at-slack/

**

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 Nadav Ashkenazy, General Manager at Supersonic Studios. Supersonic Studios is a subsidiary company of ironSource, and has had 5 games that have hit #1 on iTunes - and this is just a few months after its launch.

I’m excited for today’s interview because Nadav pulls back the curtain on the ingredients of a blockbuster launch - and the exact process and circumstances that go into a top 10 launch. More importantly, he explains why attaining a top rank on the app stores might NOT be a worthwhile goal in and of itself.

For these and many other insights into what it looks like at the top of the app store charts, I’m very excited to present today’s interview.

Key Highlights:

🤔 Why hitting #1 on iTunes is not a good goal - and what is a better goal instead

📈 Given that iTunes has deemphasized the top charts, how impactful is a top rank on the app stores?

📉 How much has the k-factor associated with a top rank dropped in the current app store compared to the previous version of app stores?

🎮 How Supersonic decides which games to promote.

💰 How Supersonic runs early marketability tests and soft launches to validate a game’s long term profitability.

🚀 When Supersonic launch a game, the key risk is that they may be paying too much for a top rank position.

👀 How Supersonic looks at the allocating installs between organics, paid and cross promo during a launch.

🧮 What metrics Supersonic’s teams are looking at during a launch - and what their launch cadence looks like.

🗺️ How Supersonic evaluate different geos during a launch.

🙋‍♂️ Do Android charts behave differently from iOS charts?

👨‍💻 How Supersonic’s UA teams are structured so as to drive post-launch growth.


Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-hit-the-no-1-rank-on-the-itunes-app-store-with-nadav-ashkenazy-gm-at-supersonic-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

"There are as many ways to test creatives as there are to skin cats." - old jungle saying.

Today, we’ll look at two different, and equally successful, approaches to creative testing – one led by us, and the another by our friends at Miri Growth. We hope that by discussing the differing advantages and disadvantages of each method we can identify the main levers in the process, and in turn, inspire you to establish your own best practices.

Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/two-ways-to-skin-a-cat-with-adam-turowski-miri-growth-and-shamanth-rao-rocketship-hq/

**

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 Jorge Canga, CMO at eGoGames, and Founder at Kaizen Internet.

In today’s episode, we dive into an aspect of mobile growth that seems to have defied complete automation - ad monetization. We look at how ad monetization works - and understand why manual waterfall optimization can outperform completely automated optimization. We also explore other nuances and facets of ad monetization - and understand the levers that can often help easily drive 30%+ improvements in ARPDAU.

Key Highlights:

🤔 What is ad mediation?
🙋‍♂️ How mediation layers are connected to individual ad SDKs.
💡 Why prioritizing a waterfall algorithmically or programmatically can lead to suboptimal revenues.
📊 How eCPM floors work.
📞 How different calls in the waterfalls work.
🙆‍♂️ How many waterfalls an app should set up - and how an app should think about this.
👨‍🏫 How an ad monetization manager needs to find the right balance between fill rate and eCPM floors.
💵 Why ARPDAU is a more important metric than eCPM floor or fill rates.
🎮 How the depth of a game’s content pipeline defines its ad monetization strategy.
💰 How some games are built around rewarded videos.
🤷‍♂️ In-app ads can result in churn - and also incremental monetization: how developers should think about this.
🙅‍♂️ Why blacklisting competitors may not always be a good idea.

Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/how-to-improve-your-arpdau-by-30-by-optimizing-your-ad-monetization-waterfall-with-jorge-canga/ 

**

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