A Beginners Guide to UA: The Fundamentals by Matej Lancaric

Anyway, TikTok, Google, Apple Search Ads, Snapchat, kind of that. Twitter, also kind of that.
But then we have the ad networks. And these days, very popular rewarded UA channels like Mistplay, Almedia.
Then we have TopJoy, MyUp3, Adjo, a in the insight. We're rocking those vibes till the early daylight.
Matej, UA, master eyes on the prize. Tracking data through the cyberspace skies.
Felix acts colors like a wizard in disguise. Shakur's crafting realms, lift us to the highs.
Two and a half gamers talking smack. Slow hockey stick, got your back.
Ads are beautiful, they light the way. Click it fast, don't delay.
Ah-ha. Ah-ha., which is another monologue episode.
It's my turn again. So today I'm going to talk about the Beginner's Guide to a Mobile User Acquisition.
So I'm going to be talking about the UA in general because with over 10 years of UA under my belt, I've seen it all. Well, I haven't, but's uh i've written about my day in the life of the ua manager i will link in the show notes uh everything from the heights that allow me to run this consultancy which i'm the consultant on the ua side obviously if you listen to the to the to the podcast you know and uh well there's a lot of bullshit that comes with it.
So the world of UA is moving fast. But before we dive into all of the strategies and hacks, you have to be familiar with the fundamentals.
So I'm going to talk about the terms, the acronyms, and all the fun stuff that I usually come together with on a daily basis. So thanks for the feedback in the last few episodes for the monologues.
I think all the ASMR stuff was just late night show and fun. I'm going to talk normally on ASMR today.
So the terms you need to know, there are tons of acronyms in the industry. It's best to get familiar with the following terms.
And honestly, this episode is kind of going to be very, going to very beginning, well, beginner's guide. So it's all beginning of the UA.

So all the fundamentals.

If you are skilled enough, thank you very much.

This is not for you.

But if you're new to the UA, this is definitely for you.

So ASO is an App Store Optimization,

which is an activity that helps you increasing the app visibility

within the app stores to drive more installs.

Then we have attribution. It's kind of assigning value to different actions of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the use of the, which is kind of assigning value to different actions of the users that they've taken until they completed the conversion or which players coming from which UA channels.
So attribution helps you identify the players from Facebook, Google, TikTok, and all the other channels. App Labin as well.
Churn, it's number of users who uninstall your app within a time period. Helps measure stickiness.
Impressions, how many times an ad is seen by someone, so how many times your ad or creative was served on the UI channels. Then you have organic app installs, which are app installs driven through non-paid advertising, such as anything except paid content, social media, organics.
Well, the thing is, with organic app installs, these days we don't talk about organics. We talk about unattributed installs because everything comes down to UA.
If you don't run UA, it's very rarely to get discovered. And then we have the UA as user acquisition, which is driving new users to your mobile app through marketing and advertisement.
So I also wrote about some tips that help you grow in 2025, which is a little bit more for not experts, but more advanced. Talking about UA, diversification of the UA, talking about how to win on TikTok and other different channels.
So definitely check it out in the show notes. So what are the key metrics that you need to know absolutely? Because UA is a numbers game.
Remember these metrics like Tobay. You need to remember these metrics absolutely.
Conversion rate, which is a percentage of people who are seeing your ad and download it. So think about it as a click to install.
Cost per install, it's how much money you pay actually for your install. Then we have cost per action, which again is cost.
For certain action, it can be cost per purchase. So how much money you need to pay for a payer or the action can be basically anything else.
It can be a tutorial completion. It can be level 100, achieving level 100.
It can be played 10 levels and whatever else. So that then we have cpm which is cost per melee measures the cost of 100 1000 impressions check this metric to also see what kind of competition you have as well so you then we have ipm which is installs per meal basically measuring numbers of installs per thousand and impressions.
IPM is more accurate than CPM because we are talking about installs. CPM is just cost 4,000 impressions.
Now we are measuring effectiveness of the actual campaigns, not even campaigns, but creatives. Then we have CAC, which is customer acquisition cost, which is measuring the total return on investment of all marketing.
Kind of, yes, but also how much money you need to spend to actually acquire your customer. Then we have lifetime value, total estimate value that is generated for a certain period of time from the user that installed your app.

So higher the LTV means you can spend more.

If your LTV is lower than the CPI, you are losing money.

And CPI versus LTV equation.

I was talking about this specific issue or not issue or like how to actually understand

this in the previous episode and the previous monologue.

So check it out for sure.

And if you want to money the user generates, just average. And then we have return on ad spend, which is the most important KPI.
Total revenue generated from the installs or the total advertising spent. So what do we have then? Well, why is it so hard? And the thing is, not even in these days, but A, everybody obviously can run a campaign and everybody thinks they understand UA and therefore they're talking about it.

And then B, well, I've heard 10 million times UA is dead.

Well, it's not.

Anyway, data runs the world, especially the mobile world.

So how we collect and use data changes every day,

which is one of the biggest pains in the ass of the UA manager.

Data can really get dirty.

First, you need to make sure your data is trustworthy.

Are the sources giving you the right info?

Are some conversions counting as double?

Or are some conversions not counting at all? Keeping your data clean has to be the priority.

Or else you will work with fucked up numbers and you will be out of the job, I guess. There's nothing

worse than making decisions based on the wrong data Always, when you run a new campaign, always do a data health check. Always run a small campaign, for example, in Philippines, where you check if everything is working correctly.
You cross-check attribution provider, you cross-check the UA

channels, and if you have your own internal data and dashboards, you cross-check that, all of it.

It doesn't really need to be big spend. It needs to be $20, $30, $40 spent.
So you are not 100%,

but 300% sure that you are looking at the right data.

Because tomorrow is not guaranteed. Not at all.
Because you never know when another privacy or changes affect not even the data, but the whole ecosystem. them because you know, Apple privacy changes caused a big effect on how we collect the data.
And, you know, there is, well, it's already 2025. It should be already done.
But Google will follow Apple's lead as users become increasingly more about the sharing data with advertisers.

That means you must stay on the top of the sudden changes because the only constant in the mobile marketing in gaming is the change.

And you need to be very creative about the approach of how you approach data

and how you approach your marketing mix.

Because you need to be testing, testing, testing all the time.

Well, and all of the, not only testing, but you need to be, well, testing as well.

You need to be testing the, thanks to the privacy changes, all the SKN networks,

conversion schemas.

We have now, well, to be honest, not that many people actually still use the scan campaigns, either on Facebook or on TikTok, because we have ADC, which is still advanced, dedicated campaign. I still don't know all the acronyms.
And I'm 11 years in the industry. I still can't figure it out.
Anyway, we have AEM, which is aggregate and even measurement. Both of these, they say they are almost real-time measurement for iOS campaigns.
Well, almost. Anyway, so UA requires a strong working knowledge of numbers and rigor of testing, obviously, but you also need an intuition on what creatives will perform the best and will perform well.
The creative production isn't just limited to ideation, but also includes managing the budgets, scheduling, and working cross-functionally. Also, the creative fatigue is a real thing.
Users are increasingly developing banner blindness and video blindness, and you need to refresh creatives on a weekly basis. And the thing is, it's not only about the fact that players are blind or they're becoming more blind over the time when they see your creatives.
But also you need to refresh creatives because of how the algorithm works. So check out our creative trends, by the way.
We are doing this on a monthly basis and the next episode is coming live very soon. So we have three tips of UA, which is paid, owned, and earned.
So all of these different terminologies and the keywords are quite important. We don't really use all of them and I kind of, I'm'm not using a lot of them because I'm the UA manager, and I trust paid, and I like to be in control of the budgets.
Anyway, there are hundreds of ways how you can go about acquiring users. To make things easier, we can bucket all your channels into three categories for all the UAa activities which i said paid earned and owned so let's say paid media which is dollars for ads paid media advertising platforms to drive conversions kind of build brand awareness but also you know mainly generate traffic which includes display ads paid search search, YouTube, all of it, the billboards, basically everything that you think about and you pay for it.
Most common paid media channels these days, Facebook, Meta, sorry guys. I still call you Meta.

Oh, fuck.

Facebook.

Anyway, TikTok, Google, Apple searches.

Snapchat, kind of that.

Twitter, also kind of that.

But then we have the ad networks.

And these days, very popular rewarded UA channels

like Misplay, Almedia.

Then we have TopJoy, MyUp3, Adjo, a lot of them actually. And I think my next monologue episode is going to be about rewarded video, not video, rewarded UA channels.
And then we have preloads, which is a digital turbine, which I haven't touched for a long time. Anyway, so we have ad networks.
Adnet, which apps needs to be integrated with premium ad networks, but apps need to be integrated only because of the ad monetization, not because of the UA. if you have if you want to be, apps need to be integrated only because of the ad monetization, not because of the UA.
If you want to run UA on ad networks, you need attribution provider. You need Singular, Adjust, Rapslayer, or AirBridge.
So there are different SDK networks and ad networks these days. The biggest one, obviously, Aplavin.

So then we have IronSource, then we have Unity,

which are basically the same company.

We have Vangal.

I don't think that anyone runs this anymore.

Anyway, Adcolon, which is almost that also.

But we have Mint and Graal, which is very popular.

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So, then after the SDK networks, we have social media, which is Facebook and TikTok, and then we have Google at the same time, and then we have SDK networks, and then, obviously, there's influencer marketing. TikTok is kind of dominating every phone screen across the world, fueling the creator economy.
We use quite a lot of TikTok creative channels. Well, now it's called TikTok One, which is a marketplace for creators that build creatives for you.
But then, you know, building a relationship with influencers can be extremely profitable you a channel when it's done right

you're essentially leveraging uh influencers reach to promote your app in a way you probably can't they've dedicated time and effort to build the trust of their loyal audience but it's not scalable in my opinion it can can work well, but as an additional channel, if you bet your UA strategy on influencers, I don't think you will go far. That's my opinion.
But I've wrote about it, about how to execute an influencer program, you should check out my guide,

which is also going to be in the show notes.

Then we go to own media, because as Eric Soffert says,

everything is an ad network.

You're building your audience, right?

So this transitions perfectly to the category,

which, you know, although you may,

there's no value having a direct communication

with your target audience

it's also because we're tied

that's because we're tied to

the algorithm even you know even if

you have

500,000 followers there is no guarantee

your piece of content will reach

them in 2023

actually Instagram had an average of

reach like

9% of your total followers

Thank you. guarantee your piece of content will reach them.
In 2023, actually, Instagram had an average of reach, like 9% of your total followers. And then there was 18% decrease in organic reach year over year.
Facebook's average reach is abysmal 4%. So, you know, own channels, including your website, blog, app store pages, email lists, even SMS lists.
I'm not sure if anyone uses that anymore, but still, it can be interestingly powerful. At least my email list, well, I use.
I do have a newsletter. So if you build a loyal, engaged audience, all of these assets are essentially free and you're not bound to the thickness of the algorithms.
So, you know, you think about this, the email list and SMS list or whatever list, you can get the wait list. You have a landing page.
You want to launch a Steam game or even for your new game and when you are testing marketability or if you do any testing prior to the development, you can still collect emails. And that's a pretty powerful thing that nobody uses a demo anymore, which is a shame.
So, you know, because own channels also provide an opportunity for you to start building this loyalty with your existing users already or be the users early on and increase engagement re-engage these users or upsell subscription that's what i do anyway you build the you start also building the community on on discord reddit or wherever early on you don't need to be a Web3 game and you still can have a community of thousands of users. Why not? Then we have ASO, App Store Optimization, and this is your own asset, right? So App Store Optimization is optimizing your App Store listing page to show up higher in the rankings for certain keywords.
It's really hard, actually. But higher rankings on search mean more visibility, clicks, and installs.
To make your app more discoverable, you can optimize your store page headline, descriptions using highly relevant keywords, no stuffing of keywords. There's plenty of tools that can help you with the process, mobile action, apt-to-week split metrics, you name it.
It's also crucial to test your app store, icons, screenshots, and visual appearance of your store. With the success of ASO, hinges on adequate keyword research, measurable A-B testing.
Then we have content marketing content marketing obviously which content marketing is is an interesting thing is it's hinging on one thing constant consistently delivering value to an audience to build trust over time this is the key to building audiences regardless of the platforms of choice. Content marketing can include everything from guides like this one,

or videos like this one, or podcasts like our podcast,

e-books, infographics, and whatever else.

Just to, you know, every piece of content must serve of the following purposes.

Entertain, persuade, inspire, or educate.

And we have the communities that I mentioned, because that's really important. We have social, we are social creatures, and we love to connect with others with the same hobbies, passions as us.
So you can advertise your app and content in niche communities, whether it's Facebook groups, Reddit that, Discord dimension, you build Slack also. And you engage and with the conversations you have and the relationships you build, you can provide to be really fruitful.
So if you have the resources, you can also consider building a community of your own. That's what we did with our Slack channel for mobile, for two and a half gamers.
And then we have referrals and loyalty programs. I wrote about loyalty programs with Supercell, MyGames and other companies which they actually have their own influence and they pay them to promote their games.
So why not advertise to your most loyal users? Marketers tend to shy away from this, but customer marketing is ultimately a win-win. You can incentivize an in-app reward or free subscription for every referral they make.
This won't cost you a dime. And then, as I talked about email marketing, as long as the emails you collect that are legit, 100% of your emails are going to be delivered to your marketing list.
This is the most direct way you can reach your audience. Think about it as this.
The vast majority of us check our emails from our phones, which makes it easy to drive conversions. Email marketing can range from everything like promoting your latest blog post about your new build, sharing your exciting updates, as I mentioned, offering discounts or upsells.
Think about this, web shops as well, right? You can use your email marketing for promoting your web shop. And webhop means more money to your pocket and not to Apple or Google.
Email is a fantastic way to establish a strong relationship with your audience, but only when it's really relevant, obviously. You can also request users to fill out surveys, response to emails directly to others.
It's all about the engagement. The last thing you want to do is send weekly emails.
The last thing you want to do is to send emails weekly just for the sake of it. Instead, carefully segment your audience and consistently deliver content that is highly relevant to them.
Be sure to keep it short. Then we have push and earn media, which bringing building brand recognition building brand recognition you have earned media which is the exposure you gain from other channels without paying for it this is like getting invited to a new segment of journalists and influencers talking about your app word Word of mouth.
It's perfect and most obvious form of earned media. You want people to rant and rave about your game to their entire network.
Granted, you have a great app. There are ways to help encourage people to share it.
Then we have press as well, because this is kind of still old way how to do stuff, but if you have a PC game, it's part of your UA or marketing strategy. Blogs, online publications, podcasts, hello, are a great way to drive awareness and installs.
You would be surprised. To do so, you need two things.
Assets, which is MediaKit, website, and outreach. While you can probably scrape thousands of journalist emails and spam them, you're probably going to get blacklisted for that, but you should focus on establishing a relationship with journalists, bloggers, and influencers.
I cover this more in depth in a PC marketing guide. So should you focus on organic, UA, or paid? Well, there's nothing as organic UA, by the way.
But finding the right paid channels that work for you is key to scaling your UA. It's not a dichotomy.
It's a strong organic presence. Definitely helps boost your paid conversions because of increased brand recognition and trust.
Just take a look at my breakdown of Duolingo's user acquisition strategy. Well, there is also, these days, how is AI impacting you? Well, AI is affecting everyone.

More specifically, AI-powered automation tools are helping more marketers automatically find new audiences and tweak their creatives.

I work with AI on creatives on a daily basis.

It helps a lot.

AI-generated creatives can help marketers create millions of variations to test at scale. You should definitely check it out.
All right. I think that was it for me today.
Thank you very much for tuning in. Please share your feedback in the comments.
if you have any other topic i want you want

me to cover please let me know i will continue to drive the ua for beginners and to talk about

the ua in general in the few next few episodes so thank you very much for listening share comment

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