Background

Brutally Honest: UA Rocks

Matej Lancaric

Hey, FAM! Whatโ€™s up?

๐ŸฆฉTip of the week

This hierarchy highlights platform-specific creatives for user acquisition (UA) campaigns.

Key Breakdown:

  • Facebook: Prioritizes vertical formats for Reels/Stories with flexible video lengths.
  • Google: Favors longer videos (30+ seconds) in both orientations.
  • TikTok: Short, hook-driven TTCC videos for quick engagement.
  • Moloco: Mix of static and mid-length videos.
  • Applovin: Combines videos with interactive playables.
  • Mintegral: Short videos paired with playables.

๐ŸŠ Cornelius: The Suspicious Investi-gator

True detective-like exploration of creative trends and historical influences. Delving deep into the world of creatives to uncover hidden patterns and inspirations:

๐—›๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ผ ๐—ช๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด $๐Ÿฒ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐—ธ/๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด. This would have been my statement a few days ago, but now they are back to $200k/day. What is happening? Their revenue has been declining since January 2025. The stable $10-12 million/month revenue for the whole of 2024 is now dipping to $8 million. Why is that? Well, also, the monthly downloads went from a peak of ๐Ÿฏ.๐Ÿฑ ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—น๐—น๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฐ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฎ ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐Ÿญ.๐Ÿฏ ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—น๐—น๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฑ. That is a huuuuuuge dip. I am pretty sure you have seen their ads in the last year very often. High frequency, higher CPIs, lower downloads, lower revenue. Have you seen any new creative concepts for Hero Wars in 2024? I haven’t! But that has changed in the last few weeks. I am seeing their ads everywhere. But not their classic UA videos. ๐—œ ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐˜๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—น๐—ฑ. Which games could you identify in the recent concepts? Let me know in the comments! ๐—–๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜ƒ๐—ผ๐—น๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜† ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ด๐—ผ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฑ! Nexters ($GDEV) ๐—ด๐—ผ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ผ. ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ผ!

Yours truly, Cornelius.

๐Ÿ’€ Dr. Doom is not amused

One of my industry friends amused me with his direct and honest TL;DRs, so we agreed to share it here, too! My friend remains anonymous as Dr.Doom!

“Ahh, the sweet taste of someone else’s misfortune๐Ÿ˜or more like you had it coming, duh!. Our favorite source of doom news, Elon himself, is $122 billion poorer than his peak wealth in December. In the meantime of his Tesla stock falling like a rock, he also decided to start an AI game studio to “revolutionize gaming”. Outstanding move, coming from someone who lied about being top 10 hardcore in Diablo and Path of Exile, while paying to level up his account for him, which he couldn’t even control in the end ๐Ÿคฃ” Sincerely, Doom (https://www.forbes.com.au/news/billionaires/elon-musk-is-122-billion-poorer-than-his-peak/)

๐ŸŽ‰โ€Š โ€œHa-haโ€ moment

Because life is too short to be serious.

๐ŸŽฎ two & a half gamers – Tripledot is killing it!

Tripledot Studios ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐Ÿญ.๐Ÿฏ ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—น๐—น๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—จ๐—ฆ๐—— ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜†. ๐—ฌ๐—ฒ๐˜€, ๐Ÿญ.๐Ÿฏ ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—น! Won the fastest-growing company in the UK in 2022. Scaling multiple games. ๐—œ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ (๐—จ๐—”) ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—บ? They were one of the first to figure out a ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—™๐—• ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—”๐—ฑ๐—ฅ๐—ข๐—”๐—ฆ (sending ad revenue in purchase events so they can run ๐—ฉ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐˜๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป๐˜€) before Meta themselves. The founding team is a team of OGs (Akin (was) on the front row, Lior & Eyal), a Marketing and growth team with Mark and Jan on top, and the powerful UA team. ๐—œ๐— ๐—›๐—ข, ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—บ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—œ’๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ป. I can’t wait to see what this group of amazing people will do with the AppLovin gaming portfolio. My bet is: ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ธ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ป๐—ผ ๐˜๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜„! Can’t wait.

๐Ÿ“บ Watch on YouTube

๐ŸŽง Listen on Spotify

๐Ÿ‘• Get our Merch: 25gamers.com/shop

๐Ÿฆ„ Diary of a Dancing Unicorn

Today was a good day.

Hey, you came very well recommended by some people I really trust. Could we have a call?

Sure, lets do that.

So, we would need some UA + creative help for our mobile game. Based on what we just discussed, you seem like a good fit.

Yeah, all looks good. When do we start?

Let me get back to you early next week.

Sure, no problem.

Hey, so here is an assignment (10 pages doc). please take a look and return in 2 days.

Well, sure. I can take a look, but since this is quite extensive work, I would charge X for it and itsโ€™s gonna be done early next week. Not 2 days, but 4.

Okay, no problem. Itโ€™s approved. If we work together, you can add it on the top of your invoice. If not, you can invoice us.

Awesome. Let me start the work.

Hey, here is the assignment. Let me know your thoughts.

โ€ฆ

โ€ฆ

โ€ฆ

โ€ฆ

2 weeks.. no reply

Hey, whatโ€™s happening?

โ€ฆ

โ€ฆ

Please share your company details for invoicing purposes.

โ€ฆ

โ€ฆ

oh ffs.

Today was a good day.

๐Ÿคบ Quote of the week

I can’t believe I wasn’t raised in the Church of Matej. What were my parents thinking!โ€ – Nicholas, Linkedin comment

Tripledot review

ย 
Check our Pod here.

๐Ÿงž The Song of the Week

We launched a music album. Yes, that’s correct. We are putting a ton of energy into creating valuable (and crazy) content that I think you’ll like. Check out the latest songs, and give us a like and subscribe. Play ehm. Listen now!

๐Ÿ‘พโ€Š THE AI (R)EVOLUTION

The AI revolution is here, and itโ€™s transforming the way we approach mobile games marketing.

From creating scroll-stopping ad creatives to optimizing user acquisition strategies, AI is the game-changer we canโ€™t ignore.

๐Ÿฅฆ Before you go

Ask Matej AI a question. Itโ€™s actually quite good!

๐Ÿฟ Fun starts in two & a half gamers Slack! Join now

We are opening up a Slack channel for everybody. It is the most inclusive slack for the gaming industry. Female, male, non-binary, juniors, mid-level, seniors, vendors, developers = EVERYBODY! We are waiting for you โ™ฅ๏ธ

Feel free to join here!


๐Ÿง™ Thanks for reading this weekโ€™s newsletter!

Please do me a favor and share this with someone in your network who you think would benefit from the insights and brutal honesty. It would mean a lot to me!

Take care, everyone! See you next Thursday!

Share Brutally Honest by Matej Lancaric

๐Ÿ‘‡ Reach out for feedback or questions or say hi!

Give me some love (or hate), & Subscribe everywhere! โ™ฅ๏ธ


๐Ÿ’ก The latest UA & Marketing jobs for you prepared by Gamigion:

Find out more here!

Login to enjoy full advantages

Please login or subscribe to continue.

โœ–

Go Premium!

Enjoy the full advantage of the premium access.

โœ–

Stop following

Unfollow Cancel

โœ–

Cancel subscription

Are you sure you want to cancel your subscription? You will lose your Premium access and stored playlists.

Go back Confirm cancellation

โœ–