📈 Exposing Mobile Growth Marketing Secrets: How to Grow in 2025?
Warren Woodward Co-founder and CMO at Upptic spills the secrets on the current state of mobile performance marketing and the key issues you should be aware of
Hello Gamemakers,
Success in mobile gaming is back to: 1. Product Quality + 2. Liveops + 3. Growth/UA.
The focus of this week’s Marketwire newsletter is all about Growth. What is the current state of mobile performance marketing in 2024 and beyond?
To answer this question, I spoke with Warren Woodward, the co-founder and CGO at Upptic. Warren’s great as one of the few people in our industry who’s super smart and willing to speak the truth without the typical executive nonsense talk.
Some of the key insights:
UA Framework: The importance of data and creative functions in UA has increased dramatically relative to “operations.”
Effective Channels: While SANs and In-App Rewarded Video Networks continue to perform well, DSPs are becoming increasingly irrelevant to UA.
Impact of AI: AI is having a significant effect on the development of UA creatives.
Team Structure: Until games have scaled, studios should only have 0 to 1 marketing hires early on, and they must be very vigilant about incentive structures when working with agencies.
The Blame Game: In many game studios, the typical blame game and finger-pointing need to be avoided, and teams should be better aligned to solve problems together for better success.
The Key Trend for 2025: Brutal efficiency!
In This Newsletter:
Top Revenue: Well, it looks like we’re back to Honor of Kings dominating worldwide revenue at #1, with Dungeon & Fighter: Origin having dropped to #9.
Top Downloads: Mini Games: Calm & Relax maintains its spot at #1 worldwide downloads. Congrats to Indus Battle Royale for achieving #2 worldwide downloads, especially since the game is focused only on India.
Top Steam Revenue: Counter-Strike 2 maintains #1 position and Throne and Liberty moves up 3 spots to #2.
Highlight—Current State of Mobile Performance Marketing: You definitely want to check out this discussion with Warren Woodward from Upptic highlighting the state of mobile UA and key issues in 2024 and beyond.
This Past Week…
Gamesforum was in San Francisco this week, and I attended to meet with a few folks and cover moderation for someone who, unfortunately, had to drop off a panel on rewarded UA.
According to some, using rewarded UA channels like KashKlick and TyrAds is one of the big trends in 2024. This was the focus of the panel I moderated:
It was also cool to sit with the next generation of This Week in Games / Deconstructor of Fun podcast hosts, who have been doing a great job live-operating the podcast to over 300 episodes!
I wasn’t supposed to be on the panel, but the DOF hosts called me up. We were also joined by special guest Mat Harris from Activision Blizzard.
Top 10 Mobile Revenue (Worldwide, US, and China)
Honor of Kings maintains #1 spot and Royal Match #2.
At #3, nice increase by PUBG.
In the Royal Match vs. Monopoly Go grudge match, Royal Match has recently been consistently outranking Monopoly Go worldwide and now also in the USA.
Whiteout Survival has recently consistently outranked Last War worldwide (likely helped by China's rank) and in the US.
At #1 worldwide, Mini Games: Calm & Relax maintains the top spot worldwide.
At #2 worldwide, Indus’ ranking is especially impressive since the game only targets India.
At #8 worldwide, Age of Empires Mobile was developed by TiMi Studio and World’s Edge. The game launched globally on October 17.
Top 10 Steam Charts by Revenue
Throne and Liberty makes a nice move up to #2. This is a large-scale MMORPT developed by NCSOFT and published by Amazon Games. This is a game with a key focus around guilds and alliances with Castle Sieges and Conquest Battles that involve hundreds of players.
DayZ returns to top Steam revenue at #7 driven by the release of the Frostline DLC launched on October 15. Further, the game launched its annual Halloween event with various themed skins, environmental changes, and limited-time creatures.
🔑 Key Insights on Mobile Performance Marketing in 2024
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Anchor
Speakers:
Joseph Kim. CEO at Lila Games.
Warren Woodward. Cofounder and Chief Growth Officer (CGO) at Upptic.
The mobile game marketing landscape has transformed dramatically in recent years, creating a stark divide between narrative and reality. While many studios claim "UA no longer works," the truth is more nuanced: the rules have changed, and success requires a fundamentally different approach.
The Three Pillars of Modern Mobile Growth
According to Warren Woodward, Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Upptic, modern mobile marketing success rests on three key pillars:
Creative: Creative development remains the most human-capital intensive area and arguably the most crucial differentiator
Operations: The importance of manual campaign optimization has diminished significantly due to advanced algorithms
Data: Data science and optimization of UA based on data has become increasingly critical, especially for navigating privacy changes
The Democratization of Campaign Management
One of the most significant shifts is that campaign management (“operations”) expertise no longer provides the competitive edge it once did. As Warren notes, "Anyone doing UA has access to a top tier media buyer now because of the power of the algorithms." The days when an expert could outperform others by 10-20x through superior campaign optimization are over.
The Data Challenge and Privacy Evolution
The deprecation of IDFA has pushed the industry toward probabilistic modeling, with different approaches needed for various channels:
Self-attributing networks (Meta, Google, TikTok) require sophisticated data science capabilities
Other networks still rely on fingerprinting, though this may change in the future
Successful teams are building living data models using consent-based sampling to estimate performance
Channel Strategy in 2024
The modern mobile marketing landscape has consolidated into a few key channel types:
Major Self-Attributing Networks:
Meta, Google, TikTok (primary)
Snapchat, Apple Search (secondary)
In-App Rewarded Video Networks:
IronSource/Unity
AppLovin
Mintegral
Vungle
DSPs (Demand Side Platforms)
Notably, DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms) are providing diminishing value in the current ecosystem, with their margins becoming harder to justify as first-party algorithms improve.
Team Structure and Resource Allocation
Modern mobile marketing teams need to evolve beyond traditional structures. Key recommendations include:
Start lean during proof-of-concept phases
Invest in cross-functional capabilities rather than pure UA expertise
Consider external partnerships for specialized functions
Focus on data science capabilities
Maintain strong alignment between marketing and product teams
Looking Ahead to 2025
Several key trends are emerging:
Efficiency Drive: Companies are likely to experiment with leaner teams and AI integration
Creator Marketing Evolution: The industry is moving toward more structured, performance-based approaches to creator partnerships
Scale Benefits: Larger-scale launches continue to provide advantages through:
Improved organic lift
Better negotiating power with ad networks
Enhanced platform support
Word-of-mouth effects
The Bottom Line
Success in mobile performance marketing now requires a more sophisticated, data-driven approach with strong cross-functional collaboration. While the challenges have increased, opportunities remain for teams willing to adapt their strategies and organizational structures to the new reality.
For game studios planning their 2024-2025 strategy, the focus should be on:
Building strong data capabilities
Maintaining lean, efficient operations
Fostering closer alignment between marketing and product teams
Investing in creative development
Being strategic about scale and timing of launches
The mobile marketing landscape may be more complex, but with the right approach and resources, it remains a viable path to growth for game studios willing to adapt to the new paradigm.