Expert Series: UA Insights with Igor Myrgorodskyi

Igor Myrgorodskyi is adjoe’s Director of Business Operations. With almost ten years in adtech behind him, his current role is to oversee and create growth strategies for both advertising partners and publishers utilizing adjoe’s technologies for monetization. Given his extensive experience in user acquisition, gaming, and monetization we asked him to share his insights into the current mobile landscape. 

1. What’s the biggest lesson for publishers and developers as we enter 2023? 

The ripple effects of the pandemic and postpandemic landscape have caused publishers and developers in this industry to re-evaluate what they know and expand their strategies to survive. Some of the industry’s biggest winners in this climate will be those determined to keep building on their growth strategy – and not just settle for cashing in on this period of hypergrowth.

adjoe recently partnered with German market research company Appinio and found that, over the last six months, 22 percent of gamers have stopped making in-app purchases. For apps that are reliant on IAPs as their core monetization model, this creates a significant challenge. Relying so heavily on in-app purchases may no longer be financially viable. 

“22% of gamers over the last six months have stopped making in-app purchases.” 

To go back to the question, publishers and developers will therefore need to rethink their strategy to include more ad revenue streams. Apps emerging from the crowd will no doubt be those that challenge their best practices and try new things. Whether that’s new gaming logic, categories, UA sources, partnerships and synergies, or new ways to monetize their traffic.

2. What’s the most common UA oversight gaming partners make?

Unifying the strategies of products and services might be a current market trend that claims to boost productivity, but it can negatively impact competitiveness and performance in the user acquisition space. That’s because not one size fits all.

Companies looking for success in the UA space need to build their own ROAS prediction models using their own granular data, such as traffic source type, source category, GEOs. They need to then leverage this data on a case-by-case basis to adjust their different monetization strategies. Doing this will help them make smart predictions, automate processes, and ultimately help them scale their business.

Another point is that user value evolves differently in multiplayer games. UA managers often focus on finding profitable users – but real success lies in considering these users’ impact on other users. Users brought in by Network X can encourage other users to progress in the game and make in-app purchases. So, even active nonpaying users can add value similar to high-paying users. This additional value can significantly increase the lifetime value (LTV) of users from Network X.

“UA managers often focus on finding profitable users – but real success lies in considering these users’ impact on other users.”

Igor Myrgorodskyi

3. What advice would you give UA managers before testing a new channel?

Acquiring the right users is about effective knowledge sharing and collaboration. UA managers know their users, while platform experts know their platform. To build a successful growth strategy, trusting your own knowledge and the network’s knowledge is key.

That means you should be bringing your media buying experience but also preparing yourself for new learnings. With the differences in every network, algorithm, and traffic source, it’s all about finding the hidden gems on each platform and identifying new approaches. And your account manager should be your guide to finding these high-quality users on their platform. 

In our case, a big focus at adjoe has always been to help partners launch in new GEOs and unknown territories. After developing trust in key markets, we always recommend trying new things in a smart way. This knowledge sharing and trust helped Dragon Plus’ Makeover Master expand into nearly 30 new countries with us.

4. What is your checklist for optimizing your partners’ UA campaigns?

Our core business has been in rewarded ads. One of our key components for success is finding the right value and rewards in exchange for each user and each game. Our checklist for optimizing campaigns starts with data. And luckily, at adjoe, we have a lot of it. 

To find the right users at the right price point, we need to first gather lots of data. That means it’s crucial for us to initially launch broader campaigns and gain a vast pool of information on how and which users respond to which apps. Once we do this, we can start to identify the user demographics that drive each type of performance. From there, our team can apply the best CPI and start scaling in a systematic way. 

5. What do you think we might witness in the near-future advertising landscape? 

Despite market challenges, Web3 games have seen significant funding in recent months, indicating a promising future for the industry. 

I believe that Web3 will bring a new level of immersion to gaming and open up creative new possibilities for advertising. It will provide marketers with more opportunities to build tighter connections with players through richer and more engaging advertising. Seamless interfaces and communication across different platforms will enhance the gamers’ advertising experience. I’m excited to see how it will revolutionize all marketing channels.