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Explore every episode of the podcast Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Dive into the complete episode list for Apptivate: App Marketing Explained. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.

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TitlePub. DateDuration
CTV and the next frontier in app growth marketing - Peter Hamilton (Roku)18 Sep 202400:29:26

Could streaming be the next big channel for mobile marketers? Peter Hamilton, Head of Ad Innovation at Roku believes it will be. In this episode, he chats with Taylor about how action ads work on Roku – where viewers can place orders or download an app directly from their TVs. He also discusses their newest product for advertisers called ‘Roku Ads Manager’. Targeting and measurement with CTV just got a whole lot better. Tune in to the episode and find out how.

Questions Peter answered in this episode:
  • What does Head of Ad Innovation mean? And what innovations are happening at Roku?
  • How do you make the ads relevant to the viewer?
  • How do action ads work? And what impact have you seen from allowing viewers to place orders directly from their tv?
  • Is there anything besides the action ads that makes streaming such a powerful advertising channel?
  • Who is your ideal customer to be using this product?
  • What can’t I miss on a weekend trip to Seattle?
Timestamp:
  • 1:02 Peter’s background
  • 4:35 Solving the ‘discovery’ problem with streaming
  • 6:00 Ad innovation at Roku
  • 7:25 Targeted capabilities with streaming
  • 8:45 Action ads on tv
  • 13:00 Roku Ads Manager
  • 17:07 Who is Roku Ads Manager for?
  • 20:36 Creatives for CTV
  • 27:06 A weekend in Seattle
Quotes:

(17:48-18:12) “Whether you’re trying to drive downloads, gameplay or mobile subscriptions, Roku Ads Manager is valuable from a targeting and measurement standpoint. We want to prove the value and ROAS of CTV.”

(20:36-20:40) “CTV is the next frontier for the growth hacker to solve.”

(22:34-22:47) “The number one thing that impacts CTV is your creative. Does it get someone to lean forward and press ‘okay’ on the remote? Does it get them to pull your website up on their phone or download your app?” 

Mentioned in this Episode:
Overcoming marketing signal loss by testing audiences - Alex Song (Proxima)11 Sep 202400:31:22

When Alex Song had to fold a business due to the signal loss from the post-iOS 14 changes in digital marketing post-iOS 14, he set out to solve this problem. In this episode, Taylor interviews Alex about that solution – an AI-powered data intelligence platform called Proxima. You’ll learn how the platform leverages anonymized first-party data to help digital brands access new customers, lower their acquisition costs, and increase their ROAS. He also shares poignant advice to professionals wondering if they should be taking more risks in their career path. 

Alex is the CEO and Founder of Proxima. Before launching Proxima, Alex founded three direct-to-consumer businesses, after working a decade as an investment banking analyst.  

Questions Alex answered in this episode:
  • What is Proxima and why did you start it?
  • Where are you getting your data? And what are you doing with it to make CPAs lower and ROAS better?
  • How did you manage to solve the loss of signal post-iOS14?
  • How do you think the most successful mobile marketers are getting in front of the right customer at the right moment, without a ton of data to rely on?
  • How do you think about attribution and measurement?
  • What do you think the future looks like for AI-powered marketing platforms?
  • Does your platform work with Android, too?
Timestamp:
  • 0:50 What is Proxima?
  • 2:25 Alex’s background
  • 8:00 How does Proxima work?
  • 12:54 How most marketers are solving for signal loss
  • 14:51 Attribution and measurement
  • 16:15 Testing audiences and creative concurrently
  • 17:10 The future of AI-powered marketing tools
  • 19:32 How to test if Proxima would work for you
  • 22:15 Career advice & accelerated learning
  • 28:47 What not to miss in NYC
Quotes:

(13:50-14:16) “What we are really focused on is how people can be empowered to test audiences the same way they feel they can test creatives.”

(27:34-27:49) “I think the main difference in my learning curve really came from the speed at which I was willing to be wrong and then to learn from it.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Building Your In-App Community - Amadeus Norén (Amity)29 May 202400:26:37

Amadeus Norén is the Director of Product Marketing at Amity. Amity’s platform provides customizable SDKs for every social feature imaginable so that app-based businesses can launch, grow, and monetize their in-app social community. In this episode, you’ll learn how to leverage this community, and why not doing so could be a missed opportunity for your brand.

Questions Amadeus Answered in this Episode:
  • Why should businesses consider moving away from social media platforms to build their communities within their apps?
  • Why is it important for apps to own the user data of their social network?
  • How can apps monetize their in-app communities?
  • How can you use the customer feedback collected from the conversations of your in-app community?
  • Does Amity’s platform address the challenges companies are facing right now?
  • What does your day-to-day look like when marketing Amity’s products?
  • Can apps track revenue or user engagement generated from within their in-app community?
Timestamp:
  • 0:49 Amadeus’s background
  • 1:27 What is Amity?
  • 4:32 The decline of Facebook group organic reach
  • 5:43 Why build your community within your app?
  • 7:44 How to monetize your in-app community
  • 9:17 Use cases for collected customer feedback
  • 11:40 Amity’s AI tool
  • 14:24 Marketing Amity’s products
  • 17:13 Evaluating the performance of Amity’s platform
  • 19:17 User expectations for social networks
  • 22:23 What’s Amadeus excited about in the future
Quotes:

(4:42-5:01) “Ten years ago, your organic reach for a Facebook page was 20 to 15 percent. Currently, the organic reach for all of the following that you’ve built up on your Facebook page is one percent. So in order to reach your audience, you now need to pay for ads to reach those people.”

(9:37-9:46) “You can take all of the data from conversations that are happening in your in-app community, analyze it with AI, and make smarter decisions for the future.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
What Managers Want from User Acquisition Marketers - Janos Perei (Voodoo)20 Jul 202100:32:42

Janos Perei is the User Acquisition Lead for Casual Gaming at Voodoo, a hyper-casual gaming developer and publisher based in Paris, France. Previous to Voodoo, Janos worked as a mobile marketer at Mercury Black. (P.S. Voodoo is hiring!)

Questions Janos Answered in this Episode:
  • What is the general sentiment at Voodoo about Apple’s privacy changes?
  • Tell us about what Voodoo does and its newer casual gaming division.
  • How do you envision Voodoo evolving the types of games it develops and publishes?
  • Why is Voodoo the largest hyper-casual games developer in the world?
  • Talk to me about the role of UA manager within a hyper-casual game studio. What are some of the challenges here that you might not see in other studios?
  • What do you look for when hiring a UA manager or marketer?
  • How have you seen the role of a UA manager change in the time you’ve been in mobile marketing?
Timestamp:
  • 1:48 Janos’s background
  • 5:38 Adapting to Apple’s privacy changes
  • 7:42 Voodoo and casual games
  • 9:46 Voodoo’s vision for entertaining the world
  • 13:25 Managing UA for hyper-casual games
  • 15:34 What Voodoo looks for when hiring UA managers and marketers
  • 24:45 How the role of UA managers has changed over the years
Quotes:

(6:15-6:31) “Every single big change that destroys the equilibrium only inspires innovation. I think this is something that we’re really interested in seeing, how the industry will evolve [to Apple’s privacy changes] in the next six to 12 months and what will be essential--the new technologies, the new systems that will be able to go forward.”

(27:35-27:48) “I think user acquisition five years ago and ten years from now will massively be about experimental testing because this is the one and only way; since the market evolves so fast--you wouldn’t be able to make it otherwise.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Making the Leap to a Third Party Retargeting Partner - Pablo Bereskyj (Etermax)06 Jul 202100:29:46

Pablo Bereskyj is the Marketing Operations Manager for Etermax, an international gaming company headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Previously, Pablo worked in business intelligence and financial analysis at Acuris, The Mergermarket Group, and Debtwire.

Questions Pablo Answered in this Episode:
  • Did you have any fear or reservation about jumping into the gaming industry coming from a financial services company?  
  • What do you think held you back from moving to a third party retargeting vendor? 
  • When you look at retargeting in retrospect, what was one of the things you found most challenging in getting it off the ground or maybe one thing you would have done differently?
Timestamp:
  • 4:26 Pablo’s professional background
  • 8:17 From finance to gaming 
  • 12:40 Learnings from internal retargeting operations
  • 15:25 Moving to a third party vendor for retargeting
  • 18:27 Maximizing the value of your core customers 
  • 23:35 Top pillar underestimated with retargeting integrations
Quotes:

(17:30-17:45) “You have to derive an internal ecosystem of tools; you need to be looking at all these variables; and if you want to run this constantly, it means that you have to have a really hands-on exercise with that.”

(17:59-18:09) “The discovery of payers as a potential target, that was the other thing that drove a lot of the decision behind us using a third party vendor essentially.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Guaranteeing Profitability through testing and analysis Grégoire Mercier (Addict Mobile)29 Jun 202100:33:00

Grégoire Mercier is the CEO and founder of Addict Mobile, a leading marketing company for mobile apps based in Paris, France with offices in over 20 countries. Grégoire has been in the mobile app industry for 10 years, getting his start at Gameloft and eventually starting his own mobile games studio. 

Questions Grégoire Answered in this Episode:
  • What enabled you to be able to do marketing for games to broaden your scope to service any vertical?
  • How do you approach creatives across verticals to increase efficiency?
  • Has your team discovered any best practices when it comes to what works with creatives?
  • Do you feel confident in your ability to always drive profitability for your clients?
  • What are you looking forward to this year as it relates to Addict Mobile?
Timestamp:
  • 1:43 Grégoire’s background
  • 7:37 From gaming to all verticals
  • 13:24 Unlimited creatives for UA clients
  • 19:23 Addict’s “rules” for creative
  • 25:30 How Addict guarantees profitability
  • 29:45 Expansion in the US
Quotes:

(10:11-10:45) “Many gaming studios can be good clients for us for one game, but at some point, this game becomes less profitable and then budgets decrease a lot. And, sometimes mobile games studios just die because it’s a very tough market and you can’t only rely on one game. So, they have a very volatile kind of client. Whereas other verticals, like e-commerce companies for example, which is very basic but same for VTC companies, companies like Uber or others, they spend forever until their ad business works.”

(13:35-14:18) “Very early in our development we decided to really focus on [creatives], managing all the production of creatives internally, giving them for free to our clients so they don’t pay for it when we do user acquisition for them. And we are open to do an unlimited number of creatives for them all along the projects for free. We decided to do it very early at the very beginning of the company because for me it was of use--without it can’t do good UA. So if we don’t do good UA for clients, if the apps are not profitable because our clients don’t have the capacity to make enough creatives, the campaigns will just not work, and then we won’t be profitable, and then we just won’t scale, and at the end of the day, the clients just leave.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Seizing New Opportunities for Women in Mobile - Georgiana Ciobotaru (HelloFresh)22 Jun 202100:34:31

Today’s guest is Georgiana Ciobotaru, the Associate Director of Product at the meal-kit company HelloFresh. She started as an operations analyst and moved into product management before joining the digital product team at HelloFresh. 

Questions Georgiana Answered in this Episode:
  • Can you speak a little bit about the lateral moves in your career and how that’s helped you to progress?
  • What recommendations would you give to our listeners who are trying in advance in their careers but don’t necessarily have an available opportunity?
  • How do you decipher what you can take on and what you can’t at work? How do you find that balance and how do you know when it’s okay to say “no”?
  • Can you walk us through your day and share what habits help you be successful?
  • As a manager, how do you help others develop their careers? How do you manage delegating tasks?
  • What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve received?
  • What advice would you give to coworkers who feel less represented at a company to feel more confident in speaking up?
Timestamp:
  • 1:40 Georgie’s background
  • 5:04 Making lateral progress
  • 11:41 When considering a new opportunity
  • 15:35 Georgie’s success-forming habits
  • 20:43 Managing junior teammates
  • 25:24 Different types of decisions
  • 30:35 Speaking up
Quotes:

(12:23-12:41) “What I’ve realized across the years that excites me the most is definitely to have a great challenge, something that’s hard to solve. But also, something that I’m going to be able to learn from and to do it together with a team that I know cares about it as well.”

(21:35-21:45) “For the person reporting to me, I think it was very important for us to make sure we had a plan. So I tend to say, ‘Love the planning, not the plan.’”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Adopting the Pareto Rule in Performance Marketing - Fiona Lauredi (Gameloft)16 Jun 202100:26:48

Fiona Lauredi is the Lead User Acquisition Manager at Gameloft, an established and leading mobile video games developer worldwide. She is based in Paris.

Questions Fiona Answered in this Episode:
  • What’s the biggest takeaway that you’ve gained in your experience working across gaming genres?
  • What have you learned to put less emphasis on in your role as a performance marketer and what are the things you place the most emphasis on to strive towards the Pareto Rule?
  • Was it a big learning curve for your team to adopt the Pareto Rule?
  • What’s the process of how you determine a concept for a particular creative?
  • What have the results been from executing this kind of a strategy? Have you found that you drive better performance for your titles?
Timestamp:
  • 3:08 Fiona’s background
  • 8:29 Biggest learning for marketing across gaming genres
  • 10:06 Applying and adopting the Pareto Rule in performance marketing
  • 16:09 Benchmark! Benchmark! Benchmark!
  • 18:30 The results Fiona’s seen from her team
Quotes:

(8:58-9:25) “One of the big things I’ve learned and taken away with me is Pareto Rule. So for everyone that is not familiar with that rule, it’s essentially saying that 20% of your actions will make 80% of the value. It’s cutting down on a lot of things that aren’t value based, you stop doing these things. It doesn’t matter that you’re 100% perfect. It matters that you can do 5 times as many things as what you could do before.”

(10:20-10:43) “My belief is that the human race is not intelligent enough that you can make decisions on more than two metrics, three at most. If you look at more things than this, you’re probably not going to be making any decision at all. So I would say that one thing that can be used anywhere is looking at a lot less metrics but the ones that count.”

(19:03-19:27) “In my opinion, creatives are 50-60% of our performance, and I’m talking hardcore data, ROAS, scale, all that--it’s all for me on creatives. So obviously, being able to produce more, to produce better, to produce smarter, and to have more people involved in this process has definitely shown results on the bottom line.” 

Mentioned in this Episode:
Arming Your Retargeting Playbook - Stephen Siegel (Scopely)09 Jun 202100:24:31

Stephen Siegel is a User Acquisition Manager at Scopely, an interactive entertainment company and a leading mobile games publisher. He cut his teeth in the mobile gaming sphere at Machine Zone and hails from a background in math and economics. 

Questions Stephen Answered in this Episode:
  • You’ve been in the mobile gaming space for 4 years, how many different platforms and networks do you think you’ve tested in your career? And how often does someone reach out to you to pitch a new product?
  • Where do you spend the majority of your time as a UA manager?
  • Is there anything that really interests you about retargeting or that you find fascinating about these campaigns? 
  • What are some of the most successful ways that you’ve found to message users when it comes to retargeting?
  • Most people that come to us in the mobile gaming industry want to retarget churned users. Would you say that’s the most predominant form of retargeting in the industry or do you see other game studios or yourself testing additional audiences outside of the lapsed players?  
  • How do you see game studios effectively retargeting churned users from a messaging perspective?
  • Do you have any experience or have you heard of studios leveraging promos to drive engagement?
  • Why do you think having a retargeting strategy is not yet ubiquitous among performance marketers or gaming studios? 
  • Do you think that the industry is doing a good enough job of leveraging incrementality for acquisition campaigns as well? 
  • How is retargeting being affected by what’s happening with iOS14.5 and the ATT prompt? Have you heard of any solutions that will allow you to keep retargeting or are you exploring them?
Timestamp:
  • 4:06 Stephen’s background & current professional focus
  • 7:58 Retargeting messaging - knowing your audience
  • 10:18 Figuring out why users lapse
  • 12:00 Using promos in retargeting
  • 14:40 Industry barriers to owning retargeting strategies
  • 17:16 Leveraging incrementality in acquisition campaigns
  • 19:30 Solutions to retargeting on iOS
Quotes:

(7:33-7:50) “With new UA, you don’t have quite the same ability to meet users where they’re at. And then with retargeting, you know so much about these users and about their past behavior, so we have more opportunity to message them in ways that we think will be more successful.”

(19:34-20:10) “I think it’s going to get harder to retarget on iOS; that you’re going to lose IDFA access to some percentage of users, which will be some percentage of the audience that you want to retarget. You also need the opt-in on the publisher side, which you have no control over. So, it’s an uphill battle but it’s not going to eliminate retargeting on iOS entirely. It’s a run-what-you-can and then try to find creative ways to continue to reach users you can’t retarget through the traditional IDFA method.” 

Mentioned in this Episode:
Is the App World Shifting from Ads to Subscriptions? - Jean-François Grang (Purchasely)28 May 202100:24:12

Jean-François is the co-founder of Purchasely, a company based in Paris that helps apps grow their revenues by streamlining In-App Purchase integration. He is also the CEO and founder of 2 App à Z, a consulting firm specialized on mobile technologies. Jean-François was one of the first 500 developers of the iPhone developer beta program. He’s helped many companies build their first apps, and in 2020 was awarded the worldwide App of the Year.

Questions Jean-François Answered in this Episode:
  • Is there a product that you’re most proud of having played a role in developing?
  • What does Purchasely do and why did you start the company?
  • As a developer, when you’re trying to build out the in-app purchases that are involved with an app, how much time does that process take up?
  • Is this a problem that most startups see or does this solve problems for apps of any size?
  • Are you seeing more apps shift to subscriptions? And if so, what kind of apps are you seeing make this move?
  • How does that impact the overall app economy if everything shifts to subscriptions? What might be the limit to how many apps consumers would be willing to subscribe to?
Timestamp:
  • 2:57 Jean-François’s background
  • 6:07 What is Purchasely and why was it created
  • 8:12 Why in-app purchases are a pain in the apps
  • 10:42 The movement from advertising to subscriptions
  • 15:44 Who is shifting to subscriptions and why
  • 19:42 Is there a consumer threshold for subscriptions vs ads
Quotes:

(10:42-10:57) “The world is moving very fast on subscription. Two years ago, the advertising was so high, very few people were considering subscriptions. But, as you’ve seen, there is a drop in the volume and value of advertising. There is also the ATT that is coming in. So, the world of advertising is in trouble right now.”

(17:25-17:38) “We had a lot of apps that were ads-oriented and that were playing on the frustration of the users to get money. But the game of subscription is very different. The game of subscription is more a seduction than a frustration.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
How Wellness Apps Are Changing Healthcare - Taylor Gobar (Bloom)19 May 202100:39:37

Taylor Gobar is the Head of Growth at Bloom. Bloom is an app that provides you with tools to help you experience better sleep, reduced stress levels and a more relaxed lifestyle with our guided meditations, relaxing music, activities and mindful experiences.

Questions Taylor Answered in this Episode:
  • Was there something inside of you that made you want to move more in the direction of healthcare and wellness?
  • Do you find that because Bloom is a company focused on mental health that wellness permeates the environment or there is greater awareness of it in general?
  • What is the central goal and mission of Bloom?
  • How does cognitive behavioral therapy manifest in the app?
  • How has the app world changed our awareness of mental health in your opinion?
  • What are some measures organizations can take to elevate the diversity of their brands?
  • How do you create repetition of behavior and engagement with a product like yours when the cost is low?
  • What is the evolution here and how do we improve?
Timestamp:
  • 2:13 Taylor’s background
  • 5:35 Mission-driven, wellness work culture
  • 9:48 Bloom’s central goal
  • 14:07 Cognitive behavioral therapy
  • 17:30 Accessing healthcare and wellness via apps
  • 20:05 Injustices in accessing healthcare in the U.S. today
  • 23:33 Steps to greater equity in the workforce
  • 28:02 Engaging users
  • 33:00 The evolution of mental health content
Quotes:

(9:22-9:27) “The cultural piece is not just who do I want to grab a beer with, it’s who do I want to save the world with.”

(20:03-20:25) “Access in this country is first and foremost dictated by your financial situation, and in that sense I think the apps create more access. The price point is lower and it is not tied to things like your insured status or your employment status. In the United States, your chance of accessing any healthcare when you’re not employed is really rough. 

Mentioned in this Episode:
Managing Burnout in Mobile Marketing - Jocelyn Paz (Reebok)11 May 202100:23:39

Today’s guest opens up about her first professional work experience as a mobile marketer working for a gaming company. At the time, she didn’t realize the level of stress she was experiencing was not “normal.” Now, as the Associate Manager of Digital Marketing at Reebok, Jocelyn Paz reflects on how Rebook is doing a good job creating open lines of communication for employees to have honest conversations about mental health. 

Questions Jocelyn Answered in this Episode:
  • What made you want to go in a different direction with your marketing career? 
  • How did you approach the experience of burnout? What helped you cope or reduce burnout?
  • Did you find yourself accepting and normalizing having mental breakdowns once a week or was there a point where you said ‘this is not normal’?
  • How did you create boundaries you set in place in order to take care of yourself? 
  • How can organizations be doing to improve communication at work around stress and breaking down its stigma? 
  • How has working from home played a role in burnout at work? 
Timestamp:
  • 4:23 Joceyln’s background
  • 5:56 Working for a product and brand you believe in
  • 9:00 An excessive workload? 
  • 11:45 Justifying burnout, blurring boundaries
  • 12:30 Perfectionism and compassion
  • 15:55 Open lines of communication
  • 18:23 The blurred line when working remotely
  • 21:12 What “productivity” really means
Quotes:

(10:32-10:44) “To put it simply it’s like you’re getting pressure from two sides. You’re getting pressure from one thing that you can’t control, which is the company. And, you’re getting pressure from yourself internally.”

(11:45-12:18) “At first I tried to justify it but saying, ‘You don’t know as much as you should, you’re not handling it well.’ I started making excuses saying, ‘This will pass, as soon as you learn more you’ll be able to handle it better.’ But as time went on, I realized that saying that to myself was sort of just making excuses and what I was really doing was just blurring those boundaries. I had a complete lack of boundaries between me and the work that I was doing, and what I’d say ‘yes’ to.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Data Science: Designing an Experimentation Platform - Shan Huang (Zalando)28 Apr 202100:28:20

Today’s guest is Shan Huang, the Senior Applied Scientist at Zalando, a multinational e-commerce platform for shoes and fashion. Shan is also the co-founder of the German-Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, a nonprofit advancing the exchange of education, research, and public resources between Germany and China in the field of AI.

Questions Shan Answered in this Episode:
  • Can you give me an explanation of what an experimentation platform is? What is an example of how it’s used? 
  • How do you set the limitations? How do you define what can be experimented? 
  • What are the biggest challenges to building such a platform? 
  • If you could go back in time and could give yourself one hint or remove one obstacle in building this platform, what would that be?
  • Are you running automated optimization a/b tests? 
  • Are there any tricks to increase the efficiency or decrease the runtime of the experimentation? 
  • How do you support people knowing what experiments to run, what’s interesting, possible to test, etc? 
  • What was the reason for creating the experimentation platform?
Timestamp:
  • 2:53 The many use cases of Zalando’s experimentation platform 
  • 6:45 Putting together the right team
  • 10:19 What’s important in the beginning
  • 11:27 Hypothesis testing methodology
  • 13:14 Adaptive experimentation
  • 15:03 Methods for improving experimentation efficiency 
  • 18:44 Setting up a process for running a/b tests 
  • 23:04 Power to the product team
Quotes:

(6:50-6:57) “I think one of the biggest challenges is that building this kind of platform requires a team of different experts in different domains.”

(10:31-10:56) “In the beginning it’s about providing infrastructure and also helping our stakeholders with other teams learn a/b testing, understand a/b testing, because statistics is sometimes a very confusing thing--confidence interval, significance--it’s not so easy to explain. And I think it might be helpful to get a solid groundwork on this stuff.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Inside the Mobile Marketing Industry’s No-ID world - Catherine Perloff (AdWeek)15 May 202400:29:30

Catherine Perloff is the platforms reporter at Adweek, an American publication covering news related to the brand marketing ecosystem. In this episode, Catherine gives us the latest news on what’s happening within the murkiness of cookie depreciation and the advertising industry’s no-ID world. She also discusses emerging trends from AI-powered media buying to retail media and more.

At Adweek, Catherine focuses on how media buyers and brands spend their marketing budgets, what channels are most effective for them, and what struggles they encounter in buying the best media to reach the right audience. She also covers how publishers monetize effectively with digital marketing tools. 

Questions Catherine answered in this episode:
  • What does ‘platforms’ mean from the perspective of a marketing reporter?
  • What's the feedback from the industry on Meta’s AI-powered Advantage+?
  • Besides the impacts of privacy, what other trends do you foresee happening this year?
  • How do you stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the marketing space?
Timestamp:
  • 0:52 Catherine’s background
  • 4:39 Unpacking the platforms
  • 7:33 ATT’s impact on Meta for advertisers
  • 11:00 The scoop on Meta’s AI-powered Advantage+
  • 13:46 What’s happening in the no-ID world
  • 15:45 The future of AI-driven media buying
  • 17:10 Retail media and connected TV
  • 21:25 ID bridging: shady business?
  • 25:44 Resources
Quotes:

(7:39-7:59) “I think that there was a mindset that you could build a whole business on Meta, like that would be your main channel – and after ATT, I think a lot of businesses, especially DTC brands, realized they had to diversify.”

(15:01-15:20) “The purveyors of premium inventory are always going to say that high-quality inventory will be performative. I don’t think that’s true, but it’s definitely harder to prove. It’s often said that if you can’t track it, it’s branding.”

(16:47-17:07) “AI is being used for creativity in the advertising space. Is generative AI going to replace creative agencies? Is it going to replace copywriters? It poses a real existential threat to media agencies if more of the technology is doing the decision-making.” 

Mentioned in this Episode:
How to Nail User-Generated Content – Yoann Pavy (Diem)20 Apr 202100:36:20

Yoann Pavy has started a new role as Vice President of Marketing at Diem. Previously, he was the Head of Digital Marketing at Depop. He’s recently launched his own podcast, Digital Marketing Finesse. Yoann is based in London.

Questions Yoann Answered in this Episode:
  • How do you source sneakers to consumers?
  • How was the marketing strategy at Depop developed and the level of success you saw from it?
  • How did Depop’s UGC perform across channels? Were some better than others?
  • What was your process for going to get more of this kind of content? How do you identify who’s a good candidate, and what was the process from there?
  • What are some of the risks or challenges when going through this process?
  • Can you tell us what is “Digital Marketing Finesse”?
Timestamp:
  • 2:51 Yoann’s background: from engineering to marketing
  • 14:15 What does Laced do?
  • 18:00 Depop’s street filming creative strategy
  • 24:04 Bad UGC vs Good UGC
  • 25:19 Making it native for each channel
  • 28:40 Depop’s process for developing its UGC
  • 29:58 Challenges
  • 33:01 Digital Marketing Finesse
Quotes:

(21:57-22:26) “Going back to the marketing strategy side, it’s like the marketing 101 that says testimonials are the key. Now you’re in b2b, you want testimonials. You’re in b2c, you want testimonials. Everyone talks about testimonials like the bread and butter of marketing to sell your product. So, we kind of made Gen Z testimonials, the new version of them—they were very raw, they were very real, and completely unscripted.”

(24:32-24:50) “So it’s like really keeping the truth of [user-generated content] is I think the key ingredient. And I do think that it almost doesn’t matter what the market base is about; it could be about anything. As long as you put the people using it at the forefront, it’s going to be real.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Proactive Mobile Marketing Strategies for Apple’s Data Privacy Changes – Liz Emery (Tinuiti)13 Apr 202100:34:23

Liz Emery is the Senior Director of Mobile and Ad Tech Solutions at Tinuiti, the largest independent performance marketing agency across Google, Amazon, Facebook, and beyond. She oversees their mobile executions on strategy, ASO, including A/B testing through all of their user acquisition channels as well as lifecycle email marketing.

Questions Liz Answered in this Episode:
  • When Apple announced the data privacy changes that were coming with iOS14, what was your reaction to that?
  • In your opinion, what are the forces driving these changes?
  • How are your clients feeling about this, and are you see a large disparity in how clients are dealing with these changes?
  • Is there any advantage to the “waiting and seeing” approach?
  • What are the proactive marketers doing to set themselves up for success in this new paradigm?
  • Why do you feel that SkAdNetwork won’t be enough to give you the attribution that you’re looking for?
  • What is a conversion value schema? How are smart marketers putting up their conversion value schema?
Timestamp:

2:35 Liz’s background
5:18 What is Tinuiti?
7:29 Why Liz enjoys the agency life
10:07 The reaction to Apple’s announcement
12:45 The fear is real
14:50 Proactive strategies to be prepared
20:23 SkAdNetwork & data privacy changes
22:09 Conversion value schema
28:00 Our role as marketers with the new normal

Quotes:

(12:07-12:15) “I think the four forces at work are people, regulations, and browser and device-level changes, all driven by government and big tech.”

(16:58-17:15) “I don’t think you have to be like, ‘Oh, my core media strategy is wrong. Everything I’ve been doing for the last couple of years is wrong. I need to stop spending x, y, z.’ That’s not what I’m saying. You do need to keep spending with those consistent channels, but just be cognizant that the kind of targeting and the results you’re going to get are going to shift.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
How to Build Social Validation for a Mobile App - Jon Lau (Weee!)07 Apr 202100:29:52

Jon Lau is the Senior Director of Growth at Weee!, a company delivering Asian & Hispanic groceries with zero service fees and free delivery. Previous to the e-grocer app, Jon hailed from a background in banking and then mobile marketing for gaming companies, like DraftKings, Smule, and Playsonic.   

Questions Jon Answered in this Episode:
  • Can you tell us about what Weee! does and who you serve?
  • What would you attribute the company’s jump from being valued at $600 million last year to $2.8 billion now? What do you attribute that growth to?
  • Have you found that the general consumer is now using Weee! or is it predominantly people from the cultures you serve?
  • What is your creative strategy? Is it mostly focused on educating a consumer base? Celebrating heritage?
  • How do you establish social validation for your brand?
  • How do you go about telling a story about your brand on platforms like Facebook and display?
Timestamp:
  • 3:06 Jon’s background: gaming to e-grocer
  • 10:46 What’s is Weee!
  • 12:27 Weee!’s explosive growth
  • 14:45 Growing the second-generation Asian and Hispanic user base 
  • 16:19 Creative strategy: cultural heritage, food discovery, education
  • 18:00 Establishing social validation for a brand
  • 21:51 Telling your brand story 
Quotes:

(12:31-12:55) “It goes to show the grocery potential of different ethnicities in the U.S. So, specifically here, we’re talking about the Asian and Hispanic population in the U.S., which by and large I would say, depending on where you live, can be relatively underserved. And these are populations that have the wallet share that can actually make the purchases, they just don’t have something nearby.”

(18:29-18:55) “There’s this conception that it’s ‘too good to be true’ type feeling. And so, we realized this was an issue. And at the same time, we actually found out that the most common search phrase for Weee! was, ‘Is Weee! legit?’ And then we were like, ‘Okay, this is a completely different challenge we have to tackle because it’s no longer about reaching the audience--we’re reaching them--but people are skeptical about whether this service is real.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Building Resilience for Women in Mobile Gaming - Jayne Peressini (Electronic Arts)31 Mar 202100:36:59

Jayne Pimentel is the Senior Director of Marketing and Growth at Electronic Arts. Electronic Arts develops and delivers games, content, and online services for Internet-connected consoles, mobile devices, and personal computers. EA has more than 300 million registered players around the world.

Questions Jayne Answered in this Episode:
  • How did you get started in gaming? 
  • Your dad was a big influence on your affinity for gaming and the decisions you’ve made in your career. Can you talk a little bit about that? 
  • How did you grow from your experience getting laid off? 
  • Did you have any mentors who helped you along the way in your career? 
  • Is there a common theme in the advice women come to you for?
  • What is the worst piece of advice that you’ve ever received? The best advice?
  • How do you help develop a culture that embraces failure and learning for your team?
  • How do you manage your work-life balance? 

Timestamp:
  • 1:43 Jayne’s history and love of video games
  • 5:40 Dad’s influence on Jayne’s career in gaming
  • 8:08 The light from dark times in following her passions
  • 14:22 Jayne’s mentors along the way
  • 16:18 Words of wisdom for women in mobile gaming
  • 20:05 Worst and best advice Jayne ever received
  • 27:07 Developing a culture of embracing failure and learning
  • 30:30 Work-life balance
  • 33:05 Jayne’s advice to women starting their careers
Quotes:

(10:25-10:42) “I fell into my own in terms of mobile games. I went to Machine Zone and I fell back in love with mobile games. I fell back in love with the work as well. Performance marketing, all that comes with, really, is my passion and my skillset. So it’s nice I can combine those things.”

(12:13-12:42) “I want power. That’s a big thing for me, the ability to influence and the ability to support women in our industry. And so, that is what my passion has morphed into. It’s not just mobile games as a category but the people within mobile games, and specifically the women because I’ve seen the shit that we have to deal with and I’ve been part of that. I show up every day as if it was the person I wish I had when I started my career.” 

(17:47-18:21) “For women, I feel like we hold ourselves to such a high standard in terms of we let bad days define us and we let bad moments define us. Even feedback. I ask for feedback all the time and I take everyone’s feedback as truth to me as a person and I never question feedback. I’m always like, ‘yep, that’s right, I was an asshole. Yep, I should do that.’ And in fact, you don’t have to. You don’t have to agree with all of the feedback. You can listen to it, but you don’t have to wear it.” 

Mentioned in this Episode:
Overcoming “Impostor Syndrome” as a Woman in Tech - Michelle Lerner (Branch)24 Mar 202100:32:42

Michelle Lerner is the Director of Business Development at Branch. Branch provides cross-platform linking and attribution solutions to the world's leading digital brands.

Questions Michelle Answered in this Episode:
  • How has the role of men and women in the mobile tech space evolved since you started your career? 
  • Do you feel more confident and comfortable vocalizing yourself now because you’re in a more senior position or because of the work environment? 
  • Did you have a mentor that helped you to feel this way or was it something else?
  • As a manager, how do you empower your direct reports? 
  • What do you think we can be doing more in the workplace to empower women?
  • What in your personal life has helped you build your confidence at work? 
  • How do you set boundaries at work, in your personal life, with men?
  • What advice would you give to women when it comes to defining career goals?
Timestamp:
  • 1:19 Michelle’s background
  • 3:53 Being discouraged to speak up earlier in her career
  • 6:08 Dispelling impostor syndrome
  • 7:30 Having mentors, being a mentor
  • 13:56 Perfectionism & failure
  • 19:34 How running helped her build confidence
  • 22:18 Setting expectations 
  • 25:40 Career advice for women in mobile
Quotes:

(4:55-5:09) “I think as a woman, we’re always told to be put in this little box of like, ‘Okay, well, behave.’ But, I don’t think the opposite of that being having a voice and making sure you’re heard is misbehaving.”

(16:38-16:58) “I think as managers and as leaders, we’re always being like, ‘Hey, why don’t we try it like this?’ instead of being like, ‘What do you think we should do?’ And I think continuing to ask questions will also really help people get their footing and have a voice because then the more questions you ask, the more they’ll feel like they’re able to come forward and bring their opinion and thoughts to the table.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Company Culture that Works for Women in Mobile Marketing - Fanny Jacoby (Trivago)19 Mar 202100:37:21

Fanny Jacoby is the Head of Projects for app marketing at trivago, a leading hotel price comparison website.

Questions Fanny Answered in this Episode:
  • How did you get started with mobile marketing?
  • What is it like working at Trivago? What does Trivago do to empower and support women at the workplace?
  • Can you speak a little bit more about Trivago’s mentorship program?
  • What do you think we can be doing to improve women’s role in the workplace?
  • What do you think is the biggest challenge for women in marketing?
  • What are the ways you’ve been able to build up your confidence?
  • What advice would you give to women who are defining their career goals?
Timestamp:
  • 1:27 Fanny’s background
  • 6:47 How Trivago created an inclusive workplace environment
  • 12:02 Trivago’s mentorship program
  • 15:08 Inviting men to understand women’s perspective
  • 21:11 What’s holding women back
  • 24:45 On building confidence
  • 32:50 Surround yourself with inspiring people
Quotes:

(3:06-3:41) “The content was pretty exciting but the atmosphere at the time was really toxic. And I’m really sad to say it because I’m all for this woman empowerment, we’re great, we’re badass and everything, but I did feel a lot of competition there at the time and sometimes I feel like women can sometimes be mean to each other and tear themselves down. And a lack of diversity also led to this toxic, competitive, mean, gossipy environment I would say.”

(21:11-21:23) “I think one of the biggest problems [for women in marketing], I think I mentioned it before, is this imposter problem. To not always trust yourself and capabilities, and lacking self-confidence in general.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
The Fight for Women’s Voice in the Gaming Industry – Jen Donahoe (Riot Games)11 Mar 202100:53:59

Our first guest is Jen Donahoe, the Marketing and Growth Lead for Teamfight Tactics at Riot Games. Jen has also held marketing roles at Disney, Hasbro, EA Sports, and Mattel. She shares her thoughts on connecting with male peers, the need for women to support other women, calling out unconscious bias, work-life balance, and more.

Questions Jen Answered in this Episode:
  • How did you get started in marketing, specifically in gaming? And how have you been able to grow at some of the most influential companies in our industry?
  • How have you seen the role of women changing in the gaming industry? 
  • What could we be doing more of to allow more opportunities for women in the workplace?
  • What’s your perspective on the diversity and inclusion issues that were brought to light at Riot Games?
  • How do you navigate your work-life balance?
Timestamp:
  • 1:50 How Jen got into a marketing career in gaming
  • 8:30 Authentic connection in a male-dominated industry
  • 12:35 Women supporters, not saboteurs
  • 15:40 Calling out unconscious bias in work meetings
  • 18:24 Getting peer feedback on your approach
  • 20:55 Paying it forward and asking for help
  • 26:34 How Riot Games has taken accountability for sexism criticism 
  • 35:40 Going beyond the superficial in coworker relationships
  • 40:35 Managing work-life balance and your career
  • 44:36 Jen’s 4 “Ps” 
Quotes:

(8:59-9:28) “I think because I had such a connection to sports and to these hobbies that many men actually enjoyed, I was really able to connect with them. And so, I call it ‘authentic connections.’ You have to realize that whether we’re women, we’re human beings and we have to find ways of connecting with other human beings, and I was just really good at figuring out that hey, the authentic way I can connect with these mentors or these people that I need to know was to find a thing that connected us.”

(15:53-16:18) “For us, in today’s day and age, nothing is really that overt anymore. I think that it’s more of the unconscious bias that sometimes happens from our male peers. And one of the things is when you have an idea and you say something in the meeting, it gets glossed over and then a few minutes later a man will repeat the same question and everyone’s like ‘Oh my god, it’s an amazing idea.’”

(29:05-29:12) “Without a diverse workforce, without different perspectives, you’re not going to succeed in today’s innovative and changing environment.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Data Science: Measuring Campaign Uplift Without Device IDs - Yue Meng (Delivery Hero)04 Mar 202100:36:42

Yue Meng is the Senior Data Scientist at Delivery Hero, an on-demand delivery platform. Previously she was a marketing consultant for Ninah Consulting. She has a master’s degree in statistics. She is based in Berlin, Germany. 

Questions Yue Answered in this Episode:
  • What methodologies do you use to evaluate your various campaigns? 
  • What are your plans for A/B testing once device IDs are no longer available with the data privacy changes to iOS14? 
  • Can you give us an example of how you would analyze an offline campaign?
  • How do you know if your baseline model is accurate enough?
  • How would you improve your model if it wasn’t accurate enough?
  • Can you use the control group only to focus testing? 
Timestamp:
  • 1:02 Yue’s background
  • 4:45 Why Delivery Hero trusts A/B tests
  • 7:54 Plans for marketing campaign testing without device IDs
  • 11:29 KPIs for evaluating offline campaigns
  • 15:10 Measuring uplift from offline campaigns with time series
  • 21:39 Calculating accuracy with baseline models
  • 24:30 Using geo as a proxy for user-level data
  • 31:34 Looking ahead at testing solutions
Quotes: 

(9:21-9:43) “This offline scenario is very similar to an online scenario without the device ID, I would say. So probably some models that we’re using for the offline campaigns estimation can be used on the online campaigns also. That’s what we are currently trying to do.”

(17:07-17:20) “By using the time series analysis, the simplest model you can use, you’re not adding any other factors or any other features. You only focus on the time series by itself.”

(24:30-24:41) “Now the control group on a user level is impossible. What we can try to do as a proxy is to use instead of user-level to use geo-level, for example, the city level.” 

Mentioned in this Episode:

A New Map for Marketers Based on the Customer Journey - Christian Eckhardt (Customlytics)22 Feb 202100:36:22

Christian Eckhardt is the CEO and co-founder of Customlytics, a Berlin-based app marketing agency. They specialize in consulting and supporting mobile strategy, analytics, and ASO integration.

Questions Christian Answered in this Episode:
  • What was a component of the mobile marketing landscape that you had to learn the most about or that you found the most challenging when growing Customlytics?
  • What is the Marketing Master Map?
  • What are the goals of the Marketing Master Map?
  • What do you think of the customer journey? How do you break it down?
  • What surprises came up as you were creating this map?
  • What was the process of putting this together?
Timestamp:
  • 6:14 Why paid campaigns are the trickiest component of mobile marketing
  • 8:28 What is the Marketing Master Map
  • 14:32 Benefits of the new digital marketing framework
  • 17:18 Breaking down the 11 steps of the customer journey
  • 24:07 What Christian’s learn about mobile marketing in the creation of the map
  • 30:28 The making of the Marketing Master Map
  • 33:28 How to access the map, free prints of the map, and tutorial videos!
Quotes:

(15:53-16:02) “I think the second big benefit of the Marketing Master Map is to point you towards things that you might have been missing out on in terms of which channels to you, in terms of the different technologies to use.”

(28:42-29:12) “For me, this is really just the beginning. I know and I can guarantee you that, for example, the advertising strategy chapter is a very incomplete one because all of the things that are in there--there are the most important things, but a lot of them are exemplary. And there are many, many more sub-advertising strategies that you can adapt to. And this holds true for a lot of chapters in the map. The only thing is if we were to put them the whole thing would be even bigger than it is now.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Calculating the Uplift of Marketing Moonshots - Cody Ryan (Ibotta)03 Feb 202100:44:44

Cody Ryan is the Vice President of Growth Marketing at Ibotta, an app that gives users cashback on things they’ve already purchased.

Questions Cody Answered in this Episode:
  • How valuable is the MBA? Do you find that you’re leveraging in your job responsibilities?
  • How difficult was it to educate the market on why people should use Ibotta?
  • As a performance marketer, are you tracking the effects of sponsoring the New Orlean Pelicans?
  • What does one point of brand awareness mean? How does that manifest on your end?
  • What systems do you have in place for measurement, or to determine if something is a viable channel for you?
  • At Ibotta, have you invested more heavily into things like data science and marketing analytics to help power what you’re doing?
  • What’s something that’s within the 10% that worked much better than you thought it would?
Timestamp:
  • 4:19 Cody’s professional background
  • 10:15 What is Ibotta? Getting brands on board with the product
  • 15:07 Tracking uplift of being an NBA Sponsor of the New Orlean Pelicans
  • 17:38 The 70/20/10 philosophy
  • 20:30 Measuring uplift, calculating testing risks
  • 27:56 Where we’re investing to grow our business
  • 31:47 Surprising growth marketing results with TV
Quotes:

(17:54-18:02) “What we’ve done as an approach as a team is we carve off a certain percentage of our budget to just try things that could be moonshots.”

(20:37-20:58) “We try to do across the business is have our teams understand one percentage point increase in activation rate is worth X million dollars in gross profit or adjusted revenue or whatever your topline metrics are; because it helps ground people in small incremental improvements make big impacts on the business.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
How the Subway Surfers Game Handles User Privacy - Janos Perei (SYBO Games)01 May 202400:18:10

Janos Perei is the Head of Growth for SYBO Games, the mobile game developer responsible for Subway Surfers, one of the most downloaded mobile games on the planet. In this episode, you’ll learn how SYBO is navigating privacy regulations in the U.S. and Europe and the importance of working cross-functionally with your teams. Before joining SYBO, Janos worked for Voodoo and Socialpoint. 

Questions Janos Answered in this Episode:
  • How is SYBO approaching user data privacy?
  • What data points do you still rely on in performance marketing related to user privacy?
  • How do you communicate your privacy policy to your users?
  • How do you come together internally to discuss the business’s approach to privacy regulations?
  • How are you using some of that data to inform your decisions without operating in a grey area?
Timestamp:
  • 1:10 Janos Perei’s background
  • 3:28 SYBO’s approach to privacy
  • 5:24 Communicating consent with users
  • 9:22 Setting up our internal teams around privacy
  • 13:08 Short-term pains for long-term gains
Quotes:

(3:42-3:56) “As human beings, we value our privacy – so we also value the chance to safeguard and decide how our users’ data is used. Coming from this mindset has been our guiding principle from the very beginning.”

(6:08-6:25) “We try to put compliance first –  so if a user doesn’t consent, we might not even initialize certain SDK systems and certain technical tracking infrastructure, to make sure we can safeguard the privacy of the user from the get-go.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
How to Execute a Virtual App Growth Event - Louis Tanguay (AGS)26 Jan 202100:39:38

Louis Tanguay is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of App Growth Summit, an invite-only, limited-vendor mobile app conference series and content publisher for app growth professionals.

Questions Louis Answered in this Episode:
  • App Growth Summit is moving to Austin. Why Austin?
  • How do you determine where to draw the line with attendees?
  • What are mobile marketers talking about too much?
  • Do you deny content? If so, how?
  • How do you manage content to your standards while appeasing your sponsors?
  • How have you navigated virtual event fatigue?
  • What do you think most people overlook in creating events that are challenging for you?
Timestamp:
  • 4:50 Louis’s background and the birth of App Growth Summit
  • 10:45 Deciding on the max number of attendees for an event
  • 14:31 What Louis hears too much of in mobile marketing
  • 16:51 Curating content for App Growth Summit
  • 22:48 Reducing virtual event fatigue
  • 30:48 Overlooked challenges in putting on events
Quotes:

(16:55-17:06) “What I’ll do is talk to each individual speaker, find out what they can and want to speak on; and then we’ll do a little pseudo data science and mix together the people that would make a great conversation.”

(30:56-31:05) “For virtual events, we’re testing the heck out of the platform because my biggest nightmare is that people sign on and it doesn’t work.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Automation and the Future of Performance Marketers - Simon Kreienbaum (kitchn.io)18 Jan 202100:29:11

Simon Kreienbaum is the co-founder of kitchn.io, a drag-and-drop visual platform that allows marketers to build their own customized automation tools to replicate their workflows without having to learn code. Previously, Simon was the head of performance marketing at Asana Rebel and rekindled his childhood love for coding as a senior online marketing manager at Junique. Simon is based in the Berlin area.  

Questions Simon Answered in this Episode:
  • How has Berlin’s startup tech seen changed the last 7 years you’ve been there?
  • Once you joined Asana Rebel, were you able to continue building out automated practices and saving yourself time?
  • Tell us what kitchn.io does and why people use it?
  • What are the prevailing use cases for automation that you see from your clients?
  • Do you think the role of the marketer is changing dramatically, and if so where do you think it’s going?
Timestamp:
  • 2:22 Rocket Internet--Berlin’s startup scene in 2014
  • 5:29 Simon’s background & 3 reasons coders make good marketers
  • 9:08 Quick history of automation in marketing evolution since 2015
  • 11:00 What is kitchn.io?
  • 14:48 Entry use cases for marketing automation: quality assurance and creative testing
  • 20:44 Commitment is key for automation tools and processes
  • 21:53 The future performance marketer
Quotes:

(12:27-12:44) “So we think our name kitchn, or kitchn.io, comes from the fact that we believe in recipes. So, reusing templates, having best practices, and developing systems or processes that you do manually, and then build automated workflows around it.” 

(18:13-18:31) “In the age of algorithmic bid optimization on the platforms, without a human doing anything, Facebook is already optimizing my campaigns. The biggest lever that you have is creative. And so that means, if you want to do this professionally, you better develop a system that helps you test as many creatives as possible and at the same time improves your hit rate.” 

Mentioned in this Episode:
Engaging Consumers with New Creatives in 2021 (M&C Saatchi Performance)12 Jan 202100:21:49

Megan Price is a media buying executive for M&C Saatchi Performance. She is based in the U.K. and graduated from the University of Glasgow with an M.A. in Economics.

Questions Megan Answered in this Episode:
  • What was your greatest challenge coming into performance marketing?
  • Have you found that when you think about different verticals your strategies change in regards to creatives, or do you think there are fundamental learnings that apply across the board?
  • Did your team really dig into having a diversity of creatives because of 2020?
  • Is there anything more you can do to create active engagement with creatives beyond playables and shopables?
Timestamp:
  • 2:30 Megan’s background
  • 6:17 Entering into performance marketing
  • 7:57 The media buying team at M&C Saatchi Performance
  • 11:09 Distinctive and engaging creative
  • 12:38 Avoiding creative fatigue
  • 15:58 The future of creative strategy
  • 18:58 End-of-year wrap-ups for brands
Quotes:

(5:37-5:55) “[Performance media] isn’t a one-size-fits-all case. And that’s where you have networks, these media owners having fantastic ways of targeting people in a specialist manner. So, that’s actually where it ties in really nicely with understanding that everyone is different and that if you target people in the way that’s best for them you are going to get the best results.”

(13:58-14:09) “[Gen Z/Millennials] grew up with phones, with technology, with all the platforms that we’re using to advertise to them so they can spot an advert and they want something out of it, so something like a value exchange.”

9Mentioned in this Episode:
Achieving Rapid Growth in Fintech By Building Trust (Valiu)05 Jan 202100:35:24

Christian Knudsen is the CMO at Valiu, the safest way to send money electronically from Colombia to Venezuela, and soon expanding to other countries in Latin America. 

Questions Christian Answered in this Episode:
  • Is it challenging to educate your users on the cryptocurrency technology that you use? 
  • Are you seeing a growth in fintech startups in Latin America or, more specifically, in Colombia?
  • How did Valiu get started? 
  • What’re some lessons you’ve learned from your experience driving acquisition in Colombia that would apply to driving acquisition next in Venezuela?
  • Was Facebook an adequate platform for you to articulate that message of trust in your product? Did you find that their display ads did a good job depicting your value proposition? 
  • Did you make any mistakes that will serve you as you move into Venezuela?
  • Looking forward to 2021, is there anything that you’re really excited about in terms of expansion or marketing channels?
Timestamp:
  • 4:16 Christian’s background
  • 8:20 About Valiu 
  • 10:13 Using cryptocurrency
  • 11:43 Why fintech is exploding in Colombia
  • 15:50 Driving acquisition in a culture new to Christian
  • 23:13 A/B testing value propositions on Facebook
  • 25:42 Learning lessons for 2021
Quotes:

(12:15-12:20) “A great percentage [of Colombians] don’t have accounts because the bank doesn’t let them or doesn’t offer that service.”

(20:02-20:22) “There comes the first barrier to getting into a market, and it’s trust. That was the main issue that I had as I was generating traction. Why would our users trust an app when they’ve been robbed before? Why would they stop using their confidant black market seller and change it for Valiu?”

Mentioned in this Episode:
How to Implement Rapid Experimentation - Matt Pate (Finimize)15 Dec 202000:30:21

Matt Pate is the Growth Lead at Finimize, giving you a team of finance and investment analysts in your pocket. Previously, Matt started up a VR/AR development studio in London. 

Questions Matt Answered in this Episode:
  • What does the Finimize product do?
  • What is your theory around testing and what systems do you have in place to do it effectively?
  • How many iterations of creatives does it take to arrive to a big winner? 
  • How do you find your audience on TikTok as a fintech app?
  • What are you looking forward to in 2021 in regards to performance marketing or the fintech space? 
Timestamp:
  • 5:20 Matt’s background
  • 11:05 What is Finimize?
  • 14:21 Matt’s views on testing
  • 16:21 Building a system for rapid experimentation at scale
  • 22:32 Fintech & TikTok
  • 26:25 What to look for in 2021
Quotes:

(15:45-16:04) “Where we saw our massive improvement was when were testing maybe four or five creatives a week and then we doubled, tripled, quadrupled that and got into the 15 to 20 range - and I can’t say we always test that much because it’s dependent on a lot of variables, but when we got to that, we saw significant decrease in our cost per acquisition, like 50%.”

(20:59-21:26) “Your biggest asset as any startup, as any founder, as anybody in growth marketing,  product, sales, whoever you are as a person, is creativity. And, it’s the ability to empathize and to understand somebody else and put the message in front of them. You are never going to do your job as well as my API or a computer, you know? So it’s get rid of those repeatable tasks and have as much time as you possibly can to spend on vision, creativity, and then you’ve got the utmost chance of hitting success. ”

Mentioned in this Episode:
How to Engage Gen Z Mobile Users - Ngozi Ogbonna (Overtime)08 Dec 202000:22:47

Ngozi Ogbonna is the Head of Growth at Overtime, a social-first sports media company serving Gen Z and other millennials. The OT app that Ngozi oversees growth for focuses on giving users scores and stories really quickly.

Questions Ngozi Answered in this Episode:
  • What are you focused on in your role as head of growth?
  • What are some of the tactics you put in place to keep your Gen Z users engaged?
  • Does email marketing or other traditional forms of marketing work with your users?
  • How has Overtime evolved with its various business lines?
  • Was there something you learned from your experience at TodayTix that’s transferred to your role today?
Timestamp:
  • 2:58 Ngozi’s background
  • 7:34 An into to Overtime and the OT app
  • 10:13 How Ngozi sees “growth”
  • 12:15 Keeping Gen Z hooked
  • 15:52 The sweat equity of content
  • 17:02 Lessons from TodayTix
Quotes:

(10:141-0:26) “It’s so funny because, traditionally, when people think about growth it’s product-led. And then, on the other side of it, growth is the performance-acquisition side. I think growth it’s the full funnel.”

(16:05-16:19) “If you can find the right formula, I definitely think that you can then utilize content from a marketing perspective to acquire users, to engage users, to ultimately retain users. So, using content to really activate a full customer funnel.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
The Power of Programmatic for Mobile Gaming Apps - Pau Quevedo (Goodgame Studios)01 Dec 202000:33:59

Pau Quevedo is the DSP Lead for Goodgame Studios. He’s based in Hamburg, Germany, the epicenter of gaming companies in Germany. 

Questions Pau Answered in this Episode:
  • What made you want to join a game development studio in the first place?
  • What made your company decide you needed someone dedicated to programmatic?
  • How has programmatic DSP changed in the past three years?
  • What is your outlook of the future of programmatic buying?
  • What’s the difference between waterfall and header bidding?
  • When you say contextual targeting, can you give us some examples of some levers that you think will be important for us to pull in our optimizations of programmatic media in the future?
Timestamp:
  • 3:34 Pau’s background
  • 6:24 About Goodgame Studios
  • 9:30 Why you need different skills for programmatic
  • 11:03 Why Goodgame pivoted to programmatic
  • 13:42 The strongest DSP model
  • 19:07 Waterfall vs header bidding
  • 22:00 Optimizing programmatic going forward
Quotes:

(9:41-9:48) “We believe that programmatic is a bit more of a specific channel that requires perhaps a little different kind of skills in order to make it happen.”

(10:49-10:59) “Programmatic DSP is not a big channel for games. If you look at the companies, not many companies outside retargeting are using DSP at a large scale to acquire new users. And, there’s a reason for that.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
[Rebroadcast] Using Incrementality to Drive User Growth24 Nov 202000:30:36
Questions Vincenzo Answered In This Episode:
  • “Is there a particular area where your team has really focused or has there been any particular experiment that you think will help you guys out-market your competitors?”
  • “As far as incrementality goes within programmatic in-app advertising, are you applying incrementality measurement to both acquisition campaigns and retargeting campaigns?”
  • “Do you use a certain methodology to achieve incrementality measurement within UI or maybe using the PSA methodology? Could you shed some light on that? ”
  • “Is it your team that manages user acquisition that’s doing a lot of data analysis? How do you go about organizing and compiling such large amounts of data?”
  • “What is your relationship between your third party attribution providers and what you are doing from an incrementality perspective?''
  • “How often are you testing your creativity? Is this a big part of your business and your iterative process?”
  • “Do you think other mobile marketers are heavily relying on incrementality as a KPI? Do you see that they are using it to the same extent as your team at DeliveryHero?”
Timestamp:

01:04  Vincenzo’s background
03:11 Vincenzo’s career journey with DeliveryHero
04:01 The one topic that Vincenzo and his team really focused on 
05:06 Vincenzo on incrementality measurement and its application to both acquisition campaigns and retargeting campaigns
06:34 How to reconcile different methodologies across different vendors
08:45 What methodology to use for incrementality measurement within UI
09:00 The GeoSplit test 
10:22 Vincenzo on running GeoSplit and PSA simultaneously 
11:20 Vincenzo on working closely with the customer insight team to organize and compile the large amount of data that they use in their app
12:34 Efficiency and decision making in which boundaries to work with, and which not to work with
14:14 Determining the short-term and long-term effects of campaigns
15:14 Conceptualizing incrementality
17:01 To effectively measure incrementality, you cannot rely on the third party attributors
19:43 Using incrementality test as a first step in identifying whether or not to pursue with a particular vendor
20:04 Testing creative
25:38 Vincenzo’s perspective on incrementality as a metric or a measurement that most mobile marketers are relying on
27:01 Future of Mobile Marketing and incrementality

-----------------------------------------

“Coordination is essential. If you start to do something without this being in place you can’t really action data in the end. You may have some findings, but those are not really actionable in the end. ”

  • Vincenzo Serricchio
Mentioned:
The Power of TikTok for Mobile App Acquisition - Katie Perry (Public.com)17 Nov 202000:39:34

Katie Perry is the Vice President of Marketing at Public.com. Public is an app for investing in stocks with a social twist. It’s on a mission to make the stock market more inclusive, educational, and fun. 

Questions Katie Answered in this Episode:
  • What was the hardest thing for you to pick up or wrap your head around when you came to marketing? And what was the most valuable thing you took out of some of your earlier experiences as related to marketing?
  • What sets Public apart from other investing platforms out there?
  • By making the stock market more accessible, does Public.com see itself as responsible for the risks associated with novices investing; and if so, how do you go about educating your users?
  • Where do you spend the most time of your day as VP of marketing?
  • Do social platforms play a crucial role in your acquisition of new customers? And are there specific social platforms that you rely on more than others?
  • How do you find creators that are appropriate for your brand?
Timestamps:
  • 2:43 Katie’s background
  • 6:38 From a journalism education to a marketing career
  • 10:55 What sets Public apart from other investing platforms
  • 17:30 Building safety labels to protect new investors
  • 21:51 Ancillary apps and platforms built to drive growth, build the brand
  • 25:00 TikTok and vetting influencers for acquisition
Quotes:

(5:28-5:41) “The mission really resonated for me for what we’re doing, which is making the stock market inclusive, educational, and fun; removing that inherent culture of it being closed off and competitive and really homogenous; and broadening the text.”

(30:13-30:17) “One principle we have at the company is that we really believe that who we acquire is who we become.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
One-to-One Lifecycle Marketing Tips for Mobile - Jessy Hanley (Intuit)10 Nov 202000:33:36

Jessy Hanley is the Director of Ecosystem and Lifecycle Marketing at Intuit. Intuit develops and sells financial, accounting, and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants, and individuals. Previously, Jessy also worked in marketing at Wag Labs, Uber, Ginger, and GSN Games. 

Questions Jessy Answered in this Episode:
  • How do you bring your startup mentality to larger companies, like Intuit?
  • As a lifecycle marketer, how do you set yourself up for success in order to reach your end goal of one-to-one customization?
  • How do you break down the manners in which you decide to communicate with consumers?
  • How have you incorporated machine learning into your work at Intuit?
  • When you first started in the lifecycle and retention sphere, did you feel like you had a seat at the table? How has your role changed over time?
Timestamp:
  • 4:30 Jessy’s start in mobile marketing
  • 10:39 One-to-one customization with lifecycle marketing
  • 13:11 The “Happy Path”
  • 15:48 Start with what you want to communicate
  • 19:40 Models & rules with machine learning
Quotes:

(11:03-11:16) “You have to start with one-size-fits-most, one-size-fits-some, one-size-fits-you, and taking that mentality. Because at the end of the day, it’s really important when you’re thinking about lifecycle to make sure you don’t have holes in your lifecycle.”

(16:32-16:47) “So some customers really respond to push, others really respond to email, others will ignore everything you send unless they see it in the product. It doesn’t change the fact that they still need to be communicated with. So what I like to do is, that instead of starting with the channel, start with what it is that you want to communicate.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Should Gaming Apps Use Playable Ads in their Marketing Mix? - Gokce Oguz (Playable Factory)17 Apr 202400:17:24

Gokce Oguz is the co-founder of Playable Factory, a Turkey-based company creating playable ads for gaming studios and brands with apps. Patrick interviews Gokce to learn all about playable ads for gaming studios and brands with apps. Find out what types of games or brands playables work best for, which types perform the best, when to iterate on your ads, and what the future of AI holds for creatives in mobile marketing. 

Questions Gokce answered in this episode:
  • What types of gaming studios are using playable ads? And is there a distinction between the types of playables being used and the subcategories of the gaming studios?
  • What makes a playable ad perform well, or not?
  • How much should advertisers be iterating on their playable ads?
  • Is there a difference between gaming studios and non-gaming studios when using these creative assets?
  • What’s your viewpoint on the future of AI and creatives in mobile marketing?
Timestamp:
  • 1:59 What does Playable Factory do
  • 3:43 Who uses playable ads
  • 6:12 What contributes to a well-performing playable ad
  • 9:07 When to iterate on playables
  • 10:40 Using playable ads for gaming apps vs non-gaming apps
  • 13:01 The future of AI and creatives in mobile marketing
Quotes:

(3:45-4:00) “Mostly casual game publishers and hyper-casual game publishers are using playable ads, but for publishers that have more mid-core games or role-playing type of games, it’s a little bit harder to use them.”

(4:08-4:20) “The brands and apps running campaigns in SDK Networks are the ones mostly using playable ads because they are performing the best in those ad networks.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Mobile Marketing with QSR Giant - Kevin Nemeth (Popeyes)03 Nov 202000:33:59

Kevin Nemeth is the Head of Digital Marketing for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. Previously, he’s worked within digital marketing at TD Bank, L’Oreal, MSLGROUP, HSN, AOL, and others. 

Questions Kevin Answered in this Episode:
  • Do your digital marketing strategies or principles change as you shift from one vertical to another?
  • What are a few ways that your team develops personalization for your customers?
  • What’s behind the success of your app?
  • What’s a mistake you’ve made and what did you learn?
  • How will IDFA impact the way you look at data? How will you win customer permission?
Timestamp:
  • 4:44 Acting like a startup
  • 8:18 Why marketing transcends verticals
  • 12:21 Personalizing the digital drive-through experience and QSR of the future
  • 15:45 Behind the success of the Popeyes app
  • 21:30 Hiccups along the way
  • 28:25 Adapting to IDFA and the value of value propositions
  • 32:00 Popeyes is hiring marketers and more
Quotes:

(9:08-9:16) “But at the end of the day, you think about the core mediums and what it really comes down to is the customer. Take everything else away from it, and at the central part of it all is the customer.”

(11:20-11:21) “Customer data is a currency.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
5 Tips for Retargeting Mobile Game Users - Ian Masterson (Tilting Point)27 Oct 202000:28:32

Ian Masterson is the Associate Growth Marketing Manager at Tilting Point, a mobile game publishing company. 

Questions Ian Answered in this Episode:
  • What are some of the big changes for Tilting Point this year?
  • When did you team start delving into retargeting?
  • What are some tips you’ve learned on your journey into retargeting?
  • Do you focus on lapsed paying audiences in retargeting or something else?
  • What’s your process for figuring out the messaging to the users you’re retargeting?
Timestamp:
  • 5:05 Tilting Point’s rebrand & acquired FTX Games
  • 7:38 A hurdle to retargeting for mobile game developers
  • 9:36 Understanding the user journey in retargeting
  • 11:20 Retargeting users in the first few days after install
  • 15:29 The name of your game--Apple vs Android app stores
  • 16:50 When to pause when retargeting static lists
  • 20:10 Developing the right retargeting message
Quotes:

(11:06-11:13) “[Lapsed buyers] have been a major focus of ours. I think it is the jumping off point. These are your most valuable users. These are the ones you want to get back.”

(22:45-22:54) “I just went on [Reddit] recently and you get an idea of where people are getting tripped up early on in the game, where there’s bugs, what they’re looking for. So it’s really insightful.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
APAC’s Mobile Marketing Melting Pot - Kabeer Chaudhary (M&C Saatchi Performance)13 Oct 202000:23:16

Kabeer Chaudhary is the APAC managing partner at M&C Saatchi Performance. M&C Saatchi Performance is a global digital media agency that connects brands to people, across all channels. He is based in Singapore.

Questions Kabeer Answered in this Episode:
  • How valuable was getting an MBA in pursuing your career?
  • Why has M&C Saatchi Performance set up its headquarters in Singapore?
  • What other countries do you work in?
  • What are some of the biggest differences in how you do business, marketing, etc., between these countries, say India and Singapore?
  • How has mobile been developing from country to country in APAC?
  • If you had to choose one thing that the performance marketing industry in your region could do better, quickly, what would it be?
Timestamp:
  • 6:00 M&C Saatchi Performance’s strategic expansion in SE Asia
  • 11:23 Cultural differences in doing business: India vs Singapore
  • 13:28 Overview of app development and mobile trends across APAC
  • 16:50 One thing the performance marketing industry should improve
Quotes:

(11:45-12:10) “That’s the great thing about APAC — because if you work in APAC, you can work across India, you work across Southeast Asia where there are more countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines, where people speak indigenous languages and have indigenous cultures; and you’ll be working with people from those markets and collaborating with them. So, it’s quite a melting pot. ”

(14:00-14:20) “Most people [in APAC] who have actually had access to the internet had access to the internet through their phones. They’ve never actually had a desktop or a laptop. So, they have completely skipped the online revolution when the desktops came in or the laptops came in.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Drive App Growth by Building Community - Shana Sumers (HER)06 Oct 202000:34:09

Shana Sumers, who is the Head of Community at HER, the largest community and dating app for LGBTQ+ womxn and queer people. She’s also the co-host of the Bad Queers Podcast. 

Questions Shana Answered in this Episode:
  • Talk to me about why the community aspect of your app is so important and how it helps you develop your brand.
  • How do you build a community within an app? What are the functions of your role?
  • What growth have you seen over the last 5 years at HER? And how has HER contributed to that growth?
  • How did you pivot through coronavirus and keep your community engaged?
Timestamp:
  • 3:50 The mission of HER and the Bad Queers Podcast
  • 8:03 Why community is integral to HER and the limitations of spaces for LGBTQ+ people
  • 11:36 Shana’s goal in her role as Head of Community
  • 13:57 The influence of community on HER’s growth
  • 18:12 Pivoting during coronavirus to virtual events, a lot of them
  • 26:19 Storytelling and growth marketing
  • 30:33 Being real about SEO
 Quotes (140 characters):

(9:07-9:17) “There are only 16 bars in the U.S. that are catered towards queer womxn like period, and that’s if they survive COVID.”

(11:38-11:45) “The overall goal is that I’m trying to provide a space where people can build valuable relationships with others who have similar interests.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
All about Apple's IDFA changes & future role of MMPs - Susan Kuo (Singular)29 Sep 202000:38:02

Today’s guest is Susan Kuo, the COO and Co-Founder of Singular, a key mobile measurement partner. Susan got her start in the industry at Electronic Arts, and from there continued to work in senior mobile marketing and analytics roles at companies throughout Silicon Valley until starting up Singular.

Questions Susan Answered in this Episode:
  • What changes is Apple making to IDFA with iOS14?
  • Why do you think Apple is doing this?
  • Apple delayed these changes. When do you think they’ll happen?
  • Do you think the industry will be ready by early spring 2021?
  • What are the attribution solutions that will be available? And the pros and cons?
  • How does Singular improve or mitigate the experience of working with an  SKAdNetwork?
Timestamp:
  • 4:19 Susan’s experience starting up Singular over the last 6 years
  • 5:47 What sets Singular apart from other MMPs
  • 8:51 What’s been happening since Apple announced what it’s changing with IDFA with iOS14
  • 11:36 Primary reason for Apple’s IDFA changes
  • 14:35 Pulse on how ready the industry is
  • 17:15 IDFA-based attribution won’t be dead
  • 22:21 Fingerprinting
  • 24:50 SKAd Network: privacy-first attribution network
  • 29:30 The MMPs’ role with SKAd Network
Quotes (129 characters):

(11:36-11:52) “There’s definitely a primary reason, which is very much focused around user privacy. It’s been such a real core focus, not only across Apple, but all the largest media partners are getting tackled with this question in the last couple years.”

(15:38-15:48) “Right now, in talking to the top 25 media partners, I get a good sense that most of them are going to be ready.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
The Opportunities of Shifting to In-App Advertising - Patrik Wilkens (Azerion)15 Sep 202000:29:54

Patrik Wilkens is the Vice President of Mobile at Azerion. Azerion is a media and tech company based in Amsterdam that provides safe, reliable, and valuable content on a European scale with local presence.

Questions Patrik Answered in this Episode:
  • Can you tell us about the organization you work for and what specifically you focus on?
  • What are the challenges of in-app monetization of games?
  • Are the organizations that advertise in your games also game development studios?
  • Why do you think we don’t see more non-game products advertised in mobile games?
Timestamp:
  • 6:39 About Azerion: producing games, powering with in-house advertisement
  • 9:24 Patrik’s role and focus at Azerion
  • 11:25 Pros and cons of in-app purchase for monetization
  • 14:10 Who is a gamer?
  • 16:58 Thinking about what games deliver
  • 21:00 The cultural gap between advertising and gaming industries
  • 28:50 Growth market opportunities for in-app advertising
Quotes (129 characters):

(14:10-14:19) “Who’s a gamer? Honestly, today I think everybody is a gamer. They may not call themselves gamers but they are playing games.”

(19:33-19:39) “Gaming is actually a great space, objectively, for brands to do their marketing, yet they don’t do that.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Mobile Marketing Traffic Beyond Facebook & Google - Misha Syrotiuk (Huuuge Games)08 Sep 202000:37:39

Want to learn more about the value and challenges of ad networks outside of Facebook and Google? Today on the Apptivate Podcast, @Misha Syrotiuk, Head of Ad Networks and Programmatic on the user acquisition side for @Huuuge Games, breaks down 6 traffic sources beyond the big two.

Questions Misha Syrotiuk Answered in this Episode:
  • What’s the mobile tech community like in Warsaw, Poland? 
  • What makes Huuuge Games such a successful developer of social casino game titles? 
  • Are your strategies for acquiring new users similar across titles?
  • How do you go about breaking down what marketing channels are worthy of investing? 
  • Are incentivized media traffic and offer walls valuable to you, and are there any tricks to leveraging them effectively?
  • Which of these 6 pillars would you lean on first if Google and Facebook went away tomorrow? 
Timestamp:
  • 4:10 The growth of Huuuge Games
  • 5:05 Staying competitive with social casino games
  • 6:29 The Huuuge Games titles you should know
  • 7:45 Strategies for acquiring users across titles and genres
  • 12:33 The 6 pillars of ad networks, beginning with rewarded video
  • 14:21 Leveraging offer walls
  • 19:17 The true cost of advertising with DSPs
  • 21:34 Pre-load traffic on Androids
  • 26:22 Native content advertising
  • 29:38 Direct traffic advertising
  • 32:52 Prioritizing the pillars beyond Facebook and Google
Quotes (129 characters):

(5:05-5:15) “Casino space is very competitive and it’s very hard to get into for different reasons. One of the reasons is the very high cost of user acquisition and a very long payback period.” [178 characters]

(33:00-33:06) “I would go mostly with programmatic DSPs, just because the volume there is massive and they can have any reach.” [110 characters]

Mentioned in this Episode:
Understanding African Markets for Mobile Games - Cordel Robbin-Coker (Carry1st)31 Aug 202000:33:22

Cordel Robbin-Coker is the Co-Founder and CEO of Carry1st, the leading mobile games and content apps publisher and developer for African consumers. Cordel is based in Capetown, South Africa. 

Questions Cordel Answered in this Episode: 
  • What are some of the differences between investing in businesses in the U.S. and investing in businesses in Africa or is it the same process across continents?
  • What early-stage tech business investments in Africa stick out to you as successes or failures?
  • How difficult is it for you to localize your products across different African countries? And what is your approach?
  • What is it like for consumers to download apps in any of the key African countries you’re focused on?
  • What does your ideal app partner look like?
Timestamp:
  • 1:43 Cordel’s story from Sierra Leone to investment banking to Carry1st
  • 5:27 Accelerating secular growth across Africa
  • 6:46 How investment opportunities compare between the U.S. and Africa
  • 10:57 What is Carry1st?
  • 14:36 The strategy behind Carry1st Trivia
  • 18:06 Tackling the diversity of African countries
  • 22:48 User experience for African consumers when downloading apps
  • 27:50 Two categories of partners that would be a good fit for us
Quotes:

(5:40-6:07) “[Africa] is the fastest-growing continent in almost any way you can imagine. People are starting to move into the middle class in a way you saw in Asia probably 20-30 years ago. And as that happens, there is an appetite for a really wide range of goods and services. Everything that you have and use day-to-day, people on the continent aspire to or/and are beginning to have. So, it creates a cool opportunity to build businesses and serve people.”

(20:27-20:38) “Kenya has the most advanced mobile money system in the world, called M-Pesa. And, there are statistics that say something like 50% of the GDP of the country flows through M-Pesa on an annual basis.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Building Trust with Mobile App Users During Coronavirus - Alexandra Kleemann (Shpock)25 Aug 202000:25:55

Alexandra Kleemann is the Head of Marketing at Shpock, an online marketplace for second-hand goods. She is based in Vienna, Austria. 

Questions Alexandra Answered in this Episode:
  • What was the single greatest challenge of learning performance marketing from the ground up?
  • What sets Shpock apart from other online marketplaces?
  • How do you keep the original sense of community now that you’re a nationwide app? 
  • How did adding a delivery feature affect your position as Head of Marketing? 
  • How did you adapt to the challenges that coronavirus presented to your app? 
  • Where did you deliver your messages around coronavirus and changes to the app? 
  • What was the tipping point in which Shpock decided it wasn’t safe for users to be using the app to meet up? 
  • Would you have done anything differently?
Timestamp:
  • 3:30 Alexandra’s start at Shpock
  • 4:50 Single greatest challenge diving into mobile app performance marketing
  • 6:55 What sets Shpock apart
  • 8:27 Evolution of being a local marketplace to nationwide
  • 12:45 The risks and opportunities that came with coronavirus 
  • 18:58 Communicating big changes with users 
  • 23:30 Uplift here to stay
Quotes:

(16:49-17:16) “It was really successful. We saw a very good uplift in numbers. We even saw a journalist reaching out to us why we did it because they had seen our messages and they had realized that this was a big risk for us. And it actually turned out really well because I think users understand that at this point we weren’t looking out for business, we were actually looking out to make sure it was a safe experience. And I think that was really well received.”

(17:39-17:52) “After all the theoretical discussions that we had around ‘we are becoming the U.K’s must trust marketplace, how do we convince our users of that?’--this was the perfect opportunity to prove it, I would say.”

(19:18-19:32) “We even implemented new touchpoints within the product because one of the learnings that we had was that, even if you use lots of touchpoints already, there’s still people who are going to miss out on the message because users don’t always read what you send them.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Leveraging Dynamic Product Ads to Grow Your App – Christian Eckhardt (Customlytics)18 Aug 202000:37:04

Coming back to the Apptivate Podcast is Christian Eckhardt, the CEO and co-founder of Customlytics. Customlytics provides app marketing, analytics, and technology infrastructure consulting and hands-on help.

Questions Christian Answered in this Episode:
  • Any particular reason why you think Customlytics was able to be successful during the pandemic?
  • What’s been top of mind for you as a mobile marketer in this space since the last time we talked?
  • What’s the mobile marketer’s role to effectively leverage DPA to impact their growth initiatives?
  • Have you found that most of your app partners are technically set up to execute DPA?
  • When you think of groundbreaking creatives and ads, what does that process look like for you?
  • What are your thoughts on how Apple’s IDFA announcement will change mobile marketing?
Timestamp:
  • 2:15 Resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic
  • 5:43 Rise in the number of Dynamic Product Ads (DPA)
  • 8:15 The mobile marketer’s new role in the era of automation
  • 12:26 Barriers to building the technical infrastructure needed for DPAs
  • 14:47 The value of DPA and the alternative
  • 17:15 The gold rule to creative success
  • 22:40 Thoughts on Apple’s IDFA announcement
Quotes:

(8:43-9:01) “I think that other stuff will essentially be two main categories of tasks that are left, if you want to put it like this, for the human being. Number one is something that is essentially the oxygen for the machine to then really run with the data, and that is the technical infrastructure.”

(18:00-18:26) “The golden rule is always that small iterations is what you want to do once you’ve found a new concept that works, then you want to iterate that to the point where they’re even better. Then at some point, you want to throw it away again to start with something new. But, it’s definitely not the road to creative success to never start over again and just make endless incremental changes on the tiny, tiny bits and pieces.” 

Mentioned in this Episode:
Using AI to advertise mobile games - Günay Aliyeva (Gamelight)03 Apr 202400:27:37

Günay is the co-founder of Gamelight, a user acquisition platform for app developers and a game and app recommendation platform for users. Gamelight’s success can be attributed to its powerful AI algorithm. Learn how UA managers are leveraging tech to pair users with mobile games that they’ll love.

Questions Günay Answered in this Episode:
  • How does Gamelight work?
  • What technology are you leveraging to run your platform?
  • Has Gamelight had this technology from the start?
  • What is your background and how did you come to start Gamelight?
  • What have you learned from building this AI algorithm?
  • How does that change the role of a UA manager?
  • What have you seen that works really well for the games that advertise on your platform?
  • How do you convince games to advertise on your platform?
  • How do you acquire users to your recommendation platform?
  • What do you see coming ahead in the industry?
Timestamp:
  • 1:53 What is Gamelight?
  • 3:27 The AI technology behind Gamelight
  • 6:58 Günay’s story
  • 9:18 What we’ve learned from building our AI algorithm
  • 11:23 The role of the UA manager
  • 15:27 What draws publishers to advertise our platform?
  • 17:23 How our recommendation platform works
  • 21:38 How I become a mobile gamer
  • 24:52 What’s ahead
Quotes:

(5:08-5:27) “We let the algorithm decide because it’s way more granular and can analyze more data points than a human. This is how it brings much better UA results for our advertisers because it can pick every single user that could be the best fit for them instead of taking average gender or age for users.”

(13:04-13:13) “[Humans] are more creative. They can have better ideas on what to do and how to plan UA campaigns in a more strategic way.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Adapting Mobile Marketing Strategies During Coronavirus - Michael Jessen (Socialpoint)11 Aug 202000:27:21

Michael Jessen is the Senior User Acquisition Specialist at Socialpoint, a world-renowned mobile gaming developer and publisher. Michael is currently based in Barcelona, Spain. 

Questions Michael Answered in this Episode:
  • What would you attribute the success of Socialpoint to?
  • What was your approach to acquisition during coronavirus? How were you able to continue with success despite everything happening in the world?
  • Did particular sources in your UA programs provide more incremental scale than others during this time?
  • What are some of the things you look for when you’re exploring programmatic traffic as a source?
  • How did you change your creative strategy during coronavirus?
  • When selecting the content for your playables, are you generally using content that’s earlier stage funnel in the game or later stage funnel?
Timestamp:
  • 5:56 Socialpoint’s success
  • 8:43 Uplift during coronavirus
  • 14:40 Testing new playables during coronavirus
  • 17:32 Choosing content for playables
  • 23:19 Reasons for building playables in-house
Quotes:

(8:58-9:11) “Before the official lockdown in the U.S., we already had some uplift in terms of performance, working very closely with product, like more than ever before. But the thing was basically the whole performance kept on rising. So we’re like, ‘Okay, let’s ride this wave and keep on pushing.’”

(16:46-16:56) “If you create a concept video and a concept playable, and especially if it’s aligned with the landing page and the app store, the conversion is the best.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Why Transparency Matters on an Impression Level - Daniel Lopez (Electronic Arts)28 Jul 202000:28:01

Meet Daniel Lopez, Director of Mobile Growth at Electronic Arts (EA), the second-largest gaming company in the Americas and Europe by revenue. Daniel got his start in mobile marketing at Machine Zone and has since worked at DraftKings and GSN Games. 

Questions Daniel Answered in this Episode:
  • During your time at Machine Zone, what do you think made you effective?
  • What are mobile marketers overlooking? 
  • Oversaturation of consumers: Are you more concerned about it from a cost perspective or user experience? 
  • Is there value in saturating a market to develop the brand and be top-of-mind to consumers? 
  • Have we overvalued Facebook and Google as sources to drive growth? 
  • Why do you think MMPs haven’t built a way for marketers to track impressions and clicks across multiple vendors? 
  • What are you looking forward to or unsure of in regards to the future of mobile marketing?
Timestamp:
  • 3:10 What made Machine Zone team very effective.
  • 4:15 From customer support role to marketing.
  • 10:18 What mobile marketers are overlooking.
  • 12:09 Why managing towards a unique, incremental device universe matters.
  • 16:02 When mass marketing and saturating the market is useful.
  • 19:11 Open exchanges.
  • 20:00 What is Facebook good for? 
  • 21:35 Incrementality measurement.
  • 24:30 IDFA as an opportunity to develop more robust measurements.
  • 27:05 EA Future and open Positions.
Quotes:

(10:18-11:07) “I honestly think there’s not enough attention being paid to drivers of unique traffic and managing towards a unique, incremental device universe as opposed to just managing sources, channels, AT apps, and things of that nature. Because the nature of our business is that we need to identify an audience and then we need to figure out how to get to that audience. And then once we actually figure that out, then we try to scale. And then once we start scaling, we start dealing with this thing called saturation. And we start dealing with losses of incrementality, losses of effectiveness, and whatnot. And I think there’s not enough being done within the industry to challenge the lack of transparency on, let’s just single out, impressions counts.”

(25:32-15:58) “The thing that I am most concerned about is--it also goes back to the death of the idea phase--is that that just pushes power more and more into the hands of the big companies, to where it’s going to be like, “Hey, they have all the data. Let’s allow them to do everything.” And then that just kills the spirit of the problem-solving attitude because then everyone can just blame the algo[rithm]. And that’s something that maddens me to no end.”

Mentioned in this Episode:
Building Gaming Apps as a Service, Not a Product - Luis de la Cámara (Genera Games)21 Jul 202000:36:28

Luis de la Cámara is the Chief Marketing Officer for Genera Games, a leading developer in mobile games for iOS and Android. Luis previously worked for other gaming companies, such as Outplay Entertainment, King, Gameloft, and 2K.

Questions Luis Answered in this Episode:
  • Are your soft launches strong determinants of how successful your games are going to be worldwide?
  • What do you focus on as CMO?
  • Can you tell us your thoughts on alignment between product and marketing teams?
  • What’s your opinion on broader marketing where KPIs can’t be as easily tracked?
Timestamp:
  • 13:10 Genera Games’ focus & Tuscany Villa
  • 15:24 Soft launches for testing retention
  • 19:56 What Luis focuses on most as CMO
  • 25:37 Value in the long-game of brand marketing
  • 30:20 Working at Candy Crush: maintaining a service
Quotes:

(21:35-22:14) “That’s one of my focuses from the very beginning is to tear down those walls. Make sure that everyone’s fully aligned. That we all have the same overall objective. Now, we can then break those down into smaller pieces and then things that are more manageable for a specific team. That’s really important. And then also understand that coordination doesn’t only come from a senior level. I think that at every level in the company there needs to be that bridge between the different teams: product, marketing, analytics, finance, art, HR. I think everyone needs to be continuously always working together as much as possible. Everyone’s got their areas of influence but everyone needs to understand everyone else’s area as well.”

(30:58-31:01) “I think that’s the main mentality that people need to have, is that you’re not building a product, you’re building a service”

Mentioned in this Episode:
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