Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certificate Manager (ACM) is a service that lets you easily provision, manage, and deploy Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) certificates.
Quick Definition Ad fatigue happens when users see the same (or similar) ads too often. Performance tanks. CTR drops. CPA climbs. Your winning creative becomes invisible noise. What is Ad Fatigue? Ad fatigue is the declining effectiveness of advertising creative when audiences get overexposed to it. The psychology is simple. First time you see an […]
Fake impressions, clicks, installs, or conversions created to steal ad spend. Bots, click farms, and SDK spoofing drain budgets while delivering zero real users.
Ad mediation is a system that lets you work with multiple ad networks through a single SDK integration. Instead of integrating each ad network separately, you plug into one mediation platform that manages them all.
A platform that connects advertisers with publishers who have ad inventory. Think of it as a marketplace where you buy placement across multiple apps and sites through one interface.
AppLovin’s technical specifications for playable ads, video ads, and end cards that run across their network. Get the specs wrong and your creative gets rejected. Get them right and your ads reach one of mobile gaming’s largest user acquisition networks.
ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) measures how much revenue each user generates over a specific time period. It’s the total revenue divided by the number of active users.
Apple’s privacy framework that requires apps to get user permission before tracking them across other apps and websites. Enforced starting April 2021 with iOS 14.5.
Banner ads are small rectangular display ads that sit on-screen while players use your app. They’re the smallest, least intrusive ad format you can run. Lowest CPMs in the stack, but highest fill rates.
Quick Definition: A data package sent by a publisher’s ad server to potential advertisers when an ad impression becomes available. Contains everything needed to decide whether to bid and how much to pay. 01. What is a Bid Request When someone opens an app or website, an ad space becomes available. That moment triggers a […]
Quick Definition: Protecting your brand from appearing alongside harmful, offensive, or inappropriate content in the digital advertising ecosystem. — 01. What is Brand Safety Brand safety keeps your ads away from content that damages your reputation. Your ad appears next to hate speech, graphic violence, or illegal content? That association sticks. Consumers remember where they […]
Click injection is a sophisticated mobile ad fraud where malicious apps hijack legitimate installs by firing fake clicks milliseconds before the install completes. The fraudster claims the CPI payout. You pay for organic installs you already earned.
CPI (Cost Per Install) is the price you pay for each app installation from your ad campaign. It’s the core metric that determines whether your UA spend is sustainable or burning cash.
Quick Definition: CPM is the cost to serve 1,000 ad impressions. The pricing model advertisers use when buying reach at scale. — 01. What is CPM? CPM stands for Cost Per Mille. Mille is Latin for thousand. You pay for every 1,000 times your ad shows up, whether anyone clicks or not. This is the […]
Quick Definition: The systematic process of finding winning ad creatives through volume-based exploration. You can’t predict what will hit. You discover it by creating fast, testing wide, and letting performance reveal the winners. — 01. What is Creative Discovery Creative discovery treats UA creative testing as an exploration problem, not a prediction problem. Most teams […]
Quick Definition: A creative engine is the systematic capability to continuously produce, test, and optimize ad creatives at scale. Advertisers deploy an average of 123 creatives per month globally (up 19.4% year-over-year), with RPG studios averaging 251 creatives monthly. Building this internal capability reduces agency dependency and accelerates discovery. 01. What is a Creative Engine […]
Creative exploitation is the scaling phase where you double down on proven winning creatives. When you find a hit, maximize its value before creative fatigue kills performance. Scale fast, scale hard, and milk every dollar from winners while they work.
Quick Definition Creative exploration is the deliberate testing phase where you cast a wide net across new concepts, formats, and approaches to find your next winning ad. You can’t predict a hit. But you can explore smarter through systematic testing that accepts the brutal reality: 90%+ of creatives fail. — 01. What is Creative Exploration […]
Creative fatigue occurs when ad creatives lose effectiveness because users have seen the same visual elements too many times. Your CTR drops, your costs spike, and what worked last week stops working this week.
A creative pack is a collection of ad creative assets built to power user acquisition campaigns across multiple channels. When machine learning leveled the playing field on targeting, creative became the only differentiator that matters.
A creative set is AppLovin’s batched approach to ad management where you upload multiple ad types and sizes as one grouped unit. The algorithm optimizes within the set and aggregates performance data at the set level. No individual creative tracking. No manual optimization. Just algorithmic performance allocation across your assets.
Quick Definition: The systematic approach to planning, producing, and testing ad creatives that attract high-value players. Post-ATT, your creative strategy is your targeting mechanism. — 01. What is Creative Strategy Creative strategy is how you turn ideas into winning ads at scale. It’s the framework that connects who you’re trying to reach with what you’re […]
Quick Definition: The systematic process of running multiple ad creative variations against each other to identify which drives the best performance metrics (installs, engagement, ROAS). The reality: most tests fail. The winners pay for everything. — 01. What is Creative Testing? Creative testing is the process of evaluating different ad creative variations to find the […]
Quick Definition: Creative velocity is the rate at which new ad creatives are produced and deployed into UA campaigns. Higher velocity means more shots at finding winners before creative fatigue kills your ROAS. 01. What is Creative Velocity Creative velocity measures how fast your team can take an idea from concept to live campaign. The […]
CVR (Conversion Rate) measures how many users who clicked your ad actually converted. In mobile gaming UA, that usually means installs. The math is simple: (conversions / clicks) × 100.
D1, D7, and D30 retention measure the percentage of players who return to your game 1 day, 7 days, and 30 days after install. If 1,000 people install your game and 300 come back the next day, your D1 retention is 30%.
A URI that drops users into a specific location within your mobile app instead of dumping them at the home screen. Think of it as a shortcut that respects the user’s intent.
Deferred deep linking sends users to specific in-app content even when they don’t have your app installed yet. The link remembers where to send them after they download, extending the power of deep linking through the install process.
Software that lets advertisers buy ad inventory across multiple sources with automation. Upload creative, set targeting and budgets, let the DSP handle the bidding.
eCPM (Effective Cost Per Mille) is the revenue a publisher earns per 1,000 ad impressions, regardless of pricing model. It’s the universal metric for comparing how much money your ad inventory actually makes.
Quick Definition: The final screen shown after a video ad finishes playing, designed to capture user intent and drive installs. Interactive end cards convert 7x better than static ones. — 01. What is an End Card? An end card appears when your video ad finishes. It’s the last chance to convert viewers into users. Most […]
F2P (Free-to-Play) is a business model where games are free to download and play, with revenue generated through in-app purchases (IAP), advertising, or hybrid monetization strategies.
Frequency Capping limits how many times a unique user sees your ad within a set period. The guardrail that keeps you from burning through goodwill and budget showing the same creative 47 times to someone who already ignored it.
Technical requirements for HTML5 playable ads running in Google App Campaigns. Know these specs before you build. Google’s validator doesn’t forgive bloated files.
Quick Definition: A hit creative is an ad that dramatically outperforms your baseline, often by 2-3x or more. In mobile UA, 90% of creatives underperform. The 1-3% that become hits carry your entire performance. A single hit can deliver the majority of your installs for weeks or months. — 01. What is a Hit Creative […]
Quick Definition: Mobile games that start with hyper-casual simplicity but morph into mid-core depth as you play. Easy to start, hard to put down. — 01. What are Hybrid Casual Games? Hybrid casual games blend two worlds: the instant accessibility of hypercasual with the strategic depth of midcore. You download. You play in seconds. No […]
Mobile games built for instant playability and maximum reach. One-tap mechanics, zero tutorials, infinite loops. Revenue from ads. Success determined at the UA level.
Quick Definition: Monetization strategy where games make money by showing ads to players instead of (or alongside) selling in-game items. — 01. What is IAA In-app advertising (IAA) turns your players into your revenue stream. Instead of charging for downloads or pushing in-app purchases, you show ads. Players get free gameplay. You get paid when […]
Quick Definition: Monetization transactions that happen inside a mobile app after download. Players buy virtual goods, currency, subscriptions, or premium content without leaving the game. — 01. What is IAP IAP is how free-to-play mobile games make money. Download is free. Revenue comes from what players buy inside the game. Virtual currency, power-ups, cosmetics, battle […]
Quick Definition: Apple’s device identifier for ad tracking and attribution on iOS. Pre-iOS 14.5, marketers had it by default. Post-ATT, users control access with opt-in rates around 14-26%. — 01. What is IDFA IDFA is a unique, random identifier Apple assigns to every iOS device. Looks like this: `AEBE52E7-03EE-455A-B3C4-E57283966239`. It’s anonymous. No personal info attached. […]
Quick Definition: Measurement methodology that isolates the true impact of your marketing spend by comparing outcomes with and without your ads running. — 01. What is Incrementality Incrementality answers the question every CFO eventually asks: “Would we have gotten those sales anyway?” Most attribution systems track correlation. User saw ad, user installed, attribution platform claims […]
Fraudsters manipulating install attribution or faking app installs entirely to steal your ad budget. You pay for installs that either never happened or came from users who would’ve installed anyway.
Interactive ads are ad units that require user participation—tap, swipe, play, choose. They turn passive viewers into active players, delivering stronger engagement and behavioral data than static or video formats.
Full-screen ads that appear at natural transition points in mobile games. They cover 100% of the app interface during breaks between gameplay sessions.
Quick Definition: IPM measures how many app installs you get per 1,000 ad impressions. It’s the conversion metric that lets UA managers compare creative performance apples-to-apples across campaigns. — 01. What is IPM? IPM stands for Installs Per Mille. “Mille” is Latin for thousand, so IPM counts installs per thousand impressions. When you run UA […]
Last-click attribution assigns 100% of conversion credit to the final touchpoint before a user converts. It’s simple to implement but ignores everything that happened earlier in the journey. Your awareness campaigns get zero credit, your mid-funnel content is invisible, and budget decisions get made on incomplete data.
LiveOps (Live Operations): Ongoing content updates, events, and features pushed to a game without releasing a new app version. The difference between a game that prints money for years and one that dies after launch.
Algorithmic targeting that finds new users who share characteristics with your existing customers. Upload a seed audience, the platform finds similar users at scale.
Quick Definition: The total revenue a player generates from install to churn. The north star metric for UA profitability. — 01. What is LTV? LTV measures how much money a player brings in over their entire relationship with your game. Every dollar. IAP, subscriptions, ad revenue. All of it. The formula is straightforward: LTV = […]
Media Mix is how you split your ad budget across channels to reach your audience. Social, video, in-app, CTV, search. The combination determines who sees your ads, when, and how often.
Meta’s technical requirements for playable ad formats delivered on Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network. These specs define file size limits, format requirements, and placement compatibility for HTML and ZIP-based playable ads.
Mid-core games blend casual accessibility with hardcore depth. They target adults who grew up gaming but have limited time. Think Call of Duty Mobile, Diablo Immortal, PUBG Mobile.
An MMP is a third-party platform that tracks and measures user acquisition performance across multiple ad networks. They act as the unbiased referee for attribution, telling you which ad network, campaign, and creative actually drove each install.
Multi-Touch Attribution assigns weighted credit to multiple marketing touchpoints across the customer journey. Instead of crediting one source, MTA tracks every interaction and determines how much each contributed to conversion.
Playable ads are interactive mobile ad formats that let users experience a snippet of actual gameplay before installing. Players engage directly with the ad, testing mechanics and understanding the game in 15-60 seconds.
Quick Definition Playable Conversion Rate (Playable CVR) measures the percentage of users who install your game after interacting with a playable ad. Formula: Installs ÷ Playable Completions × 100. Good playable CVR typically ranges from 2-4%, but varies by genre and network. High CVR means your playable accurately represents the game experience and attracts genuinely […]
Quick Definition Playable Engagement Time measures how long users actively interact with a playable ad before deciding to install or exit. This metric reveals whether your playable holds attention long enough to demonstrate value and drive quality installs. 01. What is Playable Engagement Time Playable Engagement Time tracks the duration users spend actively playing with […]
Probabilistic Matching is a statistical attribution method that assigns likelihood scores to campaigns when deterministic matching fails. Instead of saying “Campaign X caused this install,” it says “Campaign X probably caused this install with 70% confidence.”
Retention Rate measures the percentage of users who return to your game after installing it. Higher retention means players keep coming back. In F2P games, that’s revenue.
Rewarded video ads are opt-in video ads (typically 15-30 seconds) where players watch in exchange for in-game rewards like extra lives, currency, or power-ups. Players choose to watch. Nobody gets interrupted.
ROAS measures how much revenue you earn for every dollar spent on advertising. It’s the metric that tells you if your UA campaigns are making money or burning it.
Quick Definition: Automated auction system that buys and sells ad inventory per impression in ~100 milliseconds. — 01. What is RTB Real-time bidding is how most digital ads get bought today. Each time a user opens an app or webpage, an auction happens. Advertisers bid on that exact impression. Highest bidder wins. Ad serves instantly. […]
Quick Definition: A toolkit that connects your app to third-party services like ad networks, analytics platforms, or payment systems. In mobile gaming, SDKs handle everything from serving ads to tracking installs to mediating between multiple ad networks. — 01. What is an SDK An SDK is a package of code, libraries, and documentation that lets […]
SDK Spoofing is a mobile ad fraud technique where attackers manipulate tracking SDKs to generate fake clicks, installs, and in-app events. Also called traffic spoofing or replay attacks.
Quick Definition: Share of Voice (SOV) measures your brand’s advertising presence as a percentage of total market advertising in your category. High SOV means you’re dominating the conversation. Low SOV means you’re invisible. — 01. What is Share of Voice? Share of Voice tells you how loud your brand is compared to competitors. It tracks […]
A limited release of your mobile game to select countries before global launch. You test if the game works, if players stick around, and if you can make money without bleeding cash.
A Supply-Side Platform (SSP) is ad tech that lets publishers automate the sale of their ad inventory. Think of it as the seller’s marketplace in programmatic advertising.
The technical requirements for running playable ads and video ads on TikTok. Know these cold or expect rejections. TikTok runs two formats that matter for user acquisition: playable ads and in-feed video ads. Each has different specs, different constraints, different opportunities to mess up. 01. Playable Ad Specifications | Specification | Requirement | |————–|————-| | […]
Technical requirements for playable ads and video ads on Unity Ads network. Get these wrong and your ad gets rejected. Get them right and you’re live in days. 01. Playable Ad Specifications | Requirement | Specification | |————-|—————| | Format | Single `index.html` file (no external links) | | File Size | Under 5 MB […]
Quick Definition: The process of acquiring new users for mobile games through paid marketing activities designed to generate installs and drive ROI-positive growth. — 01. What is User Acquisition? User acquisition is how mobile games find players who actually matter. It’s the engine that turns ad spend into installs, installs into sessions, and sessions into […]
Quick Definition: Short video creatives (typically 15-30 seconds) that run across mobile apps and websites to drive user acquisition and engagement. 01. What Are Mobile Video Ads? Mobile video ads are pre-recorded video creatives designed for mobile screens. They run in apps, mobile games, and mobile websites to capture attention and drive installs. The format […]
View-Through Attribution credits conversions that happen after a user sees an ad but doesn’t click it. The user saw your creative, kept scrolling, then installed later. VTA captures that impact.
Viewability measures whether ad impressions were actually seen by humans. An ad can serve, load, and get counted as an impression without anyone seeing it. Viewability tracks the difference between impressions served and impressions viewed.
A winning creative is any ad that meets or exceeds your target performance KPIs. Winning creatives hit CPI targets, deliver positive ROAS, and scale without burning budget. The reality: only 5-10% of tested creatives become winners.
