The five deadly traps of user acquisition

gamesindustry.biz:

Independent game studios often walk a tightrope: on one side, the thrill of creating a unique gaming experience, and on the other, the precipice of financial ruin. The lifeline in this risky venture? User acquisition.

It's a beast that, if tamed correctly, can fuel a game's rise to popularity. Mismanaged, however, it can become an insatiable monster that swallows resources and brings studios to their knees.

Every year I review around 50 independent game studios. This article reveals the five deadly traps I have observed in the world of UA that can ensnare unsuspecting studios, and offers pragmatic, battle-tested strategies to navigate this treacherous terrain.

I'm not going to pull any punches. This is a survival guide for studios that have a game generating decent revenue, a basic UA operation running, but are wrestling to level-up their game's profitability.

Many studios think that after Apple's introduction of App Tracking Transparency (ATT), UA on iOS cannot be attributed at all and that Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) can only be measured by comparing all iOS revenue against spend. That is not true; even with very limited resources, you can get some visibility on UA performance.

The world of UA for independent game studios is a battlefield. But you're equipped to avoid the traps

First, if you haven't yet, implement the ATT consent pop-up (according to Appsflyer, only 85% of games ask for consent). It's free and gives you direct attribution for 20% to 30% of users (who choose to opt-in). You can then simply divide the revenue tracked from these directly attributed users by the opt-in rate to get an orientation of total cohort value. In our games, we found that there is no systematic bias to the opt-in behavior of