Consolidated view of the current UA pain points

🦩Tip of the week

A deep dive across recent 1:1 interviews with marketers reveals consistent pressure points in User Acquisition (UA), Monetization, Platform Strategy, and Creative Execution. Despite different game genres and team sizes, recurring themes emerged:

• Rising CPIs (no shiiiiiiiiiiit)
• Creative fatigue
• Monetization model fragility
• Channel dependence

Here’s a consolidated view of the current pain points and, more importantly, what you can do about them.

User Acquisition: CPI Crisis & Channel Saturation

Challenges Identified:

• CPIs rising across the board
• Over-reliance on AppLovin, Facebook, or Google
• Self-publishers with small budgets are struggling to validate games without high CPIs.
• TikTok conversion tracking is still limited, but the creative opportunity is strong.

Opportunities:

• TikTok Creator Challenges to generate low-cost, authentic content at scale.
  • You can replicate on other channels with AI
• Diversify spend across 3–5 networks

Creative Strategy & speed is key

Challenges Identified:

• Creative fatigue is a top UA killer.
• Lack of narrative or gameplay-led ads is driving poor IPM.
• Store assets don’t align with ads, hurting CVR.

Opportunities:

• Storytelling formats (e.g., “Save Her” hooks) and gameplay-first videos outperform.
• AI tools and UGC content scale output cheaply and fast.
• Consistent A/B testing of ad angles, art style, and CTA messaging improves results.

Recommended Next Steps:
Build a creative calendar with 5–10 new variations per month
Test both static and video with performance hooks and narratives
Align store visuals with ad themes (iOS Custom Product Pages, Play Experiments)
Use AI tools or/and the TikTok Creator Marketplace to scale UGC content

🐊​ Cornelius: The Suspicious Investi-gator

True detective-like exploration of creative trends and historical influences. Delving deep into the world of creatives to uncover hidden patterns and inspirations:

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴: 📣 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘱𝘺-𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳 2025.

𝗢𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗳𝘁: Match Villains by Good Job Games.
𝗢𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: Matching Story by Vertex Games Studio

Spot the difference?

You can’t, because there isn’t one.

Same layout. Same mechanic. Same “rocks fall, drama happens” edit.
Even the same lantern.

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗹𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘄:

If a creative performs, expect five clones by next Tuesday.

Performance > originality.

Speed > soul.

And who’s to blame?

UA teams under pressure to scale yesterday

Algorithms that reward sameness

And maybe… just maybe… all of us 🤷

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗴𝗼 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲?

Do you copy what works or build your own meta?

Is this innovation or just lazy performance art?

Yours truly, Cornelius.

💀 Dr. Doom is not amused

One of my industry friends amused me with his direct and honest TL;DRs, so we agreed to share it here, too! My friend remains anonymous as Dr.Doom!

“Oh, this is some sweet branded doom, coming directly from Mordor😁. Embracer, the mastermind behind my favorite industry strategy of “buy everything and get underwater,” is changing names again. Before it had split into 3 parts, one of them named Middle-Earth & Friends. Now it will be known as Fellowship Entertainment, which I think is giant understatement of their work, duh! We need to wait until they finally cave in and name themselves Mordor & co.🔥” Sincerely, Doom (https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/its-a-day-ending-in-y-so-you-know-what-that-means-embracer-group-is-doing-more-restructuring/)

🎉  “Ha-ha” moment

Because life is too short to be serious.

🎮 two & a half gamers – Lands of Jail

Lands of Jail making $𝟮𝟱𝟬𝗸/𝗱𝗮𝘆, a Chinese-built 4X survival-sim mashup that combines Frozen City onboarding, Whiteout Survival progression, and King Shot-style map layering 👇

All dressed in prison jumpsuits, toy factories, and riot suppression mechanics. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗲𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱, 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝘅𝗲𝘀:

Frozen City-style idle onboarding

Hardcore 4X warfare

Saga events, riots, gacha, and Discord-forced alliance spam

A prison toy factory (yes, really)

And some of the most absurd AI-generated creatives on mobile

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻:

What’s working in monetization, pacing, and theme alignment

Why KingShot might be its closest cousin

Where the game borrows from Whiteout Survival, and where it improves

How creative strategy blends GTA, toilet humor, AI anime, and frozen family fails

Why this might be the next 4X template other Chinese devs will clone

📺 Watch on YouTube

🎧 Listen on Spotify

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🦄​ Diary of a Dancing Unicorn

Today was a good day.

Hey, thanks for the last batch of videos. They are great.

Anytime, getting ready for the next batch.

Perfect. Do you know anyone who produces playable videos?

I do. Quite a few people actually.

Could you recommend?

Of course. I would also recommend myself and the team.

Oh, you do playables do?

Hell yeah!

That’s amazing news. Let’s do that together then.

Awesome.

Today was a good day.

🤺​ Quote of the week

“Your skyloft things were no shit the best thing in entire MAU. Super dope people, casual chats. 69/5” – Jesse, AfterMAUth

Lands of Jail review

🧞 The Song of the Week

We launched a music album. Yes, that’s correct. We are putting a ton of energy into creating valuable (and crazy) content that I think you’ll like. Check out the latest songs, and give us a like and subscribe. Play ehm. Listen now!

👾  THE AI (R)EVOLUTION

The AI revolution is here, and it’s transforming the way we approach mobile games marketing.

🥦​ Before you go

Ask Matej AI a question. It’s actually quite good!

We produced one more episode at 2.5 Gamers. Check it out now:

We are also starting a new segment. Give it a go:

🍿 Fun starts in two & a half gamers Slack! Join now

We are opening up a Slack channel for everybody. It is the most inclusive slack for the gaming industry. Female, male, non-binary, juniors, mid-level, seniors, vendors, developers = EVERYBODY! We are waiting for you ♥️

Feel free to join here!