🔍 Challenges and Pitfalls in Shifting to Hybrid Games with Jan van Lamoen, Senior Producer at SOFTGAMES 🕳

In this episode, Anton Bernstein unpacks the strategies behind building thriving virtual communities and empowering creators on platforms like HighRise. Anton explains how user-generated content and immersive social experiences drive engagement and shares insights on monetizing through cosmetics and in-game purchases. He also breaks down the development of creator tools that allow users to build and monetize their own games and experiences. Additionally, Anton discusses the balance between early monetization and fostering long-term social connections. This conversation is packed with actionable insights for anyone interested in virtual worlds, creator economies, and platform growth.KEY HIGHLIGHTS🔑 The development of Highrise as a virtual world platform was driven by the desire to connect users through immersive social experiences.📊 User-generated content (UGC) plays a central role in the growth and engagement of the Highrise community, enabling users to create and monetize their own content.💵 Highrise Studio, a tool for creators, allows users to build games and experiences within the platform, providing monetization opportunities through creator-driven economies.🔮 The platform’s monetization strategy primarily focuses on cosmetic items, which users purchase to express their identity and enhance their social presence.🎁 Weekly events and mini-games are run on Highrise to offer top-tier cosmetic rewards, incentivizing user participation and driving engagement.🧨 A key challenge for the platform has been balancing early monetization with fostering long-term social connections among users.💈 Virtual worlds and social platforms are evolving to include more cooperative gameplay elements to facilitate social connections between users.📍The platform is working to reduce the barriers for users to become creators by offering accessible tools and running regular game jams.🕹 The transition from speculative NFT-driven models to a focus on creating virtual goods and communities that hold real, sustained value within the platform has been a significant learning point.📟 The creative flywheel at Highrise revolves around attracting users, converting them into creators, and having those creators build experiences that attract more users, thereby reinforcing growth.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/ugc-creator-economies-anton-bernstein/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

In this episode, Marcus Burke unpacks the strategies behind optimizing Meta ads for subscription apps. Marcus explains how creative types like UGC and static ads influence placements across Meta platforms and shares insights on scaling ad accounts through creative diversification. He also breaks down the importance of Web2App funnels for faster iterations and better performance while addressing how to avoid pitfalls in Meta’s algorithm. This conversation is packed with actionable insights on scaling subscription apps.KEY HIGHLIGHTS🗒 Setting up automated placement-level reporting to track ad spending on Meta platforms effectively is crucial for optimizing campaigns.👍 Different creative types directly influence ad placements, with static creatives performing well on Facebook feeds and UGC excelling on Instagram Reels.🛑 Avoiding restrictive ad campaigns for placements helps prevent higher CPMs due to Meta’s algorithmic penalties for limiting targeting.🧢 Meta’s algorithm tends to skew toward younger audiences in subscription apps, even though older audiences often deliver higher conversion rates.💵 Scaling ad accounts requires diversifying creatives and placements rather than relying solely on top-performing ads.💲 Web2App funnels offer flexibility, enabling quicker iterations and experimentation with pricing structures compared to in-app funnels.🌐 Web-based advertising is gaining momentum as brands bypass App Store fees and optimize web traffic for efficient user acquisition.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/subscription-apps-facebook-ads/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

Join us on the Mobile User Acquisition Show's Mobile Spotlight segment as we welcome  Rashad Häsänli,  game lead at DieNo Games.In this episode, Rashad delves into the art of identifying underserved yet reachable audiences using tried-and-tested game mechanics. He describes how his team navigated the competitive landscape, experimented with merge mechanics, and found progress and success.KEY HIGHLIGHTS🗒 DieNo Games’ strategy for identifying underserved audiences and matching them with proven game mechanics.📈 The company conducted A/B tests to compare traditional car game mechanics with merge mechanics, revealing a surprising preference for the merge variant.🔐 Data from Sensor Tower guided the decision to focus on the car fantasy, identifying a market without dominant players.✂️ DieNo Games used Solsthen to compare merge and car audiences, gaining insights into preferences, pain points, and spending habits.🔍 Insights were documented and continuously used to guide feature development and modifications, ensuring alignment with the target audience’s preferences.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/merge-audience-rashad-hasanli/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

In this episode, we welcome Mike Taylor, an AI and prompt engineering expert. Mike shares his insights on the five key principles of prompt engineering, illustrating how these strategies can optimize AI performance and transform your projects. From practical tips to real-world applications, discover how to make AI work smarter for you. Don't miss this deep dive into the future of AI and its potential to revolutionize the industry.KEY HIGHLIGHTS⚖️ Early AI prompting requires arranging words in specific ways to get desired results.⏱ Dividing labor among AI tasks helps avoid conflicting instructions and improves outcomes.💎 Prompt engineering is likened to early growth hacking, emphasizing scalable solutions.🧷 Running multiple prompts and comparing results can optimize AI performance.✂️ Using AI as a brainstorming partner is beneficial for generating creative ideas.🔍 The accessibility of coding and AI tools has increased, making it easier for non-programmers.🗝 AI tools can automate repetitive and tedious tasks, freeing up time for more creative work.📚 Using Dreambooth for training AI models with client-specific data improves consistency in outputs.🛒 AI-generated scripts can improve significantly with the addition of training examples.📐 Techniques like chain of thought and giving AI thinking space enhance task performance.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/prompt-engineering-mike-taylor/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

Today’s episode is from a webinar we hosted with Alexei Chemenda from Poolday.ai. We talk about our playbooks—Alexei's and mine—and go deep into how we have turbocharged our respective creative production output using AI.KEY HIGHLIGHTS🗒 Producing a high volume of creatives is essential to find successful ads and test more variables.📈 Smaller companies or those in regulated industries may need help with high-volume creative production.📍Marketers often need to pay more attention to AI, leading to poorly executed creatives; human input is crucial for quality.🔐 Competitive analysis tools like Meta Ads Library, PyPy Ads, and Foreplay. Co is valuable for gathering inspiration and analyzing competitors.✂️ AI can identify patterns in creative performance but should assist rather than replace human creativity.🔍 Considering budget constraints, the testing process should begin with TikTok, followed by Applovin, and finalized on Meta.✏️ Monitoring and managing creative fatigue, especially on TikTok, is vital to maintain performance.🎈 Regularly producing new variations and having backup creatives ready ensures continuous ad performance..📈 AI-generated video ads can significantly streamline and enhance marketing efforts in the gaming industry.📌 Collaborations with major platforms like Meta, Google, and TikTok are crucial for driving effective user acquisition strategies.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/10x-creative-production-poolday/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

Our guest today on the Mobile Spotlight segment of the Mobile User Acquisition Show is Jan van Lamoen, a Senior Producer at SOFTGAMES. In this episode, he discusses the pitfalls of taking core games to casual audiences.KEY HIGHLIGHTS🗒 Core to Casual often requires a deep dive into the core mechanics and translating part of this into familiarity.📈 The Familiarity can be leveraged to get an initial higher amount of players to try the game and retain them.🔐 By understanding and keeping the depth while removing the complexity of a game you can ensure you don’t lose the hook of the genre.✂️ Taking complexity and moving this preferably into a meta-structure for your more mature players can leverage your long-term retention.**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

We’re diving into one of the major announcements from WWDC 2024: Apple’s introduction of Add Attribution Kit, or AAK, which is set to replace SKAN. We’ll explore what this means for advertisers, the actual impact of these changes, and whether you need to make any adjustments to your current setup. Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/ad-attribution-kit-skan-guide/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

In today's episode, I'm going to talk through some of the strategies we recommend and use on our team for competitive analysis and for generating ideas and inspiration from what's happening on the internet.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/creative-competitive-analysis/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

In today’s mini episode, I’m going to discuss three pitfalls that many advertisers fall into and three things they need to look out for while creating and testing AI-powered creatives.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/ai-creative-pitfalls/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

In this episode we dive into the sometimes frustrating mechanics of how Meta allocates spend between ads in an ad set - and what we recommend doing about this.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/bayesian-bandits/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog