Ep 190: Alternative ad networks for mobile game marketing

Getting mobile games in front of new users on Google, Meta, and other large advertising networks has become increasingly challenging, with more competition than ever and the high-cost impact of seasonality. In this episode, Sylvain Etard, the Senior Gaming Growth Manager at Tilting Point, (the leader in free-to-play games), shares how he manages this challenge by working with alternative vendors and channels, such as Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs), CTV, and rewarded networks.

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• What’s your role at Tilting Point?
• What’s the problem with solely relying on the big players for app growth?
• How do you solve these UA challenges?
• Why is CTV the most difficult network to get into?
• How do you go about onboarding these new networks?
• How do you measure the LTV of these new channels?
• What KPIs should we be looking at besides ROAS?
• What percentage of the budget do you recommend going to the big players versus testing these other networks?
• How do you stay current with these different strategies?
• What types of things are you looking for in a new vendor?
• When do you decide to stop working with a new vendor?

• 0:46 Sylvain’s role at Tilting Point
• 2:01 Challenges of marketing your games on Google and Meta
• 3:53 Finding new partners to market with
• 5:00 Marketing your mobile game with CTV
• 6:11 Getting started with new networks
• 6:45 Predicting LTV with new channels
• 8:47 Distributing your marketing budget
• 9:46 How Sylvain stays up to speed with the latest trends
• 11:04 Shopping for a new vendor
• 12:19 Deciding when to stop with a new vendor
• 13:02 Tips for getting into the mobile game marketing industry
• 14:00 Challenges with retargeting
• 16:29 Rewarded platforms
• 18:15 Cross-promoting games
• 21:12 What to do in Barcelona

(7:01-7:16) “A good way to do LTV predictions for a game is to look at Day 7, Day 14, (depending on your game), and the LTV and retention you have. If you have really good LTV but lower retention than other games, it should be a red flag.”

(11:04-11:20) “What I’m looking for in a new vendor is reliability. Having a lot of LinkedIn messages, we cannot always rely on whatever the vendor says. So the MMP benchmark and MMP index is a good source of reliability because if competitors are spending there, there’s a reason.”