December 2021 Mobile App UA - Consumer Acquisition by Brainlabs

Today’s post brings you expert guidance to efficiently structure your media buying and creative concepting in December 2021. Plus, how to get the most from UA during the holiday season.

We have analyzed top-performing ad creative for mobile subscription apps, streaming apps, and fintech apps to show how user motivations can improve your top-of-funnel UA. In addition, we have gone deep on the positive and negative impact of IDFA during Q3 with insights from eCommerce apps, FinTech, DTC, subscription services, dating apps, and mobile games.

Mobile App UA & Creative Roundup December 2021

UA and Creative Trends

Consumer Acquisition’s UA Media Buying Model for Facebook, TikTok, and Google App advertisers

Structure your media buying with proven best practices using our Media Buying Model. Any mobile app can leverage a combination of distinct UA strategies and campaign parameters to develop a robust testing harness for ongoing mobile campaigns across social platforms.

The UA Formula to Beat Facebook Creative Fatigue: Consumer Acquisition’s Ad Concept Model

It is possible to beat Facebook’s creative fatigue and consistently find new winning ads. Consumer Acquisition’s Ad Concept Model is designed to systematize creative development and UA targeting based on iterative testing. Systematize creative concepting and leverage user motivations to customize ad creative in a simple, repeatable framework.

Q3 IDFA Impact: Public Earnings Roundup

Get Q3 insights on IDFA impact from Match, Peloton, Zynga, Unity, Snap, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Pinterest, Applovin, Playtika, TakeTwo Interactive, EA, WPP, IronSource, Rovio, Square Enix, Roblox, and many more. Depending on the reach of their audience and the monetization event (subscription, purchase, free trial), the impact of IDFA loss has helped or hurt businesses differently.

Mobile User Acquisition Guide to Holiday 2021 and Beyond

Expect to see CPM increases of 30-40% between Black Friday and Christmas across social channels. Non-eCommerce advertisers should consider reducing spend from Thanksgiving until December 26, 2021, and then accelerate into January to take advantage of CPM drops. Bulk up on creative production and testing to have enough high-performing assets for late December spend increases.

Streaming Apps and Mobile Content Services

Streaming apps and mobile content services deliver exclusive, niche, and popular content to millions of viewers each day through subscriptions and pay-per-view. Get an analysis of creative trends and user motivations for these fast-growing services.

FinTech Ad Creative: Why Acorns Ads Work

From investment advice to cryptocurrency to budget planning, fintech apps put money management right in your pocket. We’ve analyzed the best-performing fintech ads based on Facebook Ad Library data to see why they are working. Plus, we go deep on how Acorns is tapping into unique user motivations in the fintech space.

How To Produce Winning Ad Creative for Subscription Apps

The subscription economy is on pace to reach $1.5 trillion by 2025 according to financial services firm UBS. Using our Ad Concept Model, we’ve analyzed creative trends and user motivations for mobile app subscription services to demonstrate how we stay ahead of creative fatigue while providing our clients reliable top-performing creative in the most cost-efficient and scalable way.

Consumer Acquisition appears on the San Francisco Business Times Fast 100 list of Fastest-Growing Private Companies for 3rd Consecutive Year

“In our third consecutive year of being recognized as a leading Bay Area company in growth, we are again truly honored to be included by the San Francisco Business Times. This recognition is entirely a credit to the people of our organization. They continue to drive growth and innovation at Consumer Acquisition year after year.” — Brian Bowman, CEO

Media Buying Model

Structure your media buying with proven best practices using Consumer Acquisition’s Media Buying Model. Any mobile app can leverage a combination of distinct UA strategies and campaign parameters to develop a robust testing harness for ongoing mobile campaigns across social platforms.

See media buying best practices for Facebook Android, Facebook iOS SKAN, Google, and TikTok
Increase ad-buying success rate across social platforms leveraging our account structure and media model
Develop and systematize a process to test account configuration and media buying tactics
Increase communication of media buying strategies to stakeholders

Our Media Buying Model is tailored to a respective ad network and operating system requirements and constraints. Geographies, languages, and bid types are all modified based on the client’s needs. Each campaign is structured to meet specific goals at the intersection of strategies and parameters.

Read our proven media buying strategies for Facebook, Google, and TikTok.

Ad Concept Model

Based on over 100,000 videos and images we produce and test yearly for our clients, our research has shown that winning ads last only 10 weeks, before they burn out. We have performed over 25,000 A/B and multivariate tests on Facebook, Google, TikTok, and Snap and have learned that 85-95% of new creative concepts fail to outperform your best ad. To survive in this volatile ad ecosystem, you’ll need 20-50 new concepts to find your next winning creative. And you’ll need to keep developing new concepts to stay ahead of creative fatigue.

Tying persona-led ad creative to user motivation is what Facebook calls a “future-proof solution” for UA and creative teams. Our Ad Concept Model is designed to systematize creative development and UA targeting based on iterative testing. These are the steps within the model:

Identify creative trends within a category
Identify motivations within a category
Map creative trends to motivations within a category
Create concepts for personas at the intersection of each trend and motivation
Repeat step 4 for all additional personas

Why use a model like this?

Consumer Acquisition’s Ad Concept Model ensures we always have new creative concepts to stay ahead of creative fatigue. We’ve systematized the process, so we know what works, why it works, and how to do more of it. From niche to mainstream, our creative concepting model means our clients get reliable top-performing creative in the most cost-efficient and scalable way.

Q3 Earnings Roundup & IDFA Report

Check out our Q3 Earnings Roundup & IDFA Impact Report with insights from Match, Peloton, Zynga, Unity, Snap, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Pinterest, Applovin, Playtika, TakeTwo Interactive, EA, WPP, IronSource, Rovio, Square Enix, Roblox, and many more.

We expect a bumpy Q4 for all mobile app advertisers, with ad spend that is less efficient. Recovery from mobile ad ecosystem changes will be what many companies called “a multi-year effort.” But while challenges persist, we are also excited to see how companies are improving and innovating in real-time to address those challenges.

Some of the successful strategies we are seeing emerge include:

Companies expanding their iOS acquisition portfolios to expand volume from SDK Networks and DSPs
More contextual advertising driven by motivation-based, persona-led creative
Reworking LTV models to account for higher leakage into organic due to IDFA and SKAN limitations
Rebuilding iOS onboarding flows to indicate monetization intent within the first 24 hours post-install
Media mix modeling and incrementality testing

What We Are Reading

Reuters— Into the metaverse: Nike creates ‘NIKELAND’ on Roblox

Nike Inc on Thursday revealed a virtual world modeled after its headquarters on video game platform Roblox Corp, becoming one of the first big brands to enter the “metaverse”.

Business Insider— Andreessen Horowitz Is Raising a VC Fund to Invest in Gaming Startups

Andreessen Horowitz has promoted Jonathan Lai and hired James Gwertzman to invest in the next generation of gaming startups.

NPR— Facebook scraps ad targeting based on politics, race, and other ‘sensitive’ topics

Facebook will no longer let advertisers target people with ads based on how interested the social network thinks they are in topics like politics, religion, or race.

App Annie— Consumers in Three Countries Now Spend More than 5 Hours a Day in Apps

The numbers reveal the ‘mindshare’ dominance of the smartphone among the world’s consumers – especially those in developing countries.

Business of Apps— Facebook to allow creators to take payments directly

Facebook aka Meta recently said it would add a way for creators to accept payments directly through the platform. The move is a direct stab at Apple which usually takes a 30% cut.

The Verge— Judge orders Apple to allow external payment options for App Store by December 9th, denying stay

Epic v. Apple judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers says Apple must comply with an order to let developers add links and buttons to external payment options, denying the company’s motion for a stay.

Apple Insider— Snap sued for misrepresenting the impact of Apple privacy changes

Social media company Snap this week was slapped with a class-action lawsuit claiming executives misrepresented the threat Apple privacy changes posed to the company’s revenue stream.

Axios— Changes to Apple’s App Store could come fast

While legislators and regulators around the world weigh big changes to Apple’s and Google’s app stores, some quick revisions could be coming within weeks, thanks to a U.S. judge’s decision and Korean law.

Forbes— Apple Quietly Buying Ads Via Google For High-Value Subscription Apps To Capture App Publisher Revenue

Apple is secretly buying Google ads for high-value apps to collect potentially millions of dollars in subscription revenue, multiple app publishers have reported.

TechCrunch— This Week in Apps: Court orders Apple to implement App Store changes, 2022 forecast, TikTok tries gaming

Apple lost its request to delay App Store changes, see the 2022 Mobile Forecast from App Annie, and more.

The Operator— Unity Software: The World Engine

Owning the Middle, the Metaverse, and Epic Competition

Consumer Acquisition in the News

Forbes— How Internet Privacy Is Changing The Online Advertising Market

Many companies support the trend of improving user privacy, but the digital advertising market has yet to adapt to these changes.

Seeking Alpha— Apple’s Q4 Earnings: In-Line But Still Amazing

In the fourth quarter, Apple delivered in-line earnings. Antitrust has become a significant risk factor for the company, with Epic Games having won a partial victory on in-app sales.

TechCrunch— Zynga CEO on its blockchain gaming division and navigating the advertising crisis

TechCrunch spoke with Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau on how the mobile game giant has been able to navigate the advertising crisis while making moves to expand cross-platform and onto the blockchain.

VentureBeat— IDFA and Apple’s legal battles actually mean 60% larger audiences for game developers

During the “The Apple Ecosystem Challenges” panel, presented by Xsolla at GamesBeat Summit Next, panelists discussed how the changes to the Apple app store ecosystem offer challenges, but also a potential opportunity, from the IDFA deprecation to Apple’s various legal battles.