Creatives: Performance, Process & Strategy. UA post iOS 14 and the biggest learnings from Tom’s career
The second segment of our Bubbles of Wisdom interview with Tom Nguyen, Founder at Tucmedia. With him, we explore the value of creatives and having a creative process in place to ensure high performance through data-driven revisions. Tom also discusses his thoughts on iOS 14.5 and the removal of IDFA, including how this will impact UA and the ability to provide users with relevant, personalized content. Concluding this part of his interview Tom reveals the biggest teachings he has gained from his work within user acquisitions, and mistakes to avoid.
If you missed part 1 of Tom’s bubbles of wisdom, please find them here. You can also listen to the entire audio via podcast here.
Creative Strategy & Process Optimization
Creatives are one of the most important aspects of user acquisition. The front end of UA are the ads you put out, the back end is all the technology and strategy behind networks & platforms to use and optimize. Creatives are an infinite pool that you can iterate on to increase performance and explore new opportunities to market your application through different characters and ad types. It is also vital to understand that creatives can perform well on certain networks but this might not translate to others, finding the right combination of creative content & type and the right placement of the ad is a complex process. In order to optimize this process, you need everyone working together (the UA team, creative team, and app development team).
Creative performance needs constant monitoring with the data utilized to enhance future iterations, depending on the ad’s prominence to attract valuable users from various networks. Having an eye-catching and engaging visual ad significantly increases conversion and hosting the right ad on the correct platform is the perfect recipe to attract users.
Impact of iOS 14.5 & The Removal of IDFA
iOS 14.5 caused huge disruption to the UA industry, specifically for gaming as marketers have lost a vast amount of data accumulated through campaigns which can aid in them placing ads on networks and in front of users who will be likely to purchase/become valuable users. Performance marketing indicators which have been vital for campaign optimization are now less available and reliable with data now being unavailable to UA teams. The blockades now in place will force marketers to re-assess their UA processes and it will take a long time to navigate the new world of marketing within iOS applications and figure out new indicators to make informed decisions to steer budget the most profitable way.
Learning from mistakes & towing a line of educated exploration
Failures precede success, all learnings and expertise are the fruits of years of labour; trial & error. Within UA, it is vital to not always ‘play it safe’, sometimes you have to run campaigns with a CPI above your ideal parameters, as long as you analyze and learn, exploration is a must. It is also important to keep faith in yourself, even if a campaign misses the targets set. Persistence is key, sometimes you will need to keep exploring to find the optimal niche for your ideal users. You need to be able to show why you are trialing new platforms, channels, networks, etc, and confidently stand by your decisions in the face of adversity, educate others within your organization on the need and benefits of experimentation.
Tom Nguyen is the Founder of Tucmedia, after previously managing UA at Zalando & Goodgame studios. If you would like to know more about Tom & Tucmedia, please visit his UA Wavemaker profile page.
