Brutally Honest #172 by Matej Lancaric
No 💩 BS newsletter with useful stuff about UA in the post IDFA world
Hey, FAM! What’s up?
🥃 Drink talk
I just came back from a festival. Got a little sick, but I'm getting back on track now. That's why this lovely newsletter is late. Well, deal with it.
🦩Tip of the week
How does your UA Channel mix look?
I just paused Meta completely on one of the games I manage, but only on Android. Why? After a while, it really stopped performing well, even though I tested almost everything possible.
Sometimes it’s good to take a break.
But my channel mix is diverse, so no problem.
Currently running:
Applovin, Google, Mintegral, TikTok & Meta (iOS)
Getting back to Moloco & Liftoff.
The Minimum Viable UA (MVUA) would, in my opinion, be Google, TikTok, Meta, and Applovin, in that order.
2024 UA Playbook: Diversifying beyond Traditional Channels
All of this is from my recent talk at Appfest in Barcelona!
While testing a new channel every quarter.
And re-testing a channel from the past every 6 months.
Next time, I should discuss the Rewarded UA channels again. Right?
This newsletter is brought to you by FastSpring:
Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 years
They power top mobile publishers around the world
And are reliably fast growing, profitable, and very financially secure.
As a no-drama D2C partner with real-world experience at scale, FastSpring is a partner you can trust with your players.
Quickly launch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.
🐊 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:
𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗶𝗻 𝟯 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀... 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗲.
Welcome to 2025 mobile UA, where ‘truth in advertising’ 𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄. 👇
Take a look at these top-performing creatives on Meta. Last 30 days.
𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆.
A truck driving simulator? Actually, a match-3 game.
Royal Match? Again, a match-3 game.
Knitting puzzles? Alright, this one is actually close. We were talking about Knit Out on two & a half gamers. Check it out on our YouTube channel.
Last Z as Mob control. Nope, 4X.
Why? Because the truth doesn’t convert.
You’re not optimizing for authenticity, you’re optimizing for scroll-stopping chaos.
If your real gameplay isn’t viral in 3 seconds, it’s getting reskinned, rewired, and reimagined.
𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝗯𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹:
– Merge and puzzle games are drowning in high CPIs
– 4X is impossible to explain in under 30 seconds
– Hyper-casual is dead unless you look at what's happening in Vietnam
𝗦𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲:
Fake gameplay. Altered mechanics. AI-generated chaos.
Is it ethical? Maybe not.
Is it working? Just check the charts.
What’s the wildest fake ad you’ve seen lately?
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!
"We can't get more doom than this. Musk's AI Chatbot, who proclaimed himself as MechaHitler this week, got "manipulated" according to Elon into saying "bad things." But don't worry, according to Musk, it’s gonna discover "new physics" by the end of next year, thanks A.I.Dolf. But the best part was Elon's answer to what he thinks about AI surpassing human intelligence - "I think it’ll be good, most likely it’ll be good ... even if it wasn’t going to be good, I’d at least like to be alive to see it happen." - Thanks Elon, I can now sleep much safer 😅" Sincerely, Doom (https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/elon-musk-claims-grok-was-manipulated-into-praising-hitler-then-makes-wild-claims-about-it-discovering-new-technologies-and-new-physics-within-the-next-year-just-let-that-sink-in/)
🎉 “Ha-ha” moment
Because life is too short to be serious.
🎮 two & a half gamers new episode
𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗩𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗲! Creatives running for 50 seconds, one minute, or even five minutes are killing it on Facebook, Applovin, and YouTube.
Watching the full ad becomes a way to filter for high-value users, and long ads get better auction placement.
Golden Goblins, KingShot, and even zombie and resource hoarder 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.
Most of the top ads are 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗲𝘀 of last month’s winners, sometimes with the same actor or even the same UI, re-skinned.
📺 Watch on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify
👕 Get our Merch: 25gamers.com/shop
Drive measurable growth with the most intuitive Streaming TV Ad Platform—designed to maximize ROAS for apps of all sizes. Learn more!
🤑 Paid subs only
Sneak peek at what you get for your support:
📈Q1 2025 Brutally Honest UA report - Real Data inside!
Hey there, Matej here! Welcome to the most brutally honest look at mobile game UA you’ll read this quarter. This report isn’t just another round-up of trends – it’s built on real campaign data, survey responses from hundreds of UA pros, and my experience running UA for some of the hottest games.
THE Soft launch Bible: Full 2025 blueprint with real data!
Soft launching a mobile game in 2025 remains one of the smartest strategic moves you can make before a full global release. With the mobile gaming market now even more saturated—and user acquisition costs still climbing—a well-planned soft launch can be the difference between success and failure.
🏰 How I Used 7 AI Tools to Make a Killer Ad in a Day
The result of this article is a scroll-stopping game ad with humor, polish, and personality: all delivered in 24 hours. This AI-powered process slashed production time from a week to a day, showing how lean teams can create AAA-quality mobile ads with the right tools and creative prompts.
THE Creative Bible: How to win in 2025?
Let's just dive directly into the creative framework for 2025
🦄 Diary of a Dancing Unicorn
Today was a good day.
Have you seen this post?
Which one?
This one?
Oh wtf? That looks exactly like my usual Friday post.
And this one?
Come oooon. Did everybody start copying this?
Well, that’s the pain of being a trendsetter.
…..
Today was a good day.
🤺 Quote of the week
"Great episode, as always! What is the website you are using to see all of this data?” - Martial, YT comment
Creative trends for June 2025
🧞 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.
From creating scroll-stopping ad creatives to optimizing user acquisition strategies, AI is the game-changer we can’t ignore.
🥦 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!
🧙 Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter!
Please do me a favor and share this with someone in your network who you think would benefit from the insights and brutal honesty. It would mean a lot to me!
Take care, everyone! See you next Monday!
👇 Reach out for feedback, questions, or say hi!
Give me some love (or hate), & Subscribe everywhere! ♥️