Hello [FULL_NAME GOES HERE]
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“Our retention sucked even though our ROAS was great. I clearly thought our ads were great but our app sucked - and that this was the beginning of the end for our product,” he said.

…”until one day, we turned off our top creative by mistake….and nobody noticed this for the next few days...”

….and lo-and-behold…

“Our retention started going up…. Our engagement metrics started improving….”

What the hell was happening here?

I was talking to a founder who had just dodged a bullet.

As I’m sure you are aware, Meta’s algorithm typically allocates the majority of spend toward the top few ads(if you’re curious about going into the weeds, check out this article I wrote for Mobile Dev Memo sometime ago).

The top ad(and its variants) for this product had a ton of spend. It had strong CPI, strong ROAS as reported by Meta - and strong d0 ROAS as reported by the MMP.

…which made sense. The ad was on-trend, clickbaity - and it clearly brought the users in.

…but it turned out, the kinds of users the ad brought in were NOT the kinds of users who would stay, and retain in the app.

Ouch.

As dating coaches and life coaches have said since time immemorial: “be careful who you attract.”

This founder had dodged a bullet, but I’ve known a number of others who hadnt. If you arent careful in having your ads optimize for the *right* downstream metrics, your product might go up in flames - *and* you might never know why.

The lesson here isnt just that you should avoid building clickbaity ads(there can be times and places where they do work). The point is that you should never trust a machine(or an inept human) to make 100% of a critical decision for you.

This is something we drill into our team as we embrace all things AI. This is why, while we wholeheartedly embrace all things AI, and dive really deep, we use (our very human) expertise and judgment to make calls & decisions.

This is why all our work infuses our experience with 10,000+ ads, $100mm in ad spend and all the pattern matching that we’ve built up over more than a decade: and uses AI not to replace our experience but to augment it.

If you’re interested in unlocking these kinds of creative wins that unlock massive growth for your product(s), we’re now offering a free creative strategy audit, in which we do a deep dive of your ad creatives, testing strategy, messaging, structure - and every element of what makes your ad creatives tick: and help you supercharge these for performance with our wonderful humans - and magical AI.

That way we remain laser-focused on the *actual* downstream metrics that matter to you - and lead to profitability and sustained growth, not just upfunnel quasi-vanity metrics.

If you’re interested, hit reply and tell me more about your situation. I read every email.

Cheers,

Shamanth.

PS: Check out our latest resources:
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1. From the Mobile UA Show: [Retention Club] Winning Day 0: Unlocking Early Retention For Downstream
Growth with Sharath Kowligi (Marketing Manager at DieNo Games)​
This episode is part of the “Retention Club”, our series of episodes on Retention & Reengagement, co-produced with the team at Adikteev.

This episode dives deep into the critical aspects of mobile app growth, focusing on why retention, rather than immediate monetization, is pivotal for apps at various growth stages.
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Our guest Sharath Kowligi, Marketing Manager at DieNo Games Oy shares invaluable insights from his extensive experience, discussing the nuanced challenges of engaging users from day zero, the importance of retention for long-term success, and strategies for re-engagement and user acquisition in today's dynamic market.
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2. Mobile Growth Happy Hour in Barcelona(post-MWC edition)​
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Join us for an hour of fun conversations around mobile marketing. If you're attending the MWC, don't forget to come say hi!