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USER ACQUISITION / ADEPTA NOTE 02
Where else to buy users for a mobile app
Meta and Google are only the beginning. The right next channel depends on where the ad appears, what the platform can optimize and how the product earns money. 12 min read
Choose a channel because its audience, signal and creative mechanics fit the product — not because a competitor logo appeared there.
Think in channel families, not in a logo list
Social feeds, search, short video, rewarded ads inside games, app stores and programmatic exchanges create different moments of attention. A person searching for a solution behaves differently from a player accepting a rewarded video. The channel map begins with that context, because it determines the promise, format and expected conversion path.
Use Meta and Google as a baseline, not a religion
Large platforms are useful because they combine reach, mature optimization and many creative formats. They also give the team a baseline for conversion rate, payback and message fit. But once the same audience becomes expensive or growth stalls, repeating the same setup with more budget rarely creates a new advantage.
App networks need their own creative logic
AppLovin, Unity, Mintegral, Moloco and other networks can unlock very different inventory. Success depends on the genre, geography, monetization and the event returned to the network. A vertical video that worked in a social feed may need a playable idea, a clearer demonstration or a faster payoff to work inside another app.
- Rewarded video and interstitial inventory
- Playable or interactive demonstrations
- Optimization toward purchase, subscription or ad revenue
Stores and search capture a different kind of demand
Apple Ads, Google App campaigns and store optimization meet users closer to an explicit need. This makes the product page, ratings, screenshots, localization and keyword intent part of media performance. Buying more traffic without improving that surface can simply pay to expose a weak store conversion rate.
Give every channel a fair, bounded test
A useful test has one economic question, one attribution window, a creative control and a stop rule. Do not compare five dashboards by CPI while each network receives different videos and a different amount of learning. Decide in advance what would justify the next dollar and what result closes the experiment.
Expand only after the operating layer is ready
More networks mean more billing, moderation, reporting, creative specifications and account risk. A shared naming system, attribution map, creative library and daily anomaly view keep expansion from becoming chaos. The goal is not to activate every available network. It is to find another repeatable source of profitable users.
ADEPTA / WORKING NOTE