Brutally Honest #222 by Matej Lancaric

Hey, FAM! What’s up?

Doing UA reviews since 2014.. here is how:

UA Review Bible: How to do it Properly

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Aug 4

A practical field guide for CMOs, UA Directors, and UA Managers who want reviews that actually change things. Built on two real accounts: a $1.19M geo puzzle, and a mature social app navigating a major spend decision.

Kinoa turns your existing players into more revenue, in real time, without waiting on development. Same players. More revenue.

What Kinoa is

• One platform for Flows, Live Segments, In-App Messages, Push Notifications, Feature Settings, A/B Testing, Dynamic Content, and Webhooks.

• Engagement, retention, and monetization, run from a single place by the operators who own those numbers.

Why it works (the differentiators)

• Independent operators. LiveOps, monetization, and product managers launch and optimize without dev tickets.

• Hours to integrate. Lightweight SDK or API, with AI mapping your events and data model automatically.

• Built for games. LiveOps, remote config, and CRM in one platform instead of three to four tools stitched together.

Proof

• Carry1st: +43% ARPDAU, 32% less development time.

• Playstudios (Tetris Block Party): +31% revenue, +46% payer conversion.

• Trailmix, Brainium, PlaySimple, PlayStudios, MTG all run on Kinoa.

Explore Kinoa NOW

Team size should follow spend and complexity, not ambition. Here is the rough progression I keep seeing, and where teams tend to stall.

Under $50k/month. One strong UA generalist is usually enough, someone who can brief creative, buy media, read a dashboard, and think about retention. Pair them with an external creative supplier for volume. Don’t build a team yet. Every extra head at this stage adds coordination cost faster than value.

Buy UA playbook for this person

$50k to $200k/month. This is the single most common failure zone. You have enough spending to need serious creative volume and real channel diversity, but still not enough to fund a full team. The one UA generalist might need a bit more breathing room. Think about splitting the role into two: one person on media buying + setup, one on creative strategy.

Or 1 person + creative bible

$200k to $500k/month. Dedicated creative strategy ownership is non-negotiable. The team needs someone whose only job is to think about hooks, concepts, test pipelines, and creative depth, not to squeeze it in between campaign management. A dedicated UA analyst starts paying for themselves in this range. Typical shape: one senior UA lead, one or two channel specialists (Meta/Google plus SDK networks), one creative strategist, shared analytics support.

📖​The Playable BIBLE: Winning recipe for 2026

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Mar 1

Playable ads in 2025 stopped being a “cool side format” and quietly became the backbone of serious UA, especially once you plug them into video‑led funnels, AI workflows, and brutal creative volume.

$500k/month and up. Specialization by channel cluster becomes useful one person for self-serve (Meta, Google, TikTok, ASA), one for SDK networks (Applovin, Unity, Moloco, Mintegral), plus a creative strategy lead, a UA analyst, and clear escalation to the product team. The product team matters at this scale because you are hitting LTV walls and need LiveOps, monetization, and retention fixes to keep unlocking spend.

A really good senior UA manager can handle $1-1.5mil/month spend, but need creative + analytical help.

💪​The 2026 Modern UA protocol: What you SEND is what you get

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Feb 8

I was thinking who this is for and how the UA is changing. The Modern UA is different. I will show you what skills current UA managers need and what is important to follow. UA in 2026 isn’t about targeting Sharon, who likes candles or does yoga. It’s about building a machine that tests 20 ads, kills 17, and scales the 3 that print money.

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True detective-like exploration of creative trends and historical influences. Delving deep into the world of creatives to uncover hidden patterns and inspirations:

𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗿𝗶𝘅 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲𝘀. Yes, THAT Playrix. With NO ADS GAME creatives. What’s up? Well, I will call this 𝗨𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘅𝘅𝗶𝗻𝗴 🤷‍♂️ 👇

The company that spent a decade proving you don’t need ads. The company that left an estimated $250M in annual ad revenue on the table because IAP was working just fine.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴:

Gardenscapes downloads in India and Indonesia are up almost 5x. These are not your regular IAP markets. Nobody scales Gardenscapes in Indonesia to sell IAP packs.

Then look at the creatives. Heavily inspired by SayGames’ My Perfect Hotel. Broad appeal, hybrid-casual energy. AI slop here and there!

𝗔 𝗟𝗢𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗦𝗧𝗨𝗙𝗙

So, let’s put it together:

• Download spike in non-core, low-IAP markets

• Creative strategy borrowed from a hybrid-casual hit

• User reviews in India and Indonesia mentioning rewarded AND interstitial ads

That’s not a coincidence. That’s a blended ROAS test. And the most likely reason is AppLovin or Dream Games, with their interstitial test, Felix pointed out some time ago. 𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁..

Blended monetization has become too powerful as a UA tool to ignore, even for a company printing billions on pure IAP.

Ladies and gentlemen, UAmaxxing...

https://payhip.com/b/tu4nk

Yours truly, Cornelius.

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!

“More sweet doom from Microsoft, as it seems the guys behind the literal game Doom are surprised that their headcount got cut in half and they are tasked to produce the next game in the same quality. Who could have known that creating the next Doom would be literally doomed? Shocker 🤣” Sincerely, Dr.Doom (https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/dev-at-id-software-says-microsoft-burned-a-lot-of-bridges-in-the-industry-they-fundamentally-dont-understand-art-they-dont-understand-games/)

Because life is too short to be serious.

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Sneak peek at what you get for your support:

📖​The Playable BIBLE: Winning recipe for 2026

·

Mar 1

Playable ads in 2025 stopped being a “cool side format” and quietly became the backbone of serious UA, especially once you plug them into video‑led funnels, AI workflows, and brutal creative volume.

Today was a good day.

Hey, excited to start working on this together.

Yeah, same here!

Perfect, here is an access checklist. Could you please check it out?

Uff, sure. But just FYI, the person who had all the accesses left, and we don't have admin access almost anywhere..

Wohooo, this is gonna be a fun ride..

Today was a good day.

“I am not a fucking pen friend” - Matej, slack

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

Ask Matej AI a question. It’s actually quite good!

We produced one more episode at 2.5 Gamers. Check it out now:

We started a new segment. Give it a go:

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!

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!

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