User Acquisition

The mobile gaming market has never been more competitive, or more expensive to navigate. The gaming industry spent $25 billion on user acquisition in 2025, yet global app downloads grew just 0.8% over the same period. UA costs rose 12% year-over-year while user growth stayed nearly flat. The paid-to-organic install ratio jumped 61%, meaning studios are leaning harder on paid channels at precisely the moment those channels cost more.

In this environment, the difference between a UA partner who understands mobile gaming and one who doesn't compounds fast. Every misallocated dollar, every creative that doesn't convert, every campaign launched on the wrong network for your genre is a setback that takes months to recover from.

Artstash Creative is built specifically for this market. We are a global team of mobile gaming specialists who have managed UA for some of the most recognized titles and publishers in the industry, including Activision Blizzard, EA, SEGA, Square Enix, Take-Two, Bandai Namco, Warner Bros., Tripledot, Stillfront, Kabam, Snapchat, and Uken. From soft launch to global scale, we treat every campaign as a precision instrument, not a media buy.

What Mobile Game UA Actually Requires in 2026

User acquisition has always been complex. In 2026, it demands a different kind of expertise entirely.

The era of volume-led growth is over. According to AppsFlyer's State of Gaming for Marketers 2026 Edition, 50% of all UA budgets are now allocated to the US alone, a market where average iOS CPI sits at $5.28. At the same time, the social landscape has fundamentally shifted: Meta platforms now account for over 69% of global social gaming impression share, up from 54% the year before, while TikTok's share nearly halved in a single year.

The real risk for studios is optimizing for the wrong metric. Chasing the cheapest install in 2026 is a losing strategy. Break-even now stretches beyond 90 days for most titles. Fewer than 5% of mobile game users monetize at all. The studios pulling ahead are the ones optimizing for D30 ROAS and lifetime value, not CPI.

This is the strategic context Artstash Creative operates in every day. Our UA team doesn't just run campaigns. We build growth systems that connect acquisition, creative performance, and monetization signals into a single learning loop.

The Shift to Quality-Led Acquisition

The data is clear on what separates top-performing titles from the median. According to GameAnalytics' 2026 Mobile and PC Gaming Benchmarks Report, top 1% titles retain 64-68% of players at Day 1 and hold over 25% through Day 7. The industry median sits at 22% on Day 1 and under 4% by Day 7. That gap is not a product problem alone. It reflects a UA problem: acquiring the wrong users at scale.

Quality-led acquisition means targeting users with behavioral profiles that match your highest-LTV cohorts. It means creative that sets the right expectations before the install, reducing early churn from misaligned intent. It means bidding strategies that weight toward payer conversion, not install volume.

This is what Artstash Creative delivers.

Our User Acquisition Services

Artstash Creative provides end-to-end UA management for mobile games across every stage of the growth lifecycle. Our services are built around the specific demands of gaming titles, not adapted from a generalist playbook.

Paid Social Campaign Management

Paid social is the backbone of mobile game UA. We manage campaigns across Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, with channel allocation shaped by your genre, target audience, and ROAS goals. Given that Meta now commands over 69% of global social gaming impression share, understanding how to win in that environment, not just participate in it, is a core competency.

Our team handles:

• Campaign architecture and audience segmentation
• Bid strategy and budget pacing across platforms
• A/B testing frameworks for creative and targeting variables
• Ongoing optimization against D7, D14, and D30 ROAS benchmarks
• Platform-specific creative adaptation (aspect ratios, formats, lengths)

Programmatic and Ad Network Management

Beyond paid social, we manage programmatic campaigns across the leading mobile ad networks. Genre matters enormously here. CPI benchmarks vary from $1.50 for casual Android titles to over $11 for casino games on iOS, and the right network mix depends entirely on your title's category and monetization model.

We work across networks including Meta Audience Network, Google UAC, and demand-side platforms suited to your genre and scale, selecting channels based on ROAS index performance rather than volume alone.

Creative Strategy and Production

Creative is the single highest-leverage variable in mobile game UA. Video's share of global gaming impressions rose from 44.9% to 53.7% in 2025, while playable ads nearly doubled from 6.3% to 13.3%. Studios that treat creative as a production line rather than a strategic asset are bleeding budget on impressions that don't convert.

Artstash Creative is unique in that we produce the creative assets we run. Our in-house production capabilities span:

• UGC-style video ads
• Playable ad development
• Live-action production
• CGI character and environment modeling
• Motion graphics and animated formats

This integration between creative production and UA management closes the feedback loop that most agencies leave open. When a creative underperforms, we don't wait for a brief to go back to a separate team. We iterate in real time, informed by live campaign data.

Soft Launch Strategy and Market Testing

Launching into the wrong market wastes budget and distorts your early data. Our soft launch framework validates CPI, retention, and early ROAS before committing to full-scale spend. We identify test markets that are representative of your target audience without the inflated CPIs of Tier 1 markets, giving you clean signal before you scale.

Typical soft launch engagements cover:

• Market selection and phased rollout planning
• Test budget structuring ($500-$1,000/day per region and platform)
• KPI benchmarking against genre-specific retention standards
• Creative variant testing to identify top performers pre-scale
• Go/no-go analysis and scale-up roadmap

Global Scale and Multi-Market Management

When the data says scale, Artstash Creative has the infrastructure and experience to execute globally. We manage campaigns across North America, EMEA, APAC, and Latin America, with geo-specific bidding strategies that reflect the significant CPI variance between markets. North American iOS CPIs average $5.28; Southeast Asia averages $0.50-$1.50. A blended global strategy that ignores this reality overpays in every market.

Our multi-market management includes localization guidance for creative assets, regional budget allocation modeling, and performance reporting across all active geos.

Performance Reporting and Analytics

Every engagement includes structured reporting tied to the metrics that actually matter for mobile games: ROAS by cohort, retention curves, LTV projections, and creative performance by format and placement. We integrate with leading mobile measurement partners (MMPs) to ensure attribution is clean and optimization decisions are grounded in accurate data.

Who We Work With

Artstash Creative works across the full spectrum of the mobile gaming industry. Our client roster includes major publishers and studios at the top of the market, as well as independent developers building toward their first breakout title.

Our experience spans publishers including Activision Blizzard, EA, SEGA, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, Bandai Namco, Warner Bros. Games, Tripledot Studios, Stillfront Group, Kabam, Snapchat, and Uken Games. This breadth means we bring genre-specific knowledge and cross-market perspective to every engagement, not just general digital marketing expertise.

"The studios closing the gap between median and top-tier performance fastest are the ones treating acquisition, engagement, and reactivation as one connected system." — 2026 Global Mobile Gaming Marketing Trends White Paper, SocialPeta x Singular x Aarki

That connected system is exactly what Artstash Creative builds for our clients.

Why Artstash Creative

There is no shortage of digital marketing agencies. There is a significant shortage of agencies that understand the specific economics of mobile games: the genre-driven CPI variance, the retention benchmarks that define success, the creative formats that drive payer conversion versus install volume, and the platform dynamics that shift meaningfully from one quarter to the next.

Here is what sets Artstash Creative apart:

• Gaming-exclusive focus. We don't divide attention between gaming and other verticals. Every insight, every benchmark, every creative instinct we have comes from working inside this market, not adjacent to it.
• Creative production in-house. Most UA agencies manage spend. We also produce the creative assets that drive it. This means faster iteration cycles, tighter creative-to-data feedback loops, and no brief-to-agency lag when a test needs to turn around in 48 hours.
• Full-funnel thinking. We optimize for LTV, not just installs. Our campaigns are structured around the metrics that determine whether a title is profitable, not the metrics that make a dashboard look good.
• Global reach. We manage campaigns across North America, Europe, APAC, and Latin America, with the geo-specific expertise to allocate budgets intelligently across markets with vastly different cost structures.
• Proven at scale. Our client list includes some of the most demanding UA operations in the industry. We know what it takes to manage eight-figure annual spend across multiple titles, and we bring that operational discipline to every engagement regardless of size.

The mobile gaming UA market is harder than it has ever been. Studios that partner with specialists win. Studios that treat UA as a media-buying commodity lose ground every quarter.

Artstash Creative exists to make sure your studio is in the first group.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of mobile games does Artstash Creative work with?

We work across all major mobile game genres, including casual, hybrid casual, mid-core, strategy, RPG, action, and casino titles. Our approach is tailored to each genre's specific CPI benchmarks, retention expectations, and monetization model. We work with studios at every stage, from pre-launch soft testing through to global scale.

How does Artstash Creative integrate creative production with UA management?

Unlike most UA agencies, we produce creative assets in-house. Our production capabilities cover UGC-style video, playable ads, live-action content, CGI, and motion graphics. Because the same team managing your campaigns is also producing your creatives, we can iterate on underperforming assets in real time without the delays that come from working across separate agencies.

Which platforms and ad networks do you manage?

We manage campaigns across Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Google UAC, and programmatic demand-side platforms. Channel selection is always driven by your title's genre, audience profile, and performance targets, not by default allocation.

Do you work with indie studios as well as major publishers?

Yes. Our client roster spans AAA publishers including Activision Blizzard, EA, and SEGA through to independent studios building toward their first major title. We scale our engagement model to match the studio's stage and budget, with structured soft launch programs for earlier-stage titles and full-scale multi-market management for established publishers.

How do you measure success?

We report against the metrics that define real profitability in mobile games: ROAS by cohort (D7, D14, D30), retention curves against genre benchmarks, LTV projections, and creative performance by format and placement. CPI is a data point, not a success metric.

Where is Artstash Creative based?

We are a global team operating across multiple time zones, serving clients in North America, Europe, APAC, and beyond. Our geographic reach matches the markets we manage campaigns in.

Work With Us

If you're evaluating UA partners for an upcoming launch, looking to improve performance on a live title, or scaling into new markets, we'd like to hear about it. Tell us about your game, your current stage, and what you're trying to achieve. We'll come back with a clear perspective on how we can help.