Late Stage Capitalism

AppLovin Review Update: I’ve used $APP for over 3 months now. I gave you my initial review, and I'm back for a follow up. Here’s my update… Simply put: - We're getting results, CPE works well. - AppLovin 1:1 support has been great. - We are increasing spend, by a lot. - We are increasing % of budget. Context: We were spending $10-12k/mo across both iOS and Android combined through on-and-off campaigns/issues when I wrote my original review. Today, we are spending $30k/mo on iOS alone. Yes, you read that correctly - iOS alone. Here are some things we’ve learned along the way: brands underestimate the power of the interactive HTMLs. I (personally) assumed this would be for store-fronts only - think Shopify stores, etc. This was the completely wrong perception and the AppLovin team walked me through this. HTMLs can be used to simulate in-app experiences, interactive surveys, features, etc - it’s really a new type of creative with tons of potential to capture high-intent users. It should be noted; do not use AppLovin like you would with any other creative content channel. AppLovin CEO, Adam, is 100% correct about something... He said recently that some advertisers can successfully utilize user generated content on AppLovin, suggesting that the nature of their users is different from typical social media audiences. From my experience, this is true. Some recycled materials work, but custom curated content for AppLovin is ideal - we're working on this now actually. What I'm trying to say is, the creative strategy for Meta and Google will not necessarily work on AppLovin - expect to change your strategy for this channel. To shift gears - previously I mentioned that we wanted to gain access to CPE (cost per event), as we had very cheap cost per install, but no translation to user activity (aka, crappy LTV). I can confirm, this is 100% fixed. CPE works - and works very well. Though, we have a new persistent issue with Android. Android campaigns are not capturing event signal appropriately from our MMP - I do not think this is an AppLovin issue. As of right now, our team and AppLovin are both investigating this. I'm certain we will come to a resolution eventually, I'll keep you updated. This issue does NOT impact iOS. I'm excited for this to be fixed, because Android tends to be significantly cheaper and the volumes tend to be significantly higher than iOS due to privacy rules and regulations. When we do get this event issue fix, I'm sure we will have a $60k+/mo spend on AppLovin alone. Shifting to results... Instead of nominal CPI, I previously mentioned we track against high-intent users (HIUs) as a company. We define this as someone who... - Downloads the app. - Links personal information. - or subscribes to paid in-app features. On iOS only (keep in mind iOS is pricier than AND), here's how AppLovin is shaping up against our other channels: $GOOGL: $88/HI-user $META: $126/HI-user $SNAP: $151/HI-user TikTok: $110/HI-user $APP: $82/HI-user So to compare, our average is $101 per HIU. AppLovin is now 26.4% cheaper than the group. It's also 6% cheaper than Google, and 34.9% cheap than Meta (which is surprisingly great). Our current roadmap is to continue this channel expansion. We will also allocate more of our spend as a percentage of total budget as we expand into new markets. This will likely be incremental (10-30% spend increases over time). I'm quite pleased with the direction - notably, the people running other channels in my team (Meta/Google) are very excited about the results. Feel free to ask me questions (I can answer some, but depending on the question, I do not want to expose some of our competitive advantage) Thanks again, @rfvivas! $APP