Lídia Pérez

Q&A with Lidia

This Q&A reflects Lídia's time as User Acquisition Manager at Socialpoint. Currently, Lídia is Performance Marketing Manager at Scopely.

Lídia Pérez is User Acquisition Manager at Socialpoint. Lídia began her career in user acquisition at From The Bench, a gaming startup. She worked there from 2014 to 2019, and her role eventually evolved to leading the Ad Monetization department and UA strategy. After moving to a social gaming company for a while, Lídia joined the word games team at Socialpoint. She currently drives growth for Word Life and oversees their creative testing framework & growth strategy.

In your own words, tell us about the app(s) that you manage?

Word Life is a daily brain trainer. In the game, you connect letters to reveal hidden words as you relax and bask in the beauty of nature. The crosswords start easy, but they get challenging fast! You can improve your vocabulary, or you can use Word Life to refresh a specific language. The game lets you save different progress paths as you play.

How did you get started in mobile marketing?

My career began at From the Bench, a gaming startup in Alicante, where I spent five years working in user acquisition & monetization. I worked in a holistic role during my time there that gave me a comprehensive overview of the mobile games marketing ecosystem (ad monetization, user acquisition, business intelligence, app store optimization). I managed the Ad Monetization department and, eventually, UA strategy for licenses with 10M+ downloads such as NBA GM or Real Madrid Fantasy Manager.

I worked alongside a multidisciplinary team including programmers, designers, product managers, content marketers, and Business Intelligence. At the time, the marketing team was not as close to the product as they are now. It was a challenge demonstrating the power of marketing and product synergies. Having a holistic view enabled me to contribute to different areas of our mobile marketing strategy. Thanks to that, I discovered user acquisition growth was one of my favorite fields.

What do you like most about mobile marketing?

It's a dynamic industry. The standards are always changing, and we’re constantly playing catch-up to overcome new challenges. I believe these fresh and new changes bring out the best of us. I also happen to be very data-oriented—I enjoy diving into data and making calculated decisions based on KPIs.

What does it take to succeed in mobile marketing?

The mobile gaming industry is competitive. Here are a few things you have to have to be successful:

• Strong BI structure with clear KPI targets and milestones: This will save you money in the long run and keep you on track. Because of the fierce market competition, it’s easy to lose focus and deviate from the roadmap. But if you do, you will likely cause chaos and confusion for the team.
• Powerful synergies between Marketing, Product and Creative: It is better to work in alignment and share the same goals.
• Data-driven mindset across all the teams while allowing the numbers to decide what to do next: Creativity is important, but paying attention to the right numbers will save you a lot of money and time. Be conscious of the percentage of your budget you’re willing and able to spend on wildcard creatives.
• Be curious. Never be complacent, and ask questions. There’s always room for improvement!

What strategies work best to convert installs into engaged app users?

The most important (and maybe most obvious) thing is to deliver a quality product. But couple this with other best practices like:

• Establish alignment between Marketing, Product and Creative. This helps create a seamless experience for the user.
• Set up a strong creative testing framework aligned with the product’s first-time user experience (FTUE). Close alignment increases the chances of finding creative winners and helps acquire users with high retention rates at a cheaper price.
• Create a powerful live ops system and a seamless CRM. This will help maintain user interest and increase retention and engagement rates and session length.
• Stay aware of your audience’s needs. We provide a service for the users, and it is important to understand their needs and keep them engaged. Once you identify what they’re looking for, you can transform it into a profitable product.

In the past year, what is one tip you can share which made the biggest difference in performance for your UA strategy?

At one point, we noticed a low success rate for creatives. Creatives are key to UA growth, and this was an area we needed to improve urgently. We reviewed the creative production process, and we found that we needed a solid, data-driven system that would increase the number of winners. Since then, we have seen success by establishing a solid creative testing framework.

What advice can you offer marketers to successfully re-engage mobile app users?

Three main things stand out to me when it comes to successful re-engagement:

1. Quality and powerful live ops and CRM systems. Again, it’s all about maintaining user interest, increasing retention and engagement rates and session length.
2. Invest in retargeting campaigns. Do this in tandem with an incrementality test to learn the impact of the retargeting investment.
3. Ask the user base! You can’t succeed without knowing what your audience is thinking.

What’s your top tip when it comes to mobile ad creative?

I can’t stress this enough—develop a strong creative testing framework and let the numbers help decide what to do next. Deconstructing ads to their core parts can help app marketers identify the key factors for success. For example, we tracked the investment evolution for some essential parts of an ad, such as mechanics and skins. This immediately showed us where to prioritize our analysis.

What advice can you offer to help marketers combat mobile ad fraud?

Start by working with a trustworthy MMP with the resources to help you identify fraud. Then, develop a robust in-house Data Engineering/Analytics team if you can. Both teams are key allies in implementing the necessary measures to root out fraudulent installs. The MMP fraud features can also be used as a complement to double-check your system. Apart from that, ask industry peers for partner references.

What are your top 3 go-to resources for keeping up with the mobile ad tech industry?

My peers, then network blogs or other media. Some of my favorites are mobiledevmemo by Eric Benjamin Seufert and also Deconstructor of fun. Apart from that, I like to chat with partner reps regularly to get a better snapshot of the media buying market.