User acquisition has always played a critical role in the ultra competitive mobile gaming industry. With the mobile gaming market projected to surpass $173.4 billion by 2026, studios are motivated to outspend the competition, or try different tactics to stand out. But there’s no question about it: acquisition is far more challenging since Apple released iOS 14 and App Tracking Transparency (ATT).
Released in April 2021, ATT empowered users to control whether an app could track and share their data (most notably, their unique mobile device identifier) with ad networks who bid on serving them personalised ads. As could be expected, the vast majority of users choose to not let their apps track and share their data. And while ATT opt-in rates for apps are low (only 25%), it’s mobile games who suffered the worst of the punch. Mere 18.5% of players opt in to ATT, with some game categories (like casino games) seeing numbers as low as 7.5%. The introduction of ATT affected many aspects of the industry, and most notably skyrocketed user acquisition costs for mobile games. Put simply, mobile gaming’s good ol’ days were over. Studios that used to be able to acquire new downloads for their game with a LTV/CAC ratios of four or five, suddenly struggled to break even and were forced to scale down their spending. Over time studios kept seeing their profit margins erode to the point where merely making a profit was a challenge.
This is all old news. But if you read the title and made it this far, you’re probably wondering what role can direct to consumer (DTC) play in driving user acquisition back to its pre-ATT heights. Well, it all boils down to your player’s LTV.
You probably already know that DTC offers game studios the ability to keep significantly more of their margins – up to 35% more – by moving purchases from platforms that take a 30% cut (like the Apple and Google app stores) to DTC platforms, such as Appcharge, which charge just 5%. But the true power of DTC goes beyond margins. By offering players more flexible purchasing options, like web stores and sideloading apps, studios often see an increase in overall player spend. In fact, one popular casual casino game that uses Appcharge to power its web store experienced a 33% increase in player LTV, mere four months after implementing a robust DTC strategy. This means more than just retaining more revenue – it means driving incremental purchases, expanding the total value of your player base, and ultimately raising your LTV.
With a higher LTV, studios can revisit the user acquisition strategies that became untenable after ATT. Although customer acquisition costs (CAC) remain high, the key shift is in the LTV-to-CAC ratio. The rise in LTV means you can now afford to spend more on acquiring users, bringing back the scale that seemed out of reach post-ATT. It’s not that CAC has decreased – it hasn’t – but with the newfound strength in LTV, studios can justify higher spend on acquisition and regain the ability to scale user acquisition to levels previously thought lost.
But it’s not just about improving LTV-to-CAC ratios – DTC opens entirely new user acquisition channels that weren’t available before. When you have a web store integrated with your game’s ecosystem, you gain a destination that you control, outside of app store constraints. Now, your web store is indexable by Google, allowing players to discover your game, products, and content organically. You can also leverage personalised ads on platforms like Facebook, sending players directly to their cart for items they’ve previously shown interest in, enabling sophisticated remarketing strategies.
Beyond that, DTC opens the door to powerful tools like email and SMS marketing, where you can send player-personalised offers with deep links that take players directly to the checkout flow on your store – skipping the app entirely. These new tools don’t just enhance your monetisation; they also provide fresh ways to scale your user acquisition by driving players not only to your game but straight to purchases. The combination of these tactics unlocks significant ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) potential, giving studios more control and flexibility over how they engage and convert their players.
If you haven’t yet explored DTC as part of your monetisation and user acquisition strategy, now is the time. It’s no longer a niche strategy but a proven path to scaling up your business, with 65% of top-grossing games already operating a web store. The potential to raise your player LTV, recapture lost acquisition scale, and drive long-term growth is too important to ignore. DTC has helped many studios rediscover the growth potential they had before ATT – and it can do the same for you.
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