Is this the right guide for you?
Use this guide if your main challenge is paid acquisition: scaling campaigns, choosing channels, solving attribution, improving ROAS, or building a stronger creative testing system. This guide is for studios comparing specialist mobile game UA agencies — paid user acquisition partners with proven experience scaling games, not general app marketing agencies with only occasional gaming experience.
If you need a broader growth partner across strategy, UA, ASO, creative, data, and monetization, read our guide to growth marketing agencies for mobile games.
If your main bottleneck is store listing conversion, metadata, screenshots, icons, or App Store / Google Play experiments, read our guide to ASO agencies for mobile games.
How to effectively run paid user acquisition in 2026
This article focuses specifically on paid user acquisition agencies for mobile games. It is not a comparison of full-service growth marketing agencies, ASO agencies, or creative production vendors.
If your primary challenge is scaling paid acquisition profitably across channels, solving attribution, improving ROAS, or building a stronger creative testing system, this is the right comparison to use.
Mobile user acquisition has changed more in the past three years than in the previous decade. The collapse of user-level tracking on iOS, the automation of campaign management by platforms like Meta and Google, and the rapid rise of AppLovin as a dominant performance network have forced UA teams and the agencies working with them to fundamentally rethink how they operate.
The days when one winning creative could run across all channels are gone. What works on Meta doesn’t necessarily work on AppLovin or TikTok. UA managers who aren’t producing 15 to 30 new creatives per month at the scaling phase are already behind. The channel has become secondary. Creative is the primary lever.
That shift has significant implications for how publishers should evaluate UA agencies in 2026.
Attribution is the foundation, but it’s still broken for many studios
Mobile attribution changed in 2021 with Apple’s ATT, which removed most user-level IDFA data on iOS. What replaced it, SKAdNetwork, is delayed, probabilistic, and limited. As a result, UA teams often make budget decisions on incomplete data.
Agencies need a clear approach to SKAN, using modeled attribution, MMM, or incrementality testing. Without it, they are not equipped to manage iOS in 2026. A simple question to ask: how do you measure iOS performance, and what does your attribution stack look like?
On Android, attribution via MMPs like AppsFlyer, Adjust, or Singular is still more reliable, though tightening. Strong setup requires clean integration, correct event mapping, and enough conversion volume. AppLovin, for example, needs around 10 purchase events per day per campaign to perform, a threshold many smaller studios struggle to reach, not to mention the minimum media spend on this channel.
The rewarded ad network landscape: AppLovin, Moloco, Liftoff, Adikteev
The paid UA channel mix for mobile games has expanded well beyond Meta and Google. Rewarded networks and high-intent acquisition channels now play a central role in most scaling strategies.
AppLovin has become the dominant force, especially for casual titles. Its algorithm is highly effective at finding high-value users, but only if there is enough conversion signal and proper event setup. Without that, performance often looks weak early and teams abandon it too soon.
Moloco operates programmatically across open exchange inventory and performs best with strong day 7 and day 30 LTV signals. It is less known than AppLovin but consistently delivers when given clean data and time to optimize.
Liftoff focuses on predictive LTV, identifying users who are likely to spend, not just install. This makes it particularly valuable for IAP-heavy genres like RPG or strategy. Its creative capabilities also make it a more integrated partner.
Adikteev specializes in retargeting, a channel many studios still underuse despite strong ROI. Re-engaging existing users is often cheaper than acquiring new ones and can significantly extend LTV.
Apple Search Ads sits naturally alongside these channels. It captures high-intent users already searching in the App Store, which leads to stronger early retention and often lower CPIs. It also operates outside ATT constraints, making attribution more reliable than most iOS channels.
A UA strategy limited to Meta and Google is leaving meaningful scale on the table.
Creative is the new targeting
With platform algorithms now handling most of the audience optimization work, the primary differentiator between a UA campaign that scales and one that doesn’t is creative. We recommend thinking of creative output in three phases: a testing phase of 5 to 10 diverse concepts; a scaling phase requiring 15 to 30 new creatives per month; and a long-term strategy built around a rotating library of proven performers.
The creative testing framework also varies by channel. On Meta, IPM-based testing in tier-4 countries is standard before rolling winners into tier-1 AEO campaigns. On AppLovin, new creatives are added to BAU campaigns every one to two weeks. On TikTok, two to three new ad sets with fresh creatives per week is the minimum cadence to stay competitive.
An agency that produces creatives but doesn’t operate within a structured testing framework with defined KPIs per channel, clear criteria for graduating winners, and a feedback loop into production is not a UA agency but a production vendor. Publishers should ask any prospective agency to walk through their creative testing process end to end before signing.
How We Selected These User Acquisition Agencies
The agencies below were selected based on 15 years of direct industry experience, including conversations with UA managers, CMOs, founders, and other practitioners who have worked with these partners firsthand.
For this guide, the selection criteria were specific to paid user acquisition, not general mobile growth. Agencies were evaluated based on:
- proven paid UA experience for mobile games
- channel coverage beyond Meta and Google
- attribution and measurement competency
- creative testing process
- ability to manage budget scaling without sacrificing profitability
- evidence of long-term client retention or senior practitioner involvement
Agencies where UA is a secondary service or where mobile gaming represents a small fraction of the client base have been excluded from this list. This is specifically a guide for publishers whose primary need is user acquisition, not a broader comparison of full-service growth agencies or ASO specialists.
Quick comparison of mobile game user acquisition agencies
| Agency | Best for | Core UA strength | Gaming fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| AppAgent | Mobile game publishers preparing to scale paid acquisition profitably | Strategic UA, LTV modeling, creative testing, attribution, and multi-channel scaling | Mobile games only |
| Miri Growth | Casual and hypercasual studios that need fast UA and creative iteration | UA management combined with high-volume in-house creative production | Strong gaming focus |
| RocketShip HQ | Smaller studios that need senior UA strategy without a large agency structure | Hands-on UA consulting, campaign structure, and AI-assisted creative testing | Apps and games |
| Addict Mobile | Social casino, casual, and mid-core publishers with larger media budgets | Performance media buying, rewarded networks, creative production, and attribution | Strong gaming focus |
| yellowHEAD | Established mobile game publishers that want UA, ASO, and creative connected | Paid UA, creative intelligence, ASO integration, and performance marketing | Strong gaming focus |
| Zorka.Agency | Game publishers adding influencer-led UA to their paid acquisition mix | Influencer marketing, creator campaigns, paid UA support, and creative distribution | Strong gaming focus |
| Matej Lancaric | Studios that want direct senior UA expertise and strategic advisory | Hands-on UA strategy, creative testing guidance, and paid growth consulting | Games |
7 Best User Acquisition Agencies for Mobile Games in 2026 & Beyond
AppAgent
Prague, Czech Republic with a US entity · Founded 2016 · ~40 people
AppAgent is a mobile game UA partner that approaches paid acquisition through a strategic lens before touching a campaign. AppAgent’s UA systems are particularly effective for casual and mid-core mobile games, where creative iteration, monetization depth, and long-term profitability matter more than short-term install volume.
In the context of user acquisition, its GamePlan™ process is relevant because it helps clarify whether a game is ready to scale profitably: the attribution setup, creative pipeline, data infrastructure, monetization readiness, and channel priorities that need to be in place before media spend increases. This upstream investment is what allowed AppAgent to keep Game of Words, a word puzzle game by DreamLoft, profitable on paid UA for more than three years.
The DreamLoft engagement is one of AppAgent’s most instructive case studies. DreamLoft had gained initial traction on Google Ads but lacked the internal capacity to scale without risking profitability. AppAgent ran a full growth audit, built a bespoke LTV predictive model to inform budget allocation, and developed a creative strategy canvas based on player motivations. The result was a 33% creative win rate and new hero ads that outperformed the client’s previous top performers. Over the course of the multiyear partnership, DreamLoft achieved a 57% increase in new users in the US and a 544% increase worldwide, with CPI dropping 31% (2 year average) compared to previous internal campaigns.
“AppAgent’s campaign management and bespoke LTV model are now central to our User Acquisition process.” — Craig Forret, Co-Founder at DreamLoft
AppAgent manages paid UA across Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, Apple Search Ads, AppLovin, and other networks. The agency connects media buying with creative strategy, production, testing, and performance analysis, so insights from campaigns feed directly back into the next creative cycle. While ASO can support paid efficiency, AppAgent is evaluated in this guide primarily on paid acquisition capability, channel coverage, attribution thinking, budget scaling, and creative testing rigor.
Best for: Mobile game studios at any scale looking for a strategic UA partner that combines LTV modeling, multi-channel campaign management, and in-house creative production. Particularly studios preparing for a global scale-up or struggling to make paid UA profitable.
RocketShip HQ
Barcelona, Spain · Founded 2018 · ~16 people
RocketShip HQ has repositioned from traditional UA management toward an AI-assisted creative and UA model, making it one of the few agencies actively building AI into its production workflow rather than treating it as a bolt-on.
Founded by Shamanth Rao, who previously led UA at several studios, the agency brings genuine practitioner experience to its consulting model. The fully remote, small-team structure keeps costs accessible for studios that need senior UA thinking without large agency overhead.
Best for: Hypercasual and casual game studios with limited budgets that need experienced UA strategy and AI-assisted creative production without the cost structure of a larger agency.
Miri Growth
London, UK · Founded 2017 · ~35 people
Miri Growth‘s model is built around the integration of UA management and creative production.
Rather than separating the two functions, Miri runs them in parallel: creative testing is built directly into the campaign structure, and performance data feeds back into production cycles in near real-time. Miri operates primarily across Meta, TikTok, Google, and Snapchat. In 2022, the agency was acquired by MSQ Partners, with its original co-founders having since moved on.
Best for: Casual and hypercasual game studios that need a high-output UA and creative partner operating under one roof, with a structured process for rapid creative iteration.
Addict Mobile
Paris, France · Founded 2015 · ~50 people
Addict Mobile is a full-service UA agency with a particularly strong concentration in social casino, a genre where CPI economics, rewarded inventory, and creative strategy differ meaningfully from casual gaming.
The agency manages over €120M in annual media spend across Meta, TikTok, Google, Apple Search Ads, and DSPs including Moloco, operating across 50+ countries. Gaming and social casino specifically represents about half of their revenue, which means the practitioners working on gaming accounts have genuine category depth. Notable gaming clients include Voodoo and MobilityWare.
Best for: Social casino and casual game publishers looking for a full-service UA partner with deep genre expertise, high media spend capacity, and strong coverage of rewarded ad networks.
Zorka.Agency
Limassol, Cyprus · Founded 2014 · ~95 people
Zorka.Agency fills a specific gap in the UA mix that most performance agencies don’t address well: influencer-driven user acquisition at scale.
As platform-based targeting becomes less precise post-ATT, influencer UA, particularly on YouTube and TikTok, has grown as a measurable acquisition channel for mobile games. Zorka has worked with Wargaming, Gameloft, NetEase, and Plarium, and has built proprietary tooling, Zorka Platform, to aggregate historical influencer performance data for campaign planning. The agency also offers paid UA and creative production alongside its influencer capabilities.
Best for: Mobile game publishers looking to add influencer-based user acquisition to their channel mix, or those looking for a single partner that covers both paid social UA and influencer campaigns.
Matej Lancaric
Bratislava, Slovakia · Est. ~2016 · ~10 people
Matej Lancaric is not a traditional agency but deserves a place on this list for publishers who are looking for something agencies typically cannot provide: direct, senior UA practitioner expertise with no account management layer between the consultant and the work.
Matej has personally launched dozens of games. His consultancy is built around his own hands-on expertise and a small supporting team, which means engagements are limited, but the quality of strategic thinking is high. Matej is also the host of the Two & A Half Gamers podcast and author of the Brutally Honest newsletter, making him one of the most visible and credible voices in mobile game UA today.
Best for: Studios with an internal UA team looking for a senior strategic advisor to challenge their approach and identify gaps — or smaller studios that want direct access to world-class UA expertise without the overhead of a full-service agency.
yellowHEAD
Tel Aviv, Israel · Founded 2013 · ~60 people
yellowHEAD combines paid UA with ASO and SEO under one roof, but it is included in this guide primarily for its paid acquisition, creative intelligence, and performance marketing capabilities.
For gaming publishers, this is most relevant in the social casino space, where yellowHEAD has worked with SciPlay, PlayStudios, Zynga, and Papaya Gaming. The agency uses a proprietary creative intelligence platform called Alison that identifies top-performing creative elements and informs production decisions.
Best for: Social casino and casual game publishers, particularly those based in Israel or targeting markets where yellowHEAD has established genre depth, who want UA and ASO managed in a connected way.
How to Choose a UA Agency for Your Mobile Game
Choosing a user acquisition agency is a different decision from choosing a creative agency, an ASO provider, or a broad growth marketing partner. UA involves ongoing media spend, real-time optimization decisions, attribution complexity, creative testing, and a direct relationship with platform algorithms. The criteria below are specific to paid acquisition. If you are looking for a broader cross-functional growth partner or an ASO specialist, use those dedicated comparisons instead.
Attribution competency
Before anything else, ask how the agency handles iOS attribution. In 2026, they need a clear SKAN approach, using modeling, MMM, or incrementality testing. They should also guide MMP setup and event mapping. If they cannot explain this clearly, they are not ready.
Budget and event thresholds
Channels need volume to work. AppLovin needs about 10 purchases per day per campaign, Meta needs around 50 events in 7 days. Without this, performance suffers. Budgets matter too: AppLovin often asks for $30K+ per month while you can start with ASA with only $3k–5k. Spreading small budgets across many channels rarely works.
Creative testing
UA and creative are tightly linked. Ask how they test, define winners, iterate, and feed insights back into production. The best agencies run a closed loop between performance and creative.
Channel fit
Not every agency is equally strong across Meta, TikTok, Google, Apple Search Ads, AppLovin, Moloco, and retargeting channels. Make sure the agency’s actual operating depth matches the channels most relevant to your game, genre, and budget stage.
Genre relevance
Social casino, casual, mid-core, and IAP-heavy genres all behave differently in paid acquisition. Agencies with pattern recognition in your category tend to reach useful answers faster and make fewer expensive testing mistakes.
Paid UA operating model
Some agencies are best suited to hands-on campaign management, while others are better used as strategic advisors for an internal UA team. Before choosing a partner, clarify whether you need daily media buying, channel expansion, creative testing infrastructure, attribution support, or senior-level review of an existing UA operation. A mismatch here can create frustration even when the agency is highly capable.
Final note: when this guide is the right one
Use this guide when your main challenge is paid user acquisition: attribution, channel mix, creative velocity, budget efficiency, ROAS, and scaling media spend profitably.
If you need a broader comparison across strategy, UA, ASO, creative, data, and monetization, see our guide to growth marketing agencies for mobile games.
If your primary bottleneck is store page conversion, metadata, screenshots, icons, localization, or app store experiments rather than paid traffic, see our guide to ASO agencies for mobile games.
FAQ: User Acquisition Agencies for Mobile Games
A user acquisition agency for mobile games helps studios acquire players through paid channels such as Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, Apple Search Ads, AppLovin, Moloco, Liftoff, and other performance networks. The best UA agencies combine media buying, attribution, creative testing, budget allocation, and performance analysis to help studios scale profitably.
A UA agency focuses specifically on paid acquisition: campaign structure, channel mix, attribution, creative testing, CPI, ROAS, and budget scaling. A growth marketing agency usually has a broader role across UA, ASO, creative strategy, data, monetization, and product growth. If paid acquisition is the main bottleneck, a UA agency is usually the more focused comparison.
A UA agency manages paid traffic and media spend. An ASO agency improves the store listing that users land on after seeing an ad or searching in the App Store or Google Play. UA is about acquiring traffic profitably; ASO is about improving the percentage of store visitors who install.
A mobile game studio should consider hiring a UA agency when it has enough data, creative capacity, and monetization clarity to start scaling paid acquisition, but lacks the internal expertise or bandwidth to manage channels profitably. Common triggers include preparing for global launch, expanding beyond Meta and Google, fixing attribution issues, improving creative testing, or scaling spend without losing ROAS.
A Note on This List
This guide was written by AppAgent, a mobile game growth and creative agency founded in 2016. The agencies listed here represent those we consider genuinely strong user acquisition partners for mobile game publishers, based on direct industry observation over 15 years. The list is not exhaustive, and the right choice will always depend on your genre, budget, platform mix, and where you are in your game’s lifecycle.
Need help making paid UA profitable?
If your team is struggling with attribution, channel selection, creative testing, budget allocation, or scaling profitably across Meta, Google, TikTok, Apple Search Ads, AppLovin, Moloco, or other paid channels, AppAgent can help. Explore our user acquisition approach or get in touch to discuss your paid growth goals.
