Mobile Ad Eaters on reactivation creative, retargeting messaging, and what actually wins churned players back.
“I’ve always looked at retargeting more as a friendly reminder than a hard sell.” – Johnny Meital @ Papaya
“Retargeting ads for lapsed players are a reflection of what the in-game product experience could be like.” – Michael Lee | Growth Consultant
“We’re speaking to players who already know the game, so relevance and familiarity are key.” – Sara Milosević @ Nordeus
The Win-Back Question
Reactivation sits in an odd corner of user acquisition. The audience already knows the game: they downloaded it, played it, and left. That changes the creative problem entirely: you’re not selling a first impression; you’re reopening a relationship.
So what actually pulls a lapsed player back? Is it emotional pull like nostalgia, familiarity, the reminder of why they liked it in the first place, or is it incentive: rewards, events, and fresh content waiting on the other side of the reinstall?
For this edition of Mobile Ad Eaters Bites, we asked three creative leads working directly on reactivation to share their unfiltered takes. What do they lean on, where do they find the insight, and what genuinely brings churned users back?
TL;DR
- Lapsed players respond best when creative combines familiarity with a clear reason to return.
- Incentives work best when they connect to what players already value in the game, not when they feel like generic discounts.
- Strong reactivation creative often comes from product, community, and live-ops signals: events, updates, collections, collaborations, and cinematics.
- Retargeting should feel like a relevant reminder of the game experience waiting inside, not a cold acquisition ad aimed at strangers.
Retargeting as a Friendly Reminder, Not a Hard Sell
I’ve always looked at retargeting more as a friendly reminder than a hard sell. Life gets busy, and people naturally drift away, so all they really need is a little nudge that reminds them it’s their time to shine again. That’s why the best retargeting ads feel familiar, positive, and easy to connect with – not overly complicated.
Always keep messaging simple, and look for incentives that give players a reason to jump back in like daily rewards, new collectibles, fresh features, or limited-time events – they usually work really well. My biggest advice is to truly understand your game from top to bottom, work closely with the product team, and identify those “hidden” incentives players genuinely care about. Then keep the copy straightforward and make sure your ads remind players that all of it is waiting for them when they come back.
Since AI became a bigger part of our creative process, we’ve actually started working much more closely with our community teams. We now share knowledge, ideas, and assets. For example, if the community team creates a strong Facebook post around something like “Christmas in July,” and we see that it resonates with players, we immediately jump on that asset. We use tools like Seedance and turn it into a short 15-second retargeting video. The results from this kind of workflow have been REALLY impressive.
For BAU messaging, a lot of our inspiration comes from our in-house knowledge. We’ve tested thousands of ads over the years, so we have a strong understanding of what tends to work for our players. Specifically, when it comes to real-money skill-based games, incentives are one of the strongest messages – rewards, prizes, special events.
Why Reactivation Creative Has to Reflect the Product Experience
Generally, I think of retargeting ads in two camps, and both center around meaningful and valuable content, and will use Cookie Run: Kingdom as an example.
One is based on new, unique, and bespoke IP collaboration or overpowered content that has value in power, progression and/or novelty as part of a rare collection. While there aren’t numerical values associated with this Cookie Run: Kingdom’s KPOP Demon Hunters collab, the audience already has an idea of what emotion, tone & style the KPOP Demon Hunters brand and characters could offer to Cookie Run: Kingdom. The tease in this ad highlights the diverse visual styles of the Rumi, Mira, and Zoey in the Cookie Run: Kingdom art style. It’s up to the player to see if they want to explore it based on how strongly the imagery matches the player’s perception of the collab brand IP and the desire to relive and experience new moments of KPOP Demon Hunters lore and story.
The other is based on the numerical value of currency relative to its normal baseline. Do you get to participate in the main value prop more often at a lower price? Do you get to save time to achieve the main value prop at an accelerated pace? Cookie Run: Kingdom highlights multiple currencies that impact players’ ability to summon new Cookie Heroes and/or Villains and currency to upgrade and strengthen them.
Retargeting ads for lapsed players are a reflection of what the in-game product experience could be like. It’s not something that can be purely done just on the UA/Publishing side alone, and it takes product and game development buy-in as part of a larger reactivation strategy across new, current, lapsed, and elder users.
Using Familiarity and Brand Cinematics to Bring Players Back
Having Top Eleven on the market for more than 16 years comes with a unique advantage: a large and diverse player base that can be reactivated through different creative approaches.
At Nordeus, UA Reactivation is a space where we continuously experiment and learn. It’s a testing ground for more innovative ideas, as we’re speaking to a highly specific audience where typical UA learnings often differ from insights based on our existing player base or BAU Campaigns. Besides the regular reactivation creatives that come from our thorough weekly UA testing, one of the strongest reactivation concepts we’ve seen recently is using our yearly release cinematic video – originally created for organic purposes but incorporating our UA and brand learnings from previous years.
To understand why this worked so well, it’s important to look at how these cinematics are created in the first place. Product teams define key beats from the game’s evolution, while Marketing’s art team translates them into a strong visual narrative used across both paid and organic channels. The result is content that balances product relevance with storytelling.
This makes brand cinematics highly effective for UA reactivation. Unlike typical UA, we’re speaking to players who already know the game, so relevance and familiarity are key. Brand cinematics built around meaningful product updates remind players why they enjoyed the game and give them a reason to return.
For us, the success of these campaigns is a great example of how strong cross-functional collaboration can create marketing assets that deliver value far beyond their original purpose. When Product and Marketing teams align around the same vision, the result is content that not only looks great, but also performs.
Want to keep the conversation going?
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