User Acquisition Strategy for Gaming Apps with Wooga
In this fifth episode of Behind the Apps: Mobile Marketing Talks, host David Murphy sits down with Ferdinand “Ferry” Noordermeer, Senior Performance Marketing Manager at Wooga, the studio behind hit titles like June’s Journey and more. The two dive into Wooga’s user acquisition strategy for gaming apps, particularly narrative-driven titles, and how mobile OEMs, influencer marketing, and global localization play into their broader performance approach.
If you’re researching the most effective user acquisition strategy for gaming apps, or exploring how to market a mobile game app across different regions and platforms, this episode delivers real-world results and best practices.
What You’ll Learn by Watching This Interview
- How Wooga localizes narrative games to drive global engagement.
- Why storytelling is a powerful UA hook in the puzzle genre.
- What prompted Wooga to explore mobile OEM advertising for games — and how it’s paying off.
- Tips on testing new channels (like influencers and CTV) for sustainable UA growth.
- Actionable insights for building a gaming app user acquisition strategy.
Who Should Watch This Interview
This episode is ideal for:
- Gaming UA Managers: Discover how to optimize for both storytelling and scale.
- Mobile Advertisers: Learn how to tap into new user segments with OEMs.
- Performance Marketers: Explore how to structure a global, multilingual UA strategy.
- Gaming App Developers: Get practical takeaways on growth marketing and channel testing.
Watch the full interview below or on AVOW’s YouTube channel. Scroll down for the complete transcript.
Interview with Ferry Noordermeer, Senior Performance Marketing Manager at Wooga
David Murphy (Host): Ferry, great to meet you. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your role at Wooga? What does that work as a Senior Performance Marketing Manager typically involve?
Ferdinand Noordermeer (Guest): Hi David, yeah thanks for having me over. So as a Senior Performance Marketing Manager at Wooga, I’m responsible for budgeting, running multiple UA channels, networks and so on for Wooga across multiple different games, including our flagship game, June’s Journey, which is currently our biggest title. I also work on upcoming soft launch titles, for example.
Now I understand why your company does so well, because I downloaded June’s Journey a couple of days ago just to see what all the fuss was about and to do my research, and I find myself getting quite addicted to it. These games are known for their rich storytelling. How do you approach performance marketing for such narrative-driven titles?
Yeah, that’s a good question, David. As you already know, as you already mentioned here, one of the most important angles of our games is always the narrative. We’re definitely a narrative driven company. Our games have some version of narrative there. We also really love to use this to attract new players basically to give that as our USP as why people would be interested in the game. Our creatives emphasizes especially that there is a narrative aspect, which could be mystery, detective, intrigue, but then as well the regular gameplay. And this combo for us works really well and players really interested in the story in general.
“We’re all over the world. Our game has been localized in 14 different languages as well because like as a narrative driven company, people love to have the story in their own native languages, right?”
– Ferry Noordermeer, Wooga
And which markets are key for you right now?
Key markets are mostly for us are in North America, Europe in that sense, we’re all over the world. Our game has been localized in 14 different languages as well because like as a narrative driven company, people love to have the story in their own native languages, right? So it’s available in Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, to English and even in Dutch.
I guess that’s quite a big investment, but as you say, given the nature of the games, it’s an important one to make.
It is. It took us quite a long time to get to 14 languages. It was not a one fits all approach. Normally, we start with a couple of core languages in our games. Think around English, French, Spanish, Italian. And then later through the years, we expanded, when we also expand our UA mix in that sense. So a couple of times, for example, in 2021, we added more East Asian languages like Korean, Japanese. Later that year we also added simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, and so on. So it’s a staged approach in that sense.
“Throughout the last couple of years, we have definitely noticed that indeed (mobile) OEMs are growing and they’re becoming more and more important for us as well in our install mix.”
– Ferry Noordermeer, Wooga
So in terms of the ongoing challenge all app marketers face with user acquisition, what are the biggest obstacles or hurdles you see today, around privacy, cost, or otherwise?
I mentioned one of the biggest ones already, privacy, right? So Apple released the AdAttributionKit last year as a replacement for the SKAdNetwork. As everyone else, we’re still trying to figure out how this exactly works, how it will look like, how do you target on iOS versus Android. It’s an ongoing topic and an ongoing challenge. A secondary one is as well, diversification. We don’t see UA as the only thing in town anymore. We also believe more and more, that a more comprehensive approach to marketing is important.
So what other channels or tactics come into play when you think about diversifying your UA efforts?
So of course, like your standard mix of being on OEMs, search, and multiple different UA networks, but as well, we’re more and more as well focusing on, let’s say, influencers as a new part of UA that has been growing in the last couple of years. We also are running more CTV, TV, cable TV. So having a more wholesome approach in that sense for sending the message out about our games.
With influencers, is that about identifying players who are influencers and encouraging them to livestream or create content? How does that work?
So with influencers, we mostly focus on influencers that are a bit on the smaller side, so micro-influencers, you could call them, where we then mostly focus on influencers that fit our game type right? As you notice, June’s Journey is a very narrative-driven game, for example, very much into mystery. So we also have influencers, therefore, that are more focused on mystery aspects, or vintage because the story plays in the 1920s and that works really well for us and we have great collaborations with these influencers.
” and especially in European markets, we’ve seen great success with (mobile) OEMs.”
– Ferry Noordermeer, Wooga
I know you’ve also been testing mobile OEMs. What initially drew you to explore that channel?
So initially it drew us to this channel because we were not very well aware before about it. We’re not as much experienced with OEMs as we were with other channels. But we noticed that there was a growing market there, one that was unexplored, untapped, and where we thought there might be opportunity. And throughout the last couple of years, we have definitely noticed that indeed OEMs are growing and they’re becoming more and more important for us as well in our install mix.
When you say install mix, how do OEM campaigns complement your overall strategy
OEMs in that sense fit in the bigger picture because we can get users that would normally might see the ads less but would like to get a new device and so on. And in this way, how we see it is that we get a higher amount of volume of installs as well for a good price. And we do see that the ROAS for this as well, let’s say the return of players that keep playing for a longer time is actually quite consistent, higher than we initially even expected. And we see great results from it.
So effectively, it’s opened up a new channel of users who were just not seeing your marketing before.
Yeah absolutely. And especially in European markets, we have seen great success with OEMs, where we previously didn’t even tap it.
And you’ve been working with AVOW on the OEM side. How have they supported you?
So AVOW has been a great partner to us. AVOW is actually for us, as I said, we’re seeing quite a good success with OEMs in Europe and AVOW has been the key partner for us to grow, especially in Europe, these kinds of traffic mix. They have been really supportive for us with testing different OEM providers, different devices. And they have been a guiding partner for us in what we should try out, what would make most sense.
And even what fits to our product the best, which kind of OEMs and which kind of devices and which countries would perform for us better than other ones, for example. So yeah, it’s been a great partnership in the last, I think two years that we’ve been working with AVOW.
“So AVOW has been a great partner for us … we’re seeing quite a good success with OEMs in Europe and AVOW has been the key partner for us to grow … it’s been a great partnership in the last two years that we’ve been working with AVOW”
– Ferry Noordermeer, Wooga
Without giving away trade secrets, are there any early learnings or outcomes you can share?
Yeah, what we noticed especially is that there’s a big difference in that sense on devices out of this collaboration and as well when you advertise on OEMs. Seasonality comes into play. But we also notice, of course, like if you might need to make your bids higher for newer devices, you might see higher CPIs. But it does tend to kind of pay off.
So I would say that was one of the insights that we didn’t have before. And as well that lower end devices might also be useful for us if we put lower bids, for example.
Looking ahead, are there any growth trends or platforms you’re excited about?
As I said, I think we are mostly now looking as well outside of the standard UA attribution sites. IPrivacy and attribution has been more and more difficult throughout the last couple of years. So we’re looking as well more into TV, CTV influences as I mentioned earlier. And we do think that’s especially for mobile games, casual mobile games, and especially our games that as well have a narrative different approach, that there is a world to win there and where we could still grow even further outside of our standards, UA, which also grows next to it. We noticed especially that one helps the other one to grow as well. It’s not supplementing each other. It’s not eating away. It’s helping each other in that sense, yeah.
“Always keep on new channels that you haven’t tried … two years ago with OEMs, that was a new world for us. Now we’re testing something else as well next to it. And we’re still running OEMs with AVOW.”
– Ferry Noordermeer, Wooga
What advice would you give to other marketers in the gaming space?
I would say yes. I would say always like diversify. Always keep on testing. Always keep on new channels that you haven’t tried. I said earlier two years ago with OEMs, that was a new world for us. Now we’re testing something else as well next to it. And we’re still running OEMs with AVOW. So diversify, don’t be afraid to test and take calculated risks, I would say. That is my biggest advice for other Performance Marketing Managers and UA Managers in that sense.
+ End of interview +
Editor’s Note: The interview text has been lightly edited for clarity and flow. Watch the full interview on YouTube.
Inspired by Wooga’s success with mobile OEMs? Boost your gaming app’s user acquisition through mobile OEM advertising with AVOW’s expert help. Contact AVOW today to grow your audience and elevate your mobile marketing strategy!
What to do next?
About the Author
