How to Optimize Your UA Audience?

In 2025, mobile game studios spent about $25 billion on user acquisition, showing how competitive and resource-intensive this space has become. 

But if your UA performance has been slipping, don't worry, it's not over yet. And it's not because of traffic either.

“Google traffic is worse.”
“Facebook is full of bots.”
“Programmatic is just click farming.”

But actually (and sorry to drop this on you), most mobile UA traffic today is fundamentally the same. What separates winning studios from struggling ones isn’t where they buy traffic, it’s how they optimize it.

Let’s break that down.

70% of Mobile UA Traffic Is the Same Everywhere

Across Google, YouTube, Search, Meta, Unity, DSPs, and programmatic networks, there’s an operational truth that’s uncomfortable but important:

👉 Most mobile UA traffic comes from the same limited supply.

Why? Because there are very few real ad supply sources: ultimately, its the same;

• Apps

• Placements

• Exchanges

• And the same users are moving between platforms

This is because Google brokers traffic, Meta brokers traffic, and programmatic brokers traffic.

This means you might have different dashboards, but it's the same ecosystem.

A useful mental model:
Imagine a large pool full of colored ping-pong balls. That pool is the available traffic. Your job isn’t to find a new pool; it’s to build stronger levers to pick the right balls.

When performance drops, it’s rarely because “this channel is bad.” It’s typically because your creative, signals, or optimization aren’t strong enough to extract value.

“But what about click farming and fraud?”

Yes, fraud exists, and click farming is absolutely real, but fraud doesn’t kill performance; weak optimization does.

Every major platform already fights fraud aggressively because it hurts their business too. The difference is that some platforms squeeze value harder than others.

Unity, for example, leans heavily into:

• AI-driven optimization

• Event-based learning

• Sub-source control

• Iterative creative testing

That doesn’t mean Unity traffic is “better”.
It means teams using Unity correctly extract more value from the same base traffic.

A Quick diagnostic for mobile marketers: Is it really the traffic?

Before blaming the channel, ask this.

If traffic quality were truly the problem, you’d see:

• One channel is collapsing while others perform well

• Strong retention but weak installs

• Stable post-install metrics with volatile CPI

If optimization is the problem, you’ll see:

• Weak post-install events everywhere

• CPI volatility across all channels

• Creative fatigue with no clear winners

• Algorithms struggling to learn

For most studios, it’s the second list.

The Real Performance Levers

When CPIs rise or ROAS drops, studios panic and jump channels. It's a common mistake but high-performing UA teams do the opposite; they go deeper.

1. Block Bad Sub-Sources Aggressively

Not all traffic within a channel performs equally.

If you’re not:

• Analyzing sub-source performance

• Blocking underperforming placements

• Feeding clean signals back into the algorithm

…you’re training the system to waste your money.

2. Creative Is Still the #1 Optimizer

Traffic doesn’t convert, creatives do. In recent times, hand-drawn creative is making a comeback.

Winning teams:

• Build multiple creative angles per audience

• Kill assets fast

• Double down on what actually drives post-install events

If your creatives are generic, copied from competitors, or rarely refreshed, no channel can save you.

3. Optimize for Events, Not Installs

Installs are cheap, but the value is expensive.

Platforms optimize better when you:

• Test early funnel events (tutorial complete, level reached, add to cart)

• Move toward deeper signals once volume allows

• Actively validate event quality

If you only optimize for installs or CPI, you’re teaching algorithms nothing useful.

4. If Traffic Is “Too Expensive”, Fix Your Conversion Rate

This is the part teams hate hearing. If prices go up, you have three options:

1. Stop spending

2. Complain about traffic

3. Improve conversion rate and LTV

And only one of those scales.

Better app store optimization (ASO), better onboarding, better early gameplay, better creative-message alignment, these are UA problems, not product afterthoughts.

The Hard Truth About Mobile UA Traffic

Traffic quality isn’t collapsing. Standards are rising.

The studios winning today aren’t finding magical channels. They’re:

• Training algorithms correctly

• Feeding platforms clean data

• Iterating creatives relentlessly

• Treating conversion rate as a growth lever, not a design detail

Same traffic. Same platforms. Very different results.

Final Thought

If your UA performance is struggling, don’t ask: “Where should we buy traffic instead?”

Ask: “Why isn’t this traffic working for us?”

That’s where real growth starts.

FAQs

Is mobile UA traffic really the same across platforms?
In practice, most traffic comes from overlapping supply sources. Platforms differ in tooling and optimization power, not in some hidden “premium” user base.

What about fraud and click farming?
Fraud exists, but for most studios, it’s not the primary performance limiter. Weak signals, poor creative, and shallow optimization cause far more damage.

When should you actually change channels?
When you’ve hit volume ceilings, need new formats, or are expanding geos — not as a reaction to poor performance fundamentals.

What’s the first thing to fix when UA performance drops?
Creative quality, signal choice, and conversion rate — before touching budgets or channels.