Got A Startup With An App? You Need AppLovin

In 2012, Adam Foroughi’s fledgling ad-tech company, AppLovin, was a punchline in Silicon Valley—a startup with a name that sounded more like a dating app for lonely hearts in tech than a serious business. But last week, the Valley had to eat its words: AppLovin's stock just rocketed up 45% following a blowout Q3 earnings call that revealed a sleek 39% year-over-year revenue boost, largely attributed to their AI-driven ad targeting engine, AXON 2.0. That brings AppLovin’s stock up a boggling 600% this year, making even NVIDIA look a little slow in comparison.

For those unfamiliar, AppLovin helps developers with user acquisition and monetization primarily through mobile games, leveraging its network of 140k+ apps to reach over 1.4 billion daily active users.

The timing couldn’t be better: mobile gaming is on a tear, with revenues set to exceed $272 billion by 2030, and as more and more consumers turn a blind eye to the forced grins of social media ads, AppLovin’s in-game focus gives it a distinct gateway to attention in the broader digital terrain.

AppLovin may be sitting comfortably in institutional investors’ portfolios and proven itself indispensable in gaming, but it’s conspicuously missing from many growth marketers' to-do-list, dismissed as “for games only.” It’s a costly misconception, about as laughable as thinking delivery apps should only advertise in restaurants and grocery stores.

UA isn’t about coloring inside the lines; it’s about treading on the margins.

If you’re building an app — in any sector — and looking for growth that blindsides the competition, here’s your primer on harnessing AppLovin in ways you won’t uncover from a Google search.

AppLovin For The Astute: Use Short-Term Ads To Architect Long-Term Advantages

If you’re not a game developer, don’t make the amateur mistake of treating AppLovin as a stand-in for whatever’s working for you.

Don’t treat AppLovin as an ad solution, but as a system for funneling insights into your growth strategy - one that just happens to use the medium of ads to gather intel.

Construct A Data Factory On New Users To Use On External Channels

AppLovin’s reach of over 1.4 billion users daily offers a new line to connect with audiences who might be immune to conventional social media or email tactics alone. Thanks to their 140k+ app ecosystem, AppLovin can deliver nuanced user insights such as cross-platform interaction and in-app engagement segmentation (e.g. daily peak engagement times) your mainstream platforms can’t offer. If you’re struggling to onboard new users through traditional means, try this method.

Start with a modest budget. Tip: I use the “I Don’t Care” rule when in doubt about what’s “moderate”—I don’t care if $X in ads reels in zero new users. Narrow in on behaviors and interests from your top users, then use AppLovin’s Audience Builder algorithm to generate a few lookalike audiences in their network. Run small campaigns (another tip: rewarded or interactive ads work well) to gather preliminary data, then use the behavioral insights to iterate on your ads until you’ve built a few potential high-value user profiles to test on external channels.

Identify the channels with lower costs of acquisition than AppLovin, and run low-budget, hyper-precise campaigns that target the potential user profiles you’ve created for initial validation. Based on your cross-channel results, refine your audience targeting and messaging both on AppLovin and in your external channels, doubling down on high-engagement segments and eliminating lower-value targets.

Through continuous iteration, you can leverage Applovin’s ecosystem as a data collection machine, generating insights and high-quality lookalike audiences for cheaper acquisition elsewhere.

This is arbitrage with ads.

Build A Retargeting Engine Through Personalized Ads

Use AppLovin as an off-platform re-engagement tool to not just retarget both high-potential (checked you out, but didn’t download/sign up/pay) and churned users, but also identify the most effective re-engagement tactics. Track user behaviors in your app to identify the critical points leading to initial engagement and churn, then segment these users within your analytics platform (such as Firebase or Mixpanel) and create custom cohorts based on these drop-off patterns. Then, export these cohorts to AppLovin through integrations with attribution platforms like Adjust or AppsFlyer.

Once the sync is complete, you can design a re-engagement campaign to target these exact users through hyper-focused ads that intercept them with compelling incentives, teasers, or upcoming features based on their personal history with you. One play, two insights: the data from these ads will uncover the retargeting angles that hit home.

With this approach, you’re not just recovering what’s lost, but building a system to continually win back the departed without resorting to the typical sycophantic email spam.

Add A “Churn-Prevention” Layer To Your Retargeting Engine To Enhance Your Retention Strategy

Add another level of complexity (and cunning) to the retargeting system you’ve built by using AppLovin to develop a strategy to reel in “high-risk” users: those on the brink of churn.

Instead of tracking churn points, identify the behaviors that precede churn (e.g. reduced session times, lower engagement with new features) and create custom cohorts based on these behaviors to export to AppLovin.

Rather than using AppLovin to target these exact users, use Audience Builder to generate lookalike audiences across their ecosystem who mirror these churn-prone behaviors. Run campaigns tailored to these high-risk lookalikes on AppLovin—throw a major app update, a bonus feature, or an exclusive offer—and monitor what sticks.

Armed with these insights, bring the high-performing tactics to your actual “high-risk” users, for example integrating into in-app messages, emails, or notifications. This second round of validation from your current users will help you sift out the power moves for churn prevention that you can add to your user retention playbook.

With enough iteration, your startup could code itself out of churn entirely.

Go Wild With Micro-Market ‘Drop Campaigns’ To Identify Niche Demographics

Overtake through owning the overlooked by finding hyper-niche, high-value audiences through AppLovin. Start by analyzing your current power users — those with high LTV or frequent engagement — to identify shared traits, behaviors, and app categories that reflect your ideal user. Leverage AppLovin’s cross-app behavioral data to locate similar users across their expansive network in specific app categories that closely mirror your best-performers.

Run small and short test campaigns within these niche segments to gauge engagement, then use this initial data to refine your targeting based on which micro-markets respond most positively. Then, layer your campaigns to target users across multiple, related niches, creating a web of touchpoints within AppLovin’s ecosystem to reinforce your brand’s presence and establish a stronghold within each segment.

Continuously optimize your niche market insights with real-time performance monitoring, and double down on the micro-markets showing the highest engagement and retention by targeting them outside the AppLovin network. Become the go-to product within tightly defined, high-value segments, then lunge in for the mainstream kill.

Run a ‘Fail Fast’ Funnel Test on AppLovin to See Which Angles Tank (Before They Do in Your Product)

Test risky product features or value propositions in AppLovin before actually building them. Use their in-house gen AI tool, SparkLabs, to create quick and low-cost ad campaigns focused on features or selling points you’re unsure about, changing the CTA to something like “Get Early Access”.

On top of analyzing key indicators like CTR and ad completion rates, look at subtler metrics such as scroll depth and conversion abandonment for ad landing pages, or “Time-to-Click” Rate (the time it takes for users to click a CTA from the moment the ad loads), - these angles will help you uncover not just if there’s interest, but how strong that interest is. If the feature or messaging doesn’t resonate, kill it in the ads before it costs you valuable dev hours.

It’s R&D via marketing and helps your team fail fast on ideas that might otherwise take months to validate.

Supercharge With Sensor Tower

Growth geeks use Sensor Tower as the compass that adds direction to their AppLovin approach. While AppLovin connects you to vast user segments, Sensor Tower provides a level of competitive clarity you can’t get elsewhere—revealing exactly where competitors focus, what formats they rely on, and where they’re missing the mark.

Here’s how Sensor Tower’s data can give your AppLovin strategy some nitro:

• Ad Formats and Creative Trends: ST reveals ad types and creatives your competitors are relying on, allowing you to choose formats and messaging that stand out. If they’re leaning on static, this could be a cue to try interactive or video ads.

• Regional and Category Gaps: Review the geographies and specific app categories your competitors are targeting through ST, and identify under-served locales and app types to test through your AppLovin ads, landing your brand in unclaimed territories.

• Seasonal and Frequency Patterns: Tracking seasonal ad spend and frequency patterns helps you pinpoint the peaks and lulls in competitor campaigns. Use these insights to adjust the timing and cadence of your AppLovin campaigns, targeting audiences during off-peak periods when competitors are less active or intensifying your efforts during high-activity times with differentiated messaging.

• Engagement and Audience Preferences: ST provides data on your competitors’ engagement rates and ad performance by audience segment. This can help you refine your AppLovin targeting and ad creatives by focusing on user profiles that competitors are either overlooking or failing to engage effectively.

  
  

With Sensor Tower layered onto your AppLovin approach, you’re distilling your strategy to its sharpest form—stripping away the noise to target pure opportunity.

Final Thoughts: Got The Guts?

When you’re knee-deep in a mess of code, it’s easy to fall into the gravitational pull of following in the growth footsteps of giants.

But who says they must be right?

They’ve laid down tracks, but those tracks were built for brands with a whole other set of superpowers, ambitions, and, frankly, budgets in a different stratosphere.

Your advantage? The autonomy, and the necessity, to be nimble and unpredictable.

There’s no “sure thing” in user acquisition. I’m not guaranteeing that AppLovin will give your startup horns overnight. But since you already have the guts to strike out and build something of your own, I’m betting you’ve got the guts to give things a try.