Mobile game ads that keep up with your spend
A game burns through ads faster than any other app. The studios that scale are the ones with a new batch ready every week. We make video ads from your real gameplay, reactions, near misses and the satisfying ten seconds, and judge them on payback, not install counts.
- 20
- 72 hrs
- $7,500
- Client work · 0:47
- Client work · 0:09
- Client work · 0:45
Brands we’ve made ads for: Bidco Africa, Oraimo, Hillson, 8 Ball Pool, and Ribena East Africa. Ads run on Meta, TikTok and YouTube.
The short answer
A mobile game UA agency buys players for a game and judges them on whether they pay back what they cost. Lumivance supplies the part most studios run short of: video ads cut from your real gameplay, in batches big enough to test every week, and media buying on Meta, TikTok and YouTube if you want it.
| What we make | UGC-style and product-led video ads, 20, 40 or 80 at a time |
|---|---|
| Channels | Meta, TikTok and YouTube |
| Judged on | Cost per install first, then D7 and D30 return on ad spend |
| Published results | Client ads for Bidco Africa, Ribena East Africa, Oraimo, Hillson and 8 Ball Pool are on this site. No client results are published yet. |
| Fees | Sprints from $7,500 for twenty ads, fixed. Media buying on a retainer, quoted after an account review. |
Creative is the lever. Pull it every week.
- A new batch every week
- Twenty, forty or eighty ads per sprint, so there’s always something fresh to rotate in before the current winner tires.
- Real gameplay, always
- Every second of gameplay is captured from your game. Regulators have banned game ads for showing mechanics the game doesn’t have.
- Hooks crossed with formats
- Five hooks, each made four ways: reaction, near miss, challenge and gameplay only. A test that tells you which idea works, not just which video.
- Named so you can read them
- Every file is named by hook and format, and the names carry into your ad account and attribution tool.
The loop, built for games
- 1
Audit
Every ad that ran in the last ninety days, read on cost per install and early return, not views.
Week 1 - 2
Plan and build
Hooks and formats chosen from what your players already respond to, scripted and approved.
Week 1 - 3
Ship
First ads 72 hours after the brief, cut for every placement.
Week 2 - 4
Measure
Each hook read at D7, then D30, against the cost of the players it brought in.
Weeks 2–4 - 5
Scale and repeat
Winners get budget and variations, losers are cut, and the next batch is briefed from what won.
Every week
We judge on payback, not installs
Cheap installs that never spend are the most expensive players a game can buy.
- D7
- The first read. Is this hook bringing in players who come back and spend a little? It’s where most losers are cut.
- D30
- The real verdict for most casual games. Spend scales only on hooks whose cohorts are on course to pay back.
- D90
- For games with longer payback, the cohort curve that decides how far a winning hook can be pushed.
- On iOS
- Platform numbers are modelled and incomplete, so they’re read alongside your attribution tool’s cohorts. When they disagree, your own data wins.
The channels
- Meta
- The broadest reach for most genres, and the fastest place to test a new hook.
- TikTok
- Where reactions and challenges feel native, and where ads tire fastest.
- YouTube
- Longer gameplay and Shorts, for games that sell on depth as well as the hook.
- Ad networks
- If your team also buys on networks such as AppLovin or Unity, tell us their sizes and we’ll export to them.
The rules game ads play by
| The rule | What we do about it |
|---|---|
| The gameplay is real | Every second is captured from your game. If a mechanic isn’t in the game, it isn’t in the ad. |
| No fake interface | Buttons, scores and rewards on screen are your real ones. We don’t generate game screens. |
| Mind the age rating | Ads follow the game’s rating, and games with real-money or casino-style play need platform approval before they can advertise. |
| Presenters aren’t players | The person reacting is AI-generated. The ad doesn’t claim they’re a real streamer or a real player. |
Your best ad is a month old and D7 return keeps slipping? Tell us about the game and we’ll tell you which hooks we’d test next.
Ask for a second opinionWhy studios would work with us
- Volume without a shoot
- Batches of forty or eighty from footage you already have, without booking talent or a studio.
- Fixed price per batch
- You know what each week of creative costs before it starts.
- Payback, not views
- Every ad is judged on the players it brings in, at D7 and D30.
- You talk to the makers
- The people who write and cut your ads are the people on the call.
Your store page gets the same treatment
Paid installs land on your store page. It should say what the winning ad said.
- App preview videos
- Cut from the same footage as the winning hooks, so the store confirms the ad.
- Custom product pages
- A video per winning angle, for the custom store pages Apple and Google let you send each ad to.
- Seasonal events
- New ads and store videos for live events, made in the same batch.
What a motion ad looks like
Two edits of one spec motion piece, made with AI. In a game ad, your gameplay takes the product’s place.
Spec · 0:09
Spec · 0:09Is your game ready to scale paid?
Tick what’s true. It takes thirty seconds and nothing is sent anywhere.
0 of 5Early. Tracking and the bidding event come before more ads. On a retainer, that’s where we’d start.
What it costs
The same three sizes for every sector. A sprint is a fixed price for a fixed number of finished ads.
Sprint 20
$7,500
- 20 finished ads
- Up to 15 seconds each
- First ads in 72 hours
Sprint 40
$12,000
- 40 finished ads
- Up to 30 seconds each
- First ads in 72 hours
Sprint 80
$21,750
- 80 finished ads
- Up to 60 seconds each
- First ads in 72 hours
Mobile game UA, honest answers
What do you do for mobile game user acquisition?
We make the ads: video cut from your real gameplay, in weekly batches. On a retainer we also run Meta, TikTok and YouTube campaigns in your accounts.
Which channels do you run?
Meta, TikTok and YouTube. If you buy on ad networks yourselves, we export the same ads to their sizes.
What kinds of games do you work with?
Casual, puzzle, merge, idle and mid-core games with gameplay that reads in a few seconds. Real-money and casino-style games need platform approval before we can help.
Do you make playable ads?
No. We make video ads: vertical, portrait and square, with widescreen on request.
Can you use fake gameplay to test a concept?
No. If a mechanic isn’t in the game, it isn’t in the ad. Real footage can be cut in a lot of different ways.
Can the presenter look like a real streamer?
No. We don’t recreate real people, and the ads don’t claim the presenter is one.
How do you measure success on iOS?
With what your attribution set-up reports, read alongside the platforms’ own numbers. Every file is named by hook and format, so results trace back to the idea.
Which sprint size suits a game?
It depends how fast you test. Twenty ads is five ideas made four ways. If you test every week, forty or eighty last longer.
When should a studio bring in outside help?
When the team can’t make new ads as fast as the old ones tire, or when one ad is carrying the whole game.
How much does a mobile game UA marketing agency cost?
With us, ads are a fixed price per sprint: $7,500 for twenty ads, $12,000 for forty or $21,750 for eighty. If you want us to run the campaigns as well, that’s a monthly retainer, quoted after we’ve looked at your ad account. Ad spend always goes to the platforms directly.
Want to see what we’d test first?
Tell us what you sell and what you’re running now. We’ll come back with the angles we’d test first and what it costs.