Inside Airbridge
Global Game Growth 2025: UA, Monetization, and Measurement Strategies That Scale
2025
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By
Hoang Ngoc
In mobile gaming, building a great game is just the beginning. The bigger challenge? Scaling it globally. To grow beyond borders, studios need to master user acquisition, monetization strategies, payment infrastructure, and accurate data tracking.
At the “Actionable Growth Passport 2025: Scale Vietnam Game Studios To Global Success” event, four mobile growth leaders—Airbridge, Bidroid, Pingpong, and TopOn—shared clear, actionable strategies for scaling game studios globally. From predictive LTV to ad mediation and localization, the sessions were packed with practical tips for marketers looking to grow worldwide.
Here’s a recap of the key insights you’ll want to keep in your playbook.
Airbridge CEO & Cofounder, Roi Nam, kicked off the session with a bold point. Relying on Day 7 or even D30 retention is no longer enough. The team introduced Predictive Lifetime Value (pLTV) as a more effective way to measure and forecast user value over time.
In many casual games, payback periods are getting longer, making early scaling risky. That’s why Airbridge encourages studios to look beyond short-term metrics. With pLTV, marketers can forecast user value across 90, 120, or even 180 days helping them make faster, smarter budget decisions.
Airbridge’s PLTV tailors its approach based on game monetization models:
Marketers also gain granular insights by country, OS, channel, campaign, and even creative. These breakdowns help teams find their highest-value audiences and double down on what works.
One real-world example is Alarmy. The productivity app Alarmy replaced slow, manual LTV models with Airbridge’s pLTV. With near-instant predictions by channel and creative, they optimized spend faster and reduced budget waste.
👉 Read the full Alarmy case study
Airbridge also stressed that one-size-fits-all monetization doesn’t work. Not every user behaves the same, so why use a single monetization strategy?
With ongoing micro-segmentation based on behavior, location, and other attributes, studios can personalize monetization dynamically. When paired with real-time A/B testing, this lets teams fine-tune interstitial ad frequency and timing to match each user segment.
Airbridge showed that fine-tuning interstitial ad frequency can lift incremental IAP without hurting retention. Since the best settings vary by region and install timing, a cookie-cutter approach won’t cut it.
To support this, Airbridge recommends tools like Firebase, Amplitude, Mixpanel, and ThinkingData for smarter segmentation and in-product testing.
Another highlight was Airflux, an AI-powered ad monetization optimizer built for mobile games.
Airflux doesn’t just predict LTV. It actively learns and adapts. It automates segmentation, tests interstitial ad policies in real time, and updates every 7 to 10 days using live performance data. This continuous learning loop helps studios adjust ad timing and reward values at the user-segment level.
The result? More revenue without compromising user experience. Studios using Airflux reported blended LTV gains between 13% and 55% in just a few weeks. The longer the system runs, the more it compounds—delivering stronger returns over time.
Bidroid’s session challenged studios to think differently about global user acquisition. Santhosh Malleshwara, Business Head & Director at Bidroid, laid out a practical framework to help teams sidestep common mistakes and scale with more purpose.
One of the biggest missteps? Treating UA like a short-term marketing spend. Bidroid urged studios to see it as part of a broader product validation loop. It’s not just about driving installs. It’s about testing product-market fit, improving retention, and strengthening the game itself.
Going global doesn't mean charging into Tier 1 markets right away. It means starting where your product is likely to succeed. Test first, scale later. That’s how you avoid burning budget on markets you’re not ready for.
Market selection matters, but many get it wrong. Jumping into expensive regions too early or mismatching genres to local tastes can derail even a solid title. Bidroid recommended starting with balanced test markets like Mexico or Southeast Asia to learn quickly and reduce risk.
And localization? It’s more than translation. Creatives should reflect local culture, play habits, and tone. In Bidroid’s case studies, this kind of thoughtful adaptation boosted retention by 30%, lifted ARPU, and cut CPI by over 25%.
Another common trap is spreading small budgets too thin. Studios often try to cover too many channels at once, only to end up with shallow data and unclear results. Bidroid recommends focusing on 1 to 3 test markets with $3,000–$10,000 each, enough to generate meaningful cohort insights.
That data powers a true test–learn–iterate cycle. UA becomes continuous, not campaign-based, resulting in smarter spend, better targeting, and faster growth with fewer surprises.
Scaling a mobile game globally takes more than great UA and monetization. It also means making sure you’re getting paid—reliably, efficiently, and across borders. Pingpong helps studios simplify cross-border payments, improve success rates, and reduce costs without added complexity. In his session, Bill Liu, APAC Regional Product Operations Director, broke down what makes their platform uniquely effective for game publishers.
With licenses across China, Europe, North America, and more, Pingpong provides the regulatory foundation needed for international growth. Backed by 140+ global financial institutions, the platform supports 200+ localized payment methods including credit cards, local gateways, and bank transfers.
Studios benefit from:
Pingpong highlighted its work with Xiaomi’s International Internet Division, which faced fragmented payment systems and low top-up success rates.
Pingpong’s API integrated 200+ localized payment options directly into Xiaomi’s in-app top-up flow, boosting payment success above 90% and enabling one-click top-ups. The result? Higher conversion, happier users, and stronger monetization across global markets.
TopOn’s Global BD Head Cooper Pi spotlighted a clear trend in the mobile gaming space. More studios are moving from single-format monetization to hybrid models that combine in-app advertising (IAA) with in-app purchases (IAP).
Between Q2 2023 and Q2 2024:
This shift reflects the push to balance user experience with revenue growth. Hyper-casual titles still lean heavily on ads, often 90%+ of revenue, while mid-core and hardcore games see the bulk from IAP, with ads contributing less than 25%. Genres like word, arcade, and sports games typically land somewhere in between.
A key to effective hybrid monetization is smart ad mediation and format strategy. TopOn’s ad mediation platform is designed to help game studios increase revenue per impression through tools like:
With built-in A/B testing, studios can fine-tune strategies based on audience behavior and monetization goals. TopOn reports up to 15% eCPM gains and 10% revenue growth in simulation and hyper-casual genres, driven by multi-layer floor pricing, real-time vendor switching, and a unified SDK that simplifies testing.
The event wrapped with a hands-on Growth Clinic, where top studios worked through real challenges across five key areas of mobile game growth. With expert moderators guiding the discussions, attendees exchanged insights and walked away with actionable strategies.
Here are some of the most practical takeaways:
Here’s the thing. No single tactic will take your game global. Scaling means making smart moves across UA, measurement, monetization, and payments—and making them work together. If you’re a mobile game marketer ready to level up your growth, connect with Airbridge today.
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