Mobile Game User Acquisition: Which Networks Need an Agency Account

All of the ones below. What differs is what each wants from you first, and whether a go-between changes anything.

Our accounts cover Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat, X and Bigo. Unity, AppLovin and Mintegral aren't on that list, so open those yourself.

Four situations come up, and only some of them will apply to you.

A Meta limit is holding back a campaign that works. Meta sets a daily spending limit for most advertisers from their advertising and payment history, and it may readjust that limit when you have a new business portfolio, ad account, Page or app. That describes a studio launching its first title. The limit usually rises as you build history. If you're stuck at it with a D7 that justifies more, and the wait is costing you the launch window, a different account setup is worth pricing. Meta sets no daily limit on accounts that use monthly invoicing, so ask any provider, us included, whether the account you'd get runs on it. We compare the setups here.

You're shipping an APK on Bigo. Store campaigns go through the normal account audit. An APK download campaign needs a landing page and an APK whitelist, and Bigo tells you to contact your sales manager or account manager to open it. If you don't have one, you're blocked until you do. Bigo's Agency Portal is also a tool it gives agencies through those same managers.

Your genre needs a human at the platform. TikTok's gambling and games policy tells social casino advertisers to work with a TikTok sales representative to determine eligibility and get permission. A small studio may not have one. Ask any provider who theirs is before you pay.

You run several titles or regions. Google doesn't let one account hold both an online gambling and a social casino certification, or two different social casino targeting groups. Separate accounts become a requirement, so somebody has to manage them.

If you have one ordinary title on Google or Meta, your card clears, and no limit is capping a profitable campaign, stay direct. The fee is real money. Our Standard band on TikTok and Snapchat starts from 2%, which is about $200 on a $10,000 month, and that's $200 you could put into creative.

It also won't make your installs cheaper by itself. We've found no independent data showing that an agency account lowers CPM or cost per install, so we won't quote you a percentage. What moves those numbers is creative quality and the event signal you send back, and a clean account history helps. Treat anyone selling a guaranteed discount the way you'd treat a publisher promising a D30 number.

Measurement doesn't change either. On iOS you still work with Apple's AdAttributionKit and SKAdNetwork, whichever account you buy from.

More than the network does. A hybrid-casual puzzle and a slots title are different businesses to an ad platform, even with the same SDK and the same UA team.

Sources for the table are Google, Meta, TikTok and Snap. Each changes by country, so check your exact geo before you plan the launch.

Social casino on Google deserves its own warning. Certification requires a disclaimer that the game is for users over legal gambling age, a statement that it offers no real money gambling or prizes of real-world value, disclosure of in-app purchases, and no marks from real-money gambling brands. You pick Group 1 or Group 2 countries when you apply. Google calls violations egregious and says it will suspend your accounts on detection, without prior warning, and that you won't be allowed to advertise again. A bad creative here can end the relationship.

Bigo needs its own read too. Its review rules say game characters, cartoon characters and dolls get treated as real people on clothing, which matters if you cut RPG or gacha creative. In India, real cash products such as rummy, ludo and fantasy need a set disclaimer covering at least 20% of a static ad, and the ad can't present the game as an income opportunity.

Most of this costs nothing and all of it is painful to fix mid-campaign.

• An MMP, live and tested. AppLovin requires one, Snapchat needs one or its Conversions API to optimize for installs, and Bigo highly recommends one or S2S tracking on APK campaigns.
• Meta's SDK and app events, so you're optimizing for installs and not clicks.
• An iOS plan before you move accounts. Meta's developer docs, last updated in October 2023, allow 9 iOS 14+ campaigns per app across up to 9 ad accounts, and also say you can't create a SKAdNetwork campaign for an app already promoted in another ad account. Read that page before you shift a live iOS title between a direct account and an agency account.
• Ownership. Keep the store listings and the MMP account in the studio's name. Bigo's AppsFlyer guide shows how this normally works, with the client authorizing the agency and some settings reserved to the advertiser.
• Enough creative. Plan variants per geo from day one, and read each network's review rules before you cut them.

We're worth a conversation if one of the four situations above is yours. We have a direct agreement with BIGO Ads, and our Bigo page and our Bigo guide cover how it runs. For TikTok, the account page has the setup.

On TikTok and Snapchat, an ordinary game sits in Standard, from 2%, and the fee drops as your monthly volume grows. Social casino on TikTok is Regulated, from 4%. If you're paying 4%, our $299 Fixed Plan wins from about $7,500 a month, up to its $10,000 cap, and the $799 plan runs up to $30,000, per platform, with 0% on the spend. At 2%, stay on the percentage. New clients on TikTok or Snapchat can also earn a $200 Starter voucher with a first top up of at least $1,000 and $2,000 spent in 30 days. On Meta, Google, X and Bigo your rate depends on vertical and volume, and one message in chat gets you the number.

Our mobile gaming page goes through the vertical in more detail. Tell us the title, the genre and your target countries, and whether the game has real prizes, and we'll tell you whether you need us at all.