Gaming Loyalty & Retention Campaigns

Mobile gaming retention campaign with in-app retargeting and rewarded video ads

Context

A fast-growing mobile gaming studio with a portfolio of casual and mid-core titles was facing a common industry challenge: skyrocketing user acquisition costs paired with steep player churn. Over 70% of new players were dropping off within the first seven days, and the studio's average player lifetime value was too low to sustain profitable growth at scale.

Kalithea Media partnered with the studio to shift focus from pure acquisition to a retention-first strategy. By combining in-app retargeting with rewarded video placements and intelligently timed push notifications, we re-engaged lapsed players at critical drop-off points, deepened engagement among active users and ultimately transformed the studio's unit economics by dramatically increasing player LTV.

Mobile gaming player retention funnel analysis and engagement metrics

In-app retargeting workflow and player lifecycle management for mobile games

Our approach and solutions

A retention-first programmatic strategy that keeps players engaged, spending and coming back — day after day.

Player lifecycle segmentation

We mapped the full player journey and created dynamic cohorts based on play frequency, in-app purchase history, level progression and days since last session to identify the optimal re-engagement moment for each segment.

In-app retargeting with deep links

Programmatic in-app ads targeted lapsed players across the mobile ad ecosystem, using deep links to bring them straight back to their last game state, a pending reward or a new content update.

Rewarded video monetization and engagement

Strategically placed rewarded video units offered players in-game currency, extra lives and exclusive items, increasing session duration and creating positive ad experiences that reinforced retention.

AI-optimized push notification sequences

Machine learning models determined the ideal send time, message content and frequency for push notifications based on each player's behavioral patterns, avoiding notification fatigue while maximizing re-open rates.

Our key strengths

Gaming-native programmatic expertise

Our team brings deep knowledge of mobile gaming ecosystems, ad mediation platforms and player psychology — ensuring campaigns are designed with the unique dynamics of gaming audiences in mind.

LTV-based bidding and optimization

Rather than optimizing for clicks or installs, our algorithms bid based on predicted player lifetime value, ensuring every dollar spent targets the users most likely to generate long-term revenue.

Anti-fraud and traffic quality controls

Multi-layered fraud detection combining device fingerprinting, click injection analysis and post-install event validation guarantees that retention budgets are spent exclusively on real, high-quality players.