On Adjust, layoffs, and running an MMP

Last week, we heard that our competitor Adjust laid off hundreds of people (layoffs.fyi states it’s 304 people, but no official numbers have been released, so I’m not sure). It has been reported to us by various sources that entire teams have been eliminated and that product, support, marketing, and engineering will be integrated into AppLovin’s core organization, further breaking the promise of a “firewall” between ads and measurement. There hasn’t been official communication yet, except for the announcement of a new CEO and the motivation behind the move: cost efficiencies.

This was a surprise since AppLovin’s ad network business has been growing rapidly. They just had a fantastic quarter, the stock is doing very well, and all the competing ad networks are trying to reverse-engineer their recipe for success.

To the people affected by this, I am sorry. I’ve been in companies with layoffs, and it’s never easy. I know there are brilliant people at Adjust who were affected. I’m sure you will land on your feet, and I wish you the best. And if you think we can be a good fit for you, please reach out to me.

Adjust’s undoing under AppLovin (from our very subjective POV)

From our subjective point of view, Adjust has been slowly deteriorating since the acquisition.

The founders and many great employees have left. They lost some high-profile customers to us (or others), and today, many of their best people are working for other companies (including Singular). The hardworking and talented Adjust personnel, who are attribution experts, are being let go, which raises concerns over a lack of adequate support and innovation.

Perhaps the simplest and strongest indicator is that they are barely included in the consideration set for new customers partnering with an MMP.

I guess it’s really hard to build a fantastic measurement product when that product makes up less than 2% of a much larger business and is not the corporation’s main priority.

What matters in this business

I anticipate the dust will settle soon, customers will be provided with explanations of what happened, and we’ll learn more as an industry.

All I can do at this point is share our core principles and what we think matters to our customers. These are questions we believe everybody who buys a measurement platform – a product so critical – must ask themselves:

1. Trust
   Do I believe the numbers being presented to me? Are they free of bias, influence, and conflicting financial motives?
2. Innovation and execution
   Do I trust this company to stay ahead of rapidly changing industry trends? Do I trust that they build the latest and greatest technology? Do I trust their technical leadership? Will they help me keep a competitive edge?
3. Support
   When I first sign up, will the support give me the velocity needed to realize value quickly? When things go wrong, and they will, can I count on this company, their support, and their management team to resolve issues, knowing they no longer specialize in the product?
4. Pricing
   Am I being fairly charged and not financially squeezed for every small feature? Am I being treated fairly and respectfully during renewals?

It’s hard for a vendor to meet all four of these principles. Some MMPs have inherent trust issues. Other MMPs have fallen completely short when it comes to innovation and support. Others are aggressive on pricing, pushing upsells on every feature and making their customers extremely frustrated.

Moving Forward

We are committed to meeting all four principles. It’s not easy and not always the fastest way to drive revenue in the short term, but we strongly believe that the companies that adhere to these principles will win big in the long run:

• We are free of conflicts, as measurement software must be.
• We have innovated and, in many cases, set the blueprint for what a modern MMP should do. From our leading data aggregation, creative analysis, and ROI reporting to cross-platform measurement and fraud prevention, and in the past few years, leading with huge innovation around privacy and next-gen measurement.
• Our investment in customer support and service is unprecedented. It’s not uncommon for us to get raving feedback from customers on our level of support or for us to involve everyone in our company, including founders (I’m sure some of you have been on a call with me), in making your business a success.
• Our pricing is fair and competitive. Many customers jaded by how they were treated before could drive huge cost savings with us while still getting all the value and ROI they expected from our products.

So far, it’s been working incredibly well for us. In the past few years, we’ve experienced the fastest customer growth we’ve ever experienced as a company. While most of our competitors had negative YoY growth in their SDK adoption, our YoY SDK adoption growth was not only positive but exponential.

And our customer reviews in G2 further encourage us that we’re on the right path.

We are excited about our commitment to you, to keep serving you, and to keep being your impartial measurement partner, providing the data and insights you need to fuel marketing that performs.

To anyone impacted by this news: talk to us.

We’d love to hear from you.