Lower SKAN eCPIs and more SKAN data

A Thinking Ape is a mobile gaming company based in Vancouver, Canada. Since its founding in 2008, the company has been dedicated to creating engaging and entertaining games that foster social connections between players. A Thinking Ape’s games are built on a foundation of deep social mechanics that encourage players to collaborate, compete, and communicate with each other in meaningful ways.

With a focus on mobile platforms, A Thinking Ape has released a number of successful games that have generated millions of downloads around the world, including Kingdom at War, Party in My Dorm, Kingdom of Heckfire, and Single City.

In addition to its commitment to creating fun and engaging games, A Thinking Ape is also dedicated to fostering a positive work culture and supporting its employees. The company has been recognized multiple years in a row by Great Place to Work® for its workplace culture.

A Thinking Ape had been using Appsflyer for their core attribution functionality and SKAdNetwork solutions, but a number of challenges led them to look for another provider. A core issue was their inability to access all user acquisition data in a single dashboard. “We were looking for a platform that could aggregate all of our performance and creative data in a single place. With our previous provider, AppsFlyer, we had to pull our data from their API and build our own internal dashboards which created issues for our UA team”, explains User Acquisition Director Edouard Favier. No matter the stakeholder – UA, Creative, or Executive team member – A Thinking Ape wanted easy reporting access for the entire team.

In an effort to solve this problem, A Thinking Ape had poured resources into getting and visualizing the data, but they were still not getting all of the data they needed for proper performance analysis and did not want to put additional resources into managing the data pipeline. “With a pricing model based on services, we had to pay more for better API access, more for cost aggregation support, more for everything. The model wasn’t based on our growth so it became costly and complex”, shared Edouard. Essentially, anytime they wanted to utilize more of the platform to streamline their processes, A Thinking Ape felt that they were penalized with an additional fee. It came to a point where they could no longer justify the contract structure.

Additionally, navigating AppsFlyer’s SKAN solution was overly complicated and resulted in lower iOS performance KPIs. Edouard elaborates, “It was difficult to get our [performance] signals from SKAN”. Again, highlighting their need for a user-friendly interface that reported all their KPIs and events.

Getting stakeholders on board to switch MMPs can be a difficult conversation and a hard sell internally. However, having partnered with Singular previously, Edouard knew moving forward would not be a risk.

And when evaluated, Singular ticked all the boxes.

✅ Reporting? Check. “The reporting breakdowns, filtering, and dimension options are much more flexible. It’s much more transparent, and it’s a lot easier to customize the reports for a specific time breakdown or campaign. It’s one of the biggest advantages of Singular.” – Anastasiia Ivanova, Senior Marketing Manager

✅ Flexible pricing model that enables growth? Check. “With Singular, the contract isn’t based on services, it’s based on growth. The contract scales only when we scale.” – Edouard Favier, User Acquisition Director

✅ A robust but straightforward SKAN solution with clear, comprehensive reporting? Check. “[On Singular] The SKAN tool was a lot easier to use overall which was a big deal for us. It’s easier to implement different models. It’s easier to read the data, and easier to understand the SKAN signals than it was on AppsFlyer. ” – Edouard Favier, User Acquisition Director

It was an easy decision to move to Singular, and the migration was just as easy. Between weekly syncs with their CSM, a clear migration plan, and migration milestones to ensure they kept on track, the transition was smooth.

Edouard shared, “It was easier than any previous migration I’ve been through. I’ve had migration experiences with other MMPs, all of them in fact, and it was always quite rough. They say hi, give you documentation, and tell you to reach out if you have questions. But here [with Singular] it was an ongoing process with a team. Having access to CS and an engineer made a big difference and allowed us to get things done quickly.”

Once onboarded, A Thinking Ape dove into ramping up SKAN. Anastasiia Ivanova, Senior Marketing Manager explains the shift and improvements they saw in their SKAN reporting. “We get higher SKAN signals with Singular than we had previously. More installs and revenue are now attributed and displayed within a shorter time, which makes it more efficient to shift budgets. Also, our SKAN eCPIs have become lower and relatively closer to what I see in the Networks’ dashboards.”

Looking to the future, A Thinking Ape is focused on privacy and partnering with Singular to build out the solutions needed for the future of measurement; one that is privacy-safe and data-driven.

“We’re looking into how we can incorporate MMM signals, and we want to explore what other opportunities are available. The goal is to get as many signals as possible to make better decisions,” says Edouard. With privacy frameworks limiting access to user-level data and other performance insight, both Singular and A Thinking Ape know that the industry needs to invest in more measurement signals and better reporting tools.

The A Thinking Ape team is also actively discussing SKAN 4 changes and working with the Singular team to determine how best to prepare.