Radostina Zhekova

This Q&A was conducted when Radostina was a UA Manager at Voodoo. Currently, Radostina is a Senior UA Manager at Jam City.

Radostina Zhekova is UA Manager at Voodoo. In 2016, Radostina landed her first gig in mobile marketing where she worked with Europe’s top gaming companies. Since then, Radostina has focused on mobile app growth strategies and media buying & campaign optimization at companies like Jam City and Voodoo.

In your own words, tell us about the app(s) that you manage?

Currently, I work on Voodoo’s newly-launched game, Collect Em All! Clear the Dots. It’s a fun, easy-to-play game. Players connect balls of the same color and break them to achieve a certain goal within a limited number of moves.

How did you get started in mobile marketing?

After finishing my bachelor’s degree, I knew I wanted to work in marketing. So I continued my studies and went for a master’s in business economics, specializing in marketing. That was about ten years ago. At that point, mobile marketing wasn’t a thing yet. I never expected the industry would grow the way it did. 

When I started as an Applift account manager in 2016, I wasn’t aware of what I was getting myself into. The position wasn’t purely marketing-focused, but it provided comprehensive exposure to many topics around mobile growth. In that sense, it was a great way to get my foot in the door. 

Over the last 3+ years, I worked in user acquisition, mainly gaming. I was a part of Jam City’s UA team, and now, I am a part of a team at Voodoo that focuses on casual gaming UA.

What do you like most about mobile marketing?

I like how dynamic mobile marketing is. Things change all the time. Strategies regularly evolve because what worked before doesn’t work anymore. There is always a new challenge to be tackled—which keeps me hooked.

Plus the space is very fast-paced and is a great fit for me. It truly is challenging to get bored!

What does it take to succeed in mobile marketing?

I would say you need three things: analytical thinking, creativity, and communication skills:

1. You need analytical thinking because there is a vast amount of data to process, understand, and use to drive decisions. In a fast-paced environment, you must quickly identify problems, find solutions and rebuild your strategies.
2. There are two kinds of creative work: 1) the traditional creative work around your marketing strategy, messaging, campaigns; and 2) creativity as thinking outside the box. This means constantly challenging the status quo and trying to “hack” a process or strategy.
3. And of course, you need great communication skills. I communicate with many different people internally and externally on various topics in my daily work. As such, good communication skills are essential for the job.

In the past year, what is one tip you can share which made the biggest performance difference for your UA strategy?

Attention to detail and dedication. Some channels require more effort than others to make them work, and small things such as text and messaging could make a difference when optimized constantly.

What advice can you offer marketers to successfully re-engage mobile app users?

1. Work with the product and data team to identify points where users might churn. Take action before they get there. Understand the main reasons for user drop-off and make sure to address them both in the marketing and in the product.
2. Use new product developments such as feature releases, special promotions, or new content releases to attract users back to your app.
3. Test, test and test what works best. Do your homework on tracking and measuring before you start your campaigns. You must understand the performance of your re-engagement campaigns.

What’s your top tip when it comes to mobile ad creative?

Build a good testing process that helps identify which creatives perform the best. The best creative does not get you the cheapest CPI—it brings you the right users. Creatives that perform well move through several testing phases, corresponding to different parts of the user acquisition funnel. 

Secondly, stay on top of trends, benchmarks, best practices, and insights from testing. Constantly test new concepts to push the needle.

What advice can you offer to help marketers combat mobile ad fraud?

Utilize the tools and solutions for fraud protection and detection. If you have or can build an in-house tool—great. Combine the third-party tool with an in-house solution for optimal fraud prevention. 

Secondly, work with your data team to observe abnormal user behavior and to check (if possible) for the accuracy of specific user actions such as registrations and purchases. 

Lastly, work with trustworthy partners. I often vet certain companies by asking for feedback from fellow marketers.

What are your top 3 go-to resources for keeping up with the mobile ad tech industry?

The first source of information is my friends and colleagues from the industry. Friends and colleagues are the best resources because they help shed light on questions that are not easily answered. 

Second, I do internet research. Well-known blogs, partner websites, and simply browsing can offer a lot of answers. I also subscribe to newsletters I find interesting to keep up with the news. 

Third, I communicate regularly with representatives from different companies in the industry.