Panel: David vs Goliath: How Can Smaller Studios Compete With Big Studios In The UA Space?
summary
Panelists argue smaller studios win by being surgical: pursue UA financing rather than blind spend, start UA on Meta/TikTok, and use free one‑hour audits before hiring in‑house. Beware AI hype—claims of 2500 creatives per quarter require huge spend and many creatives live only 3–4 days; human, UGC or founder-on-screen pieces can outperform (one cited $5k creative brought ~1M site visits). Rewarded networks can kickstart installs but skew retention, so phase tests, measure rigorously and build community first.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00UA competition panel intro
- 1:11Crowded UA landscape
- 3:20Small studios in 2026
- 8:13AI creatives effectiveness
- 19:56Scaling UA expertise
- 27:16Avoiding UA bias
- 33:56Community growth strategy
- 35:19Focus for small studios
- 39:31Q&A
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