"Don't be scared of data, learn to live alongside it"

Pocket Gamer Connects, the leading international conference series for the global games industry, returns to London on January 19th to 20th, 2026. 

The must-attend conference will bring together 3,000 delegates from 70+ countries, including decision makers from key international games hubs across the globe. Companies set to join the show include Supercell, Epic Games, Duolingo, CD Projekt Red, Tencent, PlayStation, EA, AppLovin, TikTok and many more.

PGC London will host 32 tracks across two days, including at the Apps Business Summit (January 19th) and the Beyond Games: Transmedia Summit (January 20th).

One of the speakers set to join the conference is Persona.ly head of ML product Joseph Iris.

Iris heads ML and data efforts across Persona.ly's DSP activities, spanning both operating systems for both UA and re-targeting, with a focus on extracting maximum signal from data to accurately match ads with potential users.

Iris will be a speaker on the 'Industry Health Check: Trends, Opportunities & Challenges In 2026' panel on the Global Trends track.

We caught up with Iris ahead of the show to discuss in-app advertising, gameplay loops over monetisation, and a key benefit of AI tools.

PocketGamer.biz: What’s the most common mistake you see being made in the games sector?

Joseph Iris: Not trying to get IAA monetisation going for users that are clearly not going to pay. It's a hard balance to find but can be a significant profit driver.

If you could give other mobile games companies one piece of advice, what would it be?

Remember that the competition out there is both copying you as well as out-pacing you with today's pace of development. You can fight it by allocating spend for re-targeting and re-engagement when you release significant chunks of content.

Where are the next big opportunities in the mobile games market?

If we look at the growth of indie on PC, I believe we'll start seeing the same happening on mobile, small teams building a tight gameplay loop with monetisation as an afterthought blowing up. Maybe publishers should try to chase those explicitly.

What’s the most important key performance indicator (KPI) for you - and why?

Still D7 ROAS, but not without considering its later progression.

Is hypercasual gaming here to stay?

I hope not! Just kidding, it is already evolving to hybrid and will eventually evolve further to satisfy what users want - good entertainment for 'free'.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received that you can pass on to others?

Don't be scared of data, learn to live alongside it, have the basic capabilities - with today's AI, it's no longer acceptable to not be able to analyse things at the highest level yourself.