SuperScale CEO Ivan Trancik on finding profit beyond mobile UA's biggest networks

• PG Connects Nordics takes place in Helsinki on October 20th and 21st.
• Trancik says the top eight UA networks absorb roughly 50% of spend but return, on average, only about a quarter of the profit.

Pocket Gamer Connects Nordics is heading back to Helsinki on October 20th and 21st, bringing together more than 150 expert speakers from across the games industry.

One of those speakers will be Ivan Trancik, CEO and founder of SuperScale, the AI publishing platform for mobile games.

At the event, Trancik will explore mobile UA consolidation and why publishers often stop at four or five channels, drawing on more than $100 million in measured UA spend to examine the profitability of the wider network market.

PocketGamer.biz: Please give us a summary of what you’re speaking about and why it’s important.

Ivan Tancik: Mobile UA has consolidated onto a handful of networks - and that's exactly the problem. Drawing on over $100M of measured UA spend, Ivan shows a market split in half: the top 8 networks absorb roughly 50% of spend but return, on average, only about a quarter of the profit - while the ~30-network long tail carries the rest.

The session unpacks why most publishers still stall at four or five channels, and the operational math for reaching the profitable half of the market without adding headcount.

What’s the most common mistake you see being made in the games sector?

Treating user acquisition as finished once the big networks are dialled in. Most publishers run four or five channels and assume the rest of the market isn't worth the operational overhead - but across over $100M of measured UA spend, we see the opposite: the handful of networks everyone crowds into absorb about half the spend while returning, on average, only about a quarter of the profit.

The mistake isn't bad buying - it's stopping exactly where the profitable half of the market begins.

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

Profit. Not ROAS, not CPI, not any proxy for it. Proxies are how a channel can look great while the P&L quietly disagrees - and in mobile UA that happens constantly. Everything we run is held to measured profit per channel, cohort by cohort. It's the only number that can't flatter you.

What developments do you think have been undervalued by the mobile games industry?

The long tail of ad supply - rewarded, OEM and on-device, creator-led, regional and emerging networks. It gets dismissed as not worth the operational cost of onboarding, and that's precisely why it stays undervalued: in our measured data it's where the majority of the profit actually sits.

The industry treats it as an inventory question when it's really an operational one - and operational problems are solvable.

What’s your favourite ever mobile game?

Scopely: Start Trek Fleet Command.

What game has been on your phone the longest?

Clash of Clans for sure!

The mobile space evolves at a much faster pace than console and PC gaming, but is there a console or PC trend that you think has potential within the mobile space?

Absolutely - especially in the last few years, the innovation has been coming from PC A/AA indie space that has been adapted to mobile, and not vice-versa, due to the still healthy indie ecosystem, thanks mostly to Steam, that just currently doesn’t exist on mobile.

When not making/selling/playing games, what do you do to relax?

As many outdoor activities as possible, ideally with kids - hiking, running, swimming, bike you name it!

What was your first-ever mobile phone?

Dumbphone - Nokia 3110, “Smartphone” Qtek9100 and smartphone - original iPhone.

Can people get in touch with you at the event? What sort of people would you like to connect with?

Absolutely - SuperScale has a booth at the show and I'm around for the duration of the event. I'd especially like to meet mobile publishers thinking hard about UA economics, whether you're spending $500K or $10M a month - and anyone wrestling with fragmented data or with getting AI beyond the pilot stage. Come argue with our numbers, that's the best kind of conversation.