Be Harder on Your UA Strategy

Sometimes, you need to become so disgusted with your stagnant UA strategy that you can’t help but change it. Marketers tolerate declining ROAS and rising acquisition costs for too long—digging themselves into an inescapable cycle of over-relying on the same channels without testing new opportunities.
As Malcolm X said, “If you don’t hate it, you will eventually tolerate it.”

The Google and Meta comfort zone—where performance is declining, but you keep spending because it’s what you’ve always done. The Apple Search Ads reliance—a safe but oversaturated space where competition is driving up CPAs. The hesitation to test programmatic, OEM, SDK-based networks, or alternative UA channels because they feel unfamiliar.

Nobody else is going to push you to expand. Most teams don’t challenge themselves. In fact, many will do whatever it takes to justify staying in their comfort zone. They don’t see their strategy as failing; they see it as “playing it safe.” And when you finally suggest scaling beyond Meta and Google, it threatens the way they’ve always done UA.

There’s a big difference between being strategic with your UA and being so risk-averse that you let opportunities slip away while costs keep rising. You’re allowed to challenge the status quo. You’re allowed to be disgusted with stagnant results. You have no choice but to slingshot in a new direction when what you’re doing stops working.

“Test, optimize, and scale” sounds great—until you realize most teams aren’t actually testing. They’re just spending more on the same channels, expecting different results. If you’re not willing to expand into new channels and iterate on fresh UA strategies, you’ll eventually tolerate higher CPAs, lower efficiency, and stalled growth.

Most marketers try to focus on budget increases, which helps, but isn’t as powerful as unlocking new growth levers. Avoiding new UA channels is one of the biggest growth blockers in mobile marketing. You are wired to stick with what feels familiar.

But… that comfort is the real risk. You need a clear negative outcome to avoid (rising CPAs, stagnation) and a bold UA vision to work toward (scalable, diversified growth).

Focus 20% on the UA strategies you never want to rely on again. You have my permission to leave behind over-reliance on Meta and Google.
Focus 80% on the new channels, approaches, and tests that will define your next growth phase.

Be harder on your UA—but in a direction that actually drives expansion and profitability.