Questions studios ask us.
Straight answers on budgets, traffic, launch timing and how we work. Can't find yours? Ask us directly.
The basics
What is performance marketing?
Performance marketing means you pay for results, not for impressions or clicks. With Apex, our clients pay when a player completes an agreed action, like a registration, a download or a validated account. Our in-house team handles media buying, player funnels and data engineering to deliver those results.
What does CPA mean?
CPA (cost per acquisition) is the price you pay for each player who completes an agreed action, like a registration. Before launch, we agree on which actions count, how each one is triggered and what each one is worth. Values usually differ by country.
How is this different from an affiliate network?
We buy all our traffic ourselves, on platforms you know. With an affiliate network, you have no visibility into where the traffic comes from. That opens the door to fraud and bots, and studios pay for registrations that often never become players. Because we control every source, we remove that risk and focus your budget on traffic that brings real players.
What is a sales funnel?
A sales funnel is the path a player takes from the first ad they see to the moment they start playing. For PC games, that usually means an ad, a landing page, a download or launcher step, and a registration. We build and optimize every step in-house, with continuous A/B testing and quality checks along the way.
Why work with an external team instead of buying media in-house?
Funnels that bring quality players need constant testing and creative direction, and that work often gets pushed aside for other priorities. We bring experienced media buyers, in-house funnel and tracking technology, and campaigns in every language. Being results-driven is in our DNA, so we optimize for the outcomes that make your campaigns succeed. It's also simpler to manage: you set a budget with an expected outcome, instead of funding an internal team with limited visibility, uncertain results and a payroll to sustain.
Fit and budget
What types of games do you work with?
We focus on PC games, and if you have your own launcher, we're a great fit. Our most successful partnerships are free-to-play games with in-game purchases, and we've also had success with games on Steam. Other setups work too, so let's talk about yours and how we can help your game succeed.
Do you work with mobile or console games?
Yes, though our focus today is PC games. The best results come from games available on several platforms, like PC, console and mobile, because more platforms give us more ways to optimize every campaign.
Is there a minimum budget?
There's no minimum budget. Every launch involves upfront work on our side, like data integration, creatives and sales funnels, so we suggest starting at $5,000 per month.
What's a good budget to start?
There's no wrong budget. Some clients invest $10,000 per month, others $250,000. A larger budget lets us test more channels, audiences and creatives at the same time, so winning campaigns are found and scaled faster. Every month, we agree with you on the budget and KPIs, so your campaigns deliver the most value.
Do you cover all geos and all languages?
Yes. We run campaigns worldwide, in every language. Our technology produces pages and creatives quickly and serves each player in their native language.
Can you work alongside our in-house UA team or other partners?
Yes. Many studios run some channels in-house but can't cover them all. During our discovery call, you tell us which channels are off-limits, and we focus on the others. We can also split by country. For example, you might keep social media advertising in one country while we run it everywhere else.
Campaigns and creatives
How long does it take to launch a campaign?
It usually takes 1 to 2 weeks from kickoff to the first campaigns. We start with a call to understand your targets, budget, creatives and channels. Then we set up attribution, build funnels and creative angles, and launch on several channels.
Which channels do you buy on?
We buy media on the most recognized platforms on the market: Meta, Google, YouTube, Taboola, Outbrain, Bing, Reddit and Amazon Ads. We also work with many smaller ad networks. Each channel gets a clear job in your funnel.
Who makes the creatives for the campaigns?
Our team produces ads, trailers and visuals cut for each channel and audience. We test them in rounds and keep adding new creatives to the rotation, which steadily improves player value and helps campaigns scale.
What type of control or approval do we have?
It depends on the client. Some give us full control, others want to approve creatives. When approval is needed, response time matters: we test campaigns 24/7, and waiting 10 days for an approval slows the optimization cycle. The best solution is often a set of clear guidelines that we follow while we optimize.
Data, quality and fraud
How do you connect the data?
We connect our technology to your in-game data, so we can see which traffic actually plays or spends, and where to push next. Every player is traced back to the platform, campaign and creative, and every funnel step is tracked from first click to download, launch and registration. We connect through server-to-server (S2S) postbacks, an API or a third-party integration. Usually, one call with a technical person on your team is enough to set it up.
How do you measure the quality of new players?
We score every source on D1, D7 and D30 retention and first purchase. Conversions are fed back to every channel daily, so budget moves to the sources that bring quality players. Volume and quality targets are agreed with you before launch. The more data you share with us, the better we can optimize.
How do you filter bot traffic?
Because we buy all traffic ourselves, we control quality from the first click. Fraud is filtered before you pay, and quality validation is built in from day one. Our internal tools also monitor every source to keep traffic quality up to standard.
What reporting do we get?
Our systems connect to yours, so your team keeps its own internal reports while ours receives the same events through the data connection. You keep your current way of working, and having reports in two separate systems gives you built-in redundancy.
Pricing and working together
How does pricing work?
You pay a fixed price for each player who completes the action we agree on, like a registration, a download or a validated account. Prices are usually set by action and by country, and agreed together before launch. For example, a registration might be priced at $10 in Germany and $7 in South Korea.
Is there a long-term contract?
No. We work on a month-to-month basis.
What do you need from us to get started?
It starts with a short call about your game, targets and budget. After that, we need access to set up tracking with your game data, plus any brand assets and guidelines you want us to follow. Contact us and we'll reply within one business day.
Ready to reach the summit?
Tell us about your game. We'll show you where your next players are.