Acquire high-value app users. Lower CPI. Grow LTV.

Use the same brief for every agency. Include your priority markets, monetisation model, current channel mix and the point where performance changed. For a US subscription app, separate trial acquisition from paid subscriber acquisition. For a UK games team, separate installs from retained players and purchasers. An agency should explain those distinctions before proposing more spend.

Six questions for your agency shortlist

Score each answer from zero to two: zero for a claim without evidence, one for a relevant explanation, and two for a specific example plus a clear plan for your account. Compare the evidence behind the scores. A high total does not compensate for unresolved access or measurement problems.

1. What would you investigate before calling this a CAC plateau? Ask for a breakdown by channel, market, operating system and acquisition cohort. Look for checks on creative fatigue, auction costs, tracking changes, trial conversion and retention. A credible answer distinguishes a media problem from a subscription or onboarding problem.
2. Why is this channel the next test? For TikTok, ask to see the proposed concepts and production process. For Apple Ads, formerly Apple Search Ads, ask how keyword intent connects to your game, store page and in-app purchase events. For expansion beyond Meta and Google, ask what would make the test worth continuing or stopping.
3. Who turns campaign findings into the next creative brief? Request one example from hypothesis to asset, test and decision. Establish who owns scripting, gameplay capture, editing and quality review. For games, the team should show how it checks that an ad reflects the actual product.
4. How will you judge performance when the numbers disagree? Ask how platform, MMP and finance reports will be reconciled. Agree which conversion, revenue definition, attribution window and cohort age support each decision. For subscriptions and IAP games, cheap installs alone are not a useful success criterion.
5. Who does the work, and what stays in our accounts? Meet the people responsible for media, measurement and creative. Confirm account access, reporting access and escalation ownership. Ask how your team can retrieve campaign history, creative files and the testing record if the engagement ends.
6. What will we know after the first 90 days? Look for a sequence of decisions and deliverables, with dependencies on access, event volume and product releases. Reject a forecast that assumes a fixed CAC reduction before the agency has inspected your data.

A 90-day handover brief

Days 1–30: preserve the baseline. Agree the cutover owner and keep a record of active campaigns, budgets, exclusions, event definitions and recent changes. Reconcile acquisition and revenue reporting before changing several variables at once. Record known tracking gaps and decide which existing campaigns should continue during the handover.

Days 31–60: run the agreed tests. Prioritise the constraint identified in the audit. That might mean new creative concepts, store-page work or a bounded channel test. Write down the hypothesis, evaluation window and decision rule before launch. Allow for conversion delays rather than treating early results as settled.

Days 61–90: decide what continues. Review results against the baseline and document what changed, what remains uncertain and what the next test should resolve. Separate better reporting from better performance. Expand activity only when the evidence and your operating capacity support it. These are planning milestones to agree together, not guaranteed delivery or performance terms.

Account, measurement and creative ownership checklist

• Accounts: confirm client administrator access, billing ownership, partner permissions and the process for removing access at handover.
• Measurement: retain event definitions, MMP configuration, reporting exports and a change log. Name the person who resolves discrepancies.
• Creative: agree access to briefs, finished assets and source files. Confirm licensing, creator permissions and usage periods rather than assuming they transfer.
• Decisions: maintain a shared test register linking each concept to its audience, spend, result and next action.

Read the work behind the proposal

Our Azar case study describes TikTok acquisition work targeting US and EU audiences, including audience and creative testing. It offers context for channel expansion, rather than a forecast for your app.

The Star Chef 2 case study describes structured creative testing and guardrails for the game’s visual style. The NeuroNation case study describes creative testing and channel exploration. Ask which parts of each approach are relevant to your monetisation model and current constraint.

For a closer evaluation, read about TikTok campaign management, Apple Ads, incrementality testing and app onboarding. Bring your open questions to a conversation about your UA setup.