From navigating the complexities of rewarded user acquisition to anticipating shifts like the rise of user-generated content and alternative payment methods, Almedia's Head of Gaming Partnerships, James Crabb, sheds light on strategies for sustainable growth. With a career spanning over a decade, James reflects on the challenges and opportunities of global market expansion, privacy-focused user acquisition, and fostering collaborative relationships that benefit both developers and players.

Almedia has had impressive success in mobile gaming partnerships—can you share some key strategies that have helped you build and maintain strong industry connections?

We approach every new conversation with partner developers or advertisers with a long-term perspective. It’s easy to promise short-term success when offering rewarded UA services. For instance, while rewarding players can initially generate highly motivated users by offering substantial rewards, this approach is often unsustainable. Performance naturally declines as the remaining budget for rewards diminishes.

To address this, we ensure that our partners fully understand how rewarded UA works and emphasise the importance of focusing on mid and long-term performance. This strategic alignment has been a cornerstone of our success over the past few years. Additionally, our experienced team of account managers work closely with each partner on a day-to-day basis to optimise campaigns and ensure they align with long-term ROAS (Return on ad spend) goals.

As mobile gaming continues to evolve rapidly, what trends or shifts do you see as the most game-changing over the next few years?

In addition to the clear shift toward a player-value led approach to user acquisition, I believe we will see existing trends continue to gain momentum. These include the rise of alternative app stores, the transition to web stores, and the adoption of alternative payment methods.

Another significant trend in gaming is the growing prominence of user-generated content (UGC). I anticipate innovative providers enabling UGC within games, along with the emergence of exciting new platforms that could rival the likes of Roblox and Unreal Editor for Fortnite - platforms that many argue do not prioritise creators’ interests.

Partnerships are often about finding the right cultural and business fit. What qualities do you look for in a potential partner, and how do you assess compatibility?

At Almedia, we have a deep understanding of our platform and users, and we expect our partners to have an equally strong grasp of their product and audience. This mutual understanding forms the foundation for a successful partnership. Our hands-on, collaborative approach ensures constant communication with our partners, making a strong working relationship essential. From the outset, openness and transparency are key to building this connection. Additionally, we prioritise helping our partners fully understand the distinctions between traditional UA and rewarded UA. We invest extra time to ensure they understand these differences, which is crucial for long-term success.

How has the ongoing emphasis on privacy, particularly with iOS privacy changes, influenced Almedia’s partnership strategies and the way you approach user acquisition?

The recent privacy changes have significantly contributed to the rapid growth of rewarded UA platforms. We recognised early on that user acquisition becomes more challenging when users must opt in to share their data with advertisers. Platforms like FreeCash which we own and operate, eliminate the need for intermediaries between us and our advertisers. This direct approach ensures that we do not share personal data with third parties, aligning with privacy-focused best practices.

What’s the most exciting or memorable project you’ve worked on so far, and what made it stand out from others?

My career in gaming spans over 13 years, during which I've worked on numerous exciting game launches and product developments. A recurring theme throughout has been driving growth and user engagement through rewards. From the early days of mobile free-to-play gaming, where I managed incentivized campaigns to boost app store rankings, to launching a rewarded game wall inside My Talking Tom and introducing this concept to game developers via Outfit7’s SDK solution, Bee7.

At Wargaming, I was responsible for ad monetisation in their mobile titles, and more recently, I explored the Web3 space by working on a play to own game concept. Now as the Head of Gaming partnerships at Almedia, I’m focused on rewarded UA, which has proven to be a powerful tool for acquiring high quality users and helping game developers scale and grow in an increasingly competitive market.

Mobile gaming, by nature, is a global market. Which regions do you see as under-tapped for partnerships, and how do you envision expanding Almedia’s reach there?

Almedia has established a strong presence in Tier 1 Western markets, where FreeCash’s audience has grown to over 32 million registered users. In addition to working with many game developers from Europe and China looking to expand their user bases, we see significant potential for partnerships in regions like Japan, Korea,

Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. These regions are home to many established mobile publishers, offering tremendous opportunities for growth and collaboration.

With mobile gaming's competitive landscape, how do you approach maintaining long-term engagement and growth with existing partners while also seeking new opportunities?

At Almedia, we focus on building long term partnerships by delivering players who remain engaged, progress deep in the game, and contribute to monetisation. We work closely with game studios to optimise reward structures that encourage players to advance through levels and participate in in-game events. Our primary focus is on long-term ROAS progression. If we’re not consistently optimising for sustainable growth, we’re not fulfilling our role. This approach allows us to build and maintain strong relationships with existing partners while exploring new opportunities.

Looking back, is there any advice you would have given to yourself early in your career in gaming partnerships that might help newcomers today?

The one piece of advice that I always share with newcomers is to speak up. If you feel something is not right or have an idea to improve something, don’t be shy. Your intuition or gut feeling is usually correct. I’ve worked on game launches before (I wont name names) that were seriously flawed. However no one spoke up about the issues, and a game that had millions of dollars invested in it was ultimately killed much later than necessary.