Zynga is getting into app store optimization (ASO).
The mobile game developer closed its acquisition of ASO provider Storemaven on Monday.
Zynga, which declined to share the terms of the deal, is acquiring all of Storemaven’s IP and technology, and it will add Storemaven’s staff of 50 to its current headcount of 2,900. Storemaven Founder and CEO Gad Maor will continue to lead the Storemaven team.
The acquisition adds Storemaven’s ASO solutions to Zynga’s tech stack, with the goal of improving ROI for Zynga’s customer acquisition marketing efforts within app stores, said Alex Tremblay, an EVP and chief data officer at Zynga.
“Storemaven’s technology and talent represent an acceleration and deepening of Zynga’s capability to measure and optimize its marketing expenditure,” Tremblay said. “By helping us to reach our audience with more precision and by increasing conversion, we lower our acquisition costs, improving our profitability and scale.”
The cost of customer acquisition has been on the rise since Apple released its AppTrackingTransparency framework (ATT), Zynga’s CEO, Frank Gibeau, told investors last year.
Buying Storemaven is Zynga’s latest move as it builds its own mobile app ad platform powered by first-party data. Zynga also acquired in-app programmatic monetization platform Chartboost in May 2021. (Zynga was itself acquired by video game holding company Take-Two Interactive earlier this year.)
ASO is one way to help lower the overall cost of user acquisition, which is why it’s becoming a trend of sorts among mobile-focused companies to buy startups that do app store optimization. For example, in-app engagement platform Airship bought ASO startup Gummicube in June.
Storemaven has the technology to optimize creative assets, such as images and copy, for the app stores, with the goal of driving more app downloads, Tremblay said.
“Storemaven enables this through their A/B testing platform as well as their creative intelligence platform and experienced consultants,” he said.
For Zynga, the Storemaven acquisition is an opportunity to absorb a team with a proven track record in social and marketing, Tremblay said.
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“Successful teams of marketers, data scientists, engineers and product leaders that have history and success together is a rare resource,” he said. “For them to possess this experience in an area of need only reinforces the value [for Zynga].”
The Storemaven acquisition also gives Zynga a foothold in Israel’s burgeoning tech community, which was a major selling point, Tremblay said. “Tel Aviv represents one of the most mature marketplaces for sophisticated and experienced developers in the world, and we believe that it’s in Zynga’s best interest to go to where the best talent is,” he said.
The acquisition will also help Zynga better adapt to increasingly difficult customer acquisition challenges, including dealing with signal loss as a result of platform changes, such as Apple’s ATT.
“The rate of change in the acquisition ecosystem is extraordinary,” Tremblay said. “Storemaven helps us manage this evolution and maximize the performance of our products.”
