Solving dual challenges of high acquisition costs and low in-app purchase activity for Myanmar's leading streaming app through data-driven diagnostics and full-funnel optimization.
* The 4,100% in-app purchase figure is measured against the previous three months, during which no comparable monetization campaign was actively running. The baseline was near zero, making the percentage growth very high. The directional result — significant uplift in paying users — is genuine and validated by the client.
Cookie TV was one of Myanmar's leading streaming apps, offering local and international content to a growing mobile-first audience. The business faced two compounding problems: user acquisition was expensive and inefficient, and even users who installed the app rarely converted to paying subscribers. Both needed to be solved without significantly increasing overall budget.
I led the end-to-end performance strategy, handling campaign diagnostics, audience architecture, creative strategy, retargeting funnel design, and deep linking implementation. This was a full-funnel engagement from install to monetization.
The acquisition problem was addressed through data-driven diagnostics first, identifying where budget was being wasted before making any structural changes. I moved to broad targeting with automatic placements, letting the platform's optimization algorithms work across a wider surface area rather than over-constraining delivery. Combined with disciplined budget reallocation away from underperforming ad sets, this significantly reduced cost per install.
The monetization challenge required a different approach. I segmented the existing user base by engagement level, identifying high-intent users who were active but hadn't converted to paid, and built personalized retargeting sequences with creatives specific to their viewing behavior. Crucially, I implemented deep linking so that ad clicks didn't just open the app but delivered users directly to content relevant to what they'd previously engaged with. This removed friction at the most critical conversion moment.
Cost per app install decreased by 95%. In-app purchase conversions grew substantially against the prior period baseline. It is worth noting that the 4,100% figure reflects comparison against a three-month period where no active monetization campaign was running, so the percentage is inflated by a near-zero starting point. The genuine outcome was a meaningful and client-validated uplift in paying users, achieved through a more systematic approach to the conversion funnel than had previously been in place.
Acquisition and monetization are usually treated as separate problems owned by separate teams. In practice, solving them together, with a shared understanding of the user journey from first ad impression to paying customer, is far more effective. Deep linking was the single highest-leverage implementation: it made the intent captured in the ad actually deliver at the point of conversion.
I also learned to be precise about how performance figures are framed. A 4,100% increase sounds exceptional but requires context to be meaningful. Being transparent about measurement methodology is part of presenting credible work.