From Candy Crush to Love & Pies: Trailmix’s Philippa Layburn shares her mobile marketing journey

Mobile advertising company Liftoff has invited inspirational women working on some of the biggest mobile games to discuss their achievements, challenges, and future aspirations. This time, the focus is on Philippa Layburn, User Acquisition Lead at Trailmix Games.

For someone who had no intention of building a career in gaming, Philippa Layburn has done remarkably well. After completing her psychology studies at the University of Nottingham, Layburn combined her knowledge of the mind with marketing skills at a publishing house, connecting advertisers to platforms in music, sports, and other sectors. This diverse experience prepared Layburn for her first dedicated gaming role at King, where she managed performance marketing for the mega-hit Candy Crush Saga, which surpassed $20bn in lifetime revenue last year.

While that might seem like an unusual journey, Layburn discovered that her past studies helped elevate her work in mobile gaming. Much like conducting psychology research, Layburn says that in UA, you’re coming up with a hypothesis, testing various variables, and striving to maintain a scientific approach. The pattern became second nature at King, where she focused on pushing targeted messages across to a specific audience.

“At King, it was really great, especially at the beginning of my career,” Layburn says. “I focused on just a couple of channels, and I was given the freedom to test and learn whatever I wanted in my area, which helped me become a specialist in my channels. After almost two and a half years, it got to the point where I had basically tested everything you could think of. I understood user acquisition inside and out.”

Life at Trailmix Games

After accumulating three years of puzzling knowledge on such a well-established game, Layburn wanted to learn more about launching new games. She decided to move to a smaller studio where she would have the opportunity to take on more responsibility. Luckily for her, this was in 2021, when Trailmix was just about to launch its merge mystery game, Love and Pies.

As you might expect, going from the sixth highest-grossing mobile game ever to one that was relatively unknown at the time, was quite the jump. Rather than working out how to manage a constant influx of organic players, Layburn was tasked with building brand recognition while simultaneously acquiring new users – all while having fewer resources.

Of course, Love & Pies is far from an up-and-coming title now: it’s a tremendous success in its own right, generating more than $1m in monthly revenue. As such, Layburn’s User Acquisition Lead role involves examining the title from a broader, high-level perspective to ensure it is achieving its targets while keeping within the allocated budget. Layburn also works closely with the product and data teams to learn more about in-game features, knowledge which is invaluable when it comes to fine-tweaking campaigns.

Driving growth and overcoming obstacles

While mobile gaming experienced significant growth during the pandemic, it’s since contracted. Mobile marketers rely on easy access to user data for acquisition purposes, but that’s also more difficult now due to the growing focus on user privacy. Competition is also more fierce, with over 700,000 games fighting for attention across iOS and Google Play.

“It just feels like the market is super cramped now,” Layburn says. “New games are popping up every day, and it often feels like there are studios and developers who have the resources to make waves much faster than we can. There are teams out there that can clone something in just a few days that it took you a month to create. The challenge is forever trying to innovate and find a new audience, but with how quickly everything changes, it’s difficult to keep up with the competition.”

To ensure Love & Pies remains a success, Layburn has been branching out into different areas and looking to use resources more strategically. This has involved experimenting with featuring influencers in UA campaigns. She’s also been reducing the number of channels Trailmix uses to target installs. Upon closer inspection, she found many ads needlessly targeting the same users across multiple platforms.

“We’re also trying to utilise the audience that we already have, putting more emphasis on retargeting,” Layburn says. “But for that to be successful, we have to constantly think about what message will encourage users to come back. What product is right for them? Which features will most excite existing users, and will those differ from new users? You’ve got to be conscious about what your audience wants.”

Challenging assumptions with A/B testing

Layburn also emphasises the importance of a thoughtful approach when considering industry trends for your user acquisition campaigns. She cautions that while a particular strategy may have been successful for one studio, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be the best fit for your own.

She points to the merge genre as an example, where many ads tend to feature high-quality 3D videos. While these are a highly engaging format, they’re also one of the most expensive ($2.68 per install, according to Liftoff’s 2024 Mobile Ad Creative Index). Layburn has often found that, after comparing the performance of this format versus cheaper alternatives through A/B testing, the difference is only marginal.

This highlights the value of constantly testing your UA theories and existing campaigns and taking a structured approach. Laybrun says every test should have a hypothesis, control measures, and a clear outcome in mind. For instance, you should know whether a specific action will reduce costs or boost installs.

Whatever your goals, Layburn emphasises the importance of defining your objectives and reasoning before testing to ensure meaningful and actionable results: “Never take advice at face value. Sure, a best practice is a best practice and probably holds true for most people, but every single game and every campaign is unique. Don’t be afraid to go against the norm and try something new.”