Paid UA that pays back.
I'm Samet Durgun, the Growth Therapist. I run paid UA, signal engineering, and creative systems for subscription apps and mobile games with real revenue and meaningful ad spend.
Formerly Wooga ($1M+/month UA budgets), Zalando, and Deutsche Telekom. Earlier Google, Intel, and Oracle.
Step 1: Diagnose
I read the account and set your CPA ceiling before any new spend.
Step 2: Fix signals
Purchases, renewals and cancellations flow back to Meta and Google.
Step 3: Test
New ads based on your account data, live as test versions in about two weeks.
Step 4: Scale
Budget moves to the cohorts that pay back. The rest gets cut.
Google
Deutsche Telekom
Zalando
Volkswagen
Bosch
Intel
Oracle
WoogaOther consulting clients include Blue Ox / Moxie (D1 retention 30% → 50%), Subcap (IPM 0.2 → 15), Inflow ($170K MRR), ShopBack, and Viessmann, plus 30+ other gaming and subscription apps.
If your app is healthy, the signal layer is usually what needs treatment.
Three places the problem usually hides. When I open an account, I check these first.
Where the money lands
Meta bids and learns ad set by ad set, and a campaign budget flows to the ad sets it favors. Spend pools in a few ad sets while the rest go hungry. The split is usually wrong before anyone looks at the creative.
What tracking sends back
After ATT, Meta sees a slice of what happens. Trial starts come back. Renewals only come back when someone sends them from the server, and cancellations usually never do. Without that, you end up optimizing on half the data.
How creative gets made
Most teams ship a lot and test nothing. Spend is the metric that tells the truth. IPM and CPI look busy but miss the winners.
Four services, one for each step.
Signal engineering, creative and paid channels, connected end to end by one person.
Growth Audits
I go through the paid funnel, the signal and the creative, and check whether paid UA is really the bottleneck right now.
You get: a written report on what’s broken, what to fix first, and your CPA ceiling.
What the audit findsSignal Engineering
The measurement layer that tells the ad platforms who your best users are. I build it myself and bring in an attribution engineer from my network for SDK and server work.
You get: purchases, renewals and cancellations flowing back into Meta and Google.
What signal engineering fixesApp & Game Ad Production
UGC, AI, gameplay and 2D motion ads, based on your account data. Real creators on camera when the ad needs a face, AI when it doesn’t.
You get: test versions live in about two weeks, with full production only for the winners.
See how ad production worksPaid UA
I find the cohorts that pay back and cut the ones that don’t. I run the campaigns myself on Meta, Google, TikTok, Apple Ads, AppLovin and DSPs.
You get: a list every Monday of which ads to pause and where to move budget.
What a fractional Head of UA doesOne person runs it. When the work needs more hands, specialists from my network come in under me: creators and editors for ad production, an attribution engineer for tracking and anything that runs on your servers, a search specialist for Google. You still brief one person.
Creative is part of the job.
Paid UA stops paying back when the ads go stale, so I don’t hand the ads off. They’re based on your account data, made with the creators I work with, and live as test versions in about two weeks.
Two ways to buy the ads: the Sprint, one time, or the Loop, month to month.
See how ad production works and what it costs →Case studies.
Subscription
Health & Fitness
Gaming
SubscriptionNamed clients with verified reviews. You can check every claim on this page.
What people say
From the ground up to seven figures
I worked closely with Samet while he led the paid marketing transformation at our company, and the impact was substantial and lasting. We built our marketing function from the ground up together: the team, the processes, the way we think about growth. Together we caught a viral moment that helped carry us to seven-figure monthly revenue. If you are looking to build or scale a serious paid marketing engine, Samet is someone I would recommend without hesitation.
Two years, soft launch to scale
We've worked closely with Growth Therapist, led by Samet, for the past two years as we scaled our first product. He led creative and UA strategy through our soft launch and beyond, and consistently drove fast, high-quality creative experimentation. He's proactive, communicative, and very transparent.
İbrahim GüneşCofounder, TwoWise (Jukebox AI)The first person we call
We were spending a six-figure monthly ad budget on Jukebox and could not clearly see whether the money was coming back. In the two months we worked with Samet the campaigns were rebuilt by market and platform, and for the first time we could see which country and which campaign paid its money back.
In numbers: Meta reported a purchase ROAS of 0.32 in the four weeks before the new structure and 0.55 in the four weeks after, with 13% less spend. In Adjust, day-0 ROAS on the main campaigns went from 0.25 to 0.46. Part of that came from our own product work, we pushed the annual plan harder in the same period. Samet helped us read the two together, so we could tell what came from the campaigns and what came from the paywall.
He is someone I trust. He has always been the first person we call.
Read the case studyStructured, and fast
His expertise in performance marketing and content optimization was invaluable. A structured approach, deep technical knowledge, and actionable results delivered fast. What impressed us most was the speed at which he delivered.
100% ROAS by day 28
Samet helped us find UA cohorts that hit 100% ROAS by D28 in our key market, the US. He spotted indicators in our data that let us push to Tier 1 markets faster and saved us significant spend. The creatives he ran resonated perfectly with our audience.
Beat our clients’ expectations
Incredibly helpful, professional, and to the highest knowledge in all things paid media. He helped my team thrive in creating ads and testing creatives, and on each campaign he exceeded our clients’ expectations.
Turnkey from day one
Samet stepped in and gave us the confidence boost we needed. It was a turnkey solution: an assessment call, access to our tools, and he handled the rest. Within a short time, and very little ad spend, we had several experiments completed and a solid read on our starting CPI.
Each plan hands me a bigger share of the work.
If you spend less than about $100K or €100K a month on paid UA, pick the plan that fits your team. Above that, I own paid growth end to end.
| Auditone time | Runmonthly | Decidemonthly | Buildmonthly | Full scopeabove $100K or €100K a month | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Written audit and CPA ceilingstep 1 | Added in this plan | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Campaigns and signalsteps 2 and 4 | Not included | Added in this plan | Included | Included | Included |
| Creative strategystep 3 | Not included | Not included | Added in this plan | Included | Included |
| Production managementstep 3 | Not included | Not included | Not included | Added in this plan | Included |
| Paid growth owned end to endall four steps | Not included | Not included | Not included | Not included | Added in this plan |
Audit one time
Adds: Written audit and CPA ceiling
Run monthly
Adds: Campaigns and signal
Decide monthly
Adds: Creative strategy
Also covers: campaigns and signal
Build monthly
Adds: Production management
Also covers: campaigns and signal, creative strategy
Full scope above $100K or €100K a month
Adds: Paid growth owned end to end
Also covers: written audit and CPA ceiling, campaigns and signal, creative strategy, production management
The audit works best before you spend more, but you can start a plan without it. Each plan is a flat monthly fee, agreed on the intro call, month to month with 14 days’ notice. Ad spend is always separate, and nothing locks you in.
13 years in mobile growth.
Growth Therapist
Paid UA, signal engineering, and creative systems for subscription apps and mobile games. The named results above, plus 30+ more apps.
Deutsche Telekom
Worked with multiple Deutsche Telekom apps. Built workflows that turn influencer content into paid campaigns, and an internal creative testing process. Trained the team to run UA independently.
Customlytics
Led paid UA for subscription and commerce apps. Clients included Volkswagen, JOKR, Flink, and Congstar.
Wooga
$1M+/month UA budgets. Pearl's Peril reached $86M+ in lifetime revenue. Jelly Splash reached $39M+. Also ran UA for Pearls of Atlantis and Match & Pop.
Zalando
DACH and international expansion.
Coup (Bosch / BCG X)
Hyperlocal campaigns across European cities.
Earlier career: Google, Intel, and Oracle. Paid UA advisory for game studios via Mobile Game Doctor.
The full background, with every profile that holds a rating →
A first paid test runs in four stages, from a few hundred dollars to about $20,000 over three months. What each stage answers, what it costs and when to stop.
Diagnosing broken app growth
Where app growth breaks, and in what order to fix it. The talk version of how I work.
Plays here · YouTube loads on click
App Vision Updates · InterviewPaid app marketing: which channel should you start with?
YouTube · InterviewLTV Mastery: Getting High-Value Subscribers from Meta
FunnelFoxMobile Attribution in 2026: How SKAN Works & What's Changed
AdaptyHow subscription apps scale Meta ads beyond $100K
AdaptyMeta Ads for apps: 12 real questions from foundersApp Growth AwardsJudge, 2024Subtext, an AI writing assistant for hard messages
I cofounded Subtext, an app that reads the tone of a message before you send it and helps you say the same thing in your own voice. It is on the App Store, on Google Play and in the browser. It comes from the same instinct as the consulting work: read what is there before you act on it.
Questions I get a lot.
Am I too small to work with you?
There’s no minimum to book, but a test needs enough budget to tell you something. I’d set aside about $10,000 a month for a meaningful Meta test, on top of the fee. With less, a monthly plan is hard to earn back, and I’ll tell you that on the intro call. The growth audit is available at any spend level.
What does it cost, and how do you work?
If you spend less than about $100K or €100K a month on paid UA, you book one of three plans (Run, Decide or Build), each a flat monthly fee agreed on the intro call. Run covers the campaigns, the signal and the tests; Decide adds the creative strategy; Build adds production management. Above that line, I own paid growth end to end on a full scope retainer. The growth audit is a separate booking at a fixed fee, at any spend level, and you leave with a written report either way. The intro call is free and covers fit and scope. The plans and who does what in each are on the work together page.
How long until results?
The diagnosis takes 1 to 2 weeks. I read the account and tell you what is broken and in what order to fix it. Signal fixes start feeding the algorithms within weeks. Verdicts on creative and scale take longer because subscription revenue matures, and a campaign that looks break even on day 7 can be clearly profitable by day 28. The named results on this page took two to three months. Anyone promising a week is reading the wrong numbers.
How is this different from hiring an agency?
An agency puts an account manager between you and the people doing the work. With me there is no handoff. The person studying your data is the same person running your campaigns and setting up your attribution. Reporting is a conversation, and changes happen the day we discuss them.
When is paid UA the wrong move?
When something upstream is broken. If your cash flow cannot cover a payback period that runs six weeks through the app stores, if retention drops off in the first few days, or if your events and attribution cannot measure revenue yet, more spend just scales the problem. I check that first. Sometimes the answer is that paid UA is not your bottleneck right now.
What does a fractional Head of UA actually do?
I run your paid acquisition day to day, so you get senior UA leadership without adding an executive to payroll. That means owning the channels, the creative testing, and the attribution setup, working alongside your team, and reporting to you directly. You get someone who has run this at $1M+ a month in spend, part time.
What does reporting look like?
A weekly review of the numbers against the targets we set, and direct access to me between reviews. I report revenue, ROAS, and payback the way a Head of UA reports to leadership, in a format you can forward to your CFO or board without translating it first.
Which channels do you run?
Meta, Google App Campaigns, Apple Ads (formerly Apple Search Ads), TikTok, and ad networks. Most subscription and gaming budgets start on Meta, because that is where creative testing moves fastest. I open new channels once the funnel holds and the numbers are stable.
Can you make the creatives too?
Yes. I run the creative strategy and the testing system myself, and produce the assets with vetted creators, editors, and designers in my network. You brief one person and get one accountable owner. I coordinate production, decide what gets tested, and kill what does not perform.
Is it just you, or do you bring a team?
You work with me, and I own the account. When the scope needs more hands, I bring vetted specialists from my network: creators, editors, and designers for ad production, an attribution engineer for SDK work and tracking that runs on your servers, a search specialist for Google campaigns. I brief them, review everything, and stay accountable for the result. You still talk to one person.
Do you work alongside internal teams and agencies?
Yes, often. I can lead your UA team as the senior operator, plug in beside your marketing lead, or direct and audit an agency. At Deutsche Telekom I built the internal creative testing process and trained the team to run UA independently. Ownership and boundaries are agreed in the first call.
How do you know if a campaign is actually working?
I judge campaigns on revenue. A campaign can bring 10,000 cheap installs and still deliver zero paying subscribers, so I look at blended ROAS and payback against real revenue, checked against both the ad platform and your MMP. The two rarely agree.
What if we're already profitable?
Profitable can still leak. On €100,000 in monthly spend, the difference between 107% and 132% ROAS is €25,000 a month. When an account underperforms on its own, that is revenue the same spend could bring in, and nobody sends a receipt for opportunity cost. Sizing that gap is the first thing I do.
What kind of apps do you work with?
Subscription apps and mobile games with live revenue and a real paid budget, from growth teams below about $100K or €100K a month to studios and enterprise teams spending well past it. Two things matter more than vertical: whether the product retains, and whether the economics can carry paid growth.
Do you work with accounts spending $500K or more a month?
Yes. At Wooga I managed more than $1M a month in UA budget, and client spend has scaled past $200K a month to monthly revenue in the seven figures. Past six figures the work changes: account consolidation, signal density, incrementality checks, and creative volume planning. That’s the scale these systems are built for.