Every publisher has their own view of marketing. Some look only at payback metrics and ROAS. Others evaluate a broader set of metrics, test both marketing and product performance, and also look at marketability and other signals.

Over time, we’ve developed our own workflow and internal benchmarks based on a large number of launched projects. Some parts of this process work specifically because of our experience. Others are constantly being improved. But in this article, we can still break down the basics of working with a new project - including principles that may be useful for smaller studios and independent teams.

We’ll start with the general logic, then move into more specific metrics, traffic sources, and approaches in the context of idle games, which are closest to our expertise.

In short, when a new project comes to us for testing, it usually doesn’t have much depth yet. So at first, we look at the acquisition funnel, early retention, and market fit. If those signals are strong, we add monetisation, evaluate performance, and start building out content depth.

But first, let’s choose the right traffic sources for testing and walk through the process step by step to better understand how a publisher typically approaches a new project - and how you can apply the same logic independently, without large volumes of historical data or the experience of a major company.

If we’re talking about the first traffic source to consider, I would look at Facebook. It’s a reactive channel with a broad audience, relatively fast and affordable learning, and fewer early-stage mistakes.

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