For games studios, brands and agencies chasing consistent Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), choosing a DSP is not just about technology — it’s about choosing a partner. Yet, many platforms make promises of instant scalability, offering slick dashboards and automated optimisations at the click of a button. This hands-off approach often leads to the same frustrating outcomes: inconsistent, unreliable data that makes it impossible to tell what’s actually working, and a fractured understanding of what actually drove (or killed) their results.
At Bigabid, CEO Amit Flohr sees this problem daily. Performance is king in this industry, and data is the key to it — but dashboards can only tell you so much. Amit argues that what really matters at the start is finding the budget sweet spot together with the client. Spread spend too thin across multiple segments, ad formats and publishers, and the data per variable becomes statistically meaningless. Ramp too aggressively before the underlying data is there, and you risk scaling on noise. Either way, the answer is a partner invested in calibrating the campaign with you — not a vendor running through a default playbook.
Instead, Bigabid takes a different approach, one that prioritises transparent onboarding and raw-data transparency over rapid, shallow client acquisition. Above all, Bigabid sees itself as a partner rather than a vendor — invested in long-term success and sitting on the same side of the table as its clients.
In this interview, Amit explains why real retention isn’t just about hitting a short-term KPI, but about building a foundation that grows meaningfully over time as a true partnership. He reveals why most “tests” are statistically doomed from the start and how Bigabid goes beyond the dashboard to share raw queries and data.
Amit Flohr is the CEO at Bigabid. We asked him to share his insights on how Bigabid’s deeper onboarding process sets it apart from its competitors, and why this approach leads to better campaigns and ROAS.
There is no one key element – it’s always a combination. It starts with trust and transparency. Once you have that, it’s easier to deliver performance. But clients who work with us for years are result-oriented. Performance is king, and data is the key to ROAS. If you deliver consistent long-term results, people will stay. If you don’t, no amount of insight or added value will help you scale. Above all, our clients aren’t buying a vendor — they’re choosing a partner. Someone who sits on the same side of the table, who’s genuinely invested in their success, and who grows with them over time rather than running a transaction.
That’s why I always recommend investing properly in the onboarding process and being patient with experiments. Without the right setup, results can be misleading. For example, you might see a false positive one day and a false negative the next. Even if you don’t succeed immediately, let us share our insights on configuration, ad formats, idle days and revenue groups. Test us against your best partner – we love head-to-head competition! Just make sure you’re maximising every partner properly. Not every provider has the will to do the deep work.
I’d rather onboard one client and give them 110% than onboard many and hope for the best. That approach leads to higher success rates and lower churn. I’m looking at long-term partnerships, not just hitting a test KPI. I want to be on the same side of the table as my clients — growing together, not selling to them. When the foundations are solid, we can scale meaningfully together. And when things get rocky, we walk hand in hand to drive better results.
We have best practices, and we’re hands-on. For key clients, I’ll join meetings alongside my team — and my CTO does the same. That level of involvement isn’t standard at our level, and it isn’t for show — we do it because we genuinely care, and because that kind of white-glove attention is what turns clients into long-term partners.
We’ve systematised everything: how data is extracted, who analyzes it, what queries to run and what best practices to follow. We’ve also implemented a lot of AI and automation across the workflow. The result: insights now turn around in days or hours rather than weeks. You don’t need 2,000 people to provide amazing insights. You just need the right best practices, proper QA and a team that knows what they’re talking about.
Take our creative team for example. Speak to any of them, and they’ll talk like data analysts. Every piece of creative is analysed from impression level to IPM to ROAS. Everything is measured and nothing runs on hunches. When a company’s DNA is data-driven, with the right procedures, training and tools, everyone can operate at that level. Those with more experience bring added value when it’s needed.
I won’t just show you a dashboard and say, “Look at these results”. Dashboards don’t show the full picture. Instead, we’ll go through the raw data with you if necessary, share the queries and explain exactly how we arrived at our conclusions. We validate everything together based on your data. What makes that work isn’t just analytical depth — it’s that we look at the data with the perspective of an advertiser and a publisher, not just a vendor running a tool. We’ve been on those sides of the table ourselves, and that shapes the questions we ask and what we recommend doing about them.
Once we agree on the methodology, we might simplify things into a dashboard for convenience. But the real value and insights come from that deeper analysis – the granularity of the raw data that normal dashboards never show. That level of transparency has surprised some of the biggest gaming companies in the world. But that’s what drives real, long-term impact. Ultimately, that’s what turns a vendor relationship into a real partnership — and it’s those partnerships, built on shared data and shared accountability, that keep clients with us year after year.
Ready to take your mobile retargeting campaigns to the next level? Reach out to Bigabid for expert guidance on optimizing your app’s user acquisition and retention strategies. Let us help you create campaigns that don’t just drive downloads, but build lasting relationships with your users.
