Compare
SuperScale vs. a Traditional UA / Media Agency
Both a traditional UA agency and SuperMedia let you expand paid acquisition without hiring a growth team. The difference is how the work gets done.
An agency staffs an account team and optimizes by hand during business hours; SuperMedia runs the same job as software, continuously, across 35+ networks under one IO. This page is a side-by-side for a growth lead deciding between the two.
The decision in one line
An agency gives you a named human team and a familiar commercial model, usually a retainer or a percentage on media.
SuperMedia is the AI-native alternative to the UA agency. You bring budget, targets, and a tracking link — we grow your spend and improve your profit across 35+ networks under one IO. Agencies add headcount to scale; we add software.
SuperMedia is a standalone managed UA service powered by SuperStack — no stack licence required. If you'd rather run UA yourself, the same stack is licensable: SuperStack starts at EUR 7k/month per game on Growth and is custom on Enterprise, with some line items (UA Creative Production, for one) quoted per engagement rather than published. One platform: licensed or managed. This page compares the managed path, because that's the one an agency competes with.
Side by side
The comparison
| Dimension | Traditional UA / media agency | SuperScale (SuperMedia) |
|---|---|---|
| Setup / time-to-value | Commonly a pitch or RFP, then a contract and account-team onboarding before the first campaign runs. Per-network setup happens at the agency's pace. | Onboarding is a tracking link, not an integration project. The networks are already under contract, so the work is activation rather than setup: one IO, one invoice. |
| Network coverage / reach | Varies widely by agency. Many are strongest on the same Meta / Google / AppLovin core, with additional networks added as scoped work. | Your spend runs through SuperScale's own network agreements — one IO, 35+ networks. Rewarded, OEM, creator-led, regional and emerging supply are part of the standard offer. |
| Pricing model & transparency | Commonly a percentage markup on media or a monthly retainer. Where the fee sits inside the media cost, the delivered cost of media is harder to read. | An 8% management fee on managed spend, invoiced as its own line next to the media. The rate is published on /pricing. |
| Headcount required | Zero on your side; the agency staffs the account. | Zero on your side. Scaling the account adds software rather than people to it. |
| Expertise & ramp | Depends on the team you're assigned. Senior people often pitch the account; day-to-day execution may sit with more junior staff. | A games-first specialist. Founded in 2016. 70+ publishers. 200+ games. Ten years encoded in the platform. |
| Optimization / AI | Human optimization on business hours. Cadence and quality track how many accounts each manager is carrying. | SuperAI: an autonomous AI workforce executing 80-90% of publishing ops inside guardrails, 24/7. Not a chatbot. |
| Data & reporting | Usually the agency's own dashboard or reporting deck. The underlying data can sit in the agency's stack and be awkward to export. | SuperPlatform puts your networks and analytics into one gaming-native source of truth, deployed in your own BigQuery. You own the data. |
| Incentive alignment | A markup or retainer can reward more spend rather than more profitable spend. That's a property of the commercial model, not a claim about any particular agency. | Our fee is a percentage of managed spend, so it rises when spend rises — the same directional exposure any percentage model carries. The rate is published, and it sits next to the media rather than inside it. |
| Risk / downside | You get the team you're assigned. Scope creep on "extra" networks, and reporting that lives in someone else's stack. | Single-partner concentration: your spend routes through one relationship and through SuperScale's own network agreements. The offsets are a published fee, data held in your own BigQuery, and a games-first track record. The concentration is still real. |
SuperScale's specific edge
- Execution is productized. Results don't ride on which account manager you draw or how many other accounts they carry. SuperAI runs the optimization across every connected network, 24/7.
- The long tail is where the profit sits. The top 8 ad networks take about 50% of mobile UA spend but return only about 25% of the profit on average; the other ~30 networks carry the other half of spend and about 75% of the profit. Publishers commonly stall at the handful of networks they can operationally manage. SuperMedia's standard offer is 35+ networks, so breadth stops being a scoping conversation.
- The pricing is legible. The classic agency question is how much of the media bill is margin. Here the fee is a published percentage of managed spend, billed separately, so spend and fee stay two numbers you can check.
- Built for mobile games. 70+ publishers. 200+ games. On one title we took over, ROAS went from 50% to 153% (3x uplift) and CPI from $2.80 to $0.60 (-78%), reaching breakeven in 4 months. On another, UA ROI moved from -39% to +11%, worth $1.37M in extra profit after all fees.
- You keep the source of truth. SuperPlatform is deployed in your own BigQuery, so the unified view outlives the commercial relationship.
The honest version
When a traditional agency is the better choice
A traditional agency can genuinely be the right call. Choose one when:
- You need full-funnel or cross-channel brand and performance work — TV, OOH, influencer, PR, brand strategy — beyond mobile UA. That's an agency's home turf, not SuperScale's focus.
- You want a named, dedicated human team you can get on a call daily and who will sit in your planning meetings as an extension of your marketing org.
- You have bespoke creative-production needs at agency scale. SuperScale does UA Creative Production, but it's quoted per engagement and scoped around user acquisition, not brand campaigns.
- You already have an agency relationship that's delivering and the switching cost outweighs what you'd gain from a more automated model.
- Your spend is concentrated on a few channels you're happy with and multi-network breadth isn't a priority this year.
If the job is expanding mobile UA efficiently with economics you can read off an invoice, that's the seam SuperMedia is built for. If it's broad marketing services with a dedicated human team, an agency fits better.
Compare it against your own numbers
model the revenue sitting in networks beyond your core, net of the 8% management fee, against what a markup or retainer would cost on the same spend.
scope, onboarding, and what "one IO, 35+ networks" means in practice.
the SuperMedia fee and the SuperStack tiers are published there; quote-priced items say so.
or talk to a publishing strategist, and see SuperMedia, SuperAI, and SuperPlatform run against your own titles first.
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