MGS 2026 Recap: Liftoff's Crypto UA Playbook by User Persona
Are you sending every user the same ad with the same message and the same creative? When one app serves user groups with completely different motivations, a single creative rarely lands with any of them.
The daglo marketing team attended Modern Growth Stack (MGS) 2026 in Seoul, a growth conference hosted by AB180 under the theme "Stack AI, Rewrite Everything." This post recaps "A Crypto UA Playbook by User Persona," a PLAY HALL session on July 21, 2026 by Jonglim Kim of Liftoff. The examples come from crypto apps, but splitting creative and targeting by segment works in any category. We transcribed the talk with daglo and pulled out the key points.
What is crypto UA? The market in four numbers
Crypto UA (user acquisition) means using ads to win new users for crypto trading apps. Unlike the stock market, crypto trades 24/7, and 78% of activity happens on mobile, so strategy has to match user motivation and time of day closely.
| Number | What it means |
|---|---|
| 560 million | Crypto holders worldwide, about 10% of internet users |
| 78% | Share of trading and access on mobile, though institutions and big traders also use PCs |
| 32% | Annual growth in holders, nearly 100 million new holders a year for three years |
| $2.16 trillion | Crypto market cap, volatile enough to fall 50% from its peak |
Inside one app sit two markets: a high-risk, high-reward coin market and a prediction market where users bet on outcomes such as sports matches. Prediction markets let users take profits mid-game and are growing at 303%. User psychology comes down to three drivers:
- FOMO: Big price swings create anxiety about missing out.
- Gamification: Users want managing assets to be fun, with check-in rewards and leaderboards.
- Reward drive: Users chase trading rewards and cashback, and their platform loyalty shifts often.
Creative strategy for four user personas
The speaker split crypto app users into newcomers, FOMO traders, steady-return traders, and whales, and stressed that each group needs entirely different messages and creative, even in large-scale campaigns.
| Persona | What they want | Message | Creative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newcomers | Clear explanations, low barrier to entry | "Start with just 10,000 won," "Sign up in seconds" | App screens showing sign-up, where to check assets, and how to buy |
| FOMO traders | Catching opportunities fast | "Don't miss the next rally," social proof that others have started | Surging charts, playable ads that simulate live price moves |
| Steady-return traders | Reliability, transparency, long-term growth | Realized returns instead of urgency, auto-savings alerts | Shields, locks, and six-month trend charts |
| Whales | Fast execution, liquidity, solid infrastructure | Priority execution, guaranteed liquidity, strong security | Platinum cards and top-1% perks like hotels and flights |
For new users, the most important thing is showing how easy the app is to use.
That was the speaker's answer to a common question: should you use provocative messages for newcomers too? The same logic explains showing steady-return traders a six-month trend instead of a short-term dip, since they judge on a six-month to one-year holding period.
From playable to reward: sequence your creative
Instead of running creatives one by one, sequence them: a playable ad to spark interest, a video to explain the app, and a final push on rewards. This widens available inventory and keeps campaigns running longer.
- Playable: Hook users with an ad they can try.
- Video: Explain what the app does and deliver the message.
- Reward: Close with the benefit to drive action.
For prediction markets, the team targeted sports fans. During the NFL season, a playable ad that let users guess how many goals their favorite player would score had a very high click-through rate, and during the World Cup they ran interactive ads that let users scroll through match results.
Five targeting strategies
Targeting was split as finely as the segments, along five axes: app category, high-value users, time of day, region, and device language. The time, region, and language tactics work well beyond crypto.
- App category: Reach newcomers in casual games, lifestyle, and entertainment apps; FOMO and steady-return traders in finance, news, and weather apps; prediction market users in sports apps.
- High-value users: The top 10 to 20% of users often drive 70 to 80% or more of revenue. Narrow down to the very top tier and bid higher for them. LTV grows, but scale is limited.
- Time of day: Instead of spreading budget evenly, raise bids in the four hours before a match. Commerce and delivery apps with time-limited sales can do the same.
- Region: Prediction market ads are legal only in certain areas, so campaigns run at the US state level. Provinces in Korea and prefectures in Japan work too.
- Device language: Travelers and expats keep their device language when they move, so you can reach Korean speakers living in the US. This is especially useful for travel, dating, and money transfer apps.
Takeaways: a checklist for your own app
The lesson goes beyond crypto. If users with different motivations share one app, split your messages, creative, and bidding by segment.
- Group your users by motivation and check whether each group sees different creative.
- Make sure newcomer creative shows how easy the app is, not just hype.
- Check how much revenue your top users drive, and if it's high, test a separate high-value campaign.
- Find when demand peaks and experiment with concentrating bids there.
- If your users and countries don't always match, consider device language targeting.
For recordings where it matters who said what, such as sessions with several speakers, daglo's Speaker ID is a useful feature. It remembers voices and fills in real names instead of "Speaker 1" from the next recording on, and daglo is the first service in Korea to offer it to every user. Learn more about Speaker ID
For the other sessions we attended, see our full MGS 2026 recap. Event details are on the official MGS 2026 site.
#MGS2026 #ModernGrowthStack #CryptoUA #UserAcquisition #AppMarketing #AdCreative #Targeting #daglo
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