A Interview with Demand Team Lead, Noa Peled
As the mobile ecosystem continues to mature in 2026, the mechanics of user acquisition and programmatic buying demand increasingly sophisticated approaches. Ahead of Affiliate World Europe in Budapest (July 9-10, 2026), we sat down with Noa Peled, Demand Team Lead at Digital Yield Group.
In this brief exchange, Noa outlines the current state of the mobile advertising landscape, the evolving operational role of agencies, and her strategic priorities as the industry moves into the second half of the year.
Q.: How would you characterize the state of mobile advertising as we move through 2026?
Right now, the market is really forcing everyone to look at hard unit economics. The chaos we saw a few years ago with the big privacy shifts has mostly leveled out. Frameworks like SKAN and Privacy Sandbox aren’t shocking anyone anymore: they’re just the operational baseline now. Because of that, the focus on the demand side has shifted from panicking over signal loss to building smart, predictive models. Nobody is chasing empty installs anymore. The goal across the board is clear: prove your incremental ROAS and keep those users around for the long haul.
Q.: In this highly automated environment, what is the role of a mobile agency today?
Honestly, since DSPs handle the heavy lifting with algorithmic bidding now, our focus on the demand side has completely shifted. We’re no longer just setting up and managing campaigns; my team operates much more like data and growth consultants. Today, our real value comes from getting deep into the weeds of a client’s unit economics and truly understanding the user behavior specific to every single app we work with. We spend our time structuring first-party data and running clean incrementality tests to feed those buying algorithms exactly what they need to succeed. Anyone can launch a campaign, but scaling it profitably requires a granular understanding of how that specific app converts and retains users. That’s where a specialized agency comes in.
Q.: We recently noted on the blog that non-gaming app revenue is overtaking gaming. How does this shift impact demand-side strategy?
Scaling a non-gaming app – like a fintech or a health app – is a completely different beast than running a hyper-casual game. The onboarding funnels and attribution windows just don’t match up, so your demand strategy has to adapt. We can’t just optimize for a quick Day-1 / Day-3 monetization event. Instead, we’re building campaigns around long-term cohort analysis and delayed conversions. To do that right, you have to get your hands dirty with the client’s CRM data so you actually understand user behavior weeks after the install.
Q.: Looking ahead, why is Affiliate World Budapest a prominent event for you and Digital Yield Group?
Affiliate World is still one of the best places where performance marketers, tech providers, and direct advertisers actually cross paths. For anyone on the demand side, it’s a great opportunity to spot new demand opportunities and vet programmatic partners face-to-face. It’s a very practical show. It allows us to lock down direct, high-intent deals that give our clients a real advantage.
Q.: What are your specific expectations for the conference this year?
I expect the dialogue to be highly pragmatic. In previous years, there was a tendency to focus on buzzwords and theoretical AI implementation. This year, I anticipate the focus will be strictly on margin optimization and deterministic measurement in fragmented markets.
Q.: Finally, what key balance of skills is required for someone aiming to start their career in Mobile Advertising today?
You really need a hybrid skill set to succeed today. On one side, you need the analytical rigor to break down complex user data, map out programmatic paths, and understand how unit economics actually works. But that data literacy doesn’t mean much without a sharp sense of commercial reality. It’s just not enough to know how to push buttons on a dashboard anymore. New talent entering the industry needs to understand the business models behind the apps they’re running campaigns for, as well as the markets those apps compete in. If you can look at raw campaign data and translate that into a real business strategy, that’s the most valuable asset you can develop as a junior marketer.
