Living and working between Belgrade and Cyprus, Anton began learning about online advertising in 2014, starting with traffic arbitrage through affiliate programs. His first offers were physical products targeted at Latin American and CIS markets. Later, he officially began his marketing career as a junior media buyer at Havas Media, a global media agency, specifically in its programmatic department. There, he worked with large retail and FMCG clients, buying both media and web performance placements.

After three years, he became the team lead for a group of eight media buyers. At this time, he realized he was passionate about pure performance marketing and mobile. He decided to become a student again and joined AdQuantum as a junior UA manager. He still works there today, now as the Head of UA, leading a team of 40 people and overseeing all traffic buying for the agency.

During his time at AdQuantum, he has managed over 500 clients across various mobile app verticals in paid social, in-app networks, and DSPs, and has handled more than 60 projects hands-on.

In your own words, what’s your role in the app business right now?

My current role is Head of UA, where I lead the company’s primary user acquisition strategy. I handle operational work with the team, including hiring, onboarding, training, and developing the team’s expertise. I also conduct initial audits of incoming projects, integrate growth marketing into processes, and develop new agency directions such as new verticals and niches, client engagement models, and new traffic sources and tools.

How did you end up working in apps?

I joined AdQuantum in 2019. Since my initial experience was with web funnels, the mobile space was largely unfamiliar to me. It felt like starting from scratch — learning about attribution models, cohort analytics, and creative strategies. My first app verticals included fintech, m-commerce, and idle games with hybrid monetization models. Later, I transitioned to Health & Fitness and web funnels for subscription apps. Currently, my primary expertise is in this niche.

What are you most excited about in apps right now?

The constant change of trends inspires me the most in the mobile app market. There hasn’t been a single year when we haven’t discovered a new, interesting niche and succeeded in it. Trends change: first it was the fintech year, then interactive novels and audiobooks, followed by several years of endless Health & Fitness and the struggle with SKAdNetwork and iOS 14. Now we see a surge of fascinating projects with great unit economics in the AI agents and assistants niche. This constant change pushes us to develop.

Six years ago, nobody on our team would have believed me if I said that 80% of our traffic would come from web funnels for mobile products. The challenges caused by iOS 14 attribution restrictions turned from a local problem into a big opportunity to discover new funnels, auctions, and growth potential.

Is there anyone you’d like to shout out to who has influenced your journey in the app industry?

I’m grateful to my entire team and everyone I’ve worked with. I constantly learn from them and draw inspiration from their work.

What’s in your app tech stack?

I would like to begin with non-online tools. Currently, I take a lot of handwritten notes using a Leuchtturm1917 notebook.

  • For market analytics of apps and web products: Sensor Tower, SEMrush.
  • Spy services: BigSpy, Adheart, Tyver, PipiAds, Anstrex.
  • AI: ChatGPT 4 (idea generation, creatives, brainstorming, surface-level information gathering), Perplexity (analytics).
  • Productivity: Notion (task management), tl;dv (meeting note-taker), Miro (visualization).
  • Data processing and API work: Zapier.
  • Communication: Slack, Telegram.

What do you like most about working in apps?

Flexibility, the ability to solve problems in various ways (levers to influence performance and metrics), the constant rotation of trends, and the chance to work on something new from a marketing agency representative’s perspective. The technological and innovative nature of the business also appeals to me. I find it especially exciting that nowadays you do not even need coding skills to develop an app and reach the MVP stage.

What one thing would you change about the app industry?

In my opinion, the advertising market develops in line with global trends. I wouldn’t change anything, but I would soften the attribution restrictions and make them less stringent. User data security is crucial, but equally important is the advertiser’s responsibility for product positioning, ad claims, and ethics. We need to find a balance here. Accurate ad personalization, backed by technology and mindful of ethics, benefits both users and businesses. It is a win-win situation.

Regarding missed opportunities, given the growth of AI agents, it is time to build a working AI trading desk based on modern practical knowledge, not theory, for ad placements across all platforms. It sounds like a dream.

If you weren’t working in apps what would you be doing?

I would probably work in a field related to cars, such as buying, selling, or repairing them. Maybe I will return to this someday.

iOS or Android?

iOS.

What apps have been most useful to you over the last year?

ChatGPT.

Any Netflix/ TV show recommendations?

The Sopranos.

Is there anything else we should know about you?

There’s only one thing I love more than mobile ads, and that’s dachshunds.

Do you know someone driving change and growth in the app industry? Nominate an app leader here.

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