Welcome back to ‘Meet the Growthmakers’, our series spotlighting the people shaping the future of app marketing.
This time, we’re speaking to Nat Abell, one of Yodel Mobile’s leading mobile growth experts and included in PMW’s 30 under 30 in 2026, to discuss the evolving relationship between ASO, paid acquisition, creative strategy, and user intent in today’s app ecosystem.
We caught up with Nat to talk about sustainable app growth, the realities of attribution in organic marketing, the future of personalised user journeys, and why understanding intent is becoming one of the most important factors in mobile growth.
Congratulations on being named to Performance Marketing World’s 30 Under 30 list! Can you tell us a little bit about your role at Yodel Mobile?
I work closely with clients to understand their marketing challenges and find the right strategies to help them launch, evolve, and scale successfully. I’ve been at Yodel Mobile for 6 and a half years, and while my background is rooted in ASO, my role has evolved into something much broader over time.
ASO still sits at the core of what I do because it connects so many areas of mobile growth from brand awareness and paid performance to organic acquisition, creative optimisation, attribution, customisation, user sentiment, and retention strategies. The app ecosystem is incredibly interconnected, which makes the work so interesting.
Today, my role spans paid user acquisition, ASO, creative strategy, UGC, and wider mobile growth consultation. I work across teams to build strategies that combine deep technical expertise with a more holistic understanding of app marketing, helping clients bring all the different pieces of growth together in a meaningful way.
What’s the most exciting part of your role?
For me, it’s the people. I get to work with a team of incredibly smart, motivated people who genuinely care about what they do and want to deliver the best possible results for our clients. That kind of passion is really inspiring, and it makes the work feel energising and enjoyable.
I also feel lucky to work with clients who understand the value of what we’re trying to achieve. Many of those relationships are long-standing and built on trust, which makes collaboration much more effective. They see us as partners who are on their side, working towards the same goals, rather than as an external agency with a separate agenda.
What do you think are the biggest challenges that mobile apps face in growth today?
One of the biggest challenges facing mobile apps today is navigating an increasingly noisy and competitive landscape. App marketers are constantly being told they need bigger budgets, more paid activity, and faster scaling strategies, while also trying to keep up with changing algorithms and new competitors entering the market.
That environment can create a lot of pressure and uncertainty for app brands, especially smaller teams trying to grow sustainably. But I think one of the most important things is not getting distracted by fear-based messaging. Sustainable growth is still absolutely possible when brands focus on building strong, holistic strategies centred around their audience and the problems they’re trying to solve.
Growth isn’t just about spending more; it’s about understanding user behaviour, creating messaging that genuinely resonates, and delivering experiences that feel relevant and personalised. There’s still a huge amount of opportunity in the app space for brands that take a thoughtful, user-first approach.
What are some technical challenges that our clients have been facing recently?
One of the biggest technical challenges in ASO and organic growth is attribution. Naturally, clients want to understand exactly how many incremental installs or how much revenue a specific tactic has generated, but in reality, it’s very difficult to isolate a completely accurate figure.
You can build models, analyse trends, and make informed assumptions, but organic growth doesn’t exist in isolation. Everything in growth marketing has a halo effect on everything else – paid activity influences organic performance, creative impacts conversion, brand awareness affects search behaviour, and so on. Because of that, understanding exactly what moved the needle and by how much depends heavily on the app, audience, vertical, and channel mix involved.
A big part of our role is helping clients navigate that complexity. While there are ways to estimate impact and identify patterns, there will always be an element of ambiguity within organic growth. Word of mouth, brand perception, and user behaviour can’t always be measured as cleanly as paid activity, and that’s something the industry as a whole continues to grapple with.
What’s one underrated tactic that can have a big impact on mobile growth?
One of the most important principles shaping the future of mobile growth is customisation based on user intent. I’ve started referring to this as “intent farming” – the idea of identifying and responding to the signals users give throughout their journey.
Every interaction a user has, whether it’s a search query, an ad they engage with, or even a prompt they enter into AI tools like ChatGPT, reveals something about what they’re looking for. Those signals provide valuable insight into their motivations, expectations, and likelihood to convert.
The goal is to reflect that intent back to the user as clearly as possible through every stage of the experience. Tailoring creative messaging, app store listings or onboarding flows to align with what users want.
For example, someone searching for a fitness app might not simply want workout instructions; they may be looking for something aspirational that helps them achieve a specific lifestyle or aesthetic goal. If the imagery, copy, and overall experience mirror that intention, the chances of conversion and long-term retention become much stronger.
Ultimately, the more personalised and relevant the experience feels, the more effective mobile growth strategies become.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
I used to be a big procrastinator, and for a while, I thought that was just part of who I was. Over time, I realised it wasn’t laziness, it was more about the pressure of wanting things to be perfect. That fear of not getting something exactly right would create a kind of paralysis and stop me from starting at all.
The advice that helped me most was to think about the minimum viable product. Just start, get something down, and improve it from there. It’s much easier to edit something than to stare at a blank page waiting for it to become perfect.
That mindset has completely changed how I work. I don’t really see myself as a procrastinator anymore because I’ve learned that starting is often the most important part. Practising by doing is what helps you get to something good.
Finally, if you weren’t in app marketing, what would you be doing instead?
I think I’d be doing something outdoors. Probably somewhere in nature, maybe building something hands-on. I like the idea of working in an environment that’s a bit more physical and creative, where you can see the outcome of what you’ve made.
I also think I could have gone into something like education or a more creative field. My degree was in Anthropology, so I’ve always been interested in people, how they think, and how societies work. That curiosity has carried through into marketing, but I think it could have taken me in a number of different directions.
Ultimately, it would still involve creating, learning, and understanding people, just in a very different setting.
Looking to build a stronger, more sustainable mobile growth strategy for your app? Get in touch with Nat and the Yodel Mobile team to discover how our team can help you drive meaningful growth across every stage of the user journey.
