How to Build a Great Kids App with Minimal Data — Brennan Clark, Sago Mini

After iOS 14 cut kids apps off from Meta and Google UAC, Sago Mini turned its back catalog of older apps into a lead-generation channel for its flagship subscription app, Sago Mini World, alongside first-party CRM cross-promotion between its products.

Sago Mini World ran ~2.5 years and reached ~100K subscribers with no account system. Once the studio launched more subscription products, it built an account system and CRM base so it could talk to parents directly and promote one product from another using first-party data.

Launched a companion parent app alongside most major products. When a kid draws or completes a coloring sheet in a Sago Mini app, the artifact is sent to the parent app, a touch point that reminds the paying parent what their kid gets from the subscription.

Kids apps can't show the ATT prompt, so Sago Mini runs a SKAdNetwork-only setup and only buys on networks that fully support it (Unity Ads, IronSource, AppLovin). Because ~80% of purchases happen within 48 hours of install, SKAN conversion events give usable early conversion data. The growth team cohorts by geo and platform, builds frequently updated LTV models in Tableau/Google Sheets, computes projected LTV over CPA, and adjusts campaigns on each network by hand. It cannot split paid vs organic retention.

Run ads on game ad networks (Unity Ads, IronSource, AppLovin) in placements inside free-to-play apps that are close in experience and age demographic to Sago Mini. Gameplay trailers excite kids for the entertainment app. Focus spend on iOS.

For the entertainment app (Sago Mini World), gameplay-trailer ads that excite the kid. For the educational app (Sago Mini School), which needs upfront buy-in from parents, ads are geared toward parents, and spend is indexing further toward parent marketing over time.

Use a stripped-down Mixpanel implementation with no IP addresses, no IDFA and no account ID; Apple's IDFV (device-specific, not linkable across platforms, cleared on uninstall) is the connective tissue for data. No ad SDKs at all; only a skinned-down AppsFlyer.

When iOS 14 landed, AppsFlyer's standard SDK didn't pass Apple's kids-category rules. AppsFlyer put about 20 people on it for roughly three weeks and built Sago Mini a custom SDK, later rolled out to the kids app industry. Advice: be skeptical of partners' data collection, and choose ones willing to invest in your specific constraints.

Kids come into the Toronto office roughly every week to play-test current flows and new games. Quantitative data informs retention and feature decisions, but is backed up with testing. Example: a face icon leading to the character creator looked hugely popular in data, but play tests showed 2-3 year olds were tapping it trying to get back to the main menu; it was fixed. Design principle: kids don't grasp abstract icons, so design literally.

Because preschoolers can't read, gameplay contains no text at all and uses literal, non-abstract visuals. Only store and account screens are localized, so the same experience serves kids in Canada, Europe and Asia.

Top-of-funnel campaigns drive parents to landing pages where they download branded offline printable activities; the page collects the parent's information, familiarizes them with the brand, and they're moved further down the funnel. Web isn't used for the full purchase funnel because getting kids into the app's free trial quickly is the best marketing.

For offline partnerships (mobile carriers, specific devices in specific countries), Sago Mini drives partner traffic to dedicated web pages with specific offers that collect parents' account information.

Core age for Sago Mini World is 3-4, so a kid acquired at 4-5 retains 12 months at most. Rather than acquiring 5-6 year olds, the team adds features to stay relevant to existing players as they turn five: a character creator and more personalization and customization.

Look for demographic white spaces in the portfolio: Sago Mini First Words (speech-language app) targets slightly younger kids to bring them into the brand; they then age up through Sago Mini World and Sago Mini School, and on to sister studios Toca Boca and Originator.

Sago Mini Make and Play is a monthly physical subscription box shipped to the door, mirroring Sago Mini World's themes and play types. Together with an Apple TV+ show, it adds touch points within the same target age range to raise LTV despite a short retention window. Bundled digital tiers across the four subscription apps were being explored but not live.

iOS, Google Play and Amazon/Kindle each take about the same time to build and QA, but impact is heavily skewed to iOS and Google Play. Amazon's Kids+ bundle (often included with cheap Fire kids tablets) further reduced the value, so Sago Mini reduced Amazon investment and never launched Sago Mini School there.

No in-app ads, no IAPs or gems: one subscription price, or parents can use the free experience. Positioned as high-quality interactive 'digital toys' in a safe, trusted environment, versus passive YouTube Kids-style content.

Since YouTube Kids is ad-free, Sago Mini only experimented with brand campaigns on YouTube aimed at parents.