Head of Growth Marketing
About the job
- At least 6 years of growth or performance marketing experience in gaming, e-commerce, or consumer apps.
- A track record of running both paid acquisition at scale and CRM/lifecycle programs, with quantifiable results in customer acquisition cost, return on ad spend, retention, and reactivation.
- Ability to set a quarterly growth strategy while also building audiences, writing briefs, and launching campaigns.
- Fluency with mobile measurement partners such as AppsFlyer or Adjust and analytics tools; ability to design and interpret experiments and apply unit economics.
- Knowledge of effective performance creative and how to run a creative testing engine.
- Ability to take ownership in a fast-moving, remote, growth-stage team.
- Own paid acquisition across Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat, and app networks, with accountability for the paid user acquisition budget, customer acquisition cost, and payback.
- Build and run CRM and lifecycle marketing, including segmentation, onboarding, repeat purchase, cross-sell, win-back, and re-engagement across push, email, SMS, and WhatsApp.
- Own app store optimisation and conversion from store visit to first purchase.
- Allocate budget across channels, markets, and titles based on unit economics, and reallocate as performance changes.
- Build a trusted view of acquisition and lifecycle performance with the Data Team, including attribution and incrementality testing.
- Run a high-tempo testing program across channels, audiences, offers, and creative.
- Lead and develop a team of paid UA and creative specialists, and set the creative briefing and testing process.
- Partner with market and title owners, Product, and Data to turn commercial priorities into campaigns.
- At least 2 years of experience managing a team.
- Experience with direct-to-consumer strategy at a gaming publisher, including webshop environments.
- Experience in Africa, the Middle East, or other emerging markets.
About the company
Carry1st publishes mobile games in Africa and provides a full-stack publishing service for global and local developers, covering distribution, localization, user acquisition, marketing, community management, and monetization. It built Pay1st, a fintech platform that supports 200+ local payment methods to enable in-app purchases for users without credit cards. Beyond publishing, Carry1st operates the Carry1st Shop, a digital marketplace for gaming gift cards, airtime, data, and electricity vouchers, turning it into a broader digital commerce hub. By partnering with major publishers like Activision, Riot Games, and Supercell, Carry1st aims to grow the African mobile-gaming market by making publishing, payments, and digital content accessible and scalable for both global and local developers.
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Early VC
Total Funding
$57M
Headquarters
Cape Town, South Africa
Founded
2018
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Carry1st launched WhatsApp Shop in Nigeria and South Africa in June 2026.
- Mentos extended Africa Cup 2026, while Abuja finals deepen brand-funded monetization.
- Tracxn listed 116 employees in August 2026, signaling continued operating scale.
What critics are saying
- Tencent, NetEase, and local publishers can outspend Carry1st on content and user acquisition.
- Africa Cup dependency on Activision and sponsored events concentrates revenue into partner-controlled cycles.
- If Pay1st adoption stalls, Carry1st becomes a niche publisher with weak pricing power.
What makes Carry1st unique
- Pay1st integrates 120+ payment methods across six African geographies in one gateway.
- Carry1st Shop and WhatsApp Shop monetize digital goods beyond games across Africa.
- Official Call of Duty: Mobile and MLBB tournament partnerships give unmatched regional distribution.
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Benefits
- Remote Work Options
- Performance Bonus
- Profit Sharing