Mamba Group: News

Case Study: T2 and Mamba - How SMS Marketing Became a Performance Tool for Lead Generation in Dating

On how big data helped precisely segment the audience and achieve high-quality conversion at minimal cost — in the case study.

Original article was published at AdIndex

The modern consumer is overloaded with advertising and increasingly ignores standard formats. Banner blindness has transitioned from a niche term to a feature of the advertising market. In these conditions, the dating service Mamba and the mobile operator T2 tested SMS as a traffic acquisition channel to convey the product's value to the relevant audience and assess conversion quality.

Objectives

Mamba sought a communication format that would help it stand out amidst the general advertising noise and attract new, high-quality users.

Together with T2, the team set the following tasks:

Test SMS as a performance marketing channel for lead generation.
Measure the funnel from click to target action (registration on the platform).
Assess audience quality, including the share of new users.
Determine the format's potential for further use in the performance marketing mix.

Implementation

The teams launched a pilot focused on hypothesis testing and conversion quality. For testing, they chose the period from August to December. Traditionally, social activity increases closer to the New Year, so it was important to confirm the tool's stability across different time periods. Additionally, users pay more attention to personalized communications during this time.

T2 used basic intent models of big data and formed custom segments based on interest in dating, socio-demographic characteristics, and behavioral factors. Current service users were excluded from the mailing. Messages were sent only to audiences with confirmed consent for promotional communications. The campaign covered all of Russia.

Strategy, Tactics, Results

The team viewed SMS as a precise performance tool for engaging interested audiences. Analytics covered the entire funnel: link click, app installation, registration, and in-app target actions (purchases). The teams analyzed metrics month-over-month and adjusted campaign parameters during the test.

The experiment showed steady growth in conversions from SMS to registration of a new client in the app, from 0.3% in the first month of launch to 0.6% (+87%) in November 2025. The number of new client registrations increased by 117%.

The format strengthened the performance marketing mix and proved itself as an interesting acquisition tool with high efficiency at the lower stages of the funnel.

Result

Mamba assessed the test as successful and decided to continue working with this communication format. The project confirmed that with precise segmentation, the use of modeling based on big data, and choosing the correct moment for communication, SMS can act as a performance tool in dating and attract a quality audience.

Alexander Safonov, Product Director for Big Data, T2:

"Our goal at T2 is to respond to the challenges of the advertising market and offer solutions in a situation where the consumer is overloaded with ads. As a telecom company with experience in big data and machine learning, we understand which audience, at what moment, and through which channel is best to convey the value of a brand and product. This knowledge helps advertising work and earn."

Olga Morozova, Marketing Director, Mamba:

"This experiment showed that SMS can be a strategically important tool for attracting new audiences if segmentation is precise, personalization is instant, and the communication channel is chosen correctly. We didn't just get new users, but a relevant and engaged audience, which allows us to integrate the format into the performance mix as a stable driver of growth and product quality."

2026-02-02 16:33