CASE STUDY | MONETIZATION
Green Panda Increases ARPDAU With In-App Bidding From Liftoff Monetize
Green Panda Games is a leading mobile games publisher specializing in idle and casual games. Founded in 2013, Green Panda Games is a vibrant, fast-growing startup that is now part of Ubisoft. Across iOS and Android, the studio has amassed more than 250 million downloads in over 150 countries. Green Panda Games has an ambitious and passionate team of mobile experts located in France and Ukraine who are continuously deepening the mechanics in their game portfolio ranging from hyper-casual to casual.
Danrui Wang, Digital Advertising & Monetization Analyst, shared her first-hand experience growing revenue across Green Panda’s portfolio after switching from waterfall setups to In-App Bidding from Liftoff Monetize.
The Challenge
Mediation waterfall management is a cumbersome and time-consuming process. Before we adopted In-App Bidding, we managed a separate waterfall setup for each mobile platform, ad format, country tier, and user IDFA opt-in status. As part of our monetization strategy, we not only manage our waterfalls but also rigorously A/B test our setups to ensure we are making data-backed changes to them. However, the time involved in manually optimizing waterfall setups took away from our desire to run more A/B tests and invest in new product developments.
One of the main goals for our monetization team is to increase competitiveness for our ad inventory to maximize revenue. So in March 2022, our team at Green Panda Games began testing In-App Bidding with our non-mediation bidders.
After sharing our challenges and desire to test In-App Bidding with our Liftoff Monetize account manager, together, we devised a plan aimed to improve overall ad revenue performance, analyze bidding results from non-IDFA users, and simplify our waterfall setups.
The Solution
We believe open communication with ad partners is essential to the success of our ad monetization efforts. This has never been more apparent than in the collaborative relationship we formed with our Liftoff Monetize account manager.
We smoothly transitioned away from cumbersome waterfall management to In-App Bidding under careful guidance from Liftoff. Since adding In-App Bidding from Liftoff Monetize to our ad stack, we saw similar and often improved revenue from Liftoff. In-App Bidding from Liftoff Monetize also delivered amazing operational savings, reducing our time spent on waterfall optimization. Additionally, prior to and after the widespread rollout of Apple App Tracking Transparency, we Liftoff generated outstanding revenue from our non-IDFA ad traffic.
We conducted multiple A/B tests, comparing performance between our waterfall setup and In-App Bidding from Liftoff Monetize across rewarded video and full-screen interstitial placements.
When the tests concluded, we found that Liftoff Monetize’s In-App Bidding outperformed our waterfall setup across the board. When looking at our global traffic from rewarded video and full-screen interstitial placements, we saw a higher ARPDAU and CPM from Liftoff Monetize.
Results of the A/B test include:
- Rewarded video: 8% lift in ARPDAU and 2% higher CPM
- Full-screen interstitial: 13% lift in ARPDAU, 6% higher CPM
“Liftoff Monetize is a key ad revenue driver for our mobile games. Their In-App Bidding solution helped us increase ARPDAU on our global traffic, specifically our non-IDFA traffic.”
Danrui Wang
Digital Advertising & Monetization Analyst, Green Panda Games
