Boosting ROAS with more accurate data and faster decision-making

Background

BitMango, founded in 2011, is a leading Korean company in the global mobile puzzle game industry. Their popular titles include “Roll the Ball” (250+ million downloads) and “Word Cookies” (Apple’s Game of the Year in 2017). In 2020, BitMango ranked sixth in worldwide puzzle game downloads. 

Combining its expertise in both gaming and data, the company is continually looking to drive growth using advanced data management strategies. Partnering with AppsFlyer enabled the team to make good data-driven decisions, at an earlier campaign stage, resulting in significantly improved return on ad spend (ROAS). 

Challenge

BitMango had been collecting cost data from various media channels through their internal business intelligence (BI) system. However, with the team looking to fine-tune their ad optimization, they needed more granular cost data — such as creative, and site ID levels beyond geography. This proved challenging: as well as updating each API to achieve the required level of depth, they also had to consolidate the data effectively.

While in-app ads were a significant revenue stream for BitMango, the team were missing out on granular ad revenue data. They weren’t able to determine the specific revenue generated from ad placements or creatives within their game apps. As a result, they resorted to estimating the value of all ads, by dividing the total ad revenue by the total number of ad clicks. But this approach overlooked the unique value of each ad, leading to inaccurate measurement and poorly optimized ads. 

With increasing demand for ad revenue data from advertisers across the industry, ad networks began offering ad revenue data at impression level. However, managing multiple apps and conducting A/B tests across various mediation platforms isn’t straightforward: how could BitMango collect, refine, and analyze ad revenue data from all apps and mediations, accurately and efficiently?

Lacking granular revenue and cost data made it hard for BitMango to optimize their user acquisition campaigns. Without being able to see which ads best engaged and converted specific user groups, there was a risk of displaying irrelevant ads to users. This could result in missed opportunities for ad revenue or even user churn, as the ads failed to resonate with the intended audience.

Solution

To analyze their cost and revenue data faster, and in more detail, BitMango implemented ROI360, AppsFlyer’s ROI measurement suite. The platform is integrated with detailed cost and revenue data, including ad revenue, saving development resources. At the same time, marketers can now easily access cost data based on their desired criteria and depth, enabling them to quickly optimize campaigns for better ROAS. 

What’s more, Ad Revenue Connector (part of ROI360) provides ad revenue data in near real time. This allowed BitMango to improve the accuracy of initial ROAS data, gain confidence in their forecasting accuracy, and shorten the optimization cycle from two to three weeks to just one week.

Previously, campaign performance was measured based on in-app purchase revenue. Typically, this data wasn’t available until at least seven days after the campaign launched, holding up the decision on whether to continue the ad campaign. However, by accessing data on in-app ad revenue from the campaign’s initial phase, BitMango could predict campaign performance earlier, make faster and more informed decisions, and ultimately increase revenue and ROAS.

Result 

After implementing AppsFlyer’s ROI360, BitMango saw their Day 14 ROAS increase rate jump 57% over a period of two months. As you can see from the chart below, making faster decisions based on fresh and accurate data resulted in continuous improvements in ROAS in the long run. From Day 1 to Day 3, 7, and 14, the ROAS increase rate progressively improved from 18% to 23%, 45%, and eventually 57%.

Looking ahead, BitMango is focused on improving the data accuracy of initial campaign performance to enable faster decision-making. By using in-depth cost integration API, they’ve been able to shorten the investment recovery period as they look to the next leap forward. 

The accurate ROAS data in real time empowered us to quickly identify risks in early stages of the campaign. This advantage significantly boosted our long-term ROAS and improved our efficiency. That’s why we rely on AppsFlyer’s ROI360 to proactively alert us to potential losses. Acting as our trusted safety net, ROI360 enables faster, more informed decisions, resulting in a noticeable increase in ROAS.

Kisup Lee, CEO, BitMango

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