Fighting rewarded channels fraud: how Playrix improved efficiency and cut costs

playrix-appsflyer-rewarded-channels-fraud-protection

$100K/mo

Cost savings

12.5%

Reduced fraudulent rewards

2 hours per teammate

Weekly efficiency gains

Overview

  • Fraud on rewarded ad channels grew due to manipulative user tactics, inflating costs and complicating UA strategies.
  • Fraudulent activity led to increased budget waste, inefficiencies, and a resource-heavy, reactive fraud detection process.
  • Playrix leveraged AppsFlyer’s Series-of-Events (SoE) Validation Rules to proactively block fraudulent users’ dishonest activities and app progress to improve UA outcomes and budget use.

Background

Playrix, one of the top three independent mobile game developers globally, is renowned for blockbuster titles like “Gardenscapes” and “Fishdom”, engaging over 100 million players worldwide. As a leader in mobile gaming, Playrix continuously seeks to optimize its user acquisition (UA) strategies while mitigating fraud challenges in user acquisition and incentivized ad channels.

The Series-of-Events Validation Rules have been the missing piece in our fraud prevention strategy, particularly on rewarded channels. They’ve saved time, budget, and effort.

— Andrey Vilner, Lead UA Manager, Playrix

Challenge

Fraudulent conversions in rewarded ad channels emerged as a major challenge for Playrix, especially as their popular games attracted a large player base, making them a target for fraudsters. These individuals exploited loopholes to manipulate in-game progress, earning rewards illegitimately, which directly impacted Playrix’s budget under cost-per-engagement (CPE) billing models. Fraudsters would skip legitimate game progress, falsely completing milestones that would normally take genuine players time and effort, resulting in inflated costs and resource use for Playrix. 

Initially, Playrix relied on manual fraud detection to address these issues, which involved significant resource allocation, including team members manually validating conversions and comparing in-game events with those recorded in the system. This reactive approach meant they were often addressing fraud after it had already occurred, leading to operational inefficiencies. Furthermore, requesting refunds from partners added another layer of complexity, with no guarantee of cost recovery and increased friction between Playrix and its ad partners.

With Series-of-Events, we moved from reacting to fraud to preventing it. It’s a game-changer for our UA efforts.”

— Andrey Vilner, Lead UA Manager, Playrix

In addition to budgetary and operational challenges, the increasing sophistication of fraud tactics also complicated Playrix’s overall UA strategies. Fraudulent activities skewed key performance metrics, making it difficult to accurately measure campaign effectiveness and allocate ad spend effectively. This lack of reliable data created hurdles in scaling campaigns or tailoring them to genuine users.

Recognizing these interlinked challenges, Playrix realized that a proactive solution was essential. The team needed a method that would not only block fraudulent actions and progress automatically based on specific logics but also restore trust in their UA metrics and strategies. This approach would safeguard UA investments, streamline operations, and ultimately support better decision-making in user acquisition efforts.

Solution

Playrix needed a more robust and automated solution to counter these fraudulent activities that manual detection could no longer efficiently handle. The fraud issue was primarily driven by players exploiting rewarded ads, a major revenue source for Playrix, by manipulating their in-game progress and skipping legitimate efforts to claim rewards dishonestly. 


They implemented AppsFlyer’s Validation Rules, more specifically Series-of-Events (SoE), offering an innovative approach that allowed Playrix to define a specific sequence of in-game events that users must follow, ensuring that player progress was legitimate. If a user deviated from the predefined sequence, the system automatically flagged and blocked the fraudulent activity. This proactive approach provided Playrix with the ability to tackle fraud at its source and scale, reducing the need for manual checks and ultimately leading to more efficient operations.

What started as an experiment has become a standard piece of our UA optimization toolkit. Series-of-Events is a must-have for any large-scale operation.

— Andrey Vilner, Lead UA Manager, Playrix

The implementation of SoE began as a concept phase where Playrix collaborated closely with AppsFlyer to tailor the solution to their needs, focusing particularly on rewarded ad channels. During the development phase, they designed custom validation rules that would fit the typical player journey across their games. Once the rules were defined, the system went through private testing, initially rolled out for a single title, platform, and channel as a beta test.

By the end of the beta phase, Playrix saw a great reduction in fraudulent conversions within rewarded channels, a significant decrease in manual intervention for fraud management, and cost savings for ad spend.

The success of the beta phase gave Playrix the results they wished for, and the confidence to expand SoE across additional titles and channels, effectively scaling their fraud prevention efforts. With additional rules available, they can detect more fraudulent app progress across more apps and channels.

Results

We finally have accurate data to make decisions on scaling our UA campaigns, thanks to Series-of-Events.

— Andrey Vilner, Lead UA Manager, Playrix

The impact of Series-of-events Validation Rules on Playrix’s fraud prevention efforts was substantial:

  • Cost savings: Fraudulent conversions were reduced, saving approximately $100,000 a month of the total ad spend for the tested title and channel.
  • Reduced fraudulent rewards: The number of undeserved rewards issued to fraudulent users dropped by 12.5%, contributing to improved game economics and a better player experience.
  • Team efficiency gains: Manual intervention in fraud management was reduced by saving approximately 2-hours per week, per involved team member, allowing the UA team to dedicate more time to strategic tasks and UA optimization.
  • Operational efficiency: Automated fraud detection significantly decreased time spent on manual checks and refund requests, enabling the team to focus on strategic tasks.

Scalability: Encouraged by the initial success, Playrix plans to expand SoE across additional titles and platforms.

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