Proficient Games, a division of The Nightingale Business Group (NiBG), offers more than a dozen high-action role playing and strategy games in the Google Play Store. All told, the Lahore, Pakistan-based developer attracts a million monthly active users and up to 50,000 daily active users.
NiBG monetizes its open world games using a hybrid model of in-app purchases and advertising. Yet it was running into challenges with low CPC rates and a lack of local advertisers, resulting in poor fill rates. User retention was suffering due to poor design of ads within the app experience.
"If we were unable to resolve these challenges, that would have a significant impact on our business," says Tariq Manzoor, CEO of NiBG. "Lower user engagement and poor retention could ultimately impact the long-term viability of our company.
The studio decided to experiment with a new format for ads: adaptive banners from AdMob.
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Title screen featuring an adaptive banner
Approach
Firebase A/B testing proves the value of adaptive banner ads
By adding a single line of code, NiBG was able to specify the width of ad banners to fit into its gaming UI, which relies on a landscape layout.
NiBG tested the adaptive banners for a month across 10 of their titles. Using Firebase's A/B testing and remote configuration capabilities, the company deployed landscape banners for half of its user base.
Before the experiment was half over, the company began to see an uplift in revenue with minimal impact on retention.
"Firebase's advanced features helped us run different experiments to improve our ad/revenue matrices," says Manzoor. "Remote configuration allowed us to perform A/B tests by dynamically changing app configurations for different user segments, then measuring the impact on user behavior, engagement, and conversion rates. This allowed us to optimize the app experience and make data-driven decisions without having to recompile or redistribute the app."
Results
Adaptive banners double eCPMs, with near perfect fill rates
Using AdMob's adaptive banners, NiBG saw positive results across the board, with increases in multiple metrics: Average Revenue Per User, click-through rates, user retention, and net revenue. The eCPMs for the adaptive banners doubled virtually overnight, while user engagement and retention remained strong.
"User engagement increased from 20 to 30 percent, while our fill rates rose to 99%," says Manzoor. "The adaptive banner eCPM increased more than 200% over the standard 320x50 banners, while offering the same great gaming experience. We're planning to implement this change in all of our games in the future. In addition to increasing our profitability, the revenue we're generating from these ads will allow us to acquire more users via advertising."
