Based in Brazil, Rocket Group develops and operates proprietary web and mobile properties with a lean, data-driven team. Spanning finance, utilities, health and fitness, and short-form drama, their portfolio has surpassed 20 million downloads across 150 countries. To build on this momentum, Rocket Group aimed to scale ad revenue, increase inventory competition, and drive return on ad spend (ROAS) — all while maintaining a high-quality user experience.
However, scaling ad revenue without compromising app quality proved difficult. Early tests had trouble maintaining their standards for ad quality and brand safety. These initial efforts delivered mixed results, making it harder to improve ROAS and fully unlock the company’s growth potential.
A hybrid approach delivers scale, speed, and brand safety
To solve this challenge, Rocket Group chose hybrid mediation in Google AdMob, combining the automation and scale of SDK bidding with the precise pricing control of the traditional waterfall. This approach allowed Rocket Group to manage inventory pricing in a unified auction—growing competition while protecting the in-app experience.
Rocket Group used its waterfall setup exclusively for high-quality Google demand, relying on targeted mediation groups to find the best call volume and set price floors. When layering SDK bidders into the unified auction, Rocket Group added three specific third-party bidders that delivered the best balance of performance and user experience.
Rocket Group worked with its Google team to develop a structured testing strategy and conduct weekly performance reviews to track results. The company first tested the hybrid setup on a single app’s mediation group to confirm stable revenue and engagement. Once performance was confirmed, Rocket Group quickly adopted the setup to other mediation groups and eventually across its entire app portfolio.
Rocket Group also used the AdMob Platform Management API to build a custom solution for automating waterfall price rule management. This integration gave the team the flexibility to adjust pricing in a few clicks, unlocking the advantages of a hybrid auction while cutting down the manual effort needed to manage pricing at scale.
Protecting the user experience was one of Rocket Group’s top priorities. Using AdMob’s Ad Review Center, Rocket Group filtered out misaligned ad creatives, giving the team greater control over brand safety than it had found in other platforms.
Structured testing and hybrid strategy deliver higher growth
By implementing a more structured testing framework and a hybrid mediation strategy Rocket Group unlocked significant growth. Over a six-month period, the hybrid mediation strategy drove a 209% growth in daily earnings and a 92% CPM lift for its flagship app, Aprov1. During the same time period, ROAS improved 7%1, while daily active users (DAU) grew by 60%2.
The monetization surge created a powerful flywheel effect, unlocking capital to fund Rocket Group’s user acquisition campaigns. The revenue growth became so strong that the advertising team was challenged to scale campaigns fast enough to keep pace with revenue growth.
Looking ahead to new, granular strategies with AdMob Mediation Pro
Building on this momentum, the company joined the AdMob Mediation Pro program to access advanced features like User eCPM Segmentation.
Rocket Group now has a fast, nimble mediation strategy that matches its ability to ship quickly. With AdMob, Rocket Group can remain agile while scaling their business—protecting the user experience, driving higher earnings, and fueling sustainable growth.
