One of Japan’s most popular budgeting apps, Zaim helps its users easily manage itemized receipts by linking their bank and credit cards, and offers insights into average spending across categories such as food or entertainment. In 2020, the publisher decided to make some changes to its own finances, as their current ad solution wasn’t delivering the high quality user experience they needed across numerous device screen sizes. After updating both regular AdMob banners and those from another monetization solution to a responsive, AdMob adaptive banner, Zaim saw a 48% increase in eCPM on Android compared to their other solution’s ads, and a 27% increase across iOS compared to AdMob’s non-responsive banners. On Android, click-through rate on adaptive banners was 33% greater than on the ads from Zaim’s original solution.
Increasing earnings for Android
Zaim was looking for a way to improve the ad user experience, increase the profitability of its Android app and boost its hybrid revenue stream of ads and in-app purchases. Their current ad format wasn’t responsive to different device screen sizes, and provided users with varying ad experiences. That’s when they turned to AdMob as a solution option. Mr. Arai, Zaim’s Ad Operations Manager, connected with Google for details about AdMob ad formats and opportunities. Mr. Arai liked that AdMob’s adaptive banners were responsive, meaning that they could optimize for different screen sizes and provide more consistent ad experience for Zaim’s users.
Easy implementation with internal testing
Set-up was straightforward and Zaim could make all necessary updates without going beyond existing resources and processes.
Their first step was to work with their Android engineer to create an internal-only version of the app where they tested out the ads themselves, starting with AdMob banners. They saw a 17% improvement on Android compared to their original banner ads. Next, they started testing adaptive banners with the release of an external version of the app to run as an experiment a couple weeks later.
One month after replacing AdMob banners with adaptive banners, Zaim started seeing an even greater uptick in eCPM. When it surpassed a 20% increase, the team knew that it was time to fully implement adaptive banners. And as the year went on, this translated into a significant increase in earnings.
Boosting revenue across platforms
Since launching this program in 2020, eCPM metrics across both Android and iOS have soared. After changing the AdMob banner to an adaptive banner, Zaim saw eCPM increase by 48% on Android, and 27% on iOS. The team also saw a 33% increase in click-through rate with the AdMob adaptive banner on Android compared to the other platform’s banner solution. These results validated Zaim’s original assumption that adaptive banners provided an improved experience, and were well-received by users. “We felt the positive impact of increased profits,” says Mr. Arai. “In particular, the fill rate is close to 100%, and I am satisfied that we can deliver the ad space without waste.”
