Case study: How we increase installs 192% and ARPDAU 17% with ironSource tools

What’s next after 2billion downloads? To break our own record, we established a sustainable foundation to run for the long-term success of our hit, Tiles Hop via the mediation partnership with ironSource.

In November 2021, we began using ironSource’s Day 1 ROAS optimizer and

cross-promotion tool to achieve this goal. Keep reading to hear from Tri Vuong, our User Acquisition Lead about how we leverage the impact of ironSource to grow our business.

Staying in the top charts long-term

“In the hyper-casual genre, games typically see short-lived success. However, our music games are different - some of our hits remain in the top charts years after release. Because we set such a high standard for ourselves in terms of the long-term success of our titles, we're always looking for innovative solutions to help achieve our goals.

We approached the ironSource team, who we'd already been working with for years to monetize our portfolio, and explained that we wanted to ensure Tiles Hop stays in the top charts and continues growing, all while maintaining our current ROAS. They recommended we try out their D1 ROAS optimizer, which is perfectly suited for hyper-casual games, and we decided to take their advice."

Getting in the growth groove

We started slowly, working closely with the ironSource team to monitor the optimizer’s performance on our UA campaigns and constantly asking them questions. Although the tool does almost all of the work, automatically adjusting our campaign bids by using machine learning, having the ironSource team guide us through the process was critical.

Two months after activating the optimizer, we saw the following results:

• Installs increased by over 192%

• ROAS increased by 11%

• ARPDAU increased by 17%

• DAU increased by 21%

Initially, our goal was simply to maintain our current ROAS - so being able to increase it 11% on top of such a significant increase in installs, was an excellent bonus for us.

In addition to scaling Tiles Hop’s user base, because the optimizer goes after high quality users, we simultaneously saw growth in revenue, with increases in both DAU and ARPDAU. When it comes to sustainable game growth, this is the winning combination.

Meanwhile, Tiles Hop on Android jumped from being number 57 in the US gaming charts to number 14, which was icing on the cake.

Combining the optimizer with cross-promotion

Because we have such a large portfolio of games, cross-promotion is a central part of our user acquisition strategy, meaning we serve ads of one of our games inside our other games.

To do that, we use the ironSource cross-promotion solution, which functions as a dedicated bidder within LevelPlay on the monetization side, and on the user acquisition side lets us run cross-promotion campaigns on a CPI basis. We’ve had a lot of success with this tool in the past - specifically for our game Magic Tiles 3.

Since both ironSource’s cross-promotion and optimizer products have been successful for us separately, we decided to combine forces - using the D1 ROAS optimizer to scale our cross promotion campaigns. In fact, activating these two ironSource products together helped us unlock even more user acquisition growth - giving our cross-promotion campaigns an extra boost.

"Activating these two ironSource products together helped us unlock even more user acquisition growth" - Tri Vuong, User Acquisition Lead

All in all, we’re delighted by the partnership with ironSource and the performance of its suite of mediation products, from the D1 ROAS optimizer and cross-promotion tool. We’re looking forward to seeing what the coming year has in store for us.”

Credit: ironSource

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