Ruby Games is a studio based in Turkey that specializes in hyper-casual game development. Recently, they were acquired by Rovio and have built a game portfolio that’s achieved over 500 million installs.
Looking to revive their stalled title, Streamer Life, the Ruby team switched mediation providers to ironSource LevelPlay. Here, Alper Reka, Head of Monetization at Ruby Games, shares his experience using multiple LevelPlay products, like the day 1 ROAS optimizer and A/B testing tool, to increase daily installs 7.9x, boost DAU by 5.3x, and drive 15x higher revenue.
Bringing an older title back to life
Streamer Life is a hyper-casual game we published about six months ago that reached #1 on iOS in the US, but has since stalled in the charts. Our main KPI has always been to scale our portfolio - and we aimed to achieve this goal by reviving Streamer Life.
We tried another mediation platform in the past but felt there was room for optimizing performance.
"Switching to ironSource LevelPlay gave us the tools we needed to improve both sides of our operation: monetization and UA. Not only that, but it was very simple to set up and integrate"
- Alper Reka, Head of Monetization at Ruby Games
Switching to ironSource LevelPlay gave us the tools we needed to improve both sides of our operation: monetization and UA. Not only that, but it was very simple to set up and integrate. When the ironSource team suggested we try the day 1 ROAS optimizer, we gave it a shot to see if it could bring our game back to life.
Optimizing our UA, improving our monetization
The ironSource team helped us set up the ROAS optimizer, and we selected a target KPI - then the tool automatically started optimizing our UA campaigns towards that goal. The optimizer ensured we placed the right bid on a wider range of sources so we were bringing in higher-quality users and always at the right price. And because it’s all automated, we saved the heavy lifting on the operational end - since we didn’t have to spend time manually adjusting our bids, we could focus on improving other parts of the game. By monitoring performance closely and making adjustments as needed, the ironSource team made sure that we continued to hit our D1 ROAS goal while increasing scale.
"By monitoring performance closely and making adjustments as needed, the ironSource team made sure that we continued to hit our D1 ROAS goal while increasing scale"
- Alper Reka, Head of Monetization at Ruby Games
The ROAS optimizer significantly increased our scale, all while attracting high-quality users. These users spent more time in our game, presenting more monetization opportunities. With the guidance from the ironSource team, we made adjustments to our waterfall to optimize our monetization strategy and make the most out of the users that were driven by the optimizer. Using the A/B test tool, we tried the new waterfall configuration before switching over completely. Doing so proved the waterfall suggested by ironSource performed better - in fact, that waterfall had a 52% higher ARPDAU.
Now the stage was set: the ROAS optimizer was driving significant scale and helped us reach more high-quality users, while the optimized waterfall helped us monetize these users more effectively, which boosted our revenue.
Driving 5.3x more DAU and increasing revenue 15x
The numbers are incredible - results like these speak to the effectiveness of ironSource LevelPlay. On the UA side, we drove significant scale, with a 533% increase in DAU and 7.9x boost to daily installs. We brought in higher-quality users at scale, and together with our waterfall optimization and A/B tests, we achieved a 240% increase in ARPDAU and 15.1x higher revenue.
"Now Streamer Life is one of our most profitable games - our ARPDAU has never been higher since we made the switch to ironSource’s mediation"
- Alper Reka, Head of Monetization at Ruby Games
Now Streamer Life is one of our most profitable games - our ARPDAU has never been higher since we made the switch to ironSource’s mediation. Plus, the game has climbed back into the charts, reaching the top 10 RPG on iOS in the US.
Teaming up to maximize success
Streamer Life was a dead title to us, and using ironSource LevelPlay helped us bring it to life. The ironSource team worked closely with us to get the most out of the LevelPlay platform - we trust their recommendations, and their expertise helped us achieve these incredible results.
"Streamer Life was a dead title to us, and using ironSource LevelPlay helped us bring it to life"
- Alper Reka, Head of Monetization at Ruby Games
We’re already starting to bring more titles over to the mediation and plan to release future titles with it, too, as we close the loop of UA growth and monetization improvement.
