About
Founded by two brothers, Lucky Kat Studios is a gaming studio based in the Netherlands.
Their portfolio includes top hits like Nom Cat, Nom Plant, and Grumpy Cat’s Worst Game Ever.
The challenge
Lucky Kat wanted to know with certainty which waterfall approach would yield the highest eCPM and ARPDAU. However, they were having difficulty finding the tools that would allow them to accurately test one ad monetization strategy against the other.
The solution
Lucky Kat was already using the ironSource ad mediation platform to manage their monetization, so when ironSource released a tool for game developers to conduct ad monetization tests, Lucky Kat was quick to adopt it.
“We actually use all features that ironSource has to offer in their dashboard, as each feature helps us build better games. The A/B testing tool is a big part of that.”
- Herdjie Zhou, CEO at Lucky Kat Studios
ironSource’s ad monetization A/B testing tool lets developers like Lucky Kat set up waterfall tests, ad unit tests, and content tests, and then implement the winning strategy.
Lucky Kat set up two main tests, which they would use to pinpoint the optimal waterfall strategy for their games.
First, Lucky Kat tested waterfalls with instances based on flat eCPMs against waterfalls with instances based on historical eCPMs.
Each time a waterfall with flat eCPM instances would drive higher performance, Lucky Kat would set up a second test to optimize even further. They wanted to learn the ideal density of flat eCPM waterfalls and see which would perform better, one with many instances or a few.
The results
The test results came in, and Lucky Kat discovered that the waterfall based on flat eCPMs drove a 50% increase in ARPDAU over the waterfall based on historical eCPMs.
“Working with ironSource really feels like a partnership in which we create win-win situations and ultimately grow together.”
- Herdjie Zhou, CEO at Lucky Kat Studios
In the second test, Lucky Kat saw that the flat eCPM waterfall with more instances performed better against the one with fewer instances. In fact, ARPDAU increased by 10% and eCPM increased by 20%. This was rather surprising, as until that point, advertisers had been advising Lucky Kat to use smaller waterfalls with fewer instances.
Thanks to ironSource’s A/B testing tool, data driven results now drive Lucky Kat’s ad monetization strategy, as opposed to theories and gut instincts.
