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New Case Study: A Changing Business Strategy

Posted Feb 19, 2019

For publishers, it may make sense to not allow ads from competitors or from other user-acquisition apps that might accelerate your churn. Doing so might be costing developers a tremendous opportunity for revenue! AdColony worked with a well-known publisher to test this theory.

Changing Monetization Strategy
A well-known publisher with several social casino titles creates unique mobile gaming experiences that attract almost five million users across the globe per month. The company decided to adjust its monetization strategy based on changing business needs. Looking to gain rapid results, they partnered with AdColony to assist them in reaching their goals.

Working with AdColony’s Publisher Growth team, the publisher removed specific blacklisted keywords across a selection of apps over an experimental period and saw almost immediate results. Overall, the publisher saw a 58% overall increase in eCPM, a 48% increase in earnings, and month-on-month eCPM increases amongst other great results. 

For more information, you can check out the full case study!

Blacklisting Keywords overall monetization

What’s a Blacklist?
For publishers, blacklists include advertisers that are blocked from their app. For advertisers, a blacklist identifies apps where the advertiser does not want its advertising to appear. In the case of this publisher, blacklisted keywords were artificially limiting the number of ads users might see. While it’s true that some competitors may target apps in their same genre, if a user is going to churn out on an app, it’s highly unlikely they were going to stay in that app much longer anyway. User churn is a real thing regardless of how good an app is, so developers may as well make a little eCPM off users who were already on the cusp.

Developers should experiment with these settings. They may find competitors are willing to pay very handsomely for the chance to win users over from one game to another (in the case of this case study, casino, and slots apps). Even if a user does install that competitor app, they may keep using the first app anyway — especially if both apps have a unique value proposition to users.

What does this mean for app install marketers?
For advertisers, target apps that remove keywords offer a profound opportunity to reach an addressable audience that might otherwise be unavailable.

The user acquisition space is only getting more competitive. Last year, more money was spent on gaming than any other form of entertainment, and mobile revenues account for half of that. As more and more publishers recognize the high potential revenue from users who might not be users for much longer, rather than seeing apps blacklist and reduce the audience, it’s a safe bet 2019 will see a more open approach, as developers realize that churn is inevitable and is not a reason to avoid certain advertisers.

About the Study
A successful publisher with several social casino titles on the AdColony platform was using keyword blacklisting to limit ads exposed to its users. Specific blacklisted keywords across a selection of apps over an experimental period were removed and the results examined. The data was compiled within AdColony’s network, where it was then anonymized and analyzed. The data was compiled within AdColony’s network, where it was then anonymized and analyzed.

Join the Conversation
Ready to increase your eCPM and open your app up to more ads? Click the “Contact Us” button up top, tweet us at @AdColony. For the latest AdColony mobile news and updates, follow @AdColony on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or connect on Linkedin.

Jonathan

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