Game Profile

Rocket Studio develops and operates mobile games designed to engage a large and diverse player base. As the game's audience matured, the studio focused not only on scaling engagement but also on maximizing the value of its advertising inventory.

To support this effort, PubScale worked closely with Rocket Studio to continuously evaluate monetization performance and identify opportunities to improve auction efficiency as demand conditions evolved.

The Challenge

Monetization performance was healthy, demand was active, auction participation remained strong, and the key monetization metrics reflected an inventory that had become increasingly attractive to advertisers.

However, during a deeper review of auction behavior, PubScale identified a subtle disconnect.

While buyer competition had evolved over time, the pricing architecture governing a significant portion of the inventory still reflected assumptions from an earlier stage of the game's monetization journey.

This is a challenge that often emerges as inventory matures.

As advertiser demand strengthens, buyers gradually reveal a greater willingness to compete for access. The auction adapts naturally, but the pricing structures do not always evolve at the same pace.

The result is rarely obvious.

Revenue continues growing, CPMs improve, performance appears healthy on the surface, but the real question becomes whether the auction is fully capturing the value already present within the demand ecosystem.

PubScale believed there was an opportunity to answer that question.

The Approach

PubScale's analysis suggested that the auction was exhibiting characteristics typically associated with more mature inventory.

To validate this hypothesis, the team initiated a focused pricing study aimed at understanding how advertiser demand responded under changing market conditions.

Rather than optimizing for short-term performance, the exercise was designed to uncover a deeper signal: whether buyers were valuing the inventory differently than existing monetization settings implied.

The outcome would provide a clearer view of the inventory's true market position and inform the next phase of monetization strategy.

The Results

The analysis confirmed that Rocket Studio's inventory was far more capable of sustaining significantly greater pricing pressure than the existing setup running.

More than half of the revenue generated during the testing period came from premium pricing tiers, validating that advertisers were willing to compete well beyond default auction conditions.

The strongest signals emerged during high-demand periods, where elevated pricing tiers captured a disproportionate share of monetization value while maintaining healthy auction participation.

Most notably, ARPDAU increased by nearly 70% on Sunday and by up to 50% across the weekend, demonstrating that the opportunity was not simply higher CPMs, but more efficient value capture from existing demand.

Conclusion

Many monetization strategies focus on increasing demand access.

Sometimes the larger opportunity lies in understanding the demand that already exists.

By studying how buyers responded to carefully applied pricing pressure, PubScale uncovered a more accurate picture of inventory value and identified opportunities to capture that value more effectively in this industry.

The outcome was not simply stronger ARPDAU. It was a deeper understanding of how the market viewed the inventory.

And in monetization, that understanding often becomes the foundation for the next phase of growth.