Publisher Profile

Rocket Games operates a high-value title with a substantial Tier-1 audience. 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 Opportunity

Rocket Games came to PubScale with a title: a substantial Tier-1 audience, consistent inventory volume and a well-run placement waterfall. The setup was working, and the team wanted to know how much further it could go.

Inside that traffic sat a genuinely premium segment: high-intent Tier-1 users of the kind advertisers actively compete for. Inventory of that quality is exactly what performance and brand buyers bid up when they can find it, and the volume here was steady enough to be worth their planning. At the time, though, the segment was clearing through the same broad low-floor structure as everything else. It was already contributing, and it was capable of more. The opportunity was straightforward, giving the best inventory in the portfolio a price that reflects what buyers will pay for it.

Pricing each segment to its own demand

We segmented the placements by expected value and introduced dedicated high floor bands for the premium Tier-1 traffic, set at two to four times the ceiling of the original structure. Standard traffic stayed on its existing floors, and remnant inventory continued through open auction.

The bands went across two stages, so demand's response at the first level could be read before the second was added - a low-risk way to find the right price rather than guess at it. Everything else was held constant: same placements, same ad load, same experience for the player. Identifying that segment inside a live waterfall, and calibrating each band against the demand actually bidding for it, is work our yield team does continuously rather than once.

Demand rewarded the quality

Buyers did not simply accept the higher floors, they competed harder for the inventory behind them. Premium-tier eCPM climbed 24% across the windows in which that band was live, and climbed steadily rather than settling, a clear signal that appetite for the segment was building.

The pattern held across both upper bands, with the tier below premium keeping its footing throughout, so the portfolio gained without trading one segment away for another. Across the full portfolio, blended eCPM rose 43% from the baseline window to the last.

Premium inventory earned well above its weight

By the final window, the premium bands were carrying just over half of the title's ad revenue from roughly an eighth of its impressions.

What publishers can take from this

Premium Tier-1 traffic can carry premium pricing. Where inventory quality is strong, demand supports higher floors and often strengthens behind them.

Segmentation beats a uniform increase. The gains came from pricing each class of traffic to its own demand, not from lifting the portfolio at once.

Yield is growth that costs nothing. A 43% blended improvement arrived from inventory the title already had, with no additional impressions and no impact on the player, and when the period closed, premium-tier yield was still rising rather than flattening, so the ceiling has not yet been found.

Find out what your Tier-1 traffic is worth

PubScale works with publishers on traffic-quality segmentation, floor strategy, demand analysis and continuous yield optimisation, helping good inventory earn what it should.