Separando-se do grupo

When Space Ape was considering who to work with, they knew Unity could be a strong partner because they’d already built three successful games with the Unity engine and had a good relationship with the people behind it.

Space Ape felt they could count on Unity throughout the lifecycle of their title, from development to launch to monetization.

“We've been building our games with the Unity engine and promoted them through the user acquisition platform,” said Nicolas Boulay, Head of Growth at Space Ape. “Our recent exclusive partnership with Unity’s Unified Auction on Fastlane has helped us optimize and better understand better our users' ad LTV.”

Unified Auction provides an open marketplace where the highest bidder truly wins. This is as straightforward as it gets in the ad space — higher revenue for the publisher, and more control over the quality of ads and ultimately the player experience. The scale of the Unity developer network, their dedication to partners, and the sophistication of their products is unrivaled.

A Space Ape acredita firmemente que a confiança dos jogadores e o foco na experiência do jogador são pré-requisitos para um sucesso a longo prazo. Também sabe que criar bons relacionamentos com os jogadores no mercado de jogos casuais requer um equilíbrio delicado.

"No final das contas, o que importa é a experiência de jogo oferecida aos jogadores. Nós queremos que os nossos jogos sejam um serviço que jogarão durante muitos anos, explica Mickey Elimelech, CMO na Space Ape.

Também sabiam que não poderiam contar somente com os IAPs para receitas em um jogo com apelo de massa.

"Nós sabíamos que se apenas colocássemos anúncios no topo, os jogadores desistiriam. Precisávamos encontrar um jeito de usar os IAPs e os anúncios de maneira natural", explica Elimelech.

Space Ape decided that the best way to create ads that players would embrace, was to design them into gameplay right from the start, so that they would feel like a natural part of the game. The studio is set up in small teams, which have the power to make decisions independently. This made it easier for Boulay to work with the product and game teams as well as Unity on monetization, creating the best possible user experience and optimizing the business model.

“Unity has always been there to meet our needs,” said Boulay. “There’s always someone to answer questions, to help us optimize our ads across the Auction, and to make sure we know how optimization takes place.”

Tripled DAU and had a 30% lift to ARPDAU

The Fastlane team did extensive testing in beta and found that engagement in optional rewarded video ads was higher when they were implemented at the end of a race. This testing paid off when they launched globally.

“As an exclusive partner, Unity has the unique ability to help optimize the player experience and monetization of our games with their Unified Auction. The scale of their developer network, their dedication to partners, and the sophistication of their products has helped us increase revenue while keeping our players happy,” Boulay said. “We found that we were able to have both IAP and ads co-existing in a way that optimizes the user experience and Lifetime Value (LTV), and pays off in terms of revenue.”