How Idle Ninja Online used Airbridge for growth marketing

Introduction

Idle Ninja Online is an AFK RPG available on Android and iOS. By integrating blockchain into its economy, the game came into prominence as one of the best P2E games in Korea. It has also been long loved by many users thanks to its keen interest in user feedback and frequent updates.

Overview

Idle Ninja Online, developed by Puzzle Monsters, is a crypto-based idle game released in April 2021. Most idle games have a short lifespan that ranges from three months to one year, but Idle Ninja Online continues to have a strong foothold in the mobile gaming industry after more than 1.5 years since its debut. The team has rolled out updates every week and launched fresh attempts to meet user expectations. Youtube and Google Ads were the two channels that played a pivotal role in creating the game’s virtuous cycle of marketing success and business growth.

Challenges

Out of a variety of metrics, Idle Ninja Online put the strongest emphasis on retention rate and ROAS and sought to increase them. They needed to pay attention to two primary factors: the number of days each user continued to play the game and the correlation between user behavior and revenue. In other words, to maximize budget efficiency, the team needed an effective means of tracking channel-level performance and making data-driven decisions.

Solutions

Optimizing budget allocation through cross-channel attribution

A mobile measurement partner (MMP) like Airbridge delivers a unified view of campaign data across different ad platforms with a single SDK. Hence, if you are looking to optimize your multi-channel marketing strategy, it is strongly recommended to work with an MMP.

Idle Ninja Online mainly leveraged Google Ads, but did not hesitate to test out other options to improve overall performance. As much as discovering its best channel was important, driving away from the worst was critical to achieving rapid growth. The team used Airbridge to compare the performance of Google Ads to that of other channels under uniform assessment criteria. Based on the attribution insights, the team could be more strategic with their budget allocation, focusing on channels that brought results.

Performance reporting that enables data-driven decision-making

Another reason why Idle Ninja Online needed an MMP was that they wanted to make data-driven marketing decisions rather than trust their gut. By correlating touchpoints with conversions, an MMP shows the impact of each marketing activity on a business outcome and tells marketers where to prioritize.

In addition, various metrics including deferred deep link install, sign-up, and ROAS are available on the Airbridge dashboard so that marketers can make the most of their attribution data. ROAS is a particularly important metric in mobile marketing because it confirms whether the revenue generated from your paid ads exceeds the cost of running the campaign; whether your strategy is sustainable.

Once, Idle Ninja Online collaborated with P2E/NFT gaming Youtubers to produce promotional content. The team created custom tracking links using Airbridge and embedded them into the content. The campaign went viral, attracting many new users to the game, and the links helped the team analyze channel-level performance for future decisions.

Budget stability driven by predictability

Airbridge’s low-risk pricing plan was also a relative merit. In its early stage, Idle Ninja Online’s top priority was to achieve substantial results on a budget. The team had to be sure there would not be any unexpected increases in marketing expenses, or else, they would have had to look for a cheaper alternative. As Airbridge has a pricing plan that is less variable than that of other MMPs in the market, the team decided to choose Airbridge whose cost was reasonable and foreseeable.

"Data doesn’t provide all the answers on the spot, but it does reduce the room for error that many small businesses have difficulties with. It also helps you define the strategic direction you need to achieve growth. I strongly recommend Airbridge to those interested in drawing actionable insights with the help of an MMP."

‍– Jinhwan Yang, CEO of Puzzle Monsters

Results

Idle Ninja Online is the product of agility, innovative attempts, and proactive user engagement. By adding Airbridge to its growth stack, the game will continue to deliver unique values to users across the globe together with other mid-core games developed by Puzzle Monsters.