Neowiz is an established mobile app and games publisher based in South Korea, founded back in 1997. For their latest title, IdolChamp - a platform for global K-pop fans to support their idols - Neowiz partnered with ironSource to maximize its revenue from offerwall ads while optimizing the user experience. Hear how they did just that from Soyeon Kim, Monetization Manager at Neowiz.
Hitting a wall
The in-app economy of our app IdolChamp is strongly suited to user-initiated ads like offerwalls. In the app, K-pop fans can support their favorite K-pop stars by using an in-app currency called “Champsim”, and using it to get their idols featured in TV shows, subway ads, and more. This currency is a core feature of the app, and is earned by making in-app purchases or by engaging with ads like offerwalls and rewarded videos. Essentially, offerwall ads are a vehicle through which our users can fulfill their motivation for using IdolChamp - earning and spending currency to support their K-pop idols.
We knew offerwall ads had the potential to reach extremely high eCPMs, however prior to our partnership with ironSource we were struggling to leverage this. We had two main challenges in scaling our offerwall revenue: we were only accessing demand from a handful of countries, which contributed to our other problem - we were limited to low eCPM offers from ad networks.
Breaking through the offerwall
To solve this problem, we integrated ironSource’s offerwall, hoping to tap into their strong demand to maximize our eCPMs and replicate the success they’ve provided other app publishers.
ironSource quickly became our best performing ad network, with our eCPM reaching $729 - the highest for our offerwall inventory - and also providing us our strongest completion rates. As a result, we decided to run ironSource’s offerwall ad network exclusively on Android.
“ironSource quickly became our best performing ad network, with our eCPM reaching $729 - the highest for our offerwall inventory”
- Soyeon Kim, Monetization Manager at Neowiz
To drive up engagement rates from our users, the ironSource team helped us run a special promotion in which users received extra currency in return for completing an offerwall event. During this promotion period, we increased our ARPDEU by 375% and our eCPMs by 156%.
Moreover, because we see offerwalls as an important mechanic in our core app loop, making sure it feels good to use from a UX perspective was critical. To deliver the smoothest user experience, ironSource provided a custom offerwall skin that ensures a seamless transition between the app and the offerwall placement.
Dream partner
ironSource has been a true partner - on top of the significant uplift in revenue they’ve unlocked for us, the team’s fast operational and technical support has made working together a breeze.
We have peace of mind knowing we can run our offerwall placements without critical UX issues, thanks to the strong tech infrastructure supporting ironSource’s offerwall serving technology and the close support from their team in our daily operations.
In addition, ironSource keeps us updated on special promotions on a regular basis that maximizes our chances of monetizing our content.
