CASE STUDY | Nexon

Remerge exceeded Maplestory M’s CPX and ROAS targets

Founded in 1994, NEXON is a global leader in the production, development, and operation of online games. Nexon currently has more than 40 games operating in more than 190 countries on PC, console, and mobile. Major game franchises include MapleStory, Mabinogi, and Dungeon&Fighter. Remerge has run in-app retargeting campaigns for more than half a dozen Nexon titles – one of which being MapleStory, a role-playing game which first launched on PC in 2003, then later as a mobile app in 2016 by the name of MapleStory M.

Re-engaging users across iOS and Android

The Challenge

Nexon’s objective was to improve ROAS for its game MapleStory M in South Korea on both iOS and Android. The campaign focused on two main KPIs: "ROAS D7" and "cost per reattribution" (CPX). In an environment with reduced ID traffic due to Apple’s App Transparency Tracking Framework (ATT), effectively finding and targeting high-value users on iOS can become challenging. This requires DSPs with a robust infrastructure and advanced bidding capacities in order to scale up campaigns effectively.

Segmenting users based on inactivity and purchase history

Retargeting efforts focused on users with 7 days of inactivity and further segmented users into groups based on the number of purchases they had previously made. This allowed for the delivery of tailored ads for each segment.

Selecting top performing ad-units

Through experimentation, it was found that the best-performing ad formats were banner ads, native ads, and video ads. Leveraging Remerge’s in-house creative team, these ads were adjusted and resized accordingly to ensure maximum impact.

Leveraging advanced machine-learning to optimize ad-buying

Throughout the campaign, intelligent bidding algorithms automatically optimized the bid prices to buy the best in-app ad placements as cost efficiently as possible. Remerge’s team of retargeting experts also manually reviewed and optimized the campaigns on a weekly basis to ensure all goals were achieved.

Increasing roas and improving CPX

The Results

Through the collaboration with Remerge, Nexon exceeded their performance goals on both iOS and Android.

Android: 52% cheaper than CPX target and 138% higher ROAS than Nexon’s target.
iOS: 59% cheaper than CPX target and 51% higher ROAS than Nexon’s target.

Based on this success, Nexon also decided to scale their monthly ad spend for MapleStory M by 800% within the first year of the collaboration.

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