Vinwap increases ad revenue by 30% with Firebase A/B Testing and Remote Config
Introduction
Indie developer Vinwap helps users personalize their Android devices with "live" wallpapers featuring gyroscope sensors, parallax backgrounds, colors matched to the environment, and more for apps including Glitter Live Wallpaper Glitzy and 4D Parallax Wallpaper.
Challenges
As most of their apps are free to download, Vinwap uses AdMob to monetize their products. Vinwap wanted to increase revenue by expanding their use of banner ads, but they were concerned that showing too many ads would lead to a significant drop in retention caused by ad fatigue. They needed a way to test the effect of more ads, without alienating all their existing users.
Solution
Using Firebase Remote Config, Vinwap split their users into two equal groups, one of which saw ads in the usual number of places while the other saw ads on all screens, including the wallpaper editor screen. The team then monitored any changes with Firebase A/B Testing, keeping an especially close eye on their user retention and revenue figures.
After only six days, the results were clear: the additional ads weren't discouraging a significant number of users, but they were increasing Vinwap's ad revenue by nearly 30%. The team then rolled out the new ad configuration to their entire user base. "Firebase was paramount in our attempt to fine-tune the monetization strategy and the implementation of new features throughout our apps. A/B testing became the go to analysis tool when introducing any new changes and it completely took guessing out of the picture," said Wojciech Stefanski, the founder of Vinwap.
Results
Increased Admob revenue by 30% with no significant drop in retention
"Firebase was paramount in our attempt to fine-tune the monetization strategy and the implementation of new features throughout our apps. A/B testing became the go to analysis tool when introducing any new changes and it completely took guessing out of the picture."
- Wojciech Stefanski, Founder, Vinwap