White Nights in Cyprus recap: Q&A with Hitapps on increased ROI and app performance with Moloco SDK

The Moloco SDK, powered by advanced machine learning, simplifies the ad buying process by directly connecting advertisers to publishers, cutting out intermediaries and enhancing both ad performance and revenue for app developers. With access to billions of devices and apps, the Moloco SDK optimizes ROI and eCPMs, offering smarter marketing and better return in the complex open internet ecosystem.

In a recent fireside chat at the 2024 White Nights event in Cyprus, Dilpesh Parmar, Director of Product for the Moloco SDK, and Alexandra Trifonova, Senior Monetization Manager at Hitapps, discussed how Hitapps approach monetization challenges and leverage the Moloco SDK in their strategies. By embracing hybrid monetization models and early adoption of Moloco’s solutions, Hitapps has boosted revenue and ad performance while maintaining a seamless user experience.

Here’s the full fireside chat Q&A:

Q: Could you please introduce your company and describe your role at Hitapps?

Hitapps is a game development studio that focuses primarily on mobile gaming, particularly puzzle and word games. We were founded in 2020, and since then, we've been dedicated to creating engaging and accessible games that capture players’ attention across the globe. Our goal is to combine innovative game design with seamless user experiences, and we've been fortunate to grow quickly in a competitive space.

As for my role, I run all the monetization for the company. This involves overseeing all aspects of monetization and ensuring that we strike the perfect balance between revenue generation and maintaining an excellent player experience. This includes constant performance optimization and making key decisions around ad placements and demand-side partnerships.

Q: We heard Hitapps has vast experience within the ad space — tell us more about that?‍

I’ve mentioned that as a game studio we were founded in 2020. But actually we first tasted success in 2017 when the company became experts in the digital advertising field. We scaled our solutions to achieve the best results in performance marketing and open real-time bidding solutions. 

In 2018, Hitapps became an independent business unit focused on promoting growth by leveraging its expertise, technology, and commitment to delivering tangible results. By providing access to apps' valuable first-party data and cutting-edge programmatic technology, Hitapps enables advertisers to unlock the full potential of their campaigns with precise audience targeting. With strong owned and operated supply and top-tier traffic sources, advertisers can optimize their ROI and achieve targeted results.

In 2020 we took a huge step and began to work with such companies as TikTok, UluGames, Scopely, Neowiz, and Plarium. The transfer of knowledge was just a matter of time – and now we utilize this wealth of experience for game development. Following this, Hitapps Games was born in the summer of 2020.

Q: The game studio was founded in 2020. Could you tell us about the team’s experience building the company?

Building Hitapps has been an exciting journey. Our team consists of talented individuals with years of experience in both gaming and the ad tech industries. This mix of backgrounds has allowed us to build a company that is agile and highly knowledgeable in terms of both game development and monetization strategies.

When we started, we knew we had to be efficient and data-driven. We quickly iterated on our game designs, constantly testing and refining our approach based on player feedback and performance metrics. We’ve built a culture of collaboration where the development team and the monetization team work closely to ensure that the games we create are not only fun but also financially sustainable.

Q: What does your monetization strategy look like? How did the team determine this?

Our monetization strategy is focused mostly on in-app advertising. We rely on a carefully crafted ad strategy that integrates seamlessly into the gameplay experience. For our audience, which plays puzzle and word games, ads are an expected and very much accepted part of the gaming experience.

We’ve found that rewarded ads and interstitial ads perform exceptionally well in our games. Rewarded ads, in particular, allow players to gain something of value—such as extra hints or more time—while driving significant revenue for us. We are also very conscious of user experience and  place ads in natural pauses in gameplay to ensure they feel less intrusive.

This strategy was shaped through extensive testing and analysis. We consistently track user behavior and ad performance metrics to optimize ad frequency and placement, ensuring that monetization doesn’t negatively affect retention or user engagement.

Q: What are some of the key challenges publishers face in the monetization space, and how is Hitapps working to address them?

One of the biggest challenges publishers are facing right now is adapting to the privacy changes in the mobile ecosystem in the last few years - ATT, iOS Privacy Updates, CMPs, Google's Privacy Sandbox for Android, and so on. These changes have made it harder to target users effectively and optimize ad placements based on user data. This has required us, like many others, to shift towards a more privacy-first approach, while still maintaining profitability.

Another challenge is the loss of control when using mediation platforms. Especially as the industry moves more toward in-app bidding from the waterfall approach it became more difficult for us to to have full transparency and control over which advertisers are winning the bids and at what price. 

At Hitapps, we’re addressing these challenges by embracing hybrid monetization models. While our monetization is entirely ad-based, we’re combining different ad formats and strategies, from rewarded video to interstitial ads, to optimize performance and user experience. We’ve also adapted to bidding by closely working with demand partners that provide transparent reporting and strong performance, ensuring we still maintain control over our monetization strategy. Furthermore, we constantly experiment with new approaches and tools to ensure that our games continue to generate strong revenues despite the ongoing changes in the industry.

Q: How did you come to hear about Moloco? and how has Moloco performed for your apps so far?

It feels like it was meant to be — like fate. I'm always analyzing the market and looking for new, promising partners. While reviewing the performance of our existing partners, I noticed that among all the DSPs, Moloco was consistently at the top. Naturally, the question came to mind: what if we work directly with them? Surely, it would bring even more benefits for everyone involved.

I believe we were among the first to integrate Moloco as a custom network (waterfall model) into our mediation platform. And by spring 2024, we were also one of the early adopters of Moloco's bidding solution. In both cases, we saw excellent results. For instance, when we integrated Moloco into the waterfall for our first project, the eCPMs and fill rates were impressive—by that, I mean impressively high. Now, as we're testing Moloco's bidding, we’re seeing an ARPDAU uplift of 5% to 15%, which is a great and sustainable result.

‍Q: What are the key principles that you take into consideration when evaluating new monetization partners?

When evaluating new monetization partners, we focus on a few key principles:

First and foremost is demand — its ability to meet our needs and volumes, as well as the quality of the demand itself. We need partners who can provide high-quality, consistent demand across our ad inventory to ensure sustainable revenue growth.

Second, we consider the ease of integration and the quality of support. It’s important that the integration process is smooth and doesn’t require excessive resources from our team. Strong, responsive support is also crucial to address any issues or optimization opportunities quickly.

Finally, and most importantly, we look at the results. No integration is worth it unless we see a confirmed ARPDAU uplift without negatively impacting the user experience. If a partner can't deliver on this, we won't move forward with the partnership.

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Closing thoughts

The 2024 White Nights event in Cyprus provided valuable insights into the everyday challenges of our publisher partners. Conversations with companies like Hitapps highlighted the importance of testing and innovation in navigating mobile monetization. The event reinforced the need for collaboration and our commitment to helping publishers grow and succeed in an evolving digital landscape.

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