Zupee Sees 15% Higher ROAS Through Programmatic Advertising With Liftoff

Zupee is an innovative online gaming company. They create games that combine entertainment with real cash winnings. Currently, Zupee has a leading market share in India’s casual and board game segment. Real Money games differ from many gaming apps, as they require users to download the game directly from their site.

The Challenge: Lower Costs While Maintaining Growth in a Unique Environment

As a startup in India seeking to maximize growth in the region, Zupee initially scaled by buying on ad networks, affiliates, and walled-garden platforms. But as their reach increased, their costs quickly skyrocketed.

Last year, higher install and first-action costs also coincided with changing policy. India raised its goods and services tax (GST) for online gaming companies. New conditions meant Zupee needed to lower costs without slowing growth or revenue gains. To pull off this feat, they decided to try programmatic advertising with Liftoff.

The Solution: Precise Targeting and Optimized Access to Quality Gaming Traffic

Zupee began running campaigns with Accelerate, Liftoff’s DSP, to test programmatic campaigns on Android for one of their flagship games, Ludo Supreme Gold. Liftoff ran APK download campaigns that drove users directly to the Zupee site. The campaign saw immediate results. With Accelerate, the gaming startup lowered acquisition costs on campaigns targeting first-time deposits from users. They also saw higher ROI on ROAS campaigns aimed at acquiring high-revenue users.

Able to optimize supply paths to quality gaming traffic, Accelerate boosted the reach of Zupee’s campaigns by expanding their exposure to higher-value gamers. Powered by a robust ML, Accelerate optimizes for ROAS with more precise targeting. Trained on the profiles of higher-value users, Accelerate’s ML more accurately determines how likely users are to spend, driving better ROI, all while keeping costs—CPI and CPA—low. 

Zupee also boosted ad impressions and installs by working with Liftoff’s Creative Studio, a team experienced in driving skill-based game conversions. Creative Studio leverages unique ad formats, including triple-page and long-form video ads that are tooled to maximize engagement.

The Results: Delivering More Games to an Expanding Audience

Accelerate reached aggressive initial CPA targets within the first seven days of launch on Android. On average, in the following months, Liftoff’s DSP beat initial CPA benchmarks set in the first month by 12%. 

With ads built or enhanced by Creative Studio, Zupee saw consistently improved install rates. Tested over 30 days, long-form videos drove an 11% lift in installs per mille (IPM), and triple page ads built with creative studio drove a 25% lift in IPM. 

Overall, by optimizing for ROAS, Accelerate outperformed initial goals by 15%. This was reflected in boosts to Zupee’s other KPIs, including ARPU (average revenue per user). 

Impressed by higher ROI and the cost-effective campaigns for Ludo Supreme Gold, Zupee has continued to grow its collaboration with Liftoff. Since launch, ad spend has scaled rapidly on Android, and Liftoff is now a top partner for Zupee as the gaming company continues to expand its audience and its suite of games.  

“Liftoff Accelerate has significantly improved the ROI for our campaigns. Working with Liftoff has helped keep our costs low as we continue to scale our audience. We see them as an essential partner as we discover new markets for our games. ”

Nishant Jaiswal, Vice President of Marketing at Zupee

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