Case Study: JOYCITY achieves 200% ad revenue growth and 30% improved non‑paying user retention with Google AdMob

JOYCITY grows ad revenue 200% with AdMob and bidding

JOYCITY, a leading South Korean game studio with over 500K daily active users, faced falling in-app purchase (IAP) revenue in some markets and wanted to diversify income while improving non-paying user lifetime value (LTV) without disrupting its IAP-focused business. To meet these goals with minimal development overhead, JOYCITY chose Google AdMob for its ease of integration and intuitive interface.

Using Google AdMob, JOYCITY implemented rewarded ads, bidding and tools like Ad Inspector across its top titles; after adding bidding in 2021, in-app ad (IAA) revenue grew 200% in one year, IAA rose from 5% to 10% of total revenue (then doubled with bidding), and non-paying user retention improved by 30% in key markets. Rewarded ads doubled day‑1/7/30 retention for viewers versus non-viewers, boosted paying-user day‑30 retention up to 53%, contributed ~20% of D14 LTV for new users, and enabled JOYCITY to expand its ad team to support the new revenue stream.

JOYCITY

Junki Min

Ads Monetization Manager