Roblox has expanded the use of financial metrics in its advertising platform by bringing the objective Earnings to nearly 30,000 games. The format directs campaigns to users most likely to spend within the experiences and uses return on ad spend, or ROAS, as its main performance measure.
The feature had been launched in beta in May for games with greater monetization capacity. Since then, more than 1,200 games have run campaigns with the Earnings objective, according to data released by Roblox on Friday (2).
Among the games that reinvested up to 4% of their earnings, nearly two out of three recorded ROAS above 100%, which means that the revenue attributed to the campaign exceeded the amount spent on advertising. The eligibility criterion remains tied to the experience's monetization level.
Roblox reduces wait to measure campaign returns
The expansion also comes with changes to the measurement system. Ads Manager now shows earnings in dollars in addition to Robux and adds an estimated ROAS, calculated before all revenue attributed to the campaign is accounted for.
The change aims to reduce a practical problem for developers. Because the attribution window can remain open for up to 30 days, the final result of a campaign takes time to appear. With the estimate, creators now receive an early indication to decide whether to keep, reduce, or expand their budget.
The calculation has also begun to incorporate revenue from Creator Rewards, Immersive Ads, and Rewarded Video. In practice, Roblox broadens the interpretation of the value generated by the acquired player, rather than limiting campaign evaluation to the number of visits or cost per play.
The company also released results from 21 controlled experiments used to evaluate the incremental contribution of ads. All campaigns analyzed generated additional plays. Among users exposed to the ads, the median was a 14% increase in incremental sessions and 10% in the number of users retained after seven days.
The Earnings objective now coexists with campaigns focused on Plays, aimed at finding the largest possible number of players, and with other forms of acquisition within Ads Manager. For already monetized games, the difference is that the system can optimize distribution toward players most likely to generate revenue.
