How MarketIQ transformed Arcadian Lab’s creative and advertising strategies

Arcadian Lab’s data-driven approach to game publishing

Founded as a studio supporting hyper-casual publishers, Arcadian Lab began using GameAnalytics in 2018. In 2023, they launched their self-publishing department, requiring more robust tools for market research and competitive analysis. GameAnalytics quickly became an integral part of their data-driven approach.

In 2025, they added MarketIQ to their tech stack. With this platform, they improved efficiency across three key areas: creative inspiration, competitor ad tracking, and market expansion. The intuitive UI allowed them to quickly access insights and make informed decisions faster than ever before. We spoke with Shehroz Ali, COO of Arcadian Lab to understand their methodology.

Why Arcadian Lab chose MarketIQ

Before committing to MarketIQ, Arcadian Lab thoroughly compared it to other app intelligence platforms. MarketIQ stood out for two major reasons:

Faster creative insights and performance data: In other tools, detecting new ads took too long, delaying their ability to iterate quickly. MarketIQ provided nearly immediate access to competitor ads, including their own, ensuring they always had accurate and up-to-date performance data.

“We previously used other market intelligence tools, but MarketIQ’s UX was much more intuitive, allowing us to find all necessary information quickly.”

Ad distribution and market strategy: MarketIQ provided detailed insights into where competitors were advertising, including ad networks and localization strategies. This allowed Arcadian Lab to make strategic decisions about which ad networks to test next and which geographic markets to prioritize.

“When we want to start new game campaigns, we have some competitors, and we can see what channels they use, enabling us to also advertise on these channels.”

Prior to using MarketIQ, they relied on multiple creative galleries and databases that lacked performance insights, making it difficult to determine which ads were actually working. With MarketIQ’s Creative Gallery, they could sort ads based on performance, narrowing their research to only the most relevant and successful creatives.

“When I got access to MarketIQ, I compared it to the tools that we used. I remember when we compared our own portfolio across these tools, MarketIQ had the most accurate and most recent data, displaying even the ads we launched on the same day.”

Optimizing creative strategy with MarketIQ

Arcadian Lab’s creative team, consisting of three key members, relies on MarketIQ daily to analyze trends, track competitors, and optimize their ad creatives. They use MarketIQ for three of their games, focusing on playable, video, and rewarded ads.

Competitor tracking and market research

Bookmarking direct competitors helps them stay up to date on their latest strategies, ensuring they always have a pulse on the market.

When entering a new game genre, such as a simulation game, MarketIQ provides critical market research to help them navigate the space. For example, they discovered that their main competitor was distributing ads on Unity Ads, a network they had not considered before. After testing this channel and adjusting their strategy, they successfully expanded their reach and gained more market share.

“Before, we killed some games. We made games and advertised them on Google Ads but with no good results. But thanks to MarketIQ, we learned that our competitors advertise similar games on Unity, and since then, we have done the same with better results.”

Creative optimization and ad performance

MarketIQ’s keyword search allows Arcadian Lab to easily find high-performing creatives related to their game themes, uncovering ads they would not have found otherwise.

Ad format insights help them analyze camera angles, best-performing hooks, and creative structures that lead to higher engagement. By identifying winning creative patterns, they increased their ad success rate. Shehroz says:

“Keyword search is an interesting feature for us because it helps us to discover games that we would otherwise not know about. We can just search for example ‘prisoner’, which a theme from one of our games, and it we get a full database of creatives related to this theme.”

Research and development efficiency

MarketIQ’s App Analysis and Creative Gallery help them navigate creative challenges, making the research and development process smoother. They regularly track trending creatives to ensure their ads remain competitive and aligned with market demands.

The results: An informed creative and advertising strategy

Since integrating MarketIQ, Arcadian Lab has seen significant improvements in both its ad performance and overall workflow efficiency:

• Creative inspiration & competitive insights have also dramatically improved, reducing the time spent researching and iterating.
• Higher ad success rates, with 4 out of 5 ads performing on target, thanks to data-driven decision-making.
• More effective market expansion, as MarketIQ helped them identify and adapt to new advertising networks and localization opportunities.

“The winning ratio of ads has increased significantly. When I think of our previous processes and the winning ratio, we see great improvements.”

By leveraging MarketIQ’s instant performance insights, competitor tracking, advanced creative filtering, and modern, intuitive UX, Arcadian Lab has optimized its self-publishing strategy and ensured continued success in the hyper-casual and simulation game markets.