How Unico Studio scaled its rewarded UA spend 5.4× while exceeding ROAS targets
July 8, 2026
Hybrid-casual publisher Unico Studio was looking for rewarded UA at scale - without compromising the ROAS targets its mature channels already deliver. This is how a partnership with VYBS turned a brand-new channel into one of Unico's most efficient.
Challenge
Unico set out to test VYBS, a rewarded channel with promising volume potential but unproven economics for a publisher of their scale. The bar was clear: prove that rewarded UA could obtain meaningful incremental scale while maintaining positive ROAS against targets that already-mature channels deliver.
BACKGROUND
Unico Studio is a global hybrid-casual publisher with 1.6 billion installs across more than 50 titles, including Brain Test, Popular Words, and Wood Block Jam. Its hybrid publishing model blends data-driven UA with creative-led product development across a broad portfolio of casual hits. Unico partnered with VYBS, a rewarded UA platform that drives incremental, high-quality installs through real-world player rewards and AI-driven optimization.
solution
February marked the launch of VYBS's ROAS Optimization Engine - an AI-driven system rolled out across all VYBS clients, tying optimization to each account's own KPIs through LTV prediction, real-time player-to-title matching, and dynamic spend shifting toward the highest-return cohorts. For Unico, the result was immediate: ROAS targets weren't just met, they were exceeded - giving the team the confidence to expand the roster from 5 active titles to 14, with more in the onboarding pipeline.
It's rare to find a channel that can scale this quickly without impacting performance. VYBS enabled us to grow while continuing to meet our ROAS goals. As performance remained strong, expanding to additional titles became a natural next step for us. We believe there is significant opportunity to further expand our portfolio and scale our volume with VYBS
THE UNICO TEAM
results
Channel spend grew 5.4× while D30 ROAS stayed above the client's target
Two metrics, one chart. As Unico scaled spend on the VYBS channel - most dramatically with a +125% jump from February to March - D30 ROAS climbed to 154% of target in February and held at 124% in March, even through the aggressive ramp.
- In February, the ROAS Optimization Engine went live and D30 ROAS hit 154% of target - the deepest and most monetarily meaningful window. With the engine proving itself, Unico had the confidence to scale spend aggressively.
- In March, spend grew 125% month-over-month as the title roster expanded from 5 to 14. D30 ROAS came down from its February peak but still cleared target by 24% - a strong outcome under that pace of scaling.
OUr process
As Unico scaled spend on the VYBS channel - most dramatically with a +125% jump from February to March - D30 ROAS climbed to 154% of target in February and held at 124% in March, even through the aggressive ramp.
what we learned
LOOKING FORWARD
The economics of the partnership compound: every new title onboarded gets the benefit of an engine that has already learned Unico's player profiles and KPIs, while costing the publisher's UA team almost no additional overhead. That's why the next phase of the partnership focuses on growing the portfolio further.
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