Getting Big on Facebook: A Case Study Dan Laughlin • Executive Director, Business Development
Jan 14, 2015
Getting Big on Facebook: A Case StudyDan Laughlin • Executive Director, Business Development
Agenda
6L Intro
Facebook Growth Strategies
Case Study: Mystery Manor
Q&A
About Me
Dan Laughlin is Executive Director, Business Development at 6waves Lolapps (6L):
• Responsible for growing the company’s global portfolio of developer partnerships for social and mobile.
• Previously at Microsoft Game Studios as a Lead Producer and a Senior Business Development Manager.
• Before entering the industry, spent time at Thomson Reuters and MarketOne International.
• Holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
About Us
6L…
A network with tens of millions of users multiple platforms
Games from over 50 global partners
Expanding its strategy to mobile
Providing critical services to developers :
Distribution Marketing Localization
Hosting Game Advisory
Our Network Size
25 MILLION Monthly Active Users
3.7 MILLION Daily Active Users
Top Games We Have Published
6L has helped scale many games across a range of genres
Peak 1M+ MAU Titles on Facebook: Ravenskye City Airport City Zombie Island Baby & Me Mystery Manor Ravenwood Fair Mall World Kingdoms of Camelot
Animal Paradise Resort World Simply Hospital Big Business Birdland Legacy of Rome Spartacus: The Game My Fishbowl
Russia / Eastern Europe
The region is extremely important to 6L
Existing 6L Partners: Game Insight, Vizor Interactive, Signus Labs, Playrix, Drimmi, Redspell, Can’t Stop Games, iLogos, iEvoTech, OSA
We are seeking to expand our presence in the region and bring more Russian games to a global audience
6L now has full-time representation in Moscow!
Alexey Shcherbakov, Director of Business Development
Facebook Growth Strategies
Click Exchange
Click exchanges are effective on a small scale, as growth is bounded by the size of the game joining the exchange.
Credits can be purchased to engage more actively in exchanges
Traffic quality should be monitored closely
Self Publishing
Key Considerations:
1. Capital to fund expensive user acquisition
2. Headcount and mindshare for marketing
3. Time to build marketing effectiveness
4. Ability to distribute globally
5. Desire to own End Users and build a network
Long-term company goals and financial strategy should inform if self-publishing is the appropriate strategy
Publishing Partnerships
Key Benefits Network for cross-promotion Funds for user acquisition Marketing efficiency Localization / regional
knowledge Studio focuses on
development
Key Tradeoffs Revenue share Exclusivity Competition versus rest of
portfolio End User data ownership
Publishing is an increasingly relevant model on FacebookEstablished:
Starting Up:
Case Study: Mystery Manor
The Partnership
Focusing on its strengths in game production and Russian markets, Game Insight partnered with 6L to grow on Facebook
With six titles from Game Insight’s talented developers, the partnership has yielded a collective peak of 14M MAU on Facebook:
1. Mystery Manor (3.8M)2. Resort World (3.5M)3. Airport City (2.8M)4. Big Business (2.2M)5. Vegas (1.1M)6. My Country (0.6M)
Multiple titles also launched on Mixi and Yabage social networks in Japan
Mystery Manor: Game Overview
For ten months 6L and Game Insight have worked closely to evolve and grow Mystery Manor (MM):
• The first major Hidden Object release on Facebook• Gameplay built around the free2play model• High quality art• Consistent content and feature updates
MM Pre-Launch Planning
6L Product Management worked with MM producers to build towards full global launch:
1. Iterate on game feature roadmap
2. Review game flow, tutorial, virality, etc
3. Localization start4. Hosting / Scaling plan 5. User acquisition planning6. Facebook platform changes
(e.g. early tester of “fluid canvas”)
Cross-sell Test Traffic
Quality EN Cross-sell
Traffic
Test EN Paid
Acquisition
Full EN Paid
Acquisition
Localized Acquisition
email Campaigns
Phased User Growth
6L has spent millions of dollars promoting Mystery Manor
6L cross-promotion and email campaigns drive “soft money” installs
SE AsiaTurkey
US, UK,
Aus/NZ
~$10K test spend
Spending tens of
thousands per day
Localized ad copy / images
200M+ emails
per campaign
Expanding the Addressable MarketMystery Manor in 10 languages:
Live: Russian, English, Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, German, Turkish
In development: Portuguese, Arabic, Thai
6L manages translation and shares costs with developers
6L employs native speakers for final quality assurance tests
Ongoing Development
Continuous development allows 6L to sustain marketing:
Feature Development – monetization improvement shows impact of an improving game
Content Releases – Healthy retention and revenue spikes due to predictable content releases
User Acquisition
The 6L user acquisition team employs marketers, analysts, artists, and programmers in San Francisco and Hong Kong.
Internally developed tools and processeses analyze spend efficiency and cohort performance.
Mystery Manor Marketing:
Continuous A/B testing
200+ pieces of art
25+ variations of ad copy – each in 7 current languages
Extensive keyword targeting
The Results: Sustained Success
Mystery Manor: What Worked
1) A close relationship
2) Constant product improvement
3) Evolved targeting
4) Marketing coordinated with product updates
5) Translated content and ad copy
6) Cross-promotion and email campaigns
7) Spending big to acquire users
THANK YOU!Contacts:• [email protected]• [email protected]