How to Monetize your F2P Video Game

Monetizing your Game

Pepe CantosCMO and Head of Product

[email protected]

#3 Worldwide Social Games Developer9M Daily Active Users

Offices in 22@ Barcelona175 talented employees

Social Point is one of the leading social gaming companies worldwide. With more than 9 million Daily Active Users, we create social games for Facebook and for mobile devices, delivering a unique cross platform experience.

Our games are played every month by more than 50 million people, making us the 3rd largest social gaming developer on Facebook.

Social Point HQ is based in 22@, Barcelona's innovation hub. Our team consists of 175 talented Social Pointers from around the world, who share a common goal: to deliver insanely immersive gameplay and set the standard in social gaming.

Social Point: The Company

So you want to monetize your game?

ACQUISITION

RETENTION

MONETIZATION

KPIs

DAU

WAU

MAUDAU/MAU

CPI

CPACTI

AR

IR

ARPU

ARPPU

ARPDAU

PUR

ASP

CHURN RATE

Conversion Rate

Retention

LTV

Session Length

Sessions

Appointment mechanicsAC (anytime collect)TractionReachFrictionPinch pointBalancingScarcityCore loopSub-loopsSoft CurrencyHard CurrencyChance-based gamesClick-away

Interface AgentGrinding mechanicsSink/Tap/Lever featuresReference Price PointsMobile Crashes/DAUMinnows, seals (dolphins) and whalesCohortROIDynamic PricingGatingLiveOpsASOLocal NotificationsPush Noticications

IAPsSNSFollowing Day RetentionLTSurvival CurveElasticityRefundsChargebacksReviewsFirst Time ExperienceTop Grossing ChartsFunnelsGen0, Gen1, Gen2…Manifest

Confused?!

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ACQUISITION

RETENTION

MONETIZATION

Acquisition: Who’s Who

• Organic Users– ASO– Featuring– Top charts (Free and Grossing)

• Paid Users– Marketing Adnetworks

• Viral Users– Game Center– Facebook

• Cross-promo users

Acquisition

• KPIs– DAU– WAU– MAU– New Users– CPI, CPA– CTR– AR (Action Rate), IR (Install Rate)– DAU/Installs– K-factor

Retention• In-game mechanisms

– Appointment mechanics.– Anytime Collect mechanics.– Timing.– Grinding features.– Peer pressure.– Social engagement.

• External tools– Notifications (Local / Push)– Social (SNS integration required)

• App to user• User to user

– Emailing– Retargeting campaigns

Retention• KPIs

– DAU– WAU– MAU– Funnels

• 1st session• Per level• Per goal

– Retention• 1D, 2D, 3D, 7D, 9D, 14D, 21D, 30D• 1 Month, 2 Months, 3 Months, 6 Months• Following Day

– Stickiness – DAU/MAU– # of sessions & session length

Monetization• Friction & Pinch point• LTV• Focus on paying players

– Patterns and Paths– Triggers– Anchored prices– Peak times

• Mechanics– Scarcity– Gating– Dynamic Pricing– Shop management, LiveOps …

Monetization• KPIs

– Daily Active Customers– Paying players– Segmentation (Minnows, Dolphins, Whales)

• Pareto’s Principle– ARPU – Needs a period of time– DARPU– ARPPU– PUR– Conversion Rate– # of Purchases– ASP– In-game KPIs – LTV

“If you cannot explain something simply, you don´t understand it well.”

Albert Einstein

“The simpler, the better.”Occam´s Razor

“Patientia prima virtus est.”Cicero

Keys to succeed (I)

• There is not single way to do things properly.• 1st Session Best experience ever• Iteration Vs AB tests.• Be quick or be dead.• The one that shares shall receive – Share best practices.• Console ≠ PC ≠ Browser ≠ Mobile ≈ Tablet• iOS – difficult to iterate on• Android – better platform for iterations• Browser – best platform to iterate on

Keys to succeed (II)

• First, design the economy and then the game.• Focus on retention.• If you don´t have BI Tools you’re dead!• Real time dashboards will save your live:– Crashes & downtimes may end your adventure

The real adventure starts when the game goes live.

Proof of concept - Prototype – Vertical Slice – MVP – Alfa – Beta – Beta – Beta – Beta – Beta – Beta - …

Keys to succeed (III)

• iOS & Android – 50 Mbs max.• iOS – one update a month – painful submission– Perfect version avoid asking for expedit

submissions.• Android is a very difficult platform to deal with– Big fragmentation– Tons of devices + several textures and definitions

• Butterfly effect

Keys to succeed (IV)

DO NOT RE-INVENT THE WHEEL!!!

BENCHMARK!

KEY TAKE AWAYS

• F2P is also the future• Mobile devices rule the present and will rule

the future• Shipping a game doesn’t mean that you’ve

finished your job• The FUNNEL• Adquisition – Retention – Monetization (KPIs)• Benchmark!

ACQUISITION

RETENTION

MONETIZATION

THANK YOU