Post on 12-Apr-2017
User Acquisition –Launch & Growth Strategies
Saptarshi Roy Chaudhury
You Built it, Now What ?
Be prepared before this question hits you
Do you have a launch date?
”As soon as it’s ready” – is not a good answer
Your Launch Arsenal
PR, Social Media, App Reviews, Ads..
Getting Your PR Tool Kit
• App Name• App URL• Promo Code : if it’s a paid app• Short App Description• Bullet list of key feature set ( if you have really compelling ones)
• Elaborate description of your app• Elaboration on what a great developer/designer/ visionary you
are
What to Include :
What not to Include :
• Screens• Video trailer, if you have one• Launch Date, if not launched
already• Short company profile• Contact info
Don’t Pitch the App, Pitch the Story
• Research about the site you are pitching and preferably about the journalist. Try to find something common, may be any game he has covered on same genre
• Find out the nature of stories the site does and work on how you can build a similar story for your game
• Time your pitch – the longer your game is on the store, the lesser are your chances
• Share your story – anybody can write about the game, people are more interested to write about the story
• Invest in building relations – you might not need them now, but this will work miracle when you need them
Beyond the tool kit..
The Holy Grail
• Well Known IP• Prior Success• Pre-Launch PR• Available Regions• Languages supported
Not to mention..
A great game !
getting featured by Google / Apple
• Devices & Technology Supported ( Apple Watch etc)• Videos ( in Play Store)
Factors That Help..
Increase your chances..
• Pitch early to the platforms• Meet reps at events – work on building relations• Ask your contacts if they would share your game• Submit through app support
The Holy Grailgetting featured by Google / Apple
App Review Sitesgood to have..
Don’t spend money on this, won’t drive many installs
Adsthey are expensive, but they work!
If done right..
The Launch – Snapshot• Plan the launch date and organize your marketing around it• Get the PR rolling• Invest in User Acquisition• Mix Quality + Incent• Get volume with burst campaigns• Measure KPI’s – attribute by source
Ads – doing it right• What type of users do you want• Have you done a detailed segmentation of your target audience ?• What type of networks do you want to use / would likely work for you• What ad formats do you want to use – Display, Native, Video .. • Is there a minimum audience base that you need to acquire to evaluate a
channel• What is the maximum CPI you are willing to spend • Do you have an initial Volume and LTV projections ?• Do you have a strong attribution analytics in place ?• Are you tracking all the necessary events ?• Do you have your KPI’s in place ?• Do we have skills to manage campaigns in-house or need to outsource to an
agency
questions to ask..
To Burst or Not to Burst
Burst Campaign
SustainedCampaign
You Need Them Both for the Best Resultswell planned & timed
Burst without Sustained Campaign
Burst with Sustained Campaign
Burst Campaign
• The success of a burst campaign depends largely on planning and timing• Don’t rely on one or two network – get multiple networks in place, always have
some backups in case one of your primary network fails• Don’t roll out all networks at once – stack up, this helps reduce duplication in ad
serving and your audience doesn’t get exhausted too soon• Preferably run a non-incent, quality user campaign at the same time – helps
average out retention rate and engagement metrics• If you decide to do burst go all the way, there is no point doing a half hearted
one, it only kills your budget
DemographicsTechnology
NetworkCreatives
Behavior/Interest/Context
CPI, CPC, CPE, CPM, Programmatic,
Fixed price
Analytics integration, attribution tracking,
event tracking, behavioral analytics,
KPI’s
User Acquisitiontargeting buying measurement+ +
Targeting your audience
Fans of Specific Star Trek Characters, e.g, Spock, Kirk
Fans of Specific Star Trek Movies & TV series. E.g, Voyager, Deep Space Nine
Fans of famous Star Trek actors, e.g, George Takei
People who like similar games
People who like/play strategy-Sim games
How we did for Star Trek Trexels
Lookalikes and Replicating Targets• While the previous slide showed the core targeting pattern – we
also leveraged lookalikes to reach wider audience.• We also studied the audience insights from Facebook on people
who made in-app purchases and then tried to replicated the same targeting through DSPs
And the results..
Targeting Clicks App Installs Conv. Rate
Star Trek Fans 24864 6013 24.18%
ST TV Series 22023 5249 23.83%
ST Character 33482 5691 17.00%
ST Actors 34273 5209 15.20%
Similar Games 4304 201 4.67%
Strategy-Sim 4692 242 5.16%
Lookalike 29631 12922 43.61%
Where to get users
Ad Networks
DSPs
Social Networks
Others
Facebook, Twitter
Free App A Day , Cross Promotions
Doubleclick Bid Manager, Trademob, Smaato, Appnexus, Pocketmath
NativeX, Appia, Tapjoy, Inmobi, Chartboost, Admob, Vungle, Ad Colony, Unity, Leadboard, Airpush, Flurry, Millenial Media, AppLoving,
Selecting the right network
Network Category/ Source of InventoryDisplay, Social Media, Affiliate, Direct publisher, Agency, cross promotion etc
Targeting CapabilitiesAge, gender, country, device, OS, Interest, behavior etc
Creative CapabilitiesDisplay, native, video, rich media etc
Tracking & MeasurementIntegration with third party analytics platforms
OthersTransparency, Overlaps, API Access
Getting the Creatives Right
creatives get stale over time and stops performing
Data is your friend !
• Test themes• Test CTA• Test characters ( for
games)• Test copies
Test
Change Meas
ure
Buying Model Pros Cons
CPE
CPI
CPC
CPM
Ideal for driving specific action, e.g, registration, lesser risk of overspending
Limited control on quality of users
Predictable cost of acquisition, lesser risk Limited control on quality of installs, Limited user behavior tracking
Could lead to better quality users, more insightful for campaign optimization, can be cheaper than CPI if optimized properly
Needs highly skilled optimization team to maximize clicks to conversion, generally spend more than CPI campaigns
Ideal for brand advertisers, rich media and video ads, full creative control, rich events & behavioral data
Not an ideal model for driving installs
Buying
Buying• Programmatic is the big word – but is it right for you ?
Pros
• More Inventory / Increased Reach
• Highly data driven• Precise targeting• Real time optimization• Cost effective in long run
with proper optimization
Cons
• Could lead to questionable ad placements
• Higher demand for budget• Needs more technical
sophistication
• Is Programmatic right for you?
Buying
Measurement
Behavioral Metrics Financial Metrics• Retention : D1, D7, D30, D90• No. of Sessions/ user• Avg. Session Length• Completion of specific events
( Nth level , completion of tutorial etc)
• ARPDAU• Conversion Rate• eCPI• ROI = ARPU(nthDay) /CPI
Measurement• What to measure ?• Don’t get overwhelmed with the data flood..look at what
matters
Then came Retargeting..
Increased retention & 30% increase in LTV
How can Retargeting Help• Convert Idle users to Active users• Convert non-paying users to paying
customers• Offers for existing paid customers
Before Retargeting..• Totally understand the game and the flow• Know the game KPIs• Deep dive into user behavior
Approach to Retargeting..
Analyze user behavior
Segment into smaller buckets
Campaigns with customized message for each segment
Some real data..
20% of these churn were recovered using retargeting
Level 1(churn/active/unkn
own)
Level 2(churn/active/unkn
own)
Level 3(churn/active/unkn
own)
Level 4(churn/active/unkn
own)
Level 5(churn/active/unkn
own)
24% Churn on Level One , whereas the other levels have relatively low Churn
900 / 1021 /500
24% / 28% /14%
89 / 117 / 56
2% / 3% / 2%
81 / 173 / 68
2% / 5% / 2%
34 / 91 / 32
1% / 2% / 1%
30 / 97 / 28
1% / 3% / 1%
Retargeting for Star Trek Trexels
Total Users
IAPVersion Version
Latest Version
Old Version
Latest Version
Old Version
YES NO
Some more data.. STT Retargeting
Total Targeted
UsersAd Reached Ad Reached
Percentage Avg. CPCTotal
AmountSpent
Total No. of Converted
usersConversionPercentage
IAP from Converted
users
73200 36762 50.22% 0.03 $313.65 16589 45.13% 3147.18
Retargeting channels
• Global Push Notifications• Users can turn off push notification
• Digital / Mobile Advertising• Facebook• Twitter• Google Adwords• DBM• Third Party networks
Reach Percentage• Most often you cannot reach 100% of your audience base. The
more number of networks you use and the more IDs you have, the higher is your reach.
Retargeting challenge
Retargeting
• Analyzed user behaviour in depth to identify drop-offs and non converting users
• Segmented total user base into smaller groups based on user behaviour, acquisition source, geography, version
• Created specific messaging and creatives for each of the segments• Used Deep Linking• Used multiple channels at once to increase reach
things we did right..
WWW.UPSHOT.AI
Takeaway
Launch• Plan your marketing initiatives well in advance• Ensure all marketing guns fire at the same time on launch• Create a compelling story to pitch for press• Don’t be shy to reach out to platforms, if your app is good
enough to be featured• Don’t spend money on app reviews, invest in ads
TakeawayUser Acquisition
• Clarity is needed – Create your checklist of questions and make sure you have clear answers to all of them
• If doing a Burst campaign, ensure you have everything planned to the T and you are fully committed to it. Don’t do a burst campaign if you have limited budget.
• Always follow up burst campaigns with sustained quality user campaigns• Optimize Everything : Network, Audience, Creatives, Bid etc• Validate networks : establish a validation process• Test Creatives and test some more• Buy wisely – programmatic is great but not always• Use Retargeting• Be data driven – but be selective .
Thank You
Saptarshi Roy Chaudhury- @rishi3211us- saptarshi@xcubelabs.com