Playcrafting - Mastering The Art Of Scaling Your Mobile Game

MASTERING THE ART OF SCALING YOUR MOBILE GAME

For More Information About Launching or Scaling Your Mobile Game, Follow @pollenvc on Twitter

PART 2 OF THE POLLEN/PLAYCRAFTING SERIES

Mastering the Art of Scaling your Mobile Game 2

KENNETH LUI

• Business Development

• Competitive Dota 2 and Smash (Melee & 4)

player

• Previously addicted to Clash Royale,

Pokemon GO, Summoner’s War, and Non-

stop Knight


BUILD A GREAT GAME


WHAT IS SUCCESS?


PRE- SOFT LAUNCH

How To Launch Your Mobile Game

MEASUREMENT

• Bug Tracking

• Analytics

• Chart Tracking

• Attribution/Campaign Performance

WHAT ARE OTHER STUDIOS USING?


Apple Releases your cash

• Average Revenue Per Daily

Active User

• 1, 3 & 30 Day Retention

• Benchmarks

ARPDAU AND RETENTION

How to Launch Your Mobile Game 8

ALPHA/BETA TESTS


SOFT LAUNCH


PURPOSE• Competition is fierce, and getting your

game right for the first time is

essential!

• Testing the user experience/behavior

in the game

• Testing that analytics is working

(Marketing -> In-Game)

• Get an understanding of UAC and LTV

11How To Launch Your Mobile Game

PLATFORM


• ~ 3-4 months

• ~ $15-20k USD

• ~ 2,000 DAU

DURATION, BUDGET & SAMPLE

AALTO EE / GAME EXECUTIVE 2016 13


• Bugs/Events

• Downloads - by channel

• Monetization ARPDAU - over $.

20

• Retention

• D1 ∼ 40%

• D7 ∼ 20%

• D30 ∼ 10%

• Organic Growth / Virality (k-

factor)

WHAT TO MEASURE?

Source: Fiksu



Overspend Even Underspend

Large English Speaking Population

COUNTRIES

15How To Launch Your Mobile Game

Examples of Great Icons:

ASO AND APP ICON

*Tune study 2015


UA CAMPAIGN MEASUREMENT


IN-GAME ANALYTICS

Mastering the Art of Scaling your Mobile Game

YOUR PLATFORM RELATIONSHIPS

18

• No substitute for making a quality game that’s fun.

• Pitching platforms early on

• Meet reps at events

• Ask someone if they’ll share your game

• Submit through App Support


TRACKING APP STORE POSITION


LAUNCH

21

TYPICAL LAUNCH SCENARIO

LAUNCH

Fail to get

credit with

ad networks

Can’t

reinvest to

acq more

users

You get

paid by

Apple

DOWNLOADS REVENUE

Rev

enue

/ D

ownl

oads

AALTO EE / GAME EXECUTIVE 2016

22

LOWER YOUR EFFECTIVE CPI BY REINVESTING WHEN YOU ARE RIDING HIGH…

How To Launch Your Mobile Game

THANK YOU

HOW TO SCALE YOUR MOBILE GAME

MARTIN MACMILLAN, CEO

How to Finance Your Growth: A Metrics Based Approach 25

ABOUT POLLEN VC

MARTIN MACMILLAN, CEO & FOUNDER

Pollen VC provides a new type of growth capital for

app developers who are ready to scale

We enable developers to fund advertising by

unlocking the value in app store revenues early

Our model is a flexible and non-dilutive alternative to

equity financing, allowing developers to retail control

while growing their business

Our mission is to get start-ups to think about capital

efficiency, using the right type of funding for the

right purpose


AGENDA

PREPARE TO SCALE

ALL ABOUT THE METRICS/UNIT ECONOMICS

FINANCIALS

WHAT DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION LOOK LIKE?


ARE YOU READY?

WHAT DOES YOUR BUSINESS LOOK LIKE?

MOTIVATIONS

WHAT’S THE END GAME?

28

Everyone knows the stories about a few apps that go

viral with no promotion.

For the 99.9% of all other apps launched, it’s necessary

to spend to acquire users.

THE REALITY IS THAT YOU NEED TO SUPPORT YOUR APP WITH PAID UA

How to Finance Your Growth: A Metrics Based Approach

29

Let’s start with the basics…

UNIT ECONOMICS OF PAID UA

LTV - Lifetime Value

• Expected value of that customer

over it’s lifetime, i.e. total

amount earned

• What does it mean for app

developers?

• How long is a lifetime?

CPI - Cost Per Install

• How much does it cost to acquire a

user?

• Where do I find these users?

• How do I target these users?

• When do I pay for these users?


30

UA HAPPINESS

$2$1


31

50c$1

UA MISERY


32

THE USER ACQUISITION REALITY

Unless you have worked out an ROI positive way to spend money

on paid UA, no amount of VC or external investment will get you

the result you need.

FACT

Prepare to Join the App Millionaires Club

33

CONSTANTLY TRACK

METRICS - DOWNLOADS, CONVERSIONS, RETENTION,

ARPDAU, CPI etc.

ATTRIBUTION - WHICH NETWORKS ARE WORKING OR NOT

WORKING - NB THIS CAN CHANGE DAILY

34

CONSTANTLY TRACK

UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY MEAN,

NOT WHAT THEN STAND FOR!

35

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Understand what it costs to acquire

a user


How long before you receive the

revenue?

The revenue they will generate

VS +


$1.60

$1.40

$1.20

$1.00

$0.80

$0.60

$0.40

$0.20

$0.00

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PROFIT & LOSS DOES NOT EQUAL CASH-FLOW

Days from launch

37

THE PROBLEM: PLATFORMS ONLY PAY OUT REVENUE UP TO 60+ DAYS AFTER YOU’VE EARNED IT.

LAUNCH You’re earning money from day 1

This is your moneytrapped in the payment system

Platforms release your cash…


38

HOW TO USE THIS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Unlock the value of your earnings

rather than using venture capital to

fund growth

Think of your accrued

app store earnings as an

untapped asset


39

LTV CALCULATION ASSUMPTIONS


$1.50 LTV

40



$1.50 LTV

365 Day max.

41



$1.50 LTV

365 Day max.

$1.00 CPI

42



$1.50 LTV

365 Day max.

$1.00 CPI

1,000 Installs daily


$1.60

$1.40

$1.20

$1.00

$0.80

$0.60

$0.40

$0.20

$0.00

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LET’S GET BACK TO LTV

Days from launch


-$100,000

-$80,000

-$60,000

-$40,000

-$20,000

$0

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000 Se

p-1

5

Oct

-15

No

v-15

Dec

-15

Jan

-16

Feb

-16

Mar

-16

Ap

r-16

May

-16

Jun

-16

Jul-

16

Au

g-1

6

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NET CASH POSITION

Net Cash Position

first becomes

PositiveFirst App Store

payment hits bank

account

Spending $1,000/

day on ads


USING REVENUE RECYCLINGN

et C

ash

Po

siti

on

-$400,000

-$320,000

-$240,000

-$160,000

-$80,000

$0

$80,000

$160,000

$240,000

$320,000

$400,000

Weeks After Launch

0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52

Net Position w Revenue Recycling Net Position

-$100,000

-$80,000

-$60,000

-$40,000

-$20,000

$0

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

Sep

-15

Oct

-15

No

v-15

Dec

-15

Jan

-16

Feb

-16

Mar

-16

Ap

r-16

May

-16

Jun

-16

Jul-

16

Au

g-1

6


USING REVENUE RECYCLINGN

et C

ash

Po

siti

on

-$400,000

-$320,000

-$240,000

-$160,000

-$80,000

$0

$80,000

$160,000

$240,000

$320,000

$400,000

Weeks After Launch

0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52

Net Position w Revenue Recycling Net Position

-$100,000

-$80,000

-$60,000

-$40,000

-$20,000

$0

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

Sep

-15

Oct

-15

No

v-15

Dec

-15

Jan

-16

Feb

-16

Mar

-16

Ap

r-16

May

-16

Jun

-16

Jul-

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Au

g-1

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Recycling

revenue allows

you to achieve

same UA

spend on 20%

of your

starting

budget or

spend 4x more

on paid UA

with same

budget

c.$20,000 required

c.$80,000 required


Reinvest earned LTV directly into advertising

Acquire more users faster

Extract LTV on a daily basis

A NEW WAY…

Extract your LTV as you earn it, to fund

your advertising spend and fuel your growth.

Keep your VC money in the bank!


FINANCES

WHO IS THE CFO?

WHERE ARE THE GAPS IN KNOWLEDGE?

PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS

49

FINANCING OPTIONS

VENTURE FUNDING

Product

Team

Acquisitions

DEBT FUNDING

Marketing/Paid User

Acquisition

Financing projected

cash flow


LONG TERM GOALS

WHO WILL BUY YOUR COMPANY AND WHY?

BUILD YOUR BRAND!

PUBLISHER OR SELF PUBLISH?

RAISING VC/ANGEL FUNDING

IF YOU WANT US TO MODEL YOUR LTV AND CASHFLOW PLS EMAIL US!

[email protected]

@PollenVC

mailto:[email protected]?subject=

Playcrafting - Mastering The Art Of Scaling Your Mobile Game

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Transcript of Playcrafting - Mastering The Art Of Scaling Your Mobile Game