mobile advertising best practices for games & apps

12
MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICES FOR GAMES AND APPS WHITEPAPER

Upload: dan-martin

Post on 18-Nov-2014

781 views

Category:

Business


2 download

DESCRIPTION

When you’re developing a promotion strategy for a mobile game, mobile advertising should be your number one consideration. There is no way to get closer to your audience than targeting them while on a mobile device.While it’s important to use PR, have a viral component and a game review strategy, those channels can’t provide consistent and measurable results, like mobile advertising can.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICES

FOR GAMES AND APPS

WHITEPAPER

Page 2: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

When you’re developing a promotion

strategy for a mobile game, mobile

advertising should be your number one

consideration. There is no way to get closer

to your audience than targeting them while

on a mobile device.

While it’s important to use PR, have a viral

component and a game review strategy,

those channels can’t provide consistent

and measurable results, like mobile

advertising can.

Page 3: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

3

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICESWHITE PAPER

www.inmobi.com

Start With the Creative

The first step is to develop a creative messaging

strategy. It’s no secret that consumers are more

likely to click on ads from brands they recognize.

If you have a well-known brand, you should lead

with that. If you’re launching a new game, try to

associate it with a brand consumers will recognize.

EA does this well; they always brand their TV

commercials with EA at the end, so consumers

know it’s an EA quality game.

If you don’t have a well-recognized brand, then

you’ll need to do a great job presenting users with

a superior value proposition. The best way to do

this is to offer the game for free, during the launch

and use advertising to help push the app. While

you want the ad to look good, you don’t want to

do this at the expense of the messaging. It’s easy

to become overly concerned with the imagery and

visual aesthetics.

Targeting

Mobile ad networks offer a number of different

targeting methods—so many in fact that they

provide auto-optimization systems that track app

downloads and optimize your campaign for you.

As the buyer of advertising, it is important to

clearly define your target user by operating system

and region. If you’re promoting an Android game

in English, then you only want to target Android

inventory in English speaking markets. You don’t

want to spend money on inventory where those

users can’t use your game.

Depending on the type of game, some non-English

markets may still perform. The only way to know

is through testing. Consider localizing your game

or app only after exhausting all of the English

language markets globally.

Page 4: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

4

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICESWHITE PAPER

www.inmobi.com

English is used widely in Asia in Singapore, Hong Kong, and India. It’s also spoken in all Scandinavian

countries, and across much of Africa. Targeting high-end devices such as the iPhone4s, Galaxy Nexus,

Galaxy SII will increase your chances of reaching an English speaking user.

There are many English speaking markets outside the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

English Speaking Markets

Page 5: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

5

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICESWHITE PAPER

www.inmobi.com

Your App Store Landing Page

The goal of your landing page is to convert

potential views into downloads. Once a user lands

on your app store page, you have less than

3 seconds to captivate them, before they leave.

It’s important to have a detailed, well-written app

store description. It should articulate the value

proposition in the first sentence, so people can

decide right away if they want to download it.

High-resolution screen captures that demonstrate

your app visually are also important. Be sure to

carefully monitor customer feedback, and promptly

address their comments, both positive and negative.

Most users scan through the comments to get an

idea of what others thought of your game.

For example, the Words With Friends landing page

(see pg. 6) is clear, concise and easy to read. The top

area is used for special messaging and promotions,

a bulleted list explains key features, and links to

their social media pages are provided along with

high-quality screen captures. The app has a high

rating and over 55,000 reviews.

Your icon and name are also extremely important.

The icon needs to be eye-catching to stand out.

Your name should be short and clever. One of the

most important criteria for “featured app” selection

in iTunes App Store is the overall look and feel

of your app. An Apple employee once said, “Why

in the world would Apple ever feature an app in

the store that didn’t look brilliant? Good design is

core to the Apple brand and is something that we

evaluate carefully when selecting featured apps.”

Apple will also look for apps that take advantage

of the latest OS version or device hardware. Google,

HTC, Samsung and others want to feature new

apps that showcase their device or OS capabilities.

Infinity Blade 2 and Real Racing HD are a

few examples.

How Much Do I Spend On My Campaign?

Once you have the creative, landing page, and your

advertising strategy in place, you are ready to

launch the campaign. First, you need to determine

exactly how much to spend. There is no simple

answer and it varies from app to app and developer

to developer.

One method is to optimize your spend to the Life

Time Value (LTV) of your users. This method is

popular for games that have virtual economies

with in-app purchase systems, because the LTV

can be very high. You start by determining what

is the RPDAU (Revenue Per Daily Active User).

To do this, divide the total revenue generated in

one week (include all revenue sources such as in-

app purchases, advertising, offers and any other

monetization sources) by the number of active

Page 6: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

6

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICESWHITE PAPER

www.inmobi.com

Frequent Updates:

This helps demon-

strate that the app is

actively maintained.

Buyers are wary of

apps that are not

well supported.

Links to Social Media:

Specific accounts

for each product is

important. Users want

to use this channel

to get support, make

suggestions and help

promote the app.

Cross Promotion:

Promote the free

version in case a

user is not interested

in buying the

paid version.

Bulleted Description:

Simple bullet points

that call out key

features are an

effective and easy

to way to explain

the game.

Screen Captures:

High quality screen

captures are essential.

Words With Friends

created a custom title

page to use here.

The Words With Friends App Store landing page is a great example for developers to follow.

Page 7: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

7

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICESWHITE PAPER

www.inmobi.com

Since this ad lacks a well-known brand, it leads with the

free message and gives the user the option to access

multiple games.

This Uno ad leverages a well-known brand and has a clear

call to action, plus an offer.

The Sega and Sonic brands are well known and the “Tap to

Play Video” call to action is compelling.

Infinity Blade II is one of the most popular iPad games. The

creative is simple and concise.

This Evolve Your Dragon ad has a great value proposition

and is extremely easy to understand.

Here are some creative examples of campaigns that have performed well on the InMobi network.

Page 8: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

8

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICESWHITE PAPER

www.inmobi.com

users in the same week. Now divide this number by

seven. This method takes into account weekly

usage patterns.

To determine LTV, multiply the RPDAU by the

average number of days in one month a user is

active in your app. Most apps have a one or two

month lifespan. The number of days active can

vary from app to app. Use a method of unique

tracking to find this average. This number could be

anywhere from 2 to 10 days, but it can be higher

for some apps.

Now that you have a good idea of what your LTV

is, you know how much the maximum amount of

money you should spend to acquire one new user.

Most marketers recommend you optimize your

spend to this number only. Advertising is a market

driven economy and you can’t always acquire users

for the price you want. In fact, many times it will

cost more to acquire new users.

Objective: For their new app, Monster Galaxy, Gaia

wanted to drive app downloads and increase their app

ranking in the iOS App Store.

Results: 72 hours after the start of the campaign, Monster

Galaxy ranked in the Top 25 in all targeted categories

and subcategories for both Free Apps and Grossing. Two

weeks later Monster Galaxy peaked at #3 in Free Apps,

#3 in Games, and #3 in Top Grossing.

“The focus of driving valuable, non-incentivized users via

detailed optimization planning is the key to success of

Monster Galaxy campaign.”

Gene Juang,

Account Manager, North America

Mobile Gaming Advertiser

Case StudyMONSTER GALAXY

InMobi is a thought leader in mobile user

acquisition. You can count on InMobi to help

you convert an app into a hit game and build a

profitable mobile gaming business. John Dionisio, Gaia Interactive“

$

$$

$$$

Day

1

Day

2

Day

3

Bu

rst

Cam

pai

gn 1

Bu

rst

Cam

pai

gn 2

Install

Spend

Cost Per

How to Calculate LTV

(Advertising + Virtual Item Purchases + Offerwall) Total Weekly Revenue / Average Number of Weekly Active Users

7

= RPDA (Revenue Per Daily Active User)

RPDAU * (Average Days Active Per User a Month) = LTV

Page 9: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

9

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICESWHITE PAPER

www.inmobi.com

App developers should consider acquiring users at

prices above their LTV in the following scenarios:

1 A New Game Launch: During the launch of

a new game, it’s important to get new users

to try it and build buzz. You will most likely have

to do this at a loss, as consumers are not yet

familiar with your game. They will need a lot of

encouragement to try it. If the game catches on, you

should carefully optimize your spending to acquire

users for less.

2 Peak Season: During the holiday season,

activity is high on mobile and lots of new

devices are being activated. This is a great time

to drive download. Users are interested in trying

new apps on new devices they might have received

as gifts.

3 Highly Competitive Environment:

If competitors are actively targeting your user

base, you should increase your marketing spend to

acquire new users. This helps block a competitor

from acquiring them because you lock in the

advertising inventory.

4 Ability to Leverage Existing User Base: If you

can leverage your existing user base to cross

promote multiple games, then you should consider

acquiring users at a price higher than the LTV of

that individual game. This requires the ability to

measure the impact of cross promotion from game

to game in your portfolio. You also should consider

developing “gateway” games that are intended to

funnel users into your app game eco-system.

While there are lots of metrics that help game

developers optimize their marketing spend, it’s

still ultimately an art, not a science. Strategically

monitoring and optimizing on a daily and weekly

basis is the best way to ensure success.

Page 10: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

10 www.inmobi.com

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICESWHITE PAPER

Tips for Success

Keep your app under 20 MB

The iTunes store imposes a 20 MB limit on app installs across a wireless network. In the Android Marketplace the limit is 50 MB.

Keeping your app under the 20 MB limit dramatically increases the number of installs from advertising.

Advertise on multiple ad networks

Spread out your ad buy on multiple ad networks in order to get the most reach. Ad networks have different sites and apps on

their systems and you will not reach the total market if you stick to just one ad network.

Rotate your creative often

You want to update your creative as often as twice a month, as your creative will lose appeal overtime. Also, matching the

creative to seasonality and other external events should help increase the relevancy to your customers and improve performance.

Prioritize the English language

Most smartphone users are in English markets or understand English well enough to be able to use most apps. Culturally neutral

apps, such as Angry Birds, are popular around the world since they require limited English skills.

Build a portfolio of apps

The most successful app developers have a portfolio strategy and develop lots of apps. Having more apps allows you to cross

promote games and build upon what you have learned from one app to another. This tends to be a hit driven business.

Focus on acquiring users not clicks

This is a common trap many marketers fall into. They measure and optimize to clicks when they really need to measure acquiring

users. Don’t evaluate campaign performance on your click through rate; evaluate it on how cheaply you can acquire new users.

1

2

3

4

5

6

Page 11: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

11

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICESWHITE PAPER

www.inmobi.com

Gregory Kennedy

Director, Global Marketing

Gregory Kennedy has over 10 years

of experience in digital media, in both

advertising and publishing. Prior to InMobi

Gregory was Global Creative Director for

LiveJournal, a highly regarded blogging

platform and open source pioneer. Born in

New York City, Gregory started his career

with bleeding edge Silicon Alley firm Oven

Digital, where he pioneered the use of Flash

rich media and was the recipient of two

Gold Pencils.

Harish Thimmappa

Director, App Advertising Sales, North America

Harish has been leading InMobi app market

strategy and sales since 2009. Previously,

he was a strategy consultant at IBM, where

he helped several multi-national companies

with emerging market entry strategy. He is

extremely passionate about high-tech gadgets

and all things mobile.

About the Authors.

Page 12: Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Games & Apps

12

MOBILE ADVERTISING BEST PRACTICESWHITE PAPER

www.inmobi.com

4 San Francisco

2 London

3 Nairobi

1 Bangalore

5 Tokyo

Contact the office in your region.

1 Bangalore, India

Pebble Beach, Ground Floor

Embassy Golf Link Business Park

Off Intermediate Ring Road

Bangalore - 560 071

2 London, UK

265 Strand, London

WC2R 1BH UK

3 Nairobi, Kenya

Eden Square Building, 7th Floor Block 1

Chiromo Road, P.O Box 856-00606

Nairobi, Kenya

4 San Francisco, CA, USA

1200 Park Place, Suite 290

San Mateo, CA 94403

5 Tokyo, Japan

Fuji Building 7F 701-B,

3-2-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku

Tokyo, Japan 100 0005

Contact us: [email protected]

Follow our Twitter: @InMobi

Facebook: facebook.com/inmobi

www.inmobi.com