Production 101 – #5 Free to Play Game Performance Metrics – Part 2
Why performance metrics matter to game producers.
Explore advanced performance metrics in free-to-play games to enhance player retention and overall satisfaction through targeted user experience improvements.
Understand the pivotal role of Lifetime Value (LTV) as the key performance indicator in free-to-play mobile games. LTV guides monetisation strategies and user acquisition to ensure profitability.
Delve into effective user acquisition strategies, including optimised app store listings and paid campaigns, to attract and retain players, boost their lifetime value, and support long-term game success.
Welcome to Production 101. Here is where we dive deep into game production.
In the first part of our multi-part series, we covered the basics of the free-to-play business model and a few essential metrics. In this second part, we focus on advanced performance metrics and strategies for player acquisition. In the third part, we’ll discuss the psychology and ethical considerations behind the model.
Now that we’ve set the groundwork by looking at the free-to-play model and its core metrics let’s shift our focus to how these principles elevate user experience. Mastering this can significantly impact player retention and your bottom line.
Enhancing User Experience through metrics
Mastering the art of User Experience (UX) is paramount for sustained success in free-to-play mobile games. By leveraging advanced performance metrics, developers gain invaluable insights into player behaviours and preferences, guiding the fine-tuning of game mechanics and user interfaces. This approach optimises player engagement and retention and enhances overall satisfaction, encouraging a more profound commitment to the game.
Performance metrics become critical indicators of how well the game resonates with its audience. They provide a quantitative basis for continuously improving the gaming experience. Thus, strategically applying these metrics can dramatically transform the standard user experience into an exceptional one.
Below are several illustrations of practical UX improvements within F2P games that have notably enhanced their performance:
Improving Onboarding Experience—The First-Time User Experience (FTUE) is critical in F2P games for captivating new players and minimising early drop-offs. Notable titles like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga have refined their tutorials and initial gameplay to ensure new players grasp the core mechanics swiftly, facilitating a smoother progression that significantly boosts retention rates among newcomers.
Optimising In-Game Economies – Achieving an optimal balance between rewarding gameplay and promoting in-app purchases is vital for effective monetisation in F2P games. Clash Royale and Pokemon Go regularly adjust their in-game economies, currencies, and reward systems by leveraging player behaviour data and A/B testing to maximise revenue generation.
Improving Social Features – Social interactions, including clans, alliances, and friends lists, play a crucial role in retaining players. Games like Clash of Clans and Mobile Strike have simplified players’ engagement with active communities, enhancing communication and cooperation and boosting player engagement and monetisation.
Enhancing Progression Systems – Maintaining player engagement in F2P games requires clear progression pathways and rewarding gameplay loops. Games such as Candy Crush Saga and Pokemon Go frequently revise their level structures, challenges, and rewards based on extensive analytics to fine-tune retention and monetisation outcomes.
These examples underscore the significance of iterative UX enhancements driven by robust player data, usability testing, and analytics, all essential for boosting key performance indicators in successful F2P games.
Having explored how targeted UX enhancements can transform player engagement, it’s time to delve into the broader financial impact. This brings us to understanding a player's Lifetime Value (LTV), a metric that encapsulates the economic essence of player engagement.
Player Lifetime Value
LTV is a pivotal metric for the success of F2P mobile games. Here are several vital aspects that underscore the importance of LTV:
Profitability Measure – LTV estimates the total revenue a player will generate throughout their lifetime with the game. For an F2P game to remain profitable, the LTV must exceed that player’s Cost per Acquisition (CPA). Effectively maximising LTV while minimising CPA is essential for sustaining growth and ensuring long-term profitability.
Key Performance Indicator – LTV is regarded as the most critical key performance indicator for F2P games, encapsulating a player’s overall monetisation potential. It significantly influences decisions related to user acquisition spending, monetisation tactics, and product development trajectories.
User Acquisition Optimisation – A nuanced understanding of LTV, segmented by acquisition source, ad campaign, and region, enables developers to fine-tune their user acquisition campaigns to optimise the return on ad spend (ROAS). UA managers use LTV projections to assess each traffic source’s profitability swiftly.
Product and Monetisation Design – Game designers leverage insights from LTV to craft monetisation mechanics, progression systems, social features, and live ops content, all aimed at enhancing and maximising LTV. This deep comprehension of factors influencing LTV informs fundamental game design choices.
Cash Flow Management – Examining the LTV recoup rate—the speed at which revenue is recovered over the user’s lifetime—is crucial for effective cash flow planning, especially as games scale and UA investments grow.
In essence, LTV serves as the cornerstone metric determining the economic sustainability of a F2P mobile game. Accurate modelling and strategic maximisation of LTV are indispensable for fostering a successful and profitable free-to-play gaming enterprise.
Measuring LTV
To effectively measure and enhance LTV in F2P mobile games, developers should concentrate on monitoring and refining several crucial metrics:
Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU) – Calculate the average revenue generated per paying user throughout their engagement with the game. This includes income from in-app purchases, subscriptions, and advertisements.
Player Lifespan – Assess the average duration between a player’s first and last session before they churn, breaking down data by acquisition source for more detailed insights.
Retention Rates – Monitor retention rates for Day 1, Day 7, and Day 30 as preliminary indicators of player lifespan and potential LTV. Continuously analyse how these retention curves evolve.
Conversion Rates – Keep track of the rates at which non-paying users convert to paying status and the success of up-sell strategies to higher revenue levels.
K-Factor – Determine the viral K-factor by quantifying the number of new organic installs generated by existing players through referrals and other sharing activities.
Integrating these metrics into a formula like LTV = (ARPPU * Player Lifespan) + (K-Factor * Install Value) can yield a comprehensive estimate of overall LTV.
With a solid grasp of measuring LTV, our next step is to look at strategies to improve this crucial metric. By focusing on attracting and retaining players, we can significantly increase each player's value to the game.
Improving LTV
As developers, focusing on strategies that attract and retain players can dramatically increase the revenue potential of each user. This involves a multifaceted approach to optimising initial player experiences to ensure ongoing engagement and monetisation.
Optimise Onboarding – Enhance tutorials and the initial gameplay experience to minimise early churn and engage new players within the core gameplay loops.
Implement Progression Systems – Develop enticing level progressions, quests, collections, and paths for achievements to foster long-term player engagement.
Foster Social Experiences – Introduce multiplayer modes, clans/guilds, competitive leaderboards, and social sharing features to boost virality.
Leverage Live Ops – Regularly introduce new content, events, battle passes, and meta-games to draw back lapsed players.
Refine Monetization – Employ A/B testing for in-app purchases, subscriptions, advertisements, and incentivised offers to maximise ARPPU while maintaining retention.
Personalize Experiences – Utilise analytics to segment players and provide tailored content, offers, and messages that optimise engagement and monetisation.
By diligently tracking these LTV-related metrics, pinpointing areas for enhancement, and continuously iterating on product and marketing strategies, F2P game developers can systematically boost their games’ lifetime player value.
User Acquisition
User Acquisition (UA) performance metrics form the backbone of a game’s success and longevity. User acquisition involves strategies and techniques to attract new players, often leveraging targeted marketing campaigns and app store optimisation to make a compelling first impression. Once players are onboard, retaining them becomes the next significant challenge, requiring games to deliver continuous value through engaging content, frequent updates, and responsive game mechanics.
Paid UA
While organic growth is ideal, paid campaigns on platforms like Facebook Ads and Google UAC can rapidly expand your player base. Tailor these campaigns to target users with high engagement potential based on data-driven insights.
Scopely, Monopoly GO! developer invested heavily in paid UA campaigns across multiple ad networks and platforms. Estimates suggest their daily UA spend could reach up to $4.5 million during peak periods. While this budget is extraordinarily high, even for a top publisher, it highlights Scopely’s focus on aggressively acquiring new users through paid channels to complement organic growth.
With such massive paid UA budgets, continuous optimisation based on performance data is crucial. Developers use advanced UA tools and analytics to identify high-value user segments, optimise ad targeting, and double down on the top-performing ad creatives and channels.
A top-grossing game employs a suite of data-driven strategies to measure the effectiveness of its extensive paid user acquisition (UA) campaigns:
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) Analysis – The top-grossing games meticulously track ROAS metrics, assessing the revenue generated from users through paid campaigns against the advertising spend. A high ROAS indicates that the campaigns successfully acquire users who contribute significantly to monetisation. For example, if the game spends $1 million on a Facebook Ads campaign and generates $2 million in revenue from those users, the ROAS would be 2x, signifying a profitable return.
Cohort Analysis and Long-Term Value (LTV) – Rather than solely focusing on initial install volumes, the game analyses user cohorts from paid campaigns to understand their long-term engagement, monetisation patterns, and LTV. Cohorts that exhibit high Day 7 retention rates, in-app solid purchase conversion rates, and elevated LTVs are deemed successful and are prioritised for further investment.
Creative and Audience Segmentation – With various advertising creatives deployed across platforms, a grossing game identifies which specific ad variations and audience segments deliver the best performance regarding ROAS, LTV, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). This allows the game developers to intensify efforts on the most effective ad creatives and continually refine audience targeting to maximise campaign efficiency.
Marketing Attribution and UA Analytics – Top-grossing games likely use advanced UA analytics tools that integrate marketing attribution data across channels to accurately measure campaign performance down to the ad creative and audience level. This granular multitouch attribution data enables precise budget optimisation toward the most effective campaigns and channels.
By employing these data-driven measurement approaches, the game can continually optimise its substantial paid UA investments, acquiring high-value users at an efficient cost per acquisition and driving significant revenue growth.
Other User Acqusition strattigies
Here are some proven strategies for acquiring and retaining players in F2P games:
Optimise App Store Listings – An engaging app store presence is essential for drawing new players. This involves crafting compelling descriptions, showcasing eye-catching visuals, and including videos that highlight gameplay. Utilising relevant keywords and emphasising unique game features enhances organic discoverability and boosts conversion rates.
Utilise Social Media and Influencer Marketing – Establishing a robust presence helps maintain direct communication with your audience across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Partnering with influencers who resonate with your target demographic can extend your reach and imbue your game with social proof, encouraging more installations.
Implement Referral Programs –Encourage current players to bring in friends through referral incentives, such as in-game rewards for the referrer and the new user. This strategy can effectively amplify acquisition efforts and foster a feeling of community.
Focus on Retention Through Engagement – Acquiring users is just the beginning; retaining them is crucial for sustained success. Implement features that keep players returning, such as addictive gameplay loops, community-building social features, regular updates, and special events to reduce player churn.
Cross-Promotion Between Games – If you manage a portfolio of games, use each to promote the others. This can efficiently leverage the loyalty of your existing user base to boost engagement across your entire suite.
Offer Incentivized Installs – Collaborate with reward platforms or offer-wall networks to incentivize users to try your game, such as virtual goods in other apps. This can be an effective way to boost initial user numbers and gain momentum.
To maximise effectiveness, blend these strategies and continuously refine them based on data analytics and player feedback, ensuring your game remains engaging and rewarding for new and existing players.
Conclusion
In wrapping up part two, we’ve explored the intricacies of user experience improvements and the critical importance of Lifetime Value in F2P mobile games. As we’ve seen, a game’s success hinges on drawing in players and crafting engaging experiences that retain them long-term and maximise their value. Stay tuned for our next instalment, where we’ll delve into the psychological aspects and ethical considerations of F2P models, further enhancing our understanding of this dynamic field.