2. Kontagent Multiple F500 & Top-10 App/Devs Customers! Hundreds of applications Tracking millions of DAUs Tracking > 50 millionMAUs Working closely with many devs
3. How Are We Different Than GA? Deep viral tracking information Tracking of individual viral channels Viral K-factor tracking User-centric model Track user IDs and NOT cookies More accurate measurements User behaviors at a UID level Actions on individual user basis
4. Metrics Are a MUST for Social Games Decide what apps to focus on Aids in making business decisions Understand how your app actually works Takes guesswork out of your design decisions Multiply the end results of your product Metrics are part of the PROCESS
5. Social Gaming Metrics are Different Vs. Web Metrics Social metrics Persistent user ID User app model Vs. Gaming Metrics Social metrics Real-time user data Monetization metrics
7. What Makes a Good Social Gaming Metric? Simple – understandable Actionable – results in direct action Accessible – easy to measure High-leverage – big results Monetizable – increases revenue Relative measurements Ratios/conversions are useful Trending – 7 day works well
8. The Social App User Funnel Acquisition Activation Engagement Retention Revenue
10. #1 Entry Event Distribution Measures - First action the user takes in a session Metrics - Distribution of entry events (which events lead to the highest time on site – hard to do but useful) Action - Test to see what entry events are the most effective at bringing users back
11. #2 Outbound Messages/User Measures – Outbound virality Linearity - Non-linear results(1/1-x) Metrics - Posts/user (broadcast messaging), Sent messages/user (direct messaging Action - A/B test flow and content/copy
14. #4 Virality (K-factor) Measures – Organic growth Linearity - Non-linear (1/1-k) Metrics - k-factor (average branching factor) for 1, 3, 7 and all days Action - Decide to focus on virality engagement, retention or monetization.
15. #5 Engagement Measures - How engaged is a user spending in the application Metrics - Time on site is a good universal metric Need to be careful since time on site can be tricky, best to normalize to something that is equal for all users, i.e. page views. Actions – Add more to do in the game. Cohort test to see if that improves the time on site. Funnel testing to see if users are getting stuck somewhere.
16. #6 Exit Event Distribtion Measures - The last thing the user does before he/she leaves the session Metrics - Exit event distribution Actions - Funnel testing to get the user to move on after the steps where they leave the session. Add additional game play so there is more to do. Improve the user experience of the last event!
17. #7 Retention – Revisit Rate Measures – Do users come back? How sticky is the game? Linearity – Non-liner (1/1-x) Metrics – Daily and weekly revisit rate by daily and weekly cohort. Actions – Social engagement (optimize messaging channels), add in timer based events, add events that occur when the user is not there. High virality with low retention means low long-term growth.
18. #8 Lifetime Network Value Description - Value of a User including viral effects (LifeTime Network Value) Metrics - Actually very hard to calculate accurately, but here’s a first-order approximation: Actions - Calculate the LTNV for your application. If: economical to buy traffic.
19. # 9 Conversion to Paying Users Measures – How many of your users are willing to pay Metrics - % of your users that are paying users Actions - Funnel testing to increase pay conversion funnel. Increase the monetization touch points. Increase currency demand by creating scarcity and creating desirable goods for your demographic.
20. #10 Average Revenue Per Paying User Measures – How much paying users are spending (don’t focus on CPM model, it’s not monetizing well) Metrics – Average Revenue Per Paying User per Month Actions - Add more points of monetization, generate demand and scarcity. “The game is just the engine to acquire users, the money is made from the creative goods.” -Greg Thomson (Creator of YoVille and Fishworld)
21. Metrics Tools In-house Tools – Easy to start, very hard and expensive to maintain Google Analytics - FREE, so use it Kontagent – Social analytics
22. Final Words - It’s About Balance! Balance Data Driven Design and Creativity
23. Thanks! Sign up at kontagent.com 2 Packages Free package with basic tracking Premium package for serious developers Enterprise package for large business 30 Day Free Premium Trial
Editor's Notes
Gives you an understanding of whether a game is doing well or notNot all games are hits, you need to know when you move on (how do you know?) – try tweaking the game, if it’s not either “viral”, “highly engaging” or high “retention”, drop itForce multiplier – takes an existing product and allows you to continually improve itCreativity is the hard partMetrics exposes how your monetization worksDrives your design decisions – takes the guessing out of the system (hint: there’s more than enough traffic on Facebook to help you do this testing)
Different metrics, BI metrics and social gaming metrics, both are important for different reasons, but there is overlapBI metrics are for making projections so the business ppl can make high level decisions – won’t talk about those, they’re highly depend on the organizationSocial Gaming Metrics helps you build better games makes more moneyActionableObjective - AudibleInput change leads to Non-linear resultsCan eventually be tied to monetization/custom goalsAbsolute numbers are useless for tuning games – good for BI still thoughUse relative measurements, generally ratiosTime is in deltas
