Top 10 Social Gaming Metrics

Kontagent Analytics
Jeff Tseng – jeff@kontagent.com
Metrics for Social Gaming - 10.26.09

Kontagent
Multiple F500 & Top-10 App/Devs Customers!
Hundreds of applications
Tracking millions of DAUs
Tracking > 50 millionMAUs
Working closely with many devs

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

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

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

Data-driven Design

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

The Social App User Funnel
Acquisition
Activation
Engagement
Retention
Revenue

Top 10 Social Gaming Metrics
(in order of use flow)

#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

#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

#3 Viral Message CTR/Conversion
Measures – Messaging click-through rates and install conversion
Linearity - Non-linear (1/1-x)
Metrics - Click-through rates (direct messaging channels), post-to-click ratios (broadcast channels), conversion to install
Action - A/B test content/copy

#3 Viral Message CTR/Conversion
Application A - A/B Tests (50K+ MAU)
Application B - A/B Tests (700K+ MAU)
Kontagent App - A/B Tests (50K+ MAU)

#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.

#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.

#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!

#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.

#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.

# 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.

#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)

Metrics Tools
In-house Tools – Easy to start, very hard and expensive to maintain
Google Analytics - FREE, so use it
Kontagent – Social analytics

Final Words - It’s About Balance!
Balance
Data Driven Design
and
Creativity

Thanks!
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Top 10 Social Gaming Metrics

by jefftee on Oct 26, 2009

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Top 10 Social Gaming Metrics — Presentation Transcript