You’ve put a lot of effort in building an awesome game and it’s ready for the first launch (and I say first launch because a game is never finally done). No you need players!
Referrals are always the most valuable source of users.
By virtue, performance marketers need to be smart. Because there’s a cost involved we need to be efficient. We have all sorts of KPIs: CTR, IR, eCPM, CPI, retention rates, ARPPU, ARPDAU to monitor the efficiency of our marketing actions. And thanks to all these metrics we can maximize results.
When it comes to ad units, the most relevant KPIs are CTR and IR. These two weird words do move the needle on cost (CPI) and volume. And this is why we pay attention to them.
But come on! We are in the entertainment industry! We just made a game and we want people to have fun with it! How do you measure fun? How do you measure excitement? thrill? All these are emotions that our games generate are very hard to quantify and measure.
Good marketers are good at connecting with people from anywhere and are able to generate the emotions that push us to take action.
And the biggest challenge of doing performance market is to encapsulate those emotions (that are so intrinsic to the gameplay) into an interstitial or a video ad.
Ok, let’s slide right into the ugly because that’s the most fun…
Context matters. You are looking for players, make sure that you are looking for them in the right place! Most people optimize creatives at a campaign level, make sure you also analize creatives at a publisher level. You need to find users that care so that you show a message in front of the right people.
Size matters! It’s very hard to convey a message and establish a value proposition in a 300x50 banner ad.
Less is more! You want to scale but please don’t bombard your users. Let’s keep it clean so that your users know what’s going on…
Less is more when it comes to text. It’s hard to encourage excitement with this. You’ve got 1 shot, 1 sec, to capture their attention.
Have a clear call to action. The player wants to know what’s going on. I have no idea what’s going on!! What’s the difference between OK and Continue?
AB test characters and the messages. Found that face and message in your games that actually resonate with your players. This hot chit scored the most. This ad unit got a 15.7% CTR
Be colorful! It always performs better and transmits excitement. This interstitial had a 12.5% CTR and 5.9% on Chartboost
Localize! You need to connect with your players and persuade them, speaking the same language is the first step to connect!
Show your game play: tell the world how cool your game is. But don’t be too explicit. Generating curiosity generally drives retention and therefore, more revenues.
Who doesn’t like free? We all do! In this world of freemium, let your players know straight away. It does perform 10% better
You don’t need to say it 3 times! Let’s not over do it! And that takes us to the last slide. My bottom line message is that creatives matter. But creatives are not just a graphic asset. It’s a message, the context, the placement, the frequency…
And ultimately, it’s the emotions. This right here is the deadly combo: babies and puppies. Everyone loves them! So the message I want you to leave with is, when coming up with creatives, think about all this factors I’ve shared but, overall, think about what moves your people and ultimately, what moves you.