This document provides guidance for launching a mobile game successfully in a highly competitive market. It recommends: 1) Choosing the right platform, category, and tracking tools before launch; 2) Testing the game in a small beta launch to understand user retention and monetization; and 3) Using a combination of paid user acquisition and organic marketing for the full launch, while closely monitoring key metrics like retention, conversion, and lifetime value to optimize the game. The overall message is that careful planning, testing, and data-driven optimization are needed to succeed among the many new games released each week and compete with the top-grossing companies dominating the market.

1. The Mobile User Acquisition Platform

2. About us
Taptica is a leading mobile user acquisition
platform for brands and app developers to
engage valuable mobile users and find paying
customers.
Our proprietary technology is based on artificial
intelligence and machine learning at big data
scale which enables data driven mobile
targeting and user acquisition, resulting in
maximum ROI.

3.
Our Guide To
A Profitable Launch In The Mobile Jungle

4. It’s a cruel world
1500 new games per week
published on the App
Store and Google Play
the top 25 grossing
companies are taking
85% of the revenues
How Can a
Small Company Win?

5. Pre Launch: Choose Your Battles
• Tablet or Smartphone?
Tablet
first
•
Which Platform?
Monetization on iOS is 4x that of Android. Use
platform like Unity or Corona but focus on iOS
marketing
•
Which Game?
Free-to-play games generate 75% of all revenues.
Don’t waste time on premium
• Which Category?
Choose the right gaming category to compete – the
world doesn’t need one more mobile slot machine
• Keep Track!
Use an analytics & tracking solution from day one

6. Pre Launch: Choose Your Battles
Every category has a different matrix:
Game
Category
Conversion
Hard
Core
Gaming
Low
conversion
to
pay
(1%),
high
spend
Mid
Core
Gaming
Higher
conversion
to
pay
(2.5%+),
lower
spend
Casual
Gaming
High
conversion
to
pay,
very
low
spend
Unless
you
are
Candy
Crush!!!

7. Beta
launch:
Give
it
a
try!
• User trial of min 1000 users,
acquire them if you have to
• Understand initial lifetime
value or early indicators
• Location: launch in Canada
or new Zealand first. Don’t
start with USA

8. Beta
launch:
Time
to
learn
Beta launch performance indicators
that matter most:
•
•
•
•
•
Retention of days 1,3 and 7
Conversion to pay on first week
Spent in first week
Revenues per daily active user
Overall LTV should be greater than
$2 - go for full launch
• If not - reiterate until success comes

9. Launch: Go for it!
Finally, you are ready for launch!
• Get volume with blast campaign
• 50% of traffic from Facebook
• Combine with PR
• Measure everything
• Average user acquisition cost is $1.5

10. Launch: Get quality!
Bring min 50% quality traffic:
Users from video ads are
6x better than those from
regular banner ads
Users from full page ads are
3x better than those regular
banner ads

11. Results: Eyes on the prize!
• Check 24 hours post install:
aim for more than 50%
• Check 48 hours post install:
aim for at least 35%
• User should convert to
paying in 7 days, if not
monetize him via
advertising

12. Post Launch: Go for gold!
• Reach ROI calculation as fast as
you can
• A top 50 ranking gets one free
user for every paid user
• Paid user should break even
• Profit comes from organic users
• Localization meters:
all in-game texts should be in
local language

13. Summary
• It’s a cruel world, 80% of revenues go to top 25 players
• The competition is very high, quality of game is a real factor
✔
• Cost of development + launch of a title: $350 - $500K
• Marketing is crucial
✔
• Cross promotion is an important tool
• SEO, analytics & optimization are key
✔
We are here to help!

14. Your Strategic Partner
Thank You!