You've assembled a bunch of super fun gameplay objectives, figured out in-game action, and conjured a bunch of awesome and engaging characters. You're ready to go, right? Well, not quite. Sooner or later, you're going to have to figure out what your business model is, and how you are going to monetize your hit game. Social Point CMO, Pepe Cantos, talks you through the essentials of game monetization, with examples and tips for success.

1. Monetizing your Game
Pepe Cantos
CMO and Head of Product
Jose.cantos@socialpoint.es

2. Social Point: The Company
#3 Worldwide Social Games Developer
9M Daily Active Users
Offices in 22@ Barcelona
175 talented employees
Social Point is one of the leading social gaming companies worldwide. With more than 9 million
Daily Active Users, we create social games for Facebook and for mobile devices, delivering a
unique cross platform experience.
Our games are played every month by more than 50 million people, making us the 3rd largest
social gaming developer on Facebook.
Social Point HQ is based in 22@, Barcelona's innovation hub. Our team consists of 175 talented
Social Pointers from around the world, who share a common goal: to deliver insanely immersive
gameplay and set the standard in social gaming.

3. So you want to monetize
your game?

7. ACQUISITION
RETENTION
MONETIZATION

9. Sessions
DAU
DAU/MAU
MAU
LTV
AR
ARPPU
Conversion Rate
WAU
IR
CTI
ARPDAU
ASP
PUR
Retention
ARPU

10. Appointment mechanics
AC (anytime collect)
Traction
Reach
Friction
Pinch point
Balancing
Scarcity
Core loop
Sub-loops
Soft Currency
Hard Currency
Chance-based games
Click-away
Interface Agent
Grinding mechanics
Sink/Tap/Lever features
Reference Price Points
Mobile Crashes/DAU
Minnows, seals (dolphins)
and whales
Cohort
ROI
Dynamic Pricing
Gating
LiveOps
ASO
Local Notifications
Push Noticications
IAPs
SNS
Following Day Retention
LT
Survival Curve
Elasticity
Refunds
Chargebacks
Reviews
First Time Experience
Top Grossing Charts
Funnels
Gen0, Gen1, Gen2…
Manifest

13. ACQUISITION
RETENTION
MONETIZATION

14. Acquisition: Who’s Who
• Organic Users
– ASO
– Featuring
– Top charts (Free and Grossing)
• Paid Users
– Marketing  Adnetworks
• Viral Users
– Game Center
– Facebook
• Cross-promo users

15. Acquisition
• KPIs
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–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
DAU
WAU
MAU
New Users
CPI, CPA
CTR
AR (Action Rate), IR (Install Rate)
DAU/Installs
K-factor

16. Retention
• In-game mechanisms
–
–
–
–
–
–
Appointment mechanics.
Anytime Collect mechanics.
Timing.
Grinding features.
Peer pressure.
Social engagement.
• External tools
– Notifications (Local / Push)
– Social (SNS integration required)
• App to user
• User to user
– Emailing
– Retargeting campaigns

17. Retention
• KPIs
–
–
–
–
DAU
WAU
MAU
Funnels
• 1st session
• Per level
• Per goal
– Retention
• 1D, 2D, 3D, 7D, 9D, 14D, 21D, 30D
• 1 Month, 2 Months, 3 Months, 6 Months
• Following Day
– Stickiness – DAU/MAU
– # of sessions & session length

18. Monetization
• Friction & Pinch point
• LTV
• Focus on paying players
–
–
–
–
Patterns and Paths
Triggers
Anchored prices
Peak times
• Mechanics
–
–
–
–
Scarcity
Gating
Dynamic Pricing
Shop management, LiveOps …

19. Monetization
• KPIs
– Daily Active Customers
– Paying players
– Segmentation (Minnows, Dolphins, Whales)
• Pareto’s Principle
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–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
ARPU – Needs a period of time
DARPU
ARPPU
PUR
Conversion Rate
# of Purchases
ASP
In-game KPIs
LTV

20. “If you cannot explain something simply, you
don´t understand it well.”
Albert Einstein
“The simpler, the better.”
Occam´s Razor
“Patientia prima virtus est.”
Cicero

21. Keys to succeed (I)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
There is not single way to do things properly.
1st Session  Best experience ever
Iteration Vs AB tests.
Be quick or be dead.
The one that shares shall receive – Share best
practices.
Console ≠ PC ≠ Browser ≠ Mobile ≈ Tablet
iOS – difficult to iterate on
Android – better platform for iterations
Browser – best platform to iterate on

22. Keys to succeed (II)
•
•
•
•
First, design the economy and then the game.
Focus on retention.
If you don´t have BI Tools you’re dead!
Real time dashboards will save your live:
– Crashes & downtimes may end your adventure
The real adventure starts when the game goes
live.
Proof of concept - Prototype – Vertical Slice – MVP – Alfa – Beta – Beta –
Beta – Beta – Beta – Beta - …

23. Keys to succeed (III)
• iOS & Android – 50 Mbs max.
• iOS – one update a month – painful
submission
– Perfect version  avoid asking for expedit
submissions.
• Android is a very difficult platform to deal with
– Big fragmentation
– Tons of devices + several textures and definitions
• Butterfly effect

24. Keys to succeed (IV)
DO NOT RE-INVENT THE WHEEL!!!
BENCHMARK!

25. KEY TAKE AWAYS
• F2P is also the future
• Mobile devices rule the present and will rule
the future
• Shipping a game doesn’t mean that you’ve
finished your job
• The FUNNEL
• Adquisition – Retention – Monetization (KPIs)
• Benchmark!

26. ACQUISITION
RETENTION
MONETIZATION