Eric Seufert, the new vice president of the acquisition and user engagement department at Rovio, told us what the minimum budget should be for analytics, and why mobile stores are “only for winners”.
Sefert believes that the mobile app market is the most competitive of all. The main reason is that the entry threshold is extremely low. And since the potential profit can be very high, it is not surprising that companies stamp their applications and pour money into their promotion endlessly. For example, he mentions, last year Supercell spent about $440 million on advertising. It is clear that not all of them went to the acquisition of users. But the lion’s share is for sure.
This does not mean that it is necessary to spend millions of dollars to get your game noticed, Sefert believes. There are other, less expensive ways. In order for your project to become “visible”, you need to find a good analytical platform. This will allow you to concentrate your efforts – and acquire only the target audience.
Sefert believes that at least $5,000 to $10,000 should be invested in analytics. That’s how much you need to spend in order to collect data on the target audience at the first stage, and to get information about the behavior of users in the game at the second stage. “This is necessary not only to calculate the LTV, but also to know what the users’ first impression of the game is and where its weaknesses are,” Sefert stressed.
You do not need to expect that users will come to you themselves and you will not spend a penny on their purchase. Developers need to lay at least a minimum budget to increase the user base, Sefert is sure.
“People sometimes say, “I don’t spend on marketing.” For me, this is pure madness, because the development of a paid application implies that you will collect at least some data before you launch your project.”
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Some developers are launching the game in the hope that organics will provide the necessary number of users. But the stores are not designed for this, Sefert believes. They cannot provide the same visibility to all projects. At the very top, according to Sefert, “only winners”, that is, those projects that already have their own audience.
A source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz
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