Interactive PLAYER RELATIONSHIPS
How to solve the problem of player acquisition
The social casino sector continues on an owards trajectory, but as fierce competition between operators continues, intense pressures are being felt across the sector
Two years ago the social casino market was val- ued at $5.4bn and it has continued to reap the rewards of a perfect storm.
There are number factors which have contributed to the markets rise. Firstly, there has been rapid acceleration in the mobile technology behind smartphones, tablets and other devices which has enabled social gaming networks to grow at an unprecedented rate.
In addition, the discoverability and popularity of social casino games has gone hand-in-hand with the emergence of the Free-to-Play model, which has opened social casino up to a broad and diverse audience demographic.
With millions of players playing social casino games, operators have been able to capitalize on a simple monetization model, in which the more players you bring into the game the more money the game makes. As a result, the market has been heavily focused on acquisition, with companies like Zynga, DoubleDown Casinos and Caesars Interactive investing huge marking budgets to ensure the long term success of their games.
However, there’s trouble in paradise and the gravy train which has been so reliable is slowly grinding to a halt. Soaring acquisition costs alongside fierce competition in the market has threatened the long-term viability of this model.
The complex, resource hungry nature of the acquisition marketplace is one of the main factors that are driving up costs. In many cases it now costs more to bring a new player into the game, than that player is ever likely to spend. This has forced operators to come to terms with some uncomfortable truths and look for new ways of balancing the viability of their games.
7 8
There has also been an explosion in the number of games available. In social casino where the core product tends to be pretty standardised from operator to operator, winning the hearts, minds and wallets of new users has never been more challenging.
This also has a knock-on effect on discoverabili- ty, with the app stores now brimming with social casino games all offering a similar product. Of course, operators have the option to invest in app store optimisation services, but this approach just adds another layer of cost and complexity.
So what is the answer? Social casino operators are responding to these challenges in two ways.
Some operators are starting to look to new chan- nels such as TV advertising to drive acquisition, with some very encouraging results from recent campaigns. As competition for ad space is less competitive in TV advertising, it is fast becoming an important tool in the acquisition armoury.
The other main initiative is to focus on retention and engagement as a way of increasing the num- ber of players which go on to spend in the game. Logically, the Cost Per Install (CPI) vs Lifetime Value (LTV) conundrum can be solved by driving down the cost of acquisition but in a competitive environment this is impossible. And you waste a great deal of resource trying to find the right com- bination of acquisition partners to deliver high quality players with a good return on investment.
Organic acquisition is tough; and paid acquisition can soak up a lot of budget with little rewards. It is not unusual for studios to burn through $250k of acquisition spend with limited understanding of how profitable that spend has been.
As a result, it’s much better to concentrate on
Mark Robinson, CEO DeltaDNA
The biggest change in our industry has been the
realisation that we have a
perfect environment to build responsive experiences for players based on individual
playing styles– gifting chips to players that are struggling,
rewarding VIPs for their loyalty and matching players of equal competency.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84