Evgeny Marchenkov, AdSide Media

Media How to Soft Launch Your Mobile Game on Facebook: A Step-by-Step Guide

(White Nights Conference Berlin 2019)
The official conference website — http://wnconf.com

Transcript

2. How to soft launch your mobile game on Facebook A step-by-step guide Dmitry Yugay CMO dm@adsidemedia.com Evgeny Marchenkov CEO evgeny@adsidemedia.com
3. About AdSide Media We help app developers to acquire paying users on Facebook and Instagram ▪ Exclusively focused on Facebook and Instagram ▪ Deep analysis of each client’s business ▪ Benchmarking for in-house FB media-buying teams ▪ Full transparency ▪ Video and banner production included
4. What is soft launch on Facebook? Acquire users Analyze metrics Improve the game Set up analytics Stop FB UA is not profitable Scale Hard launch An iterative process of UA, in-game analytics and product improvement that helps to understand if Facebook is a profitable UA channel
5. This presentation will… …get you ready for soft launching on Facebook, and teach you: ▪ How to set up analytics ▪ How to buy cheap traffic on Facebook ▪ How to buy paying users ▪ How to create media-buying creative assets ▪ What metrics to analyze ▪ How to apply metrics to the media-buying process
6. Why do we need a soft launch? Test your game ▪ Check analytics ▪ Check infrastructure ▪ Identify bugs & issues ▪ ASO ▪ FTUE ▪ Game economy ▪ Monetization model and payment behavior
7. Different traffic for different goals Test your game ▪ Players (cheap traffic): ▪ Check analytics ▪ Check infrastructure ▪ Identify bugs & issues ▪ ASO ▪ FTUE ▪ Game economy ▪ Payers (expensive traffic): ▪ Monetization model and payment behavior
8. How to soft launch: Step by step guide 1. Check if you are ready to start. 2. Buy first data. 1. How to buy cheap traffic (targeting, optimization and creatives). 2. Test your game. 3. Optimize your ROI. 1. How to buy expensive traffic (targeting, optimization and creatives). 2. Analyze results (cohort analysis). 4. Iterate until you get positive ROI.
9. Step 1. Are you ready to start? Checklist 1. Do you have the events list you want to track? 2. Have you implemented Facebook SDK? 3. Do you use standard Facebook events for important events in your game (like tutorial completion, trial, purchase etc.)? 4. Do you send currency parameter? 5. Do you send verified transactions to Facebook? 6. Have you implemented 3d party analytics or/and your custom analytics? 7. Do you have the same attribution window in all your analytics? 8. Do you have the same time zone in all your analytics? 9. Have your created business account on Facebook? 10. Have you created FB app, FB ad account and FB page?
10. How to set up analytics You need to integrate: ▪ Facebook SDK ▪ 3rd party tracker ▪ AppsFlyer ▪ Adjust ▪ Kochava ▪ Server analytics Remember: There will be discrepancies, but no more than 10%!
11. Step 2. Buy first data Test your game ▪ Players (cheap traffic): ▪ Check analytics ▪ Check infrastructure ▪ Identify bugs & issues ▪ ASO ▪ FTUE ▪ Game economy ▪ Payers (expensive traffic): ▪ Monetization model and payment behavior
12. 2.1. How to buy cheap traffic? ▪ Targeting ▪ Worldwide ▪ Regions with cheap traffic: Africa, Middle East, South East Asia, Latin America ▪ For language specific apps: worldwide but with Language targeting ▪ Optimization ▪ App install campaign with optimization for app installs ▪ Auto bid (you can try manual bid for even cheaper results) ▪ Creatives ▪ 1-2 simple creatives
13. 2.1. How to buy cheap traffic? ▪ Targeting ▪ Worldwide ▪ Regions with cheap traffic: Africa, Middle East, South East Asia, Latin America ▪ For language specific apps: worldwide but with Language targeting
14. 2.1. How to buy cheap traffic? ▪ Optimization ▪ App install campaign with optimization for app installs at Ad set level ▪ Auto bid (you can try manual bid for even cheaper results)
15. 2.1. How to buy cheap traffic? ▪ Creatives ▪ 1-2 simple creatives
16. Step 3. Optimize your ROI Test your product ▪ Players (cheap traffic): ▪ Check analytics ▪ Check infrastructure ▪ Identify bugs & issues ▪ ASO ▪ FTUE ▪ Game economy ▪ Payers (expensive traffic): ▪ Monetization model and payment behavior
17. 3.1. How to buy expensive traffic? ▪ Targeting ▪ Worldwide ▪ Groups of best performing countries ▪ Interests (game genres, competitors etc.). Do not check ‘Expand interests…’. ▪ Create Custom Audiences and LALs based on the significant events in your app (e.g. Tutorial completion, Purchase, Level X achievement etc.) ▪ Some sophisticated segments from FB Analytics ▪ Reuse audiences from other apps ▪ Optimization ▪ App install campaign with Purchase or Value optimization ▪ Try manual bidding ▪ Creatives ▪ A lot of creatives ▪ Try different formats: banners, videos (1:1, 4:5. 9:16), carousels, video carousels etc.
18. 3.1. How to buy expensive traffic? ▪ Targeting ▪ Worldwide ▪ Groups of best performing countries ▪ Interests (game genres, competitors etc.). Do not check ‘Expand interests…’. ▪ Create Custom Audiences and LALs based on the significant events in your app (e.g. Tutorial completion, Purchase, Level X achievement etc.) ▪ Some sophisticated segments from FB Analytics ▪ Reuse audiences from other apps
19. 3.1. How to buy expensive traffic? ▪ Optimization ▪ App install campaign with Purchase or Value optimization at Ad Set level ▪ Try manual bidding
20. How to get value optimization? Information from Facebook manager: ▪ You have Facebook SDK integrated ▪ You send standard Purchase event with parameters Value and Currency ▪ Within a day you send Purchases with different Values ▪ You have enough (~50 per week) Purchases in your Ad sets
21. How to get value optimization? Information from another Facebook manager: ▪ It’s A/B testing so you can’t influence
22. 3.1. How to buy expensive traffic? ▪ Creatives ▪ A lot of creatives ▪ Try different formats: banners, videos (1:1, 4:5. 9:16), carousels, video carousels etc.
23. How to create media-buying assets ▪ Video works best when ▪ Aspect ratio 4:5 and 9:16 for Stories ▪ Up to 15 sec (sometimes even less) ▪ Attention is grabbed in the first 1-2 seconds ▪ Use banners to test ideas, concepts ▪ Create videos based on the best banners ▪ Try carousels: static and video ▪ Try Playable ads ▪ Make a lot of creatives
24. AdSide Media Showreel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBRHNpTy-nQ
25. 3.2. Analyze results. Measure these… ▪ LTV ▪ ARPU ▪ ARPPU ▪ Lifetime ▪ LTV Curve ▪ ROI
26. 3.2. Analyze results. Is it a good campaign?
27. 3.2. Analyze results. Wrong way to analyze!
28. 3.2. Analyze results. Use cohort analysis
29. 4. Iterate until you get positive ROI.
30. Let’s wrap it up To soft launch your game on Facebook: 1. Properly integrate your game with Facebook (check out the checklist) 2. Acquire cheap users to test everything except monetization 1. Choose WW or tier-3 countries, optimize campaigns towards installs and create a few banners 3. Acquire paying users to test monetization 1. Broad targeting (WW), a lot of creatives, optimization towards trials, purchases, value 4. Measure key metrics with cohorts analysis 5. Improve your game 6. Iterate with 3-5 until: 1. You get positive ROI 2. You are out of ideas. Facebook is a wrong UA channel for you.
31. Questions? Dmitry Yugay CMO dm@adsidemedia.com Evgeny Marchenkov CEO evgeny@adsidemedia.com Booth S22