How to Define Just Right KPIs for Game Operation

TalkingData Leo Cui

Ta

“TalkingData is a professional data service platform for mobile applications,

serving 2,500+ active apps presently ， with almost 1,000 apps are mobile games”

• Third-party mobile app statistical analysis tools

• Professional mobile app data analysis/consulting service

• Specialized product and methodology for mobile games

• Personalized recommendation engine/data mining service

• Forecast model and emulation service

• User attributes tagging and preferences mining service

TalkingData Analytics

TalkingData Insight

TalkingData Product Line

TalkingData Campaign

• Mobile app campaign monitoring and assessment platform

• iOS monitoring tool released in Jun, 2012

• Currently tracking about 1 million valid app activations per day in App Store

• TalkingData Analytics is the fastest growing mobile data analysis platform, already covering over 5 millions devices 6 months after the official release. Monthly growth rate holds at above 100%

2012.5 2012.6 2012.7 2012.8 2012.9

3M7M

14M

30M

TalkingData analytics official release published in May, 2012, the right timing to witness the high growth of mobile Internet in China.

1M

Game developers need continuous data analysis to enhance products

Most developers don't have professional knowledge to analyze data systematically, and in the mean time, facing the pressure of tight schedule, high costs of man power and hardware

App store tracking

Paying player conversion

Game balance

Game improvement

Mobile game developer

Operation based on data through out the whole game life cycle

Player levels/progressesplayers classified by their activeness

How many registrations?How about DAU 、 MAU ?…….

Game release

Marketing campaign

Campaign result tracking

Player conversion/retention

Whale users

Props purchase stats

Virtual Economy

Joint operation/release

... Data

Platform

Mobile game developers facing "data dilemma"

Apr May Jun Jul Aug0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Casual RPG Strategy

Casual games are gradually falling out of favor evidenced by the

number of games, while strategy and RPG games are becoming hotter

since they are more suitable for revenue generating through IAP

Game vendors' favorite game types are changing

Data source: “Mobile App Data Analysis Q3 Report 2012 ", joint released by TalkingData and NetEase

New players

+1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +100.0%

25.0%

50.0%

75.0%

100.0%

Strategy Action RPG Casual Puzzle Desktop

Desktop games excelling at retention, with more well polished

products; more rough ones in other types of games, especially

RPG, dragging down the whole average rate.

New player day 10 retention of different types of games

Data source: “Mobile App Data Analysis Q3 Report 2012 ", joint released by TalkingData and NetEase

Day 1

Day 2

~3

day

4~7

Day 8

~14

Day 1

5~30

Day 3

1~90

Day 9

1~18

0

Day 1

81~36

5

1 ye

ar+

-10.00%

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

StrategyActionRPGCasualPuzzleDesktop

Life time distribution of diff. types of gamesHard core players usually have shorter life time, therefore need to be motivated by

continuous flow of new contents. Desktop games have more well defined playing

routes, but with lots of variations, and have higher player stickiness.

Data source: “Mobile App Data Analysis Q3 Report 2012 ", joint released by TalkingData and NetEase

User preferences aggregation distribution research – hard core player

Data source: TalkingData data mining research

team

角色扮演 射击游戏 动作游戏 战略游戏0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

战略

休闲

射击

体育

动作

益智

角色扮演

冒险

棋牌

养成

经营

模拟器

网游

KPI ！ =Superficial metrics• Superficial metrics

– Cannot be changed– Non-executable– Lack of benchmark

• KPI– Focusing on commercial

purpose– Approved by

management– Executable– Benchmark available

Fine operation

Superficial metric

DAU

Registration

Downloads

Conversion rate

Cost/Revenue

CAC VS LTV ？

Monetization(LTV)

Customer Acquisition

cost(CAC)

• Free• Virally• campaign

KPI needs standardized metrics definition

• Install / Sign-upsBy campaign/channel CAC （ Channel ）Conversion （ Channel ）

• Organic Users• Marketing Users• Click -to- Install -to- Sync• Fake Users• New User Perception

Perception by Channel

• DAU• MAU• Next Day Activities• Usage

Login timesLogin length

• Monthly Active Days

• DAU/MAU• Retention

1 day/7day30day

• EngagementMonthly Logins per UserLifetime sessions1 ～ 10-day activity after Install

• User lifetime

RetentionActivationAcquisition

ACQ = F(Campaign,channel, Users ， CAC, Conv%)

ACT = F(First time Experience ， Usage,Design/UX)

RET = F(User guide ， operation ， task ， alert)

• ARPU （ Monthly ）• ARPPU （ Avg. Revenue per Paying

User• LTV （ lifetime value ）• Virtual currency

purchased/spentBy level/By dateBy types purchased

• Paying users （ % ）• New paying users• Time/level of first charge• Whale

Revenue Refer

REV = F(Charge trap,whale, Conv%)

• K-factor• Invites

Per DAUPer who send invite

• Invite accept （ % ）• Times By type

MassagesE-mail

• Cohort by inviteeRevenueARPU

REF = F(Excitation,UX)

KPI for AARRR

Activ

atio

n

Guide 、 first time

experience

ACQUISITION

• Social Networks• Apps Store(New/update)• Lowest price promotion,

Limited Free

Retention

Emails & Alerts

• User guide

• Task

REFER• Excitatio

n

• Viral

KPI Model- needs professional methodology

• Ads/Campaigns• PR/Forum/Download sites• SEO/SEM• EDM

• Publisher• Traffic exchange

Revenue $

$$

Ads 、 IAP、 Freemi

um

Degree of difficulty, time,

interests

Red Infinity was established in 2010 and has rich experience in product development and publishing. The company has become one of the industry leaders in just one year.

SNS, ， SLG ， Poker ， Puzzle

40Million

MAU 4,000,000

Make money ？ Metrics-driven design

Description ★ TouchArcade.com HOT

NEW GAME ★

VersionsInitial release ： Sep 14, 2012Current version ： Nov 1, 2012

Puzzle + Battle + Collection + EDU

Test in App store ， Without Marketing.

DAU Day 1 retention Day 7 retention Virtual income Marketing Users

How to optimize? KPIDashboards and Alerts – Why did it Happen? – Advantage - Dashboards

The most Important Metric between Initial release.

Day 1 Retention

The first experience

WHY ？ It’s been relatively Low

Day 1 Retention

18.2%Alert

Avg.

Bad Day 1 retention ， but kind of okay after day 2. Cause: new players

Why？

LoadingConnect

Sign up

100% Users

40% Users

Abruptly lost introduction

Bad Connetion

Move to more reliable data center Consider domestic and overseas server distribution Simplify introduction, less steps Embellish introduction Polish pet UI to make it more attractive

What can I do ？

Advantage

Difficulty ？ Operation.

Day 7 Retention

Daily awards

Know players progress

Pay attention to degree of difficulty of early levels

Daily task Login bonus Scheduled copy Bonus pet Friends aid

Only 9 % ， WHY ？

Difficulty ？

Make more money.

Virtual income

A/B test

Drill down

Whale

Extra gems?

Bonus pets?

What’s your opinions?

Compared to revenue graph, purchase is distributed more

balanced and forwarding

Is it possible to let more players make purchase earlier?

Immense visual appeal – Premade PowerPoint Templates

Standardized metricsAlarm monitoring

Talkingdata Game Analytics

Data statistics

Data analysis

Data mining

• Standard reports (something wrong with the game?)

• Custom reports (find problem: when? where? who?)

• Metrics monitoring (need any action?)

• user segmentation (specific user group analysis)

• multi-dimensional analysis (multiple dimensions combo analysis)

• cohort analysis (time slice analysis)

• A/B Test (functional analysis)

• Statistics (regression analysis, association analysis)

• Forecast model (revenue/active users)

• Pattern recognition (Probability of loss, probability of paying)

数据运营之路依然漫长！TalkingData Game Analytics

Web: www.talkingdata.net

Sina micro-blog: Leo_Cui

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