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VB INSIGHTS MOBILE MARKETING BUNDLE:

AN INSIDERS LOOK INTO MOBILE GAMING SUCCESSHIGHLIGHTS OF 3 MOBILE MARKETING REPORTS

PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Mobile Marketing Bundle - Mobile Gaming Success_1.pdf for [email protected]([email protected]). Not for public or external distribution.

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CONTENTS PAGEMOBILE APP ANALYTICS: WHAT WINNING MOBILE DEVELOPERS USEExecutive SummaryWhat Weve Learned What Youll Get In This Report

IntroductionGoogle Analytics: Android Monopoly? Flurry: Ios Dominance But ... 2 Out Of 3 Mobile Developers Use More Than One Analytics Tool

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MOBILE GAMES MONETIZATION: WHAT SUCCESSFUL GAME DEVELOPERS DO DIFFERENTLYExecutive Summary

IntroductionMost Effective Monetization Strategies And Companies Least Effective Monetization Strategies

MOBILE USER ACQUISITION: HOW THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPERS GET BETTER USERS FOR LESS MONEYExecutive Summary

Introduction

What Successful Developers Do DifferentlyDont Buy Cheap Users The Expensive Way The 5 Hidden Horsemen Of User Acquisition

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WANT TO LEARN MORE? DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORTS BELOW:MOBILE APP ANALYTICS | MOBILE GAMES MONETIZATION | MOBILE USER ACQUISITION

MOBILE APP ANALYTICS: WHAT WINNING MOBILE DEVELOPERS USE

Building a great app is step one. Acquiring users is step two. Engaging and monetizing users is step three.

But how can you engage and monetize when you dont know whats going on?

App analytics solutions are the answer. Or, more accurately, the hundreds of answers ... since there are many, many options for mobile developers to consider. But which ones are going to deliver the kind of value that will allow you to properly engage the users you acquire, understand what theyre doing, provide the value theyre seeking, and enable you to monetize your app?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


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250 million users To answer this question, we asked 230 app developers with 250 million currently activeusers how they track app data, what works best for them, and what doesnt work.

1.8 million apps We also partnered with MixRank to get access to SDK, ratings, and download data for over 1.8 million apps on Google Play and the iOS App Store.

WHAT WEVE LEARNED

Google Analytics is essentially a monopoly on Google Play ... but its the primaryanalytics solution for only 30% of developers

Flurry owns iOS ... but has its own challenges

Most developers use more than one analytics solution ... and the more successful they are, the more try that is

Some solutions are studs on one platform, and duds on another

Twitter is deep; Facebook is broad

At a certain scale, some developers prefer to roll their own

Some of the very best solutions are provided by the smallest competitors


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1. The top 15 analytics solutions ranked and rated on each platform

market share

ratings of apps using each solution

big app market share

a combination score that takes into account both user ratings and install/uninstall ratio

2. Even more detail on the top 5 beside Google and Flurry on both iOS and Android: what we call the mighty mites

3. The app analytics package that has .2% market share on Android, but is used by 7 of the top 20 grossing apps on Google Play and 8 of the top 20 grossing apps on iOS

4. The best analytics solutions when you take out market share and only focus on ratings and install/uninstall ratios

5. Analytics engines used by the top 20 apps on each platform

WHAT YOULL GET IN THIS REPORT


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6. Developer insights

Most overlooked app analytics methods

What developers want most from analytics

The most important features of app analytics solutions

Why some analytics solutions are churning and losing developer share

Developers and data: yes, they care about privacy

Speed matters ... and developers switch solutions for more of it!

7. KPIs that matter, and KPIs that dont

8. More importantly, which KPIs matter most to the most successful developers

9. Most important features in analytics solutions


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INTRODUCTION

The mobile app ecosystem is the fastest-paced, most competitive marketplace in history. Millions of apps are competing for hundreds of millions of users, mostly monetizing via freemium offerings and advertising. The market shifts weekly, if not daily, and smart developers making the most money are both constantly updating their apps and constantly learning from their users to build engagement, increase retention, and kickstart monetization.

One of the key tools in a publishers arsenal?

A top-notch app analytics engine, which helps you know how many active users you have, what theyre doing, how long theyre spending with your app, what your retention rate is, and many other key pieces of data you need to manage your mobile business... including lifetime value of a user, and perhaps, even the reason why your users left.

The problem is that there are literally scores of analytics solutions. This report will help you pick the right analytics solution for your apps... which in turn will help you increase engagement, increase retention, and increase monetization.


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GOOGLE ANALYTICS: ANDROID MONOPOLY?

Googles Mobile App Analytics is not just dominant in Google Play, its Godzilla to almost all the other Android analytics solutions. Out of our sample size of 1.6 million apps on Google Play that use app analytics,1.5 million use Google Analytics.

ANALYTICS MARKET SHARE ANDROID


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While on iOS there are four companies with double-digit market share and Apple didnt have the foresight (or the technology) to ensure that it was one of them only two solutions other than Googles have even single-digit share on Google Play.

There are reasons for that, as competitor Peter Hamilton, CEO of Tune (used to be HasOffers) told VB Insight.

Google Analytics IS damn good, he said in response to my question. In addition, he said that GA is a free and easy solution to get started quickly and it is obviously very in sync with both Android app development and Adwords.

That share isnt an accident. Google does some really basic things extremely well. When we asked developers who use Google Analytics and they arent very hard to find they rated it significantly higher than other players in terms of pure analytics power.

In fact, 65% of them said Google is either Very Good or Excellent at pure mobile analytics, while also rating it significantly lower at building user engagement, helping publishers monetize, enabling marketing integrations for user acquisition, and helping developers improve user experience

That faith in Googles analytical ability ties in very nicely with the quantitative data that we studied, which shows that Googles install-versus-uninstall ratio is massive, especially on Android. For every 19.37 installs on

google does some really basic things extremely well


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Android, developers have uninstalled Googles mobile app analytics SDK just once.

Thats extremely impressive, and it conveys just how much value Google offers mobile developers

Its important to note, however, that being the default choice does not necessarily make Googles Mobile App Analytics the preferred choice. And being damn good doesnt mean it is best. As youll see below, Google Analytics only hits #6 when we ranked solutions by a key user engagement and satisfaction metric: overall ratings of app that use it.

Thats on Googles home turf, Android, and in its own app store, Google Play. And its consistent with the qualitative reports of developers who are actually using the SDK.

In addition, apps on iOS that haveGoogles analytics SDK only rate .5% higher than the average app ... causing Googles app analytics tool to fall to the #12 spot for that metric.

As well see, many smaller tools have much higher ratings, particularly for critical capabilities related to monetization, app marketing, user acquisition, and user engagement.


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iOS is a much more level playing field for app analytics companies than Google Play, so Flurrys domination of iOS analytics isnt nearly as hard core as Googles of Android. Still, Flurry has the most market share on iOS, even if it falls shy of an absolute majority.

FLURRY: IOS DOMINANCE

ANALYTICS MARKET SHARE IOS


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Dominant market share hasnt helped Flurry to get the best possible ratings for apps that use it, however. When ranked by analytics solutions whose client apps rate the highest, Flurry is only at #9 on iOS... although it hits #3 on Google Play.

And that hasnt helped it retain developer share on Android. Ranked by install vs uninstall ratio, Flurry is #11 on Google Play with a 2.91 score. That compares to leaders on Google Play such as Crashlytics with a 5.54 -- or the runaway leader (and massive outlier) Google Analytics, with a 19.37.

On iOS however, Flurrys home turf, the tool does much better, with a class-leading install/uninstall ratio of 11.9. Essentially, Flurry is the default choice on iOS just as Google Analytics is the default choice on Android, although to a somewhat lesser degree.

BUT ... 2 OUT OF 3 MOBILE DEVELOPERS USE MORE THAN ONE ANALYTICS TOOL

Dominant market share or even monopoly-level market share, however, can be misleading. While 35.6% of publishers use just one analytics tool in their apps, almost two-thirds use two or more.

In other words, this is not a zero-sum game where when one vendor wins, everyone else loses:


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MOST DEVELOPERS USE >1 ANALYTICS TOOL

While there are outliers whose sanity is questionable in each of the 6-10, 11-15, and 15+ buckets, significant numbers of developers use 3-5 analytics solutions to understand what is happening with their apps: 26.2 percent.And more than a third use two, with the average number of SDKs at 2.2.

A typical scenario on Android is using Google Analytics plus another solution, with Flurry partially taking Googles place on iOS.


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For example, while Supercells Clash of Clans uses Googles mobile analytics, the company also plugs in MobileAppTracking from Tune (used to be HasOffers) to get a more complete picture of whats happening in the app. Similarly, on iOS, Supercell pairs Flurry with Tune.

This suggests that many and in fact most developers are not finding all of their needs met in a single solution. It also suggests that there is room for more than just the market leaders.

And, finally, its a good reason for you to not stop your app analytics search at Google, or at Flurry. The best developers with the most popular apps go farther.

WANT TO LEARN MORE? DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT AT 50% OFF HERE.


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MOBILE GAMES MONETIZATION: WHAT SUCCESSFUL GAME DEVELOPERS DO DIFFERENTLY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Successful game developers do different things.

They use different monetization companies, they use different monetization strategies, and they use more monetization strategies.

A few small examples?

The more successful a game developer is, the less likely he or she is to use Googles services. And, more than 50 percent of the most successful game developers we talked to ones who have published more than ten games and are much more likely to be making upwards of $100,000 each and every month are using two specific monetization companies: Vungle and AdColony. Both of them, not incidentally, specialize in video ads.


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The data also shows that small developers, who have fewer than five games or less than $10,000 in monthly revenue, are much less likely to be adventurous and experimental about monetization.

This report will help game developers monetize better, monetize smarter, and monetize the way that the most successful game developers are already doing.

Mobile game monetization is perhaps the hardest task in business and technology today. The lucky few, it seems, rake in millions of downloads and without exaggeration billions of dollars. The masses struggle by with a trickle of downloads and a few pennies here and there.

But it doesnt have to be that way.

In creating this study, we talked to 176 game developers who have collectively published almost 1,100 games. These companies have enticed global app users to download their apps over 300 million times, and in total, are bringing home significant revenues of more than $50 million each month over $600 million annually.

They told us what monetization strategies they use, and there are clear patterns.

Simply said, successful developers with more downloads and higher revenues do different things than smaller, less successful developers.

INTRODUCTION


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What youll find here is information that will help you join the group of developers who are pulling in significant revenues or at minimum, increase whatever revenues you are already generating.

Structure of this report: First, this report covers themacro market conditionsof game

monetization

Then, wereport the datagame developers shared with us

We thenanalyze that dataand explain it

Finally, and most interestingly, wedig deep into that data for correlations and connections between methods and results, which give insight into how the worlds most successful game developers got that way

We chose to break out the various ad models.

With at least 10 different types of ads, the types are so different, the ways in which game developers need to implement them so varying, and the user experiences so widely divergent that it would be irresponsible to lump everything together under a big heading of ads.

Otherwise, of course, ads would have taken the top spot easily.

MOST EFFECTIVE MONETIZATION STRATEGIES AND COMPANIES


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Of all the 18 monetization options, game developers in the survey said six monetization models are clearly better than anything else. With developers being able to select the most effective models, Freemium got more votes than anything else. (Votes were weighted by position, so what a developer chose first counts for more than what they chose second, and so on.)

WHICH AD COMPANIES ARE MOST EFFECTIVE AT MAXIMIZING REVENUE?


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10 most effective monetization strategies:

1. Freemium - 668

2. Ads: interstitials - 589

3. Ads: video ads - 534

4. Ads: banner ads - 522

5. App walls - 360

6. Offer walls 342

7. Affiliate/e-commerce 192

8. Premium (pay to download) 189

9. Text ads 144

10. Notification ads - 120

After these, everything drops off significantly, with the next highest option, affiliate/e-commerce links to purchase physical goods, coming in at 192. Its worth noting, however, that at least one mobile monetization survey found that for app developers with fewer downloads, selling offline goods via affiliate links can be very, very successful indeed.

With Amazons newish Mobile Associates API, developers can earn up to six percent of users purchase prices when they buy something via an affiliate link, and the number of developers choosing this option is growing.


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For companies, the most effective at maximizing developer revenue are, unsurprisingly, the big names. Google was way out in front, with a tighter group of competitors following (again, these are developer votes for the company that makes them the most money).

Top 10 most effective monetization companies:

11. Google 331

12. Chartboost - 261

13. AdColony - 223

14. Flurry - 201

15. Upsight (was Playhaven/Kontagent) - 147

16. NativeX - 146

17. Tapjoy - 127

18. Vungle - 118

19. iAd - 101

20. SponsorPay - 91

Those are not big surprises, and with the possible exception of the newly rebranded Upsight, they are names that game developers know well.

An important note: While Google was chosen as the most effective monetization company, that is with all developers voting including relatively unsuccessful ones. The data changes significantly when you isolate for only the most successful game developers, as youll see in the next major section,Digging Deeper.


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Two companies that did not completely top the list when all developers voted are actually the two most associated with the most successful game makers and the largest amounts of revenue. Those are AdColony and Vungle.

Ironically, despite the fact that banners ads rank fourth on the list of most effective monetization strategies, survey respondents separately indicated that banners are also the least effective monetization strategy.

Contradiction?

Much of the apparent contradiction might be explained by the type of mobile app and how immersive an experience it delivers. Banners are non-starters for many mobile games where screen real estate is at a premium, even though they appear to work just fine for simple games such as yes, of course Flappy Bird.

LEAST EFFECTIVE MONETIZATION STRATEGIES


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WHAT ARE THE LEAST EFFECTIVE MONETIZATION STRATEGIES THAT BRING IN THE SMALLEST AMOUNT OF REVENUE?

Clearly, however, banner ads are polarizing: a lot of people feel they are great money makers and many others think they are a total waste of time and screen space. Those are likely the developers who also believe that banner ads are seen by their users as the single most annoying monetization strategy even more than interstitials and notification ads, abuse of which has resulted in Apple booting apps off the iOS app store.


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Top 10 least effective monetization strategies, by developer vote

1. Ads banner ads - 294

2. Ads lock screen ads - 245

3. Affiliate/e-commerce links to purchase physical goods 240

4. Ads text ads 234

5. Subscriptions 224

6. Surveys 211

7. Real-world rewards 185

8. Notification ads - 167

9. Premium 165

10. App walls - 156



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Mobile user acquisition is booming almost as much as the entire mobile universe.

Its not only a bit of Wild Wild West, with over a third of developers reporting that they have been cheated in user acquisition campaigns. But there are also three main challenges when developers attempt to market their apps to users:

1. The vast number of vendors that claim to help with user acquisition

2. The almost equally vast number of different user acquisition strategies

3. The challenge of knowing which companies and which methods work best

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

MOBILE USER ACQUISITION: HOW THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPERS GET BETTER USERS FOR LESS MONEY


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This report identifies the following:

Leaderboards Developers favorite user acquisition companies and strategies

Best practices The user acquisition methods that work best

Hidden gems The least-known user acquisition methods that the most successful developers use to get users with higher life-time value

Winners The leading user acquisition companies that are associated with successful apps and successful developers

Wisdom The clearest differences between what the most successful developers do and what the least successful developers do

We asked 230 app developers with over 9,000 active apps and 397 million monthly active users what works and what doesnt for mobile user acquisition.

And, just as we found in our recent Mobile Games Monetization study, its very clear that successful developers with fewer apps but more active users are doing different things in different ways than developers who have fewer users and lower revenues (even though they may have more apps).

INTRODUCTION


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For instance, while Twitter is a popular user acquisition channel among developers, its just not an effective one. And while Facebook is effective, and gets all the glory, YouTube is actually an excellent community where a small slice of super-successful app developers find significant numbers of highly-engaged users.

Perhaps most critically, while cost-per-install (CPI) is the darling of the app developer class, the least-popular user acquisition strategy of cost-per-lead (CPL) could actually be much better. In fact, CPL has a very significant long-term advantage:users with much higher lifetime value.

Note: While games is a major focus in mobile, making up about two-thirds of all apps, our study is aimed at the entirety of the mobile app universe.

Most developers love buying users via cost-per-install. But most developers aren't very successful.

Cost-per-install is simple, straightforward, and appears to be no-brainer: If the cost per acquisition is lower than your life-time value, pull the trigger. For that reason, it's also very safe: You know exactly

WHAT SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPERS DO DIFFERENTLY

DONT BUY CHEAP USERS THE EXPENSIVE WAY


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what your costs are going to be, and if they fit your app's economics, you can comfortably pull the trigger on CPI marketing campaigns.

And then there's cost-per-lead (CPL).

Interestingly, cost-per-lead is the developers' least-favorite method, with just five percent choosing it as their first method:

DEVELOPERS PREFERRED ADVERTISING METHODS


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The reality, however, is that while CPI is developers favorite user-acquisition method bar-none, it is not necessarily the most effective. In fact, by some measures, it might be the least effective.

The problem is the kind of users you get when you do cost per install: cheapskates.

Comparing user acquisition channels against lifetime user value of customers indicates that revenue generated from users who install your app via CPI channels comes largely from very low-return users ($1 to $10). In fact, over two-thirds of the users you acquire via CPI have sub $10 LTV, including almost one in six with profitability-dooming LTV of precisely zero.

(While this might not matter that much for organicly-acquired users, all of these non-performing users, of course, have cost you good money to acquire.)

By comparison, the much less-favored Cost Per Lead (CPL) method starts at an astonishingly high number lifetime user values of $26 and up. Theres fewer developers out there acquiring fewer users via CPL, but the users they do get are, on average, worth double the users acquired via CPI. The average user acquired by developers who chose CPI as their first user-acquisition method was worth $23 in life-time value, while the average user for those who used CPL as their primarily method was worth a much-better $44.25.

cpi is developers favorite user-acquisition method bar-none


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PREFERRED CHOICE OF USER ACQUISITION VS. AVERAGE USER LIFETIME VALUE

And youll notice that CPL acquires about as many high-value users as the vastly-more-popular CPI:

While its clear that Facebook and Google are the top dogs, especially with YouTube bolstering Googles numbers, theres also something else very clear about the data.

There are literally hundreds of companies and platforms that will help you acquire mobile users. (See the 50+ that we studied in detail below by name.)

THE 5 HIDDEN HORSEMEN OF USER ACQUISITION


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ACQUISITIONS COMPANY PREFERENCES, TOP 3 CHOICES

But when you get beyond the big two, there are just five that really stand out.

In fact, by stacking first, second, and third choices together, finding the companies that are consistently in the top five along with Facebook and Google becomes easier to see. NativeX, Fiksu, Chartboost, Flurry, and AdColony all tower above their competition, with cumulative response numbers comparable to YouTube and Twitter.

In other words, in the highly competitive mobile ad and user acquisition world, these companies join giants Google and Facebook as leaders in delivering mobile users.



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VB INSIGHTS MOBILE MARKETING BUNDLE

ACCESS THE FULL REPORTS HERE:

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