作者：Josh Williams

社交应用开发者总是会围绕着社交平台上的各种用户数据合理地创造并优化游戏，而这也是手机应用开发者和市场营销者可以借鉴的好方法。用户获取，用户留存、盈利——这是ARM（Acquistion、Retention和Monetization三者简称）Funnel分析过程中的三大阶段。

使用这种模式能够帮助我们更加专注于资源和市场营销投资中。而拥有永久性的数据流和用于维持数据的基础设施的游戏工作室能够更有效地获得用户基础。Zynga，Popcap，Crowdstar以及Gaia的数据研究团队和开发者总是坚持测量，迭代，测试并优化游戏，从而以较低的用户获取成本争取获得更多用户，并提高生产率。

drive lifetime user value(from badgeville.com)

ARM Funnel三大阶段：

用户获取：判断哪些用户在你的游戏中表现得最好，应该采取何种有效且低成本的方式去获取这些用户；可以通过广告、不同游戏间的交叉推广、交换网络的安装和病毒传播等渠道获取。KPI（关键指标）=Cohort Customer Acquisition Cost（同类用户获取成本）；通过不同渠道所获得的Cohort ARPU（同类用户每用户平均收益）和用户留存率；通过营销推广所获得的Cohort ARPU和用户留存率；Acquisition Conversion Funnel（用户获取转换率）

用户留存：让玩家愿意长时间游戏。找出玩家离开游戏的根源。想办法鼓励玩家与好友分享游戏。KPI=玩家平均玩游戏的时间长度；第1天的用户留存率，第7天的用户留存率，第30天的用户留存率； Custom Event Funnels（自定义事件发生率）；User Lifetime Event Distribution（用户终身事件分布情况）；K-Factor（病毒式增值系数）

盈利：让用户愿意为游戏长时间花钱，最大程度地优化他们的生命周期价值（LTV）。KPI=付费用户百分比；ARPU；每付费用户平均收益（ARPPU）；Purchase Conversion Event Funnel（付费事件转换率）

由于免费模式在手机以及社交领域持续发展并逐渐占据主导地位，ARM Funnel也移动平台用户盈利情况的有效工具。与社交应用开发者一样，手机应用开发者如果想获取更大的成功，就必须深刻理解并优化用户获取，用户留存以及盈利三大阶段。

然而，手机游戏开发者还有很长的一段路要走。当越来越多社交游戏公司（包括Zynga）开始强势进军手机游戏领域之时，数据的合理使用就变得越来越重要了。以下是手机游戏开发者根据ARM衡量和优化项目所面临的最大挑战和机遇：

曝光度 & 用户获取

最大挑战

*最大的障碍是必须与那些拥有雄厚的财力，并且能够提升游戏在应用商品排名的公司进行竞争。

*手机广告网络过于分散和广泛，很难直接瞄准那些高产的同类用户（不论是基于行为细分还是人口统计细分）

*准确把握项目的投资回报率（ROI）（特别是在iOS平台上，追踪那些通过广告/来源实现安装的盈利来源相当棘手）

最大机遇

*可通过在交叉推广网络与其它拥有较高DAU的开发商合作，争取以较低的成本获取更多用户。

*通过获取渠道区分用户，并不断优化这些用户基础而产生更高的每用户ROI。通过分析明确不同来源——自然获取、病毒传播、交叉推广以及广告等渠道的作用和效果。

*创造一款优秀，高用户粘性的游戏。如果游戏能为玩家提供更棒的体验，玩家便会更加乐意与好友分享游戏。对于游戏开发来说，口头传播是当前提升游戏安装率的最有力因素；所以开发者们应该专注于游戏设置，并以此获得更多利益。通过用户分析还能让开发者知道用户什么时候开始对游戏失去兴趣。

用户粘性&用户留存

最大挑战

*尽管社交游戏开发者已经在Facebook平台上体验到了游戏测试和迭代所带来的巨大成功；但是在iOS等手机平台上，快速迭代却不是件易事。App Store针对每款游戏更新版本的审核批准需要花费3天至2周的时间，从而让开发者难以快速优化游戏。

*很多用户并不会定时更新自己的应用，如此便导致应用的过时，从而让开发者所接收到的数据是参杂着“新”、“旧”版本用户信息。这对于那些根据用户数据进行完善与迭代的开发者来说便是一大挑战，除非他们的数据工具能够轻松地过滤掉使用不同应用版本的用户。

最大机遇

*当设备获得网络连接时，开发者便能够利用数据驱动的后台系统去控制用户体验。通过这一方法，开发者能够不断地调整游戏平衡，经济平衡等，并执行分离测试，从而进一步优化用户盈利情况。

*使用能够根据不同应用版本、地理位置、设备类型（Android）过滤数据的分析方法。这可以有效解决“过时数据”，判断不同平台，不同设备所需要投入的时间，精力和资源等问题。

*App Store盛行的免费模式让用户能够放心体验游戏，这有助于开发者更自由地观察游戏中的虚拟经济以及玩家的激励机制，从而获得更高的用户转换率。

盈利

最大挑战

*Android用户仍然面临着付费障碍的问题，因此导致该平台游戏ARPU以及盈利性仍然较低。

*为了衡量用户的质量，开发者必须深入研究付费用户在应用中的行为，包括他们是通过哪种营销渠道接触游戏，以及这些用户是否能够给他们带来利益。

*开发者需要使用其他工具从那些非IAP付费用户身上创造收益。

最大机遇

*在平衡游戏用户粘性的同时优化游戏机制，以鼓励更多用户进行消费。通过自定义事件追踪工具分析判断用户消费和参与游戏的结束时间。

*单独追踪每个盈利渠道（游戏邦注：包括IAP、广告），分析最佳价格点、道具促销组合以及转化率的相关信息，并最终利用这些数据去理解并优化游戏经济系统。

*使用通讯服务让玩家能够随时知晓新功能的更新等信息，例如推送通知和发送电子邮件。通常如果用户体验得到了完善，那么那些回返游戏的玩家便有可能为游戏带来更高的收益。

我们需要记住：尽管社交平台和手机平台不甚相同，但是它们的用户体验却非常相似。如此，手机开发者也可以像社交应用开发者那样使用ARM funnel去衡量并优化手机应用。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Applying Lessons Learned on Facebook to Mobile App Development

by Josh Williams

Mobile app developers and marketers can gain a huge advantage by looking at the way social app developers scientifically build and optimize their games around customer data on social platforms. They use that data to learn about what is and isn’t working in their applications, and iterate quickly for increasingly stronger returns.  From Acquisition to Retention to Monetization – the three stages in the ARM Funnel – successful developers have created entire organizations around data-driven design at each level and across all facets of their businesses.

At Kontagent, we’ve witnessed first hand the ARM funnel playing a crucial role for the large majority of successful studios publishing games on Facebook, and now on iOS and Android as well. Insights garnered from using this model help to focus resources and marketing investment.  And, having a perpetual flow of data and a supporting data science infrastructure (with the expertise to act on it), has enabled game studies to acquire users more profitably. Teams of data scientists and developers at Zynga, Popcap, Crowdstar and Gaia, for example, have measured, iterated, tested and optimized relentlessly to acquire more users at better customer acquisition cost and with higher yield ratios than most. And, it’s no coincidence these are the same guys succeeding on mobile platforms as well.

I’ve broken down each branch of the ARM funnel at a very basic level below.

Acquisition: Figure out what audience performs best in your game and how to acquire members of that audience in the most effective, lowest-cost manner possible; from ads, to cross-promotions with other games, to install exchange networks, to viral channels. KPI’s = Cohort Customer Acquisition Cost (Cohort CAC); Cohort ARPU and Retention by Channel; Cohort ARPU and Retention by Campaign; Acquisition Conversion Funnel

Retention: Keep that audience engaged for as long as possible. Find fall-off points where users leave.  Learn how to encourage sharing with friends. KPI’s = Avg. Session Length; Day 1 Retention, Day 7 Retention, Day 30 Retention; Custom Event Funnels; User Lifetime Event Distribution; K-Factor (virality)

Monetization: Get these users to pay and to keep paying over time, optimizing their lifetime values (LTV) to the greatest degree possible. KPI’s = % Paying Users; Avg. Revenue per User (ARPU); Avg. Revenue per Paying User (ARPPU); Purchase Conversion Event Funnel

As the free-to-play model continues to grow and dominate in mobile, just as it does in social, it’s no surprise that the ARM funnel is the right framework for measuring Customer Economics and per-user profitability in mobile as well.  Just like social app developers, mobile app developers must understand and optimize acquisition, retention and monetization if they are going to succeed.

Still, mobile developers have a long way to go. As more social companies (including Zynga) move aggressively to mobile, getting smart about data is increasingly important. Kontagent believes those mobile developers who recognize the importance of data-driven app development throughout the ARM funnel will be well-positioned to lead the space.

I’ve outlined the biggest challenges and opportunities facing mobile game developers, relative to measuring and optimizing around the tried-and-true ARM funnel:

Discovery & Acquisition

Biggest Challenges

The biggest hurdle is getting discovered and competing against companies with deep pockets who can muscle their way up the app store rankings.

Mobile ad networks are massively fragmented and difficult to target high-yielding cohorts of users (either through behavioral or demographic segmentation)

Understanding ROI (on iOS in particular, tracking from ad/source to install to monetization used to be impossible)

Biggest Opportunities

Reach large audiences at a relatively inexpensive cost basis by advertising on cross-promotional networks and partnering with other developers with high DAU counts

Segment users by acquisition channel, and optimize around those producing the highest per user ROI. Analytics make it possible to see differences between each source: Organic, Viral, Cross-Promotion & Advertising.

Build a great, highly engaging game! The better the experience, the more players will tell their friends. Word-of-mouth is a huge organic driver of installs for mobile devs right now, so focus on gameplay, and reap the benefits.  Use analytics to tell you where users are losing interest in your app.

Engagement & Retention

Biggest Challenges

Although testing & iterating is how social devs have found success on Facebook, rapid iteration is not so easy or fluid on mobile platforms like iOS.  It can take from 3 days to 2 weeks to receive approval for each new version from the app store, making it difficult to optimize on the fly.

Many users don’t update their apps regularly, resulting in outdated, or “dirty,” data from the combination of “old” and “new” app version users. This makes it challenging to iterate and improve your app based on user data without being misled, unless your data tools easily filter users by app version.

Biggest Opportunities

Design the app to use data-driven backend systems to control user experience in-app when a connection is available on the device. This way, developers can dynamically tweak play balance, economy balance, etc., and then perform split-testing to further optimize Customer Economics.

Use an analytics solution that allows filtering data by app version, location and device type (for Android).  This is very important in addressing the “dirty data” issue, and in determining which platforms and devices to commit time, effort and resources to.

The free-to-use model proliferating on the app store provides customers a risk-free opportunity to experience an application, which in turn provides app developers with free insights into their virtual economies and player incentives to gain the most effective conversion rates.

Monetization

Biggest Challenges

Users on Android are still experiencing more friction in payments, resulting in lower ARPU (average revenue per user) and lower monetization rates in general.

To gauge the quality of users, developers need insight into the in-app behavior of their paying users, which marketing channel they came in from, and ultimately how profitable their customers are by each marketing channel on an ROI basis.

Developers need tools to monetize players that may not make in-app purchases.

Biggest Opportunities

Optimize game mechanics that encourage purchasing, while balancing engagement. Use analytics to see how the two play out using custom event tracking and funnels.

Individually track each and every revenue channel, from In App Purchase to advertising yields, understanding the best price points, for-sale item mix and conversion funnels – ultimately using data to understand and optimize the economy underlying the game.

Employ messaging tactics to remain connected with users on new features / offers like push notifications and email. Often times re-engaged users will monetize at a higher rate if the user experience is tweaked and re-targeted to them.

To conclude, remember this: While social and mobile platforms have their differences, user behavior in-app is very much the same. To that end, using the ARM funnel to measure and optimize your mobile application is just as applicable as it is for social app developers. At Kontagent, we are strongly encouraging mobile app developers to not start from square one. Indeed, take advantage of the important lessons we’ve all learned on Facebook and other social platforms to improve the acquisition, retention and monetization of your game, and ultimately your bottom line.（source:gamasutra）