作者：Rob Weber（W3i联合创始人）

在最近的旧金山MobileBeat/GamesBeat大会上，我受访于Matt Marshall（游戏邦注：VentureBeat网站创始人&总编辑），谈论有关设计创收应用的话题。

rob weber mobilebeat from venturebeat.com

多数开发者遇到的问题是，他们过分将自己的初期投入着眼于粘性和留存率，而非创收渠道上。多数开发者认为，只要他们推出具有高度粘性的手机应用，他们就能够抽出时间优化创收渠道。问题是，多数应用在发行头3-6个月就达到他们的流量高峰水平。待到他们有时间优化创收渠道时，他们的流量高峰阶段已经过去，开始快速走下坡路。

解决方案就是预先着眼于创收渠道设计应用。下面是3个你可以在设计过程中进行运用的高冲击性策略。

1. 虚拟商品和特价道具的整合界面。在W3i，我们在协助应用合作伙伴发展业务方面比对手更胜一筹的地方在于，我们优化会他们的虚拟商品和特价道具界面。值得一提的是，我们更多采用定制界面，而非其他创收平台通常运用的双重通用界面。

2. 解释升级内在购买机制的意义。开发者常犯的错误是，他们不会充分说明升级内在购买机制将如何给用户体验创造价值。最好明确向用户说明内在购买机制的用途，而不要让他们在黑暗中摸索。

3. 在适当时机高价出售内容。通过游戏中的自然机会调整商品价位。例如，当用户在战斗游戏中惨遭失败时，在关卡重复页面呈现能够帮助他们在战斗中胜出的更优质武器。

你如何判断游戏是否取得不错创收成绩？下面就看看3个不同标准：

1. 日均付费用户比例——通过携手W3i，Kontagent最近就19款应用的200万独立用户在3-6月间的行为展开分析后发现，各日期的付费用户比例波幅是0.02%-0.1%。

2. ARPDAU标准——在W3i网络的1370万日活跃用户中，多数杰出休闲/大众iOS游戏的ARPDAU（游戏邦注：每日每用户平均收益）都在0.05-0.25美元间，其中有约40%的收益来自W3i提供的特价道具收益。剩余创收来自于现金交易。

3. 高创收应用的ARPDAU——ngmoco（现隶属DeNA旗下）CEO/创始人Neil Young最近表示，在他们的《Rage of Bahamut》游戏中（这款游戏是美国地区的高创收作品），ARPDAU介于0.6-1.50美元之间。在你设计出自己的策略/RPG游戏前，你也许希望知晓DeNA/ngmoco、Gree及其他公司的广告支出。就如Machine Zone CEO/创始人Gabe Leydon在最近的座谈会中谈到的，我们才刚领略到策略/RPG领域的用户获取压力，因为我们还尚未见识到腾讯等大型公司所带来的冲击。未来5-10年，用户获取成本将持续上升，因为领土争夺战依然持续中。小型及中等规模的游戏开发公司应考虑成为广告供应商，以及制作展现策略/RPG应用的休闲/大众应用。

在规划阶段保持前瞻性，以判断你如何就游戏进行创收。从根本来说，创收渠道越是一体化，转换率就越高，广告就比较不会具有干扰性，进而不会影响留存率。成功应用一般都能顺利解决这一微妙的平衡关系。（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）

Sponsored Post Tips for Designing for App Monetization

By Rob Weber

At the recent MobileBeat/GamesBeat conference in San Francisco, I was interviewed on stage by Matt Marshall, VentureBeat’s Founder & Editor-In-Chief on the topic of designing apps for monetization.

The problem most app developers have is that they overly focus their initial design efforts on engagement and retention rather than monetization.  Most developers believe that once they launch a highly engaging mobile app, they’ll get around to optimizing for monetization. The problem is that most apps achieve their peak traffic levels within the first three to six months of launch. By the time they get around to optimizing monetization, they already blew past their peak traffic levels and are declining quickly.

The solution is to focus on designing for monetization upfront. Here are three specific examples of high impact tactics you can implement during design:

1. Integrated Interfaces for In-App Purchases/Offers – At W3i, one area in which we go above and beyond for our app partners to help them grow their business, is in optimizing their interfaces for in-app purchases and offers. Specifically, we see custom interfaces more than double generic interfaces that other monetization platforms typically utilize.

2. Explain What an In-App Purchase Upgrade Does – One mistake we see commonly made by developers is that they do not sufficiently explain how an in-app purchase upgrade will create value for the user’s experience. Better to excessively explain to a user what an in-app purchase upgrade does for them rather than to leave them in the dark.

3. Up Sell At the Right Time – Coordinate the offer with natural opportunities within the game.  For example, when the user is playing your battle game and loses a battle, display a better weapon at the level recap screen that could help them win the battle.

How do you know if your game is monetizing well? Let’s look at three different perspectives:

1. Percentage of Paying Users Each Day – In partnership with W3i, Kontagent recently analyzed the behavior of 2 million unique users across 19 different apps from March to June and found that the range of paying users on any given day was from approximately 0.02% (two one hundredths of one percent) to 0.1% (one tenth of one percent).

2. ARPDAU Benchmarks – Across W3i’s network of 13.7 million daily active users, Average Revenue Per Daily Active User (ARPDAU) typically falls within the $0.05 to $0.25 range for the more successful casual/mass market iOS games, with about 40% of their revenue (on average) coming from offer-based monetization provided by W3i. The balance of monetization coming from cash transactions.

3. ARPDAU for the Highest Grossing Apps – Neil Young, CEO/founder of ngmoco, which is now owned by DeNA, recently reported that in their Rage of Bahamut game, which is consistently among the highest grossing titles in the U.S., they are generating as much as $0.60 to $1.50 ARPDAU. Before you race out and design your own strategy/RPG game, you may want to consider the massive amount of advertising being invested by DeNA/ngmoco, Gree, and others. As Gabe Leydon, CEO/founder of Machine Zone, stated during a recent panel I spoke on, we are just seeing the beginning of pressures on user acquisition in the strategy/RPG world as we have yet to see the impact of the largest game companies, like Tencent, launch in North America. Expect the costs to acquire users to continue to go up over the next 5-10 years as the land grab continues. Small- to medium-sized game developers should think about becoming ad suppliers and creating casual/mass market apps which showcase strategy/RPG apps.

Be proactive when in the planning stage to determine how you are going to monetize your game.  Basically the more integrated the monetization, the higher the conversion and the less invasive the ads so as not to deter retention.   Successful apps figure out this delicate balance.（Source：venturebeat）