作者：Dmitri Williams

在我之前关于归类与用户获取的文章中，似乎出现了许多比起游戏开发者网站更适合出现在广告会议上的内容。我们必须理解人们所使用的（包括游戏开发者）投标广告方式已经被摧毁了。现在存在一个很好的机会让你能够为自己的广告投出更高的价格，另一方面，你还能够创造出更棒的交易，但是在关于广告支出ROI的报告中却不能将其呈现出来。

不过有一个好消息，那就是技术正不断发展着。大数据革命让我们能够更精准地进行归类。具有预测性的分析让游戏开发者能够追踪除CPI之外的LTV。基于目标用户的影响，社交数据也可以被纳为参考对象，并且可以将不必要的数据从bot流量中删除。

总之，我们越来越擅长这点。在最后的这篇文章中，我将从理论中跳出来并转向一些更有效的受数据驱动的归类模式的真正应用。

Advertising(from pakgalaxy)

显然我们要说的第一个应用便是用户获取。基于更出色的广告模式，你能够准确地指出哪个广告资源能够带来用户并推动他们注册你的游戏。这里不存在模糊的归类。如果一种广告资源不能发挥作用，你就应该减少对于它的支出或彻底将其删除。如果一种广告资源是有效的，你便可以在此投入更多资金。

所以如果这种方法如此直接，为什么还会有更多人去使用受数据驱动的模式呢？它们属于一种新方法，并且是最近唯一一种能够判断支出的方法。说实话，发行商同样也不希望你去使用它们。当你并不清楚广告的真正价值时，他们往往能够更轻松地赚到利润，这时候你总是会面临过度花费的情况。但是他们却未意识到其实自己也看轻了广告的价值。如果这种方法得到更大的普及，这便会创造出一种双赢的局面。

这种解决方法不只能够获取最初的用户。当然了，广告绝非万能的解决方法，这也不是关于玩家获取，用户留存与盈利的综合指南。它只能呈现出在最初玩家获取以外开发者能够使用的不同广告方式。

重新定位目标：你知道潜在的玩家会驻足于你的网站但却不会注册游戏吗？你知道哪些玩家会离开吗？当你重新定位那些潜在玩家时，你可以更具策略性地使用广告。你可以参照分析数据并使用能够将玩家带到网站中的广告资源去寻找最有价值的目标玩家，然后将赌注下在能够做到这点的广告上。

交叉推广：同样地，你可以通过广告交叉推广你的游戏。执行“相关的产品”是否听起来很熟悉？再一次地，通过发现你的玩家所接受指引的资源，你便能够进行交叉推广并将玩家带到你的网站上。

流失：在另外一种情况下，你将拥有可能流失的玩家（游戏邦注：根据你正在使用的任何分析程序）。坏消息是你可能难以阻止他们。而好消息则是你将不会失去作为消费者的他们。你可以向他们推广自己的另一款游戏，并基于你所找到的最有价值的资源去瞄准这些玩家。

追加销售与转换：对于那些没有流失风险的玩家，你仍然可以使用外部广告进行追加销售。识别哪些玩家不具有流失风险，或者哪些玩家是最具影响力的。然后通过目标广告提供给他们一个有效的交易，并将其带到支付层面上。

确保可靠的创造性。过去5年见证了广告技术的爆炸性发展，而意外的结果是，广告从创造性业务向基于套利的优化过程不断转变着。结果便是广告内容变得越来越不重要了。然而优秀的受数据驱动的模式将呈现出带有最佳影响力的创造性。除了广告发行商，现在我们也知道哪个广告是有效的。我们认为“有效”是包括玩家对于其他玩家的影响。因为你将导出LTV，所以你可以也应该将其带回信息中。这能够提供给你一种评估创造性团队的工具，同时也能够提供给你判断他们的努力的相关参数。

所以现在的游戏开发者该如何完善他们的归类呢？确保消息灵通。开发者并不会总是想起广告，但在近几年它们的重要性却不断增强。开发者应该在执行分析方法前先做些功课，并反复考虑自己衡量广告的方式。考虑使用受数据驱动的模式，或者至少对自己现在衡量ROI的方式保持警惕。正如俗话所说的那样，阳光是最好的消毒剂，更多数据将能够照亮模糊的广告价值世界。

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

User Attribution and Acquisition: Targeting Beyond New Customers (Part 3 of 3)

by Dmitri Williams

In my previous articles on attribution and acquisition (found here and here), there’s been a good amount of shop talk that might seem more appropriate for an advertising conference than a game developer’s site. However, it’s important to understand that the way everyone is bidding on ads — including game developers — is broken. There’s a good chance that you’re overbidding on some of your ads, and you don’t even know it; or, on the flipside, are getting a great deal and have no way of showing it in your reports on ad spend ROI.

The good news is that technology is catching up. The big data revolution has made it possible to attribute more accurately. Predictive analytics allow game developers to track LTV in addition to CPI. Social data can be taken into account to target users based on their influence and eliminate the data from bot traffic.

In short, we’re getting better at this. In this final article, I want to take this conversation out of the theoretical and move into some of the real-world applications of better, data-driven attribution models.

The obvious first application is user acquisition. With better advertising models, you can pinpoint exactly which advertising source is bringing in users and causing them to sign up for your game. No more vague attribution. If an advertising source isn’t working, decrease your spend or cut it out. If it is working, put more capital toward that source.

So if it’s so straightforward, why aren’t more people using data-driven models? Well, they’re fairly new, and only recently advanced enough to justify the spend. Publishers also don’t want you to use them, to put it lightly. It’s easier for them to make a profit when you don’t really know how much the ad is worth, so you’re blanketing the web or overspending. But what they don’t realize is that they’re undervaluing ads, too. This could be a win-win situation when adoption rates increase.

The solution spans more than just acquiring initial users, too. Advertising isn’t the solution for everything, of course, and this is by no means a comprehensive how-to guide on player acquisition, retention and monetization. This is simply to show the different ways advertising can be used beyond the initial player acquisition.

Retargeting: You know that potential player that stops by your site but doesn’t actually sign up? The one that got away? Use ads to be more strategic when retargeting those potential players. You can cross-reference analytics data to find your most valuable targets with the advertising sources that take them to your site, then make and appropriate real-time bid on the ads that will reach them.

Cross-Promotion: Similarly, you can cross-promote your game through ads. Does “related products” sound familiar? Again, by uncovering what sources your players are coming in from (and similar games they play, sites they visit, or products they buy), you can cross-promote and bring them onto your site.

Churn: In another scenario, you have a player that’s about to churn (according to whatever analytics program you’re using). The bad news is that you might not be able to stop them. The good news is you don’t have to lose them as a customer. You can advertise another game in your portfolio to them, targeting based on the most valuable sources you found.

Upselling and Conversion: For the players who aren’t at risk, you can still use outside ads to upsell. Figure out who isn’t at risk for churn, or who are the most influential players. Give them a sweet deal through a targeted ad, and bump them up to the next pay level.

Keeping Creative Honest. The last 5 years has seen an explosion in ad tech, but the unintended consequence has been the slow morphing of advertising from a creative business into an arbitrage-focused optimization process. As a result, the content of the ads has become seemingly less important. However, good data-driven models will show which creatives have the best impacts. Totally aside from the ad publisher, we can now know which ads are working. We strongly suggest that “working” includes the resulting players’ impact on other players as well. But however you derive LTV, you can and should now trace it back to your messaging. This gives you a tool to evaluate your creative team, as well as a metric for them to justify their own efforts.

So what can game developers do to improve their attribution standards now? Stay informed. Advertising isn’t always top-of-mind for developers, but its importance will only grow in the coming years. Do your homework before implementing an analytics program, and reconsider the way you’re measuring your advertising. Consider using data-driven models, and at the very least, stay vigilant on the way you’re currently measuring your ROI. As the saying goes, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and more data only shines more light on the murky world of ad values.(source:gamasutra)