作者：Pepe Agell

Rovio用户获取&粘性新任副总裁Eric Seufert数周前刚上任时面临的棘手任务就是，向该工作室旗下最新游戏引进用户，而这款游戏并非《愤怒的小鸟》这种家喻户晓的热作。

Seufert承认在2008年应用商店刚问世的年代获取用户（简称UA）要比今天这个已经饱和的市场容易得多，但这些挑战并不令人讨厌。他称手机游戏的成功法则始于通过数据了解玩家，并巧妙地花钱获得更多玩家。

User Acquisition(from flickr.com)

Pepe：我们看到今天许多手机游戏公司都出现了用户获取经理，但是你在Rovio的头衔却兼具用户获取和粘性职能。这个职位对你来说有何吸引力？

Eric：我对UA的工作充满激情，因为我认为它是商业与分析的完美结合。在UA领域，你既要处理针对目标用户特点而制定的战略决策，又要深入挖掘分析数据。我认为这有利于发挥左右脑的潜能。我并不认为UA是游戏开发领域中的一个严格定义的角色，我将其视为整个开发周期及发布后期的一个重要角色。所以我所从事的工作会比只是展开付费广告营销活动更具弹性，我还会是开发团队在游戏整个生命周期中的一个利用资源。

Pepe：UA为何会进入手机游戏领域？

Eric：在我看来，应用领域是有史以来竞争最激烈的市场。这个市场的准入门槛非常之低。也因为热门应用的潜在回报非常之高，大家都在花大价钱营销推广自己的应用。例如，Supercell据称去年在市场营销上就投入了4.4亿美元左右。这部分钱并没有全部投入UA，但的确有大部分钱是用于UA。

现在的UA也离不开大量科学知识，并且你只有明智地推广自己的应用才可能获得曝光度。现在我们已经拥有很棒的分析工具以便获得数据和准确瞄准用户。你清楚自己有一些分析工具来查看游戏盈利表现的时候，就很容易在营销投入上疏忽大意。

Pepe：当然，但并非人人都知道应该在用户获取上投入多少，除非他们获得了一定影响力。如果你还只是App Store中的新手，或者只是小型开发者，你该怎么做？

Eric：我认为这跟心态有关，我听到有人说：“我没有营销预算”，但对我来说这真是个疯狂的想法，因为开发一款高级应用意味着你在发布之前就要收集足够的数据。我认为将UA费用视为“营销预算”是一种错误的观念 ——对于软发布来说尤其如此。因为这是开发应用的必需开销，也是你的开发预算预测的一个基本步骤。但我想之后又会有人说，“但我不知道要投入多少”或者“我把应用发布出就完事了”。

应用商店的设计并不会为每款应用平等分配用户的注意力，而是一种赢家通吃的局面。所以开自小型或新兴开发者的应用就只能自生自灭，依靠非广告推动的下载量谋生，他们忽略了应用商店的基本生存法则。

Pepe：你提到营销预算应该视为一种开发预算，在软发布阶段尤其如此。如果你有一款全新的产品，并且你还只是App Store的新人，你会为软发布投入多少钱？

Eric：我认为你可以投入5000至1万美元——不需要投入10万那么多。如果你已经瞄准了一些核心用户，你可以用5000美元收获一些可观的数据量。至于游戏的整体开发预算方面，如果你没有收集用户如何使用你的应用这方面的关键反馈，那你就太傻了。我们不单要了解用户生命价值（LTV），我们还得知道首次用户体验如何，查看游戏的阻塞点位置。

Pepe：没错。5000美元可能就足以让你收获关键数据。对于Supercell来说，他们可以投入4亿美元营销费用（约占其收益的25%）。那么你们投入的比例如何？你认为25%这个比例合适吗？

Eric：我认为如果25%的费用如果可以让他们达成自己的目标那就是个很好的比例。我并不重视比例的问题。我关注的是整体利润。从他们的利润来看，显然他们制定的这个决策并无不妥。

Pepe：我只是想知道你有何秘决……

Eric：实际上我并不认为这里有什么万能的比例！这要看利润是多少，所以我认为这完全要取决于游戏类型。我的意思是，如果他们推出的是一款休闲游戏，这个比例可能就要高一点，因为他们并不需要费力去争取庞大用户基础来创收。我想对于他们来说，25%是一个理想的投入水平，足以最大化游戏利润。

Pepe：你在这一行中已经将近5年了。你为何对手机游戏充满激情？

Eric：我认为此时正是史上最多人玩游戏的节点。在我小时候，成为游戏玩家的门槛非常高。游戏还仅局限于中产阶层。我现在还记得7岁的时候外公花了100美元给我买了一部任天堂游戏机——当时我从来没有见到这样大笔的钱。这在1992年真是一笔大钱啊。

现在我却可以看到新闻中说南非的手机普及率飞速上升，因为当地一家运营商引进了一种价值仅为20美元左右的Android手机。这些手机用户之后都可能成为游戏玩家。他们会去下载游戏，如果你制作了一款热门手机游戏，就有可能得到大笔收获。

我还听说游戏是任何一种新科技运用诞生的所在。游戏所运用的技术推动了IT行业的兴盛（因为游戏让人们对科技产生兴趣）。我对手机游戏的兴趣还在于，它是最广泛的游戏形式，第一次有如此多类的用户在玩游戏。

Pepe：你对手机游戏未来5年的趋势有何看法？

Eric：手机游戏无疑将更加美观。所有曾开发AAA主机游戏的人现在都涌向了手机游戏，所以我们将看到一些画质堪比主机游戏的产品出现在手机平台。

总体而言，手机游戏将更具连接性和社交性。过去在Xbox平台体验多人模式游戏的人群，现在也开始在手机上同好友玩电子游戏了，这是个很有趣的社会现象。随着手机游戏日益社交化，开发者将创造更具粘性的体验——也将由此创造更多收益并制作出更大的游戏。（本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao）

The Smartest $5,000 You’ll Ever Spend on Your Mobile Game: Q&A with Rovio’s VP of User Acquisition & Engagement

by Pepe Agell

This post originally appeared on Playbook, Chartboost’s blog dedicated to the business of mobile gaming.

User acquisition isn’t just part of the mobile gaming engine — it’s the fuel.

Rovio’s new VP of user acquisition and engagement has a challenge on his hands: an empty tank, of sorts. Just a few weeks into his new gig, Eric Seufert must introduce players to the studio’s newest titles, which aren’t as instantly recognizable as Angry Birds, Rovio’s hit brand.

Seufert admits that gaining player traction in an app store in 2008 was much easier than it is in today’s saturated marketplace, but these challenges aren’t a turn off. The native Texan, who now lives in Helsinki, says the equation for mobile game success starts with understanding players through your data — and spending dollars intelligently to acquire more.

Here, we chat about what an indie shop’s UA strategy should cost, why UA spend should not be considered marketing spend and what excites him most about the future of mobile gaming.

Pepe: We see a lot of user acquisition managers at mobile gaming companies today, but at Rovio you have combined acquisition and engagement in your new title. What excites you about this role?

Eric: I’m passionate about UA because I think it’s the perfect intersection of business and analytics. With UA, you’re exposed to both sides of the company: You get to see all the strategic decisions made around target demographics, but then you also get to really dig deep into the analytics side. I think it’s a good way to hit both sides of your brain. I don’t see user acquisition as this restricted, specific role within the development of a game, though; I see it as a really important role throughout the development cycle and then after launch, too. So the type of work I’ll be doing is a little more fluid than just being the person who does paid campaigns. I’ll also act as a resource for the development team throughout the entire lifecycle of a game.

Pepe: How does user acquisition play into the larger landscape of mobile gaming?

Eric: In my opinion, the app economy is the most competitive marketplace that’s ever existed. The barrier to enter into that marketplace is extremely low. And because the potential rewards for being a popular app are high, people are spending lots and lots of money to market their app. For example, Supercell reportedly spent something like $440 million last year on marketing. Not all of that was on performance UA, but a huge chunk of it was.

“In my opinion, the app economy is the most competitive marketplace that’s ever existed.”

There’s also a lot of science behind this now, and there’s no opportunity to get your app seen unless you market your app intelligently. Now you have these awesome analytics frameworks that allow you to capture data and target your user very precisely. You’d be remiss in not spending money on marketing when you know that you have the analytics support to know how your game can be profitable.

Pepe: Sure, but not everyone knows how much to spend on user acquisition until they have certain traction. If you’re brand new in the App Store or you’re a smaller developer, what do you do?

Eric: I think it’s more of a mentality. I hear people say, ‘I don’t have a marketing budget,’ but that to me is insane because developing a premium app requires gathering data before you actually launch it. I think it’s wrong-headed to think about UA money as ‘marketing budget’ — especially for a soft launch. That’s what’s needed to develop your app. It’s got to be a basic step in your development budget forecast. But then I think people say, ‘Well, I don’t know how much to spend,’ or ‘I’ll just put the app out.’

App stores are not designed to spread people’s attention equally around every single app that’s submitted. They’re designed to be winner-takes-all. So when apps from small or new developers rely on all organic or non-advertising driven downloads, [they’re ignoring] the fundamental structure of app stores.

Pepe: You mentioned that marketing budget should be seen — especially in soft launch — as a development budget. If you had a brand new title and you’re brand new in the App Store, how much would you spend on a soft launch?

Eric: I think you can do it on $5,000 to $10,000 — it doesn’t have to be $100,000. You can gather a decent amount of data with $5,000, especially if you have a sense of the core demographic that you should be targeting. And when you think about the overall development budget of the game, to not gather crucial feedback about how the players use your app is silly. This isn’t just for the sake of trying to figure out what the LTV is, this is for seeing how the first-time user experience looks and for seeing where the choke points are.

“When you think about the overall development budget of the game, to not gather crucial feedback about how the players use your app is silly.”

Pepe: Right. And $5,000 probably gives you enough to gather the crucial data. For Supercell, though, $400 million in marketing means around 25 percent of its revenues were thrown at marketing. How do you scale? Do you think 25 percent is a good ratio?

Eric: I think if 25 percent got them to where they are then it must be a good ratio. I wouldn’t focus on the ratio. I’d probably focus on total aggregate profit. Given the amount of profit they made, it’s hard to question any of their decisions, though.

Pepe: I’m just trying to get the secret recipe out of you …

Eric: I actually don’t think there’s a magic ratio! It ultimately comes down to what the profit is, so I think it always depends on the type of game. I mean if they had a really casual game, I think the ratio would probably be higher because they didn’t have to get a big user base to generate the aggregate revenues. I think for them, 25 percent was the optimal spend level to maximize profit.

Pepe: You’ve been in the industry for nearly five years. What is it that makes you passionate mobile gaming?

Eric: I think this is the point in history where the most people have played games. The barrier of becoming a gamer when I was growing up was huge. Gaming was generally restricted to the middle class. I still remember when my grandfather bought me a Nintendo when I was seven. We went to Toys ‘R’ Us and he bought it with a $100 bill — it was the most money I’d ever seen before. That was a lot of money in 1992!

Fast forward to today and I was just reading about how in South Africa the mobile phone penetration is skyrocketing because one of the local carriers introduced an Android phone that’s around $20. All of those people buying those phones are going to be gamers. They’re going to download a game. If you make a mobile game that’s a hit, you could reach billions.

“If you make a mobile game that’s a hit, you could reach billions [of people].”

I’ve also heard that the first application of any new type of technology is in a game. The way you penetrate popular IT is through the technologies of games (because games get people excited about the technology). I’m so excited about mobile gaming because it’s the broadest format for gaming and all these new demographics are playing games for the first time.

Pepe: And where do you see mobile gaming in the next five years?

Eric: Well, for one, mobile games are definitely getting more beautiful. All the people that worked on the huge AAA games for console are now being exposed to mobile games, so we’re just seeing really, really cool games come out on mobile that rival the graphical fidelity of console games.

In general, mobile games are getting a lot more connected and definitely more social. It’s exciting to see this social phenomenon that people experience on console when they play multiplayer Xbox or have friends over to play video games happening on mobile. As people become more social in their mobile game play, developers will make more engaging experiences — allowing them to earn more money and build even bigger games.（source：gamasutra）