作者：Brett Orlanski

在过去几个月里，King和Supercell的收益都超过了10亿美元。这两家公司都到达了自己的另一个里程碑，即Gamesbrief的Nicholas Lovell所说的那样：数千万美元的市场营销支出。随着King在其游戏的市场营销中的支出超过了4亿美元，去年Supercell的市场营销支出也超过了4亿美元，他们所支出的业务开销显著高于市场上的其它公司。

让我们进一步讨论手机游戏市场营销开支是如何以及为何不断提高，而开发者又该如何去避免这些支出。

CPI成本不断提高

市场营销预算不断增加的最简单原因便是CPI（每安装成本）广告价格所带来的压力。

随着电子商务应用和其它主流品牌的不断进入手机游戏所称霸的领域，CPI安装价格也随之提升。根据产业数据，我们可以看到每一年的CPI增长速度为7%。随着产业在获取用户的时候不断将更多CPI成本转向LTV（终身价值），高质量用户的获取成本同比增长了61%—-现在忠实用户的获取成本为2.9美元。

如何避免这种情况

你不可能完全避免这种情况，但是你可以基于多种方式去面对它们。首先你需要确保你的市场营销努力能够赶上进度。优化关键词，完善资产，以及通过改进功能而促进积极的应用评价等方式不可能完全改变你的情况，这种较低成本的市场营销方法只能削减少量的CPI消耗。

其次你需要确保你能够测试尽可能多的渠道或使用让你能够即刻管理多个网络而获得价值的供应者。

全新的广告形式提升了成本

advertising(from etargeting)

在过去2年间，市场上出现了更有效，同时也更加昂贵的全新的广告形式，并进一步抬高了手机领域的市场营销成本。

视频广告和原生广告便是非常典型的例子，比起像横幅广告和插页式广告等传统形式广告，它们在性能方面有了更大的提升。

但是这些广告形式的强大性能也意味着在价格方面将带来更大的压力。根据TechCrunch，视频广告的成本从2013年的7.2亿美元发展到2014年的15亿美元，而在原生领域，Facebook的全新通知广告也推动着手机收益每季度超过10亿美元。这的确是一笔不容小觑的数值。

如何避免这种情况

如果全新广告形式不断提升市场营销成本，游戏市场营销者只有一种解决方法：寻找更新的广告形式。

不可否认的是在几年前，也就是还不存在支持动态形式的框架时，这种方法比较比简单。但现在仍然存在一定的机遇，特别是在那些正接近手机领域的巨头们所运行的渠道中。

Pinterest，Instagram以及Google Play的商店广告都停留在早前的操作阶段，即意味着市场营销者可以抢在其他人之前找到更高质量的用户。这里的先发优势还是非常明显的，甚至是在手机广告世界中也是如此

电视广告非常昂贵

比这些广告形式更昂贵的是手机市场营销者已经探索过的传统广告形式。

创造成功电视广告的成本更是直线上升。尽管Supercell的《Super Bowl》电视广告为其在美国排行榜上提升了20名并创造了超过3千万的YouTube访问，但他们也因此花费了9百万美元。当你提升了创造创意，授权著名的歌曲以及在多个渠道运行广告的成本，那么手机外部的广告价格也会随之快速增加。

如何避免这种情况

通常情况下，手机市场营销者如果缺少足够的预算便不能在电视上登广告。尽管并非所有广告都与《Super Bowl》一样昂贵，但是获得创意的成本总是非常高。

你需要拥有替代选择。通过使用像QuickTime的免费流软件去记录手机设备，市场营销者便能从外观讨巧的预告片和每周娱乐内容中创造出一切可能性。

尽管不是像《Super Bowl》那样的广告，但如果执行妥当的话，手机市场营销者也能够通过吸引那些愿意免费为你推广游戏的YouTuber而避开高额的电视广告成本。

在防御性用户获取中的投资

最后，关于用户获取市场的真相是，它变得更具防御性—-而这种转变也需要开发者投入更多成本。

在PocketGamer Connects London，Rovio的Eric Seufert说道，LTV获取原理的主要驱动因素是留住玩家的需求。这是一种内在的防御型行动，即意味着King和Supercell必须在他们的游戏中投入等值的吊桥，塔和城墙以保持其领先位置。

在努力留住用户的同时，利润也会跟着下降。当着眼于Supercell的结果时，我们可以看到三倍的收益增长只会带来一倍的利润，而这一趋势也会进一步扩展到整个产业中。

如何避免这种情况

最简单也是最有效的方法个便是发布从新定位的广告。比起为新用户支付新费用，这些选择能让市场营销者找到那些已经下载了游戏并且不再玩游戏的玩家，然后他们可以基于目标用户重新拉回固定用户—-这么做便只需要消耗少量的用户获取成本。

结论：成本将不断提升，但你可以通过使用一些有效的方法去降低消耗。

（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）

Why King and Supercell spent nearly $500M marketing their games — and how you can spend way less

Brett Orlanski

Over the last several months, King and Supercell have crossed the $1 billion revenue mark. Both companies are also close to achieving another milestone, which Nicholas Lovell at Gamesbrief spotted: the half-billion dollar marketing spend. With King spending more than $455 million on marketing its titles, and Supercell passing the $400 million mark last year, the huge outlays of these businesses in comparison to the rest of the market is notable.

Let’s examine how and why mobile gaming marketing spends have increased and what developers can do to avoid these costs.

CPI costs are rising

The simplest reason for the increase in marketing spend is the increasing pressure on Cost Per Install (CPI) advertising prices.

As e-commerce apps and other mainstream brands enter the space mobile gaming had historically called its own, CPI install prices have increased. According to industry statistics, we’ve seen a 7% increase of CPI year on year. And with the industry placing more importance on shifting more away from CPI costs alone to considering Lifetime Value (LTV) when purchasing users, the cost of a high quality user has gone through the roof – now standing at , with the cost of a loyal user at $2.90 – a 61 percent year on year increase.

How to avoid this

You can’t avoid completely avoid costs for acquiring users as CPI increases, but you can deal with them in several ways. The first is to ensure your organic marketing efforts are up to speed. While keyword optimization, improving store assets, and bumping up app reviews with feature improvements may only make a slight difference to your overall performance, this low-cost marketing approach can consistently shave small amounts off acquisition CPI spends.

The second is to make sure you either test as many channels as possible or use a provider that allows you to manage multiple networks at once to get value for money.

New ad formats have increased costs

Over the last two years, new advertising formats have been brought to market that have proven vastly more effective — and more expensive — than before, driving up the cost of marketing on mobile.

Video advertising and native advertising are particularly strong examples, as they both deliver clear performance improvements over traditional formats such as banner ads and interstitials.

But the strong performance of these formats mean inevitable pressure on prices. According to TechCrunch, video ad spend doubled from $720 million in 2013 to $1.5 billion in 2014, while in the native space, Facebook’s news feed ads have driven its revenues on mobile to over $1 billion per quarter. That’s a lot of money to compete against.

How to avoid this

If new formats are increasing marketing costs, game marketers have only one real solution to look at: finding a new one.

Admittedly, this was easier a few years ago when the space was underdeveloped and the infrastructure to support dynamic formats didn’t exist. But opportunities are still out there, particularly in channels run by big players who are only now waking up to mobile.

Pinterest, Instagram, and even Google Play store ads remain in the early phase of operation, meaning marketers can find high quality users where others have not yet ventured. First-mover advantage is still significant, even in the mobile ad world.

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TV advertising is expensive

More expensive than these new advertising formats are the traditional formats that mobile marketers have started exploring.

In particular, the costs associated with creating a successful TV ad has spurred a rise in marketing costs. Though Supercell’s Super Bowl TV ad delivered a 20-place chart rise in the U.S. and over 30 million YouTube views, it cost $9 million to air. When you add the cost of creating bespoke creatives, licensing famous songs, and the cost for running ads across channels, the price of advertising outside of mobile rapidly increases.

How to avoid this

Ultimately, mobile marketers won’t be able to advertise on TV without some budget. Although not every slot is going to be as expensive as a the Super Bowl, the costs of getting the creative right will be high.

You have alternatives, and for games none are stronger than YouTube and Twitch. By using free-to-download streaming software such as QuickTime to record from mobile devices and by investing in a decent mic, marketers can create everything from smart-looking trailers to entertaining weekly content.

While it’s not a Super Bowl ad, if done correctly, mobile marketers can effectively circumvent the cost of television advertising by appealing to streamers and YouTubers who might feature the game for free. This list from TinyBuild features hundreds of potential streamers.

Defensive user acquisition requires investment

Finally, the ultimate truth about the top of the user acquisition market is that it has become more defensive – a shift that requires money to work.

At PocketGamer Connects London, Rovio’s Eric Seufert noted that the principal driver of the LTV acquisition philosophy is the need to retain players. As this is an inherently defensive move, it means King and Supercell must invest in the equivalent of the drawbridges, towers, and castle walls in their games to keep the top position.

As the fight to hold users intensifies, margins will ultimately come down. Examining Supercell’s results, we can see that a threefold increase in revenues only led to a doubling of profits as marketing ate into the business, a trend that will extend to the broader industry.

How to avoid this

The simplest and most effective way to get “defensive” is to launch retargeting and re-engagement advertising. Instead of paying a premium for a new user, these options allow marketers to find those who’ve downloaded the game and stopped playing as well as re-engaging regular users with targeted users — at a fraction of the cost of purchasing users.

Bottom line: Costs will increase, but you have some effective hacks to keep spends down.

Brett Orlanski is the VP of business development at GrowMobile by Perion, the number one provider of effective of mobile advertising products.(source:venturebeat)