DeltaDNA指南：提高F2P游戏玩家参与度的7条重要规则

原作者：DeltaDNA Staff 译者：Vivian Xue

引言

当App Store于2008年诞生时，它被标榜为一个公平的游戏市场，质量的影响力将在营销之上。十年后，大型发行商占领了排行榜，而无法进行有效营销的开发商只能任由变化莫测的排名算法决定他们的命运。

营销是所有开发商的最大单项支出，安装量背后是高昂的投资成本。因此早期的F2P开发商会利用收费墙（paywall）和其它屏蔽系统疯狂压榨玩家的钱包。但是如今我们知道休闲玩家的留存时间可能长达数月甚至数年。因此开发商们希望能培养长期玩家而不是剥削他们。

像《部落冲突》和《糖果苏打传奇》这样的全球型热门游戏已经风靡了五年以上，未来只有真正理解了“游戏即服务”概念的开发者才能让游戏挤入排行。换句话说，在这个技术和文化潮流不断更新的时代，那些能够始终如一地将玩家放在首位的游戏才能在娱乐行业中保持竞争力。——艾萨克·罗茨勃姆博士，首席战略官

介绍

F2P玩家的细分方式有无数种，但为了游戏的成功，他们全都必须快速而有效地参与游戏。

DeltaDNA M.O.本着“玩家第一”的优化原则，并且随着行业对F2P机制理解的深化，我们也在不断调整和补充我们的客户关系管理（CRM）策略。本指南包含了7个以内购促销（in-game offers）为核心、能够成功提高玩家参与度的CRM策略，这也是吸引玩家最有效的方式。我们证明了无论是商店折扣、奖励视频广告还是任务奖励，通过实现游戏时间与促销信息的合理搭配将为你的游戏多带来40%的收入。

典型F2P游戏的寿命不会太长久。如下图所示，65％的游戏几乎一发行就达到收入顶峰，随即骤降。只有35％的游戏能够通过实施参与度策略获得长期稳定的利润。

Airscape（from gamecareerguide）

想知道如何避免这种昙花一现的命运、扭转趋势吗？请继续阅读。

1. 用数月时间培养长期玩家

长期留存率和参与率远比眼前的收入状况更重要，我们的研究表明，那些长寿的游戏70％以上的收入来自45％留存超过一个月的每日活跃玩家（DAU）。这表明长期玩家比新玩家更有价值，而将后者转变为前者的关键是提升他们的参与度。

2. 避免频繁向玩家推销

在留存率不佳的情况下，我们倾向于简单地为玩家提供种类更多并且/或性价比更高的商品，但这不一定能解决问题。以一定频率向玩家呈现优惠信息能够保持玩家的期待并防止他们耗尽热情。然而，过于频繁地弹窗提示会削弱它们的效果，并有可能影响其它内购物品。我们对平台上所有游戏的分析表明，优化后的游戏一般会选择每三个活跃日的其中两天、5个游戏时间段的其中1个提示优惠信息。

3. 在最适当的时机提供促销

在玩家活跃高峰时期提供促销信息是提高成交率和效益的关键。我们客户会根据DAU数据调整促销信息的弹窗频率，周末发送的内容比工作日多20-30％。下面的图表展示了一周内的不同天中提示的成效差异——星期天的效果几乎是其它天中的两倍。

除了使用分析工具来帮助你确定优惠信息的提示频率，你还得关注一些重要的促销季。

4. 为特定目标群体提供内容

DeltaDNA分析了平台上所有游戏的促销提供情况，我们发现85％的游戏在呈现促销时毫无目标性，或者只针对非常宽泛的群体，只有15％基于玩家的表现对玩家进行细分。通过下面这个表格，我们可以发现针对明确的目标玩家大大提升了促销的成功率。

5. A / B测试你的奖励广告

A / B测试是保证有效接触目标玩家的关键。奖励广告是目前最受欢迎的F2P机制之一，但它们需要被快速优化以避免效果差，或者更糟糕的是蚕食了内购。奖励发放得太少会降低玩家参与的欲望，但过分慷慨将导致玩家囤积财富，丧失了消费动机。下图显示了奖励广告的效果在某一刻趋于稳定——此时提供更高的价值只会损害整体盈利策略。

6. 将推送通知纳入内容传递策略的一部分

与玩家建立互惠关系不仅有助于鼓励玩家参与游戏和消费，还将将使他们乐于接受非游戏时间的消息推送。我们发现，虽然不同类型游戏玩家对推送通知的接受程度差异很大，接受率中位数为39％，这是很大的一部分玩家了。推送是一种提升参与和留存重要工具，尤其在玩家的早期游戏阶段。我们发现那些在48小时内收到推送消息的玩家重新回到游戏中的概率升高了10%。

7. 重点关注重复消费

业界存在一种误解，即快速，贪婪和剥削性的盈利机制对于F2P游戏来说很重要。如引言中所述，在短期内这是一种简单方法，但它可能会导致后期收入大幅下降。保持参与度和留存率的正确方法是通过搭建玩家与游戏的潜在的良性关系，促使玩家定期进行适度消费。那些秉持健康消费观念的长期玩家拥有比那些短期内大额消费的玩家拥有更高的用户终身价值（LTV）。

总结

优秀的游戏都遵循这些规则，将玩家的生命周期从几周延长至几年。玩家会随着时间的推移而改变，想要维持他们的参与度，游戏需要随着他们改变。游戏的演变是一个微妙的过程，数据是帮助你了解玩家喜怒哀乐的关键。将上述的策略应用到你的游戏里像是一个令人畏惧的想法，但是超过80%的收入Top100游戏在过去的一年内都恰到好处地运用了这些策略，并且它们将自己持续的成功归功于此。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Foreword

When the App Store launched in 2008, it was touted as a level playing field for games where quality would trump marketing dollars. Ten years on, big publishers dominate the charts and the developers that can’t afford effective marketing are left at the mercy of opaque curation algorithms that can change overnight.

Marketing is the single greatest cost for any developer and every install represents a costly investment. In response, early F2P developers would frantically squeeze revenue out of players using paywalls and other blockers but we now know that long-term engagement of casual players is possible over months and even years. As such, developers are looking to nurture players rather than punish or exploit them.

Global hits like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush have maintained their popularity for more than five years straight but the games that will join them at the top end of the charts are those whose developers truly understand the concept of ‘games as a service.’ In other words, those that can consistently put players first despite changes to technology and cultural fads in an increasingly competitive entertainment industry

Dr. Isaac Roseboom, Chief Strategy Officer

Introduction

Free-to-Play (F2P) players can be segmented and categorized in an infinite number of ways but, for a game to be successful, they all need to be engaged quickly and effectively.

The deltaDNA M.O. is ‘player first’ optimization and as the industry develops its understanding of F2P mechanics, we are always tweaking and supplementing our own literature on Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This guide comprises our top 7 CRM strategies for successful player engagement with a deliberate focus on in-game offers, the best and most effective way to engage your players. Whether they be in the form of discounts to the in-game store, rewarded video ads or prizes for tasks completed, we have proven that sessions incorporating offers bring in 40% better revenues than those without.

The typical F2P game lifespan is not one that makes for longevity. Worryingly, as demonstrated by the graph below, 65% of games’ revenues peaks almost immediately after launch before dropping off dramatically, as demonstrated by the graph below. Only 35% of games execute their engagement strategy to build revenue steadily for long-term profitability.

Want to know how to turn around your poor retention and make one-session wonders into whales? Read on.

1.Nurture players over several months

Long-term retention and engagement are far more important than basic revenue stats and our research has shown that, for long-lived games, over 70% of revenue is generated by the 45% of Daily Active Users (DAU) that are more than 1 month old. This discrepancy shows that long-term players are more valuable than new ones and the key to turning the latter into the former is engagement.

2. Avoid sending too many offers

In cases of poor retention, it is tempting to simply increase the number and/or value of offers sent to players but that is not necessarily the answer. Players should receive offers frequently enough to keep them hopeful and prevent them from running out of energy. Making offers too regularly, however, will blunt their efficacy and risk cannibalizing In-App Purchases (IAPs). Analysis of all the games on our platform reveals that the typical optimized game sends offers during 1 of every 5 sessions and 2 of every 3 active play days

3. Time your offers for peak performance times

Timing your offers to coincide with peak performance times is crucial to maximizing their uptake and effectiveness. Overall frequency of offers in our clients’ games rises and falls according to DAU, with 20-30% more messages sent on weekends than during the rest of the week. The chart below shows the drastic difference in campaign performance according to the days of the week on which offers are sent – Sundays show almost twice the percentage uplift of the days either side.

Beyond using analytics to time your regular offers, it’s also worth noting that specific seasonal promotions are extremely popular among players.

4. Specifically target your offers

Analyzing all of the offer campaigns run on the deltaDNA platform, we see that 85% of games
use campaigns that are untargeted or utilize very basic demographic targeting, while 15%
use sophisticated targeting based on more complicated player behaviors. The table below
demonstrates the hugely superior uplift enjoyed by games that use sophisticated targeting when compared with those that don’t.

5. A/B test your rewards

A/B testing is essential to ensuring the effectiveness of player targeting. Rewarded ads form one of the most popular F2P mechanics at the moment and they require fast optimization to avoid either poor uptake or, even worse, IAP cannibalization. Being too thrifty with rewards will discourage players from engaging but excessive generosity will allow them to build up huge stocks of inventory or currency and remove their incentive to spend. The graph below shows the point at which engagement with rewarded ads begins to plateau – offering values any higher only harms the overall monetization strategy.

6. Use push notifications as part of your messaging strategy

As it does with spending hard currency and dedicating play time, building a reciprocal relationship with players will make them willing to accept out-of-game messaging. We have found that, while it varies largely between genres, the median opt-in rate for push notifications is 39% which is a massive proportion of players. Push is an important engagement and retention tool, especially very early on in the player lifecycle. We observed that those players who received a message within 48 hours were 10% more likely to return for subsequent play sessions than those not contacted.

7. Maintain a strong focus on repeat spend

There is a misconception in the industry that quick, greedy and exploitative monetization mechanics are valuable to F2P developers. It is a short-term unsophisticated approach that leads to huge drop-offs in revenue, as seen in the introduction graph. The correct approach to engagement and retention is to make regular and moderate repeat spending a subconscious and healthy aspect of the player-game relationship. Long-term players with a healthy attitude to spending will have a much higher Lifetime Value (LTV) than those that spend big and burn out in the short term.

Summary

The best games follow these rules and extend player lifetimes from weeks to years. Players change over time and, if they are to remain engaged, games need to change with them. Evolving live games is a delicate process and data is the key to understanding how to engage players when you might just as easily upset them. Integrating the strategies outlined above may seem like a daunting proposition but more than 80% of the top 100 grossing games have been in place for well over a year and they owe their consistent performance to doing exactly that. （来源：deltadna.com ）