Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Google for Games Developer Summit!
We're incredibly excited to be here with you all virtually and share tips on how
to effectively leverage the launch period and set your game up for success.
You only get one chance to make an impact when launching a new game,
and Google can help you to reach more valuable gamers globally,
from capturing early results pre-launch
to growing your userbase and revenue quickly and effectively.
My name is Katie Funk,
and I'm the Global Product Lead for Gaming on the Google Ads team.
I work with our product and engineering teams in partnership with marketers like you
to develop and launch solutions that help grow mobile gaming businesses.
And now, over to Jen.
Hi, I'm Jen.
I'm a Product Manager on the Google App Ads team.
I lead all things mobile gaming related,
partnering closely with not only Katie
but other product managers and engineers across Google,
including AdMob, YouTube,
Google Play and more to build advertising solutions
for game developers and marketers.
To start things off, let's talk a little bit about
how the gaming lifecycle has evolved over the past few years.
Traditionally, launch has been part of the growth phase of a game,
in which the objective is to grow the userbase via installs and active users
through optimizing towards early performance proxies like retention.
However, it has been demonstrated
that the launch period has unique challenges to address,
and classifying launch as its own distinct stage in the gaming lifecycle,
with its own strategy and considerations,
can have enormous benefits for the long-term success of the game.
Capturing early interest from users to optimize your game build
and performance can help you release with confidence.
Google has the tools, strategies and solutions you need
to make your app launch a success, starting with the pre-launch phase.
In the lead up to launch, there are three key phases:
building your tech foundation,
which includes identifying and measuring key game metrics;
open testing, to test core game functionality and performance,
and using those learnings to inform your marketing strategy;
next, integrating your monetization strategy;
and finally, preparing for launch,
ensuring you know who and where your audience is
and preparing high-quality assets to engage them.
The Google Analytics for Firebase SDK
is a powerful tool that can help optimize ad campaign performance
and reduce campaign ramp-up time.
The Firebase SDK provides all the first-party data that you need
to understand, segment and engage players in-app.
When preparing for game launch: test, test and test again.
Early feedback from real players through products like open testing
provides invaluable feedback in a safe environment,
with no impact on store rating and feedback you can review privately.
We've also launched App campaigns for open testing
to ensure you can acquire as many players as needed to test ahead of time.
After running open testing, you can analyze the results to identify key metrics
to improve or iterate on in subsequent tests or during lunch.
And with a seamless journey from impression to install,
App campaigns for pre-registration are an easy way
to engage your core player base, ensuring they're ready to play from day one.
Pre-registration helps ensure that you have a strong, engaged player base
from the moment the game launches, a great starting point for any title.
Next, let's move on to monetization.
We are seeing multiple monetization methods within a single game,
and using multiple revenue streams
can be a powerful way to maximize your earnings,
both through in-app purchases and via ads monetization.
When implementing IAP, make sure you're diversifying options
for users to maximize your return.
Finding a balance that encourages users to purchase
and offering them the right options at the right time
is critical to maximizing in-game revenue.
Rewarded ads are another great option for maximizing player revenue.
Implement them in a thoughtful way that encourages engagement,
and, as always, measure and test.
Dreamotion Inc. is a Korean mobile gaming company founded in 2016.
Their mission is to produce high-quality games faster than anyone else.
Due to low-performing eCPMs, Dreamotion experienced low overall ad revenue,
and needed a way to optimize their hybrid monetization.
As a result, Dreammotion integrated AdMob rewarded ads into their game.
They tested one extra ad unit for two weeks
with all of their users across Android and iOS.
During the two week trial, Dreamotion saw ARPDAU double.
Ad revenue also increased by 2.5x, and average CPM grew by nearly 80%.
At the same time, there was no negative impact on IAP revenue
and retention metrics remained stable.
Before moving on to the launch phase,
it's also important to identify your core audience
and ensure you know where and how to find them,
whether through paid campaigns or cross-promotion.
High-quality creatives are also an effective way
to engage users and maximize your results.
Investing in quality creatives can pay dividends later.
Let's move on to the moment we've all been waiting for:
the launch phase itself.
You've done it! It's time to launch your game.
To start, we'll build your player base with a focus on installs,
before moving on to a deeper understanding of player LTV,
and finally, solidifying your long-term growth strategy
so you can sustain that launch momentum as long as possible.
So, how exactly do you build your player base?
You've already gotten people to pre-register for your game
and you want to ensure a smooth transition from pre-launch to launch.
Now, you can start ACi campaign construction for apps in the pre-registration state.
Once the app launches in the Play store,
ads will start serving in the countries for which the app has launched.
At game launch, the App campaign's machine learning approach
helps you to reach valuable users.
You can also boost organic UA efforts with install campaigns
through max conversions bidding,
enabling you to target a broad audience to reach players quickly at a low cost.
Show your ad to gamers most likely to engage with or spend in your app.
Smart bidding uses machine learning
to optimize for app installs, retention or purchase.
Knowledge is power.
Being able to set ROI goals early in the game lifecycle
allows for a seamless transition to ROAS bidding
after the initial launch phase.
Google Analytics for Firebase is a powerful tool
that can unlock your game's potential
through reliable data and insights and rich user behavior analysis.
It can also help ensure optimal performance for ad campaigns.
Tap into rich insights from Google Analytics,
measure custom events that are unique to your game
and see how players engage with your game
to help you target and attribute user segments across your growth campaigns.
Now that you've launched your game, what's next?
Let's explore how you can grow your business.
After launching your game,
it's important to understand player LTV and solidify your long-term growth strategy
so you can sustain that launch momentum as long as possible.
Understanding player lifetime value, or LTV, is essential to ensuring
you are able to run cost-effective marketing campaigns at scale.
When defining an LTV curve for your game, use historical player LTV to create a ratio
between early user spending and long-term value.
Then, you can use that ratio to predict the LTV of new players earlier.
Creative is one of the best levers available to help boost performance.
Better creative means that every dollar you invest
is working harder to keep players engaged.
Make sure you're refreshing assets
and replacing low-traffic creatives to maximize performance.
Finally, explore untapped audiences to continue providing additional value.
Test creatives, expand to a global audience
and, that's right: test, test and test again.
We'd like to leave you today with three key pillars
to drive success for your game launch.
First, release with confidence.
Capture early pre-launch interest from users to optimize game build and performance.
Second, acquire users at scale.
Increase your reach to the right users globally during launch,
powered by Google's machine learning approach.
And third, grow revenue easily and consistently.
Maximize the revenue and lifetime value of your game
with performance tools and solutions that give you better results and return.
Check out this link goo.gle/gamelauch to learn more.
Thank you so much for your time.
We're excited to continue partnering with you and launching successful games in 2022.
Stay tuned for more updates throughout the year,
and thank you again.