metrics for social games

david king green patch siqi chen serious business

metrics are a force multiplier

but you need to have something to multiply! cant replace a good product cant replace creativity, art, design cant replace qualitative metrics (user sentiment, net promoter score, etc)

the business of social games

(life time value - user acquisition cost) X scale = prot*

* these variables are not independent

user acquisition costs

virality, retention, cross promotion, marketing etc

retention, quality, ow, mechanics, theme, payments, etc

life time value

3 As of metrics
actionable, accessible, auditable

actionable
build a framework for experimentation, not vanity emphasis on split testing and actionable insights

accessible
on demand experimentation capabilities timely, transparent and accessible reporting separate metrics infrastructure as much as possible

auditable
sanity check against other data sources: db, google analytics, facebook

why companies are metrics focused

simple math: linear improvements yield non-linear results

k = (infection rate) * (conversion rate)

[summed across all channels]

Visit
Product quality New user experience Social proof (friends) Key Metric: activation rate

Activation

Revenue

the viral loop

Infection
Invite ows Retention Call to actions Game mechanics Self expresssion Allocation tuning Key Metric: infection rate

Conversion
Copy writing Persuasion psychology Demographic targeting Key Metric: click through rate

virality discounts user acquisition costs

(potentially, down to $0)

user acquisition: user acquisition cost: user acquisition cost discount:

infection rate

viral ows, calls to action, product quality, game mechanics, allocation tuning

copy writing, persuasion mechanics/psychology, demographic targeting

conversion rate

viral channels

requests, notications, feed forms, email, prole box, share link, email, app tab, etc.

brief overview of facebook rpgs

this affects retention, virality, and everything else

metrics can help with game ow

gain actionable insights on virtual goods behavior

metrics can help with revenue

thats it. questions?