Practical steps to increasing engagement and revenues in social casino using analytics

Practical Steps to Increasing Engagement and Revenues in Social Casino using Analytics

Juan Gabriel GomilaData Scientist & Game Designer PlaySpace


[email protected]@Joan_By

Mark RobinsonCEO Games [email protected]@gamesanalytics

mailto:[email protected]





Outline of the talk1. PlaySpace and its games2. Why working with Games Analytics3. Games Analytics process & findings4. Implementation of recommendations5. Results6. Summary


About PlaySpace

8 cross-platform games on Web, Facebook, iOS,

Android, Amazon

+7M registered players worldwide

Founded in 201118 developers

based in Palma de Mallorca,

Spain

100K DAU$30 ARPPU

PlaySpace brings social casino & traditional multi-player games for the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries


The games you like to play


Soft currency: coins● Bet● Play mini slots● Purchase consumable

items

Hard currency: credits● Customize

experience ● Non consumable

items● Gift other players

How do our games work?● Free coins each day to play

at least one game● Players unlock new

features as they level up.


How do our games work?● Virtual store to customize

their experience in-game● Temporal vs no limit items.● Items with both coins and

credits.● Deal of the day.● Customized offers. ● People can gift old items

that they no longer want.


Some of our games were doing pretty well, but...

• We’d been stuck for a couple of months and we wanted to keep growing.

• Wanted to give new users a better initial experience.

• Wanted to know our weaknesses in order to improve our games.

• Wanted to improve retention & monetization.

• We had some inflation problems.

• There was too much information for just one data scientist!

We also wanted a different point of view on our product.

Why working with Games Analytics?


Why working with Games Analytics?

Parchís Bingo

300K MAU$15 ARPPU

100K MAU$25 ARPPU


Games Analytics Process & findings

Initial retention analysis of Bingo found that:● Many players only play for one day –

○ Unsure what to do○ Waiting for game to start○ Do not win○ And therefore don’t come back○ Even with coin balance > 0

● Engaged players improve winning rate over time● Mid Game Lapsers did try to stay on but low (nearly 0) winning

rate drove them away● Later Lapsers ran out of patience after 30 minutes


Games Analytics Process & findingsInitial retention analysis of Parchis found that:

● Majority of lapsers –○ were incompetent and had a very poor win rate○ followed a general trend of losing all their coins and leaving the game

Recommendations● Think about new players who are not used to the game

○ Tutorial○ Hints on good strategy○ Match against other new players○ Less payment messages○ More obvious progression via tasks○ Shop tab for new players○ Gift coins when zero (one last chance)○ Achieving a good outcome from first game

● Allow experienced player to go straight in

In both games, players needed to be properly assisted to play the game with success in order to keep them engaged





Implementation of recommendationsBoth in Bingo & Parchís implementation:● Retention

○ New users and Novices vs Experts. Last Chance.○ Messaging strategy.

● Monetization○ Accurate segmentation of players. Item Packs. ○ Next best purchase. VIP strategy.


Parchís Retention: Users classification

● Novices (less than level 4)● Intermediates (from level 5 to 14)● Experts (more than level 15)

Novices● Custom label in the items store

○ Cheaper prices (experiment)○ Variety of items (discover)

● Only play against other novices○ Easier games, better experience○ Learn & options of win the game

● Only 1 vs 1 games○ Faster & easier games

● More free coins○ Max bet is only 50○ Last chance (+1 extra game)○ Extra coins for level up & achievements

● Less pop-ups on buying more coins

Intermediates & Experts● They can create customized game

○ No max bet (initially set up on a fix percentage of their current coins).

○ They can play against a max of 4 players.

● They play against other players of the same cluster

● No more last-chance● Other rewards for leveling up (credits,

pawns, items)● Customized offers to buy more coins


New users distribution Before After

Engaged Users 4% 14%

1-day users 62% 52%

● 1-session users ratio decreased more than 10% and people playing more than 10 days in a row increased more than three times!

● Daily win coins message rate increased by more than 30% (easier & faster games drove more games and improved engagement)

● Novices last chance was used by more than 10% of new users, who had more chances to play one more game and become engaged users.

Not only new users returned more often, but the engaged ones also did!

Parchís Retention: Users classification


Focused messaging strategy

● Special hints for losers● Ways to monetize non paying users● Best next purchase● Free items as daily bonus ● Deal of the day!● Purchase all consumable items with soft

currency


Focused messaging strategy

● People interacted more with the store (nearly tripled the sales of the item of the day).

● Best segmentation of what people liked.

● Increased the amount of virtual currency spent per user (so potentially drove more virtual currency purchases):

○ 6x coins○ 20x credits

● It also drove more and more sales!

● We took off from virtual wallets +20% coins than before, reducing the inflation problems!

Deal of the day Standard price

Average purchases 34 (x5) 7

maximum purchases 842 (x1.3) 654

Average spent coins 1920 (x8) 243

Maximum spent coins 419790 (x22) 19021

Average spent credits 585 (x30) 19

Maximum spent credits 33642 (x8) 1898


Customized offers to monetize the users

● Competitors● Accelerators● Fast Track VIPS● Connected Accelerators● Staying Alive● Social Connectors● ...

● Playing with Friends?● High bet?● Wanna level up fast?● Ask for free tickets?

Don’t insist on the same purchase more than three times, and let a little period of time between deals!


Segmentation to monetize the users


Segmentation to monetize the users

A/B testing GA packs

Packs for everyone

The offer loses strength as time goes by, so we change the creativities of the packs periodically

New special packs

our own testing


Special events packs


Next best purchase & VIP Strategy

● Currently under implementation through AB testing.

● Customer support for all subscribers.

● It doesn’t increase inflation in our games.

● A good way to bring back old payers to our games.

● Also a good way to make users come back and play every day.

It should help us improve engagement and monetization metrics as well!


Put everything together to improve!


It’s all aboutMETRICS• Always test before implement (AB test,

segmentation)• Think about what people know and need (good

support team)• A game is a business, so always think in

monetize!• Don’t close your mind, and listen to what people

have to say about your product

Juan Gabriel GomilaData Scientist & Game Designer [email protected]@Joan_By

Mark RobinsonCEO Games [email protected]@gamesanalytics





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Practical steps to increasing engagement and revenues in social casino using analytics