User-Friendly Monetization Tip #1: Allow Players To Boost Or Extend Gameplay After Failure Moments
Many Free-to-Play game developers these days struggle to find the right balance between monetizing their users effectively and providing a great user experience. But as many F2P developers are finding out, the two didn’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Tapjoy recently published a white paper describing several strategies that F2P developers can employ to generate revenue and give their players exactly what they want. Titled “App Monetization Strategies that Put Users First,” the paper provides seven simple tips that developers can implement right away to boost app revenue while improving the user experience at the same time.
You can download the complete white paper here, but on our blog we’ll be offering deeper analysis and further commentary on each of the paper’s sections.
In this first installment of the series, we’ll take a look at a strategy that helps rebuild players’ confidence and keep them focused after they’ve experienced a failure moment.
In every game, there comes a point where the player has just failed to accomplish their goal. Maybe they skidded off the road in an endless runner game. Maybe they ran out of moves in a match-3 game. Or maybe they lost a Player-versus-Player battle in a fighting game. What follows in any of these failure moments is a feeling of defeat, frustration and disappointment.
But what if you could give them a second chance? Or at least give them a boost so that they stood a better chance of success next time? These failure moments represent an excellent moment and context to offer users the opportunity to extend their game play or access some kind of power-up by either purchasing it directly through in-app payments or by earning it through rewarded advertisements.
In the scenarios above, imagine how happy a player becomes when they can extend their run, earn extra moves, or get free upgrades simply by watching a brief video or engaging with a fun rich media ad. You’ve helped them turn their frustration into elation, and generated incremental revenue along the way. It’s a true win-win.
With Tapjoy, you can insert a message into your app after any event you choose, so it’s easy to serve a pop-up window after one of these failure moments offering users the opportunity to continue playing or boost their chances for next time. In the endless runner game, the developer might insert a message that says, “Nice run! Watch a video from one of our advertisers and you can pick it back up right where you left off. Tap here to continue your run.” In the PvP scenario above, the message might read something like, “Tough loss. Boost your chances next time by purchasing Body Armor. Tap here to visit our store.”
The Tapjoy monetization platform, with its predictive analytics capabilities, can also help you determine whether a user is more likely to respond to an IAP offer or rewarded ad offer and serve whichever one is more relevant to an individual player. So depending on the user’s preferences, you can deliver just the right message to each and every player.
Failure is never fun. But it’s part of the gaming experience, and it drives players to want to succeed. If a developer can come along and give their players just the right boost or nudge in the right direction to help them succeed next time, not only will the player greatly appreciate it, but the developer can leverage that failure to drive monetization as well.
