User-Friendly Monetization Tip #2: Conduct Currency Sales and IAP Promotions
[:en]Our recent white paper on “App Monetization Strategies That Put Users First” shares seven ways that mobile app developers can boost revenue while improving the user experience as well. Because after all, app monetization and a great user experience don’t have to be mutually exclusive. In the first installment of our blog series based on the report, we wrote about how developers can allow players to boost or extend their gameplay after failure moments.
In the second post of the series, we’ll take a look at a strategy that is among the favorite techniques in the retail industry for boosting sales and driving revenue but is only now becoming commonplace in the gaming industry: sales and promotions.
Everyone loves a good sale. Discounts, bonuses and other types of promotions often generate huge revenue increases for retailers and e-commerce providers, and these strategies carry over into the world of mobile apps just as well.
What makes sales so effective is that they are only available for a limited time. Psychologically, the impact that a limited-time sale has on the consumer is instilling fear that they might miss out on an opportunity — and come to regret it later. How many times have you or someone you know bought something just because it was too good of a deal to pass up? The same mental lever works for app users as well. A significant mark-down on pricing or bonus on currency is often enough to get potential buyers or ad completers off the fence.
The way currency sales or IAP promotions work in a F2P app is the developer offers more currency than usual for every in-app purchase made or ad completed. For instance, if you usually sell 100 “gems” for $0.99 or give away 50 “gems” for every video watched, you can increase these numbers so that users get, say, 120 gems for the same amount or 60 gems for every video watched. By conducting the promotion during a specific period of time such as a weekend or a single day, you’ll not only drive extra revenue but make users feel they are getting a great deal at the same time.
PuzzleSocial’s puzzle game Daily Celebrity Crossword recently promoted a weekend-long currency sale through Tapjoy’s Message-to-Earn delivery, boosting the game’s revenue by 113% compared to the prior weekend. Sixty-two percent of that earnings bump was driven by Message-to-Earn in contextual placements such as App Open, Insufficient Currency, and others.
Currency sales have proven to drive re-engagement and retention as well as monetization. One developer recently conducted a currency sale that was promoted through a push notification, and the campaign brought in 46% more users to its game than the previous weekend. It also helped drive a 23% lift in retention from players who had been dormant for 30 days or more, proving that not only can currency sales help boost app monetization, but also that players love a good sale! [:]
