Mike Hines, Amazon

transcript

WHAT THE TOP 50 APPS DO WITH IAP THAT THE

REST OF US DON’T

Reach Engage Earn

MIKE HINESDEVELOPER EVANGELIST, AMAZON

@MikeFHines mikehines45

mihines@amazon.com

Who is

Mike Hines

Founder @ 2 Financial Services StartupsFounder @ 2 Software Startups

QA Engineer @ Now SoftwareQA Manager, Product Manager @ MicrosoftEvangelist @ Amazon.com

Mentor @ GameFounders, Dev Bootcamp

Games Judge @Casual Connect Indie Prize, White Nights, and Pocket Gamer Very Big Indie Pitch

Speaker @ GDC, GDCE, Casual Connect, Pocket Gamer Connects, AnDevCon, White Nights, CES, PAX Dev

CREDIBLY INNOVATE PHOTO

Amazon Appstore

TODAY’S AGENDA

How the Top 50 Did

What They Do Differently – Selling

What They Do Differently – Engagement

SELL IN 236 COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES

AndroidDevs

iOS devs AmazonFire OS

HOW DO WE GET MORE

DEVELOPERS EARNING

MORE REVENUE

An app must make more than $500 per

month if it is to fund future app

development and marketing.

$500 per month is the app poverty line.

How the Top 50 apps did

vs. the rest of us

Cohort Analysis

Group A: Top-50 Grossing

Source: Amazon Appstore, March 2014

Group B: Rest of Freemium

Day 1: Installs

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Day 1: Active Users

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Day 1: Uninstalls

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Day 1: Paying UsersGroup A: Top-50 Grossing

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Day 1: EngagementGroup A: Top-50 Grossing

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# of sessions / active

session length / active(minutes)

avg. session length(minutes)

7,41822

Day 1: RevenueGroup A: Top-50 Grossing

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# of items / paying

avg. selling price

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1 Day Later…Group A: Top-50 Grossing

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# of items / paying

avg. selling price

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3 Days Later…Group A: Top-50 Grossing

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1 Week Later…Group A: Top-50 Grossing

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1 Month Later…Group A: Top-50 Grossing

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# of items / paying

avg. selling price

Hours Since App Download

IN-APP PURCHASING BY HOUR

0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 264 288

PRICE INCREASES OVER TIME

Days User Owned App

1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28

average

selling price

WHAT WE LEARNED

The top have higher average price pointsYou can charge more in the right place and time.

Session length and count are importantRetention is not the only important metric.

What the top 50 do

differently

-- Selling

THE TOP DEVELOPERS KNOW THE NUMBERS

ENGAGE

CUSTOMER

MAKE IT

EASY TO

COME BACK

GIVE THEM A

REASON TO

COME BACK

37% of users who will purchase, purchase

on the first day

48% of repeat purchases happen within one

hour of a previous purchase

64% of revenue comes from 3rd order +

74% of revenue occurs after first 7 days

56% of revenue occurs after first 30 days

Apps with tutorials that introduce IAP

HAVE A 2.5x HIGHER

CONVERSION RATESource: Amazon Appstore, July 2013

Apps showing users how to “consume”

GET MORE REPEAT

ORDERSGames that providing a post-purchasing tutorial

generated 65% more repeat orders than the

market average.

Games with bigger selection

RECEIVE MORE

ORDERS PER

CUSTOMERDevelopers that add new items regularly are able to

re-engage their paying customers. 1.14% of the

customers generate 30% of sales.

1-5 Items 6-10Items

11-15Items

ARPPU by # of IAP items for sale

Conversion Rate

INDEX: Average = 100%

Don’t confuse your customer

OFFER VARIETY,

BUT NOT TOO

1-5PricePoints

6-10PricePoints

11-15PricePoints

Where do apps

GENERATE

THE MOST

REVENUE

A 2016 study by Swrve

shows that disproportional

revenue is generated from

higher end price points.

To sell more IAP items,

BE CLEAR

ABOUT VALUEMake it obvious what the

benefit is for buying different

price items. Confused

customers don’t buy anything.

WHAT WE LEARNED

Games with bigger selection

RECEIVE MORE ORDERS

Tutorials that introduce in-app items

HAVE HIGHER CONVERSION

Showing users how to “consume”

GETS REPEAT ORDERS

Treating in-app items like a catalogue

MAKES IT EASY TO SHOP

of paying customers generate

30% of sales

What the top 50 do differently

-- Engagement

REDUCE BARRIERS TO FREQUENT

Tuning Game Difficulty

WILL ENCOURAGE

LONGER SESSIONSToo hard, and users will abandon. Too

easy, and they can get bored. Just right,

and it becomes addictive!

Engaging Community

CAN CREATE BUZZ

AND KEEP USERS

ENGAGEDThis will result in more friend-to-friend marketing

as players share their achievements and ranks.

Players will also compete with friends and leaders

and stay engaged.

Leaderboards and

Achievements are

THE MINIMUM BAR

FOR SOCIAL

ENGAGEMENT

Acquisition

Alternate

Revenue

Content

Creation

Influencers

Monetization

BUILD A

COMMUNITY OF

The Top apps

A fan base creates:

• Influencers

• Content Creators

• Revenue Opportunities

BUILDING ADVOCATES IN YOUR COMMUNITY

Example of streaming during development

FAN CREATED CONTENT IN YOUR COMMUNITY

Communities help you

TAKE CARE OF

YOUR BEST

CUSTOMERS

The top apps communicate directly

with their top customers to keep them

happy and engaged.

To be in control,

HAVE A LOT

OF LEVERSMeasure with Analytics, and

use A|B Testing to fine-tune

everything from game

difficulty to IAP menu

choices.

Design IAP into the

fabric of your game

MAKE IT

EASY TO BUYOffering ways to buy your IAP

items when they are needed

will increase conversion.

Apps that made it easy to shop

INCREASED REVENUE 75% (ARPPU)Source: Amazon Appstore, March 2014

WHAT WE LEARNED

Add social and tweak game difficulty to

INCREASE TIME AND COUNT OF

SESSIONS

Cater to your best and longest customers with clear value

DIFFERENTIATE YOUR IAP CATALOG

Give yourself control of your game in the wild

IMPLEMENT A|B TESTING

IF YOU ONLY DO ONE THING…

Cater to your best and longest customers

IF YOU ONLY DO TWO THINGS…

Cater to your best and longest customers

Make sure your IAP catalogs are

CLEAR ABOUT VALUE

An alternative to IAP

-- Amazon Underground

A new shopping app distributing

#ActuallyFree APPS

Turn 100% of your Android users into revenue-generating customers

Developers waive fees on apps and In App Purchase items.

Customers get #ActuallyFreeapps!

Amazon pays developers for cumulative minutes customers spend in an Amazon Underground app.

Amazon Underground

HOW IT WORKS

• Customers go to Amazon and download the Amazon Underground shopping app

• Customers download your app from Amazon Underground

• Total user minutes are multiplied by our payout ratio

• Developer is paid

UndergroundIn an average week:

10K Users (@9

min/day)

Amazon Underground

HOW IT WORKS

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# of items / paying

avg. selling price

uninstalled

active

paying

10K Users (@9

min/day)

630K Minutes/week

630K x $0.002 = $1260

$1260 x 100% = $1260

Amazon Underground

HOW IT WORKS

10K Users (@9

min/day)

630K Minutes/week

630K x $0.002 = $1260

$1260 x 100% = $1260

IAPIn an average week:

10K Users (@3%

convert)

= 300 Paying Users/week

Amazon Underground

HOW IT WORKS

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iiiiiiiiiiii

# of items / paying

avg. selling price

uninstalled

active

paying

10K Users (@9

min/day)

630K Minutes/week

630K x $0.002 = $1260

$1260 x 100% = $1260

IAPIn an average week:

10K Users (@3%

convert)

= 300 Paying Users/week

300 x $6.00 ARPPU/week

= $1800

$1800 x 70% = $1260

Amazon Underground

HOW IT WORKS

Getting Started

• Android

• Premium or IAP in another

• Open to Devs worldwide

• For customers in US, UK,

Germany and France

Qualifications

developer.amazon.com/underground

Learn more: http://bit.ly/top50iap

http://bit.ly/indieunderground

http://bit.ly/marketingtips4apps

Follow us:@MikeFHines

developer.amazon.com/blog

Mike Hines, Amazon

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