Strategies for driving Downloads in Application Stores

Dayanidhi M GMD-APAC,

Digital Chocolate

About Digital Chocolate

• A very reputed gaming company founded by the veteran, Trip Hawkins

• Publish games on Facebook, tablets and mobile

• Headquartered in CA, with offices in Spain, Finland and India

• Over 150Mn downloads on AppStores

Application Stores

• Dense forest

Application Stores

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/AppleAppStoreStatistics.png

Challenges• Discoverability• Getting to top charts and staying there• Content updates• Featuring

Source: Apple.com

Games’ Revenue Growth

Growth

Why strategise?

• Conceiving and developing a game is only job half well done• Managing the game is the other half

• Freemium more rewarding than Free/Premium– Analogy– Examples

• DIY v/s partnering with a seasoned publisher• Soft launch in select territories, then go global with

localised content• User acquisition

Staying in top charts

• Varies for different countries• In US, # of DLs in Free games

should be 25K for top 5045K for top 25

80K for top 10• In Canada, it is ~10% of US• In China, it is 40% of US

DChoc Case Study

• A strategic approach that paid off on iOS• User Acquisition Cost: Significantly high• A key AAA title, successful on FB• Use catalogue titles for cross promotion

including paid games

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Digital Chocolate AppStore Catalog

TARGET APP GALAXY LIFE: POCKET

ADVENTURES

Goal

• Use popular catalog titles by converting paid to free

• Use them as feeder apps to help the new game get maximum installs to elevate in the top charts

• Fire Hose strategy to use all popular catalog titles in one go

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Feeder Apps

Result

• Feeder Apps witnessed several million downloads

Result

• Embedded Interstitial banners; Shown during game launch and key places to cross promote the new game

• Several million impressions of banners delivered

• About 15% resulted in click-throughs• About 5% resulted in installs• New game climbed up the top charts, landing in

top 10 in some countries

Strategies for publishers

• Launch the game with the best possible momentum

• Get it right in the beginning• Strategies for promotion– Word of Mouth– Create the buzz– Multi dimensional approach for reaching target

audience– Cross promotion– Analytics

Analytics

• Own/3rd party tools• Constant analysis and tweaking• Seasonal

• Watch out Downloads v/s position in top charts• UI trick• $4.99 is the best selling band• Week day v/s end!

ASO• Pick a good game name

– Combo of 2 words works well• Game description and key words*

– Most important– Should not cross 99 chars, chose right KWs

• Catch attention with icon and screenshots– Good icon with less or no text– Best suited screenshots.

• Manage Reviews and Ratings– Customer Support, fix the problem, request for a better rating

• PR, Videos, professional reviews, SEO, Social Media– Build the hype, reviews on popular sites, promotional video, hyperlinks,

virality through SM

Conclusion

• To get your games on to the top charts,– You don’t have to be a big publisher– You don’t need a huge marketing budget– Use the available tools, common sense

• Indian games and publishers can make an impact at the global level. Go for it!

Thank you!