As the mobile market evolves, this in result changes the behaviors of the consumer, which in turn leads to the evolution of game design. Based on these changes, User behaviors are re-analyzed and possibly a new genre or game niche is born. The most common kpi that is analyzed in 2016 was:
DAU (Daily Active User)
DNU (Daily New Users)
LTV (Life Time Value)
Arpdau (Average Revenue per daily active user)
Retention ( 1 / 7 / 14 / 30 )
What mobile app product managers are realizing is that the playing behavious of consumers and non consumers are night and day. Consumers is defined as players that monetize your game. Once this assumption is established, it is important that you design and analyze the consumer gaming behaviors of these individuals. What a lot of dev teams do is bundle consumers and non consumers into 1 pool and attempt to increase the total monetization rate of their entire player pool. By approaching analytics this method will lead to a lot of missed opportunity in design and monetization design mechanics that can make for a better gaming experience.
Facts about Consumers
They account for more than 80% + of your revenue.
They are subject to monetize in your app multiple times
They retain longer than non consumers.
Their LTV is higher
Some of the above points may be obvious but product managers are forgetting a very important design consideration when creating their PRD (Product Request Document). Increasing your Consumer Pool Instead of attempting to increase your monetization rate, the important metric to consider is within your DAU, are
Who are your consumers?
Who are your New Unique Users?
Who are your non consumers?
By breaking down your DAU into these 3 cohorts, you can effectively granularize their playing behavior going forward.
Once a thief is always thief.
This concept rings true with your in-game consumer pool because the chance for a consumer to monetize your game vs. a non consumer is substantially higher, as long as the low hanging fruit is close enough for then to eat. Thus, your design team should look to increase their Consumer Pool and design events around your Consumer pool vs. attempting to design events around your entire DAU cohort. Design Priorities for analyzing DAU
Conversion Rate
Change Consumer Pool
Arpdau (Average revenue per daily active user)
Arpdac (Average revenue per daily active consumer)
What is Arpdac? Arpdac is your consumer monetization rate. Whether these players monetize last week or yesterday, its important to monitor these players gaming behavior vs. non consumers because their gaming experience will be different. The biggest theory around Arpdacis that you can sustain a minimum base avg. Consumer spend bar and potentially increase this number based on your event and product offering during live operation. This KPI is especially important since it is a KPI you can effectively grow vs. the constant battle to sustain or support all the other metrics that your executive constantly demand.