The appeal of mobile games is universal and lucrative, with mobile game revenue predicted to increase by 4% annually to reach $111.4 billion this year. With such potent revenue potential, building effective strategies for mobile game segmentation is a key opportunity for developers.
In this blog, learn key trends and tactics in mobile gaming and mobile game player segmentation to maximize long-term revenue with retargeting.
As mentioned above, global mobile game revenue is set to rise year-over-year in 2024. This is despite slowing consumer spending, which dropped 3% in 2023.
What accounts for the continued rise of mobile game revenue despite the slowdown in consumer spending?
According to Data.ai, the mobile game market has continued to grow due to rising popularity of certain genres, namely, role-playing games (RPGs), match-three titles, and party games. In fact, RPG and match-three games contribute $1 to every $5 driven by the mobile game market. What’s more, the US will account for 40% of year-over-year growth in the mobile market.
How can marketers and developers maximize the mobile game revenue opportunity? By segmenting and retargeting high-potential players with relevant mobile ads.
Mobile game segmentation is the process of dividing a game's player base into distinct groups or segments based on specific characteristics and behaviors. This allows game developers and marketers to better understand their audience, tailor experiences, and optimize strategies for engagement, monetization, and retention.
On a broad level, here are some ways to segment a mobile game’s audience:
The first step to segmenting a game’s audience involves considering its monetization strategy. In other words, whether it drives revenue via in-app purchases, in-app ads or both.
If your game monetizes via in-app purchases, then segmenting your players based on whether they’ve made a purchase or not is a smart strategy. On the other hand, if your game monetizes itself by serving in-app ads, then you might consider segmenting your players based on their engagement levels.
Here’s an example of how you might segment your player base if your game app monetizes with in-app purchases.
Players who have made a purchase:
Users who have not made a purchase:
Along with the example above, here are our recommendations for mobile game player segmentation in 2024.
As mentioned above, depending on your game’s monetization strategy, there are several ways to define your best players. If you monetize via in-app purchases, these players may be those who spend the most money in your game app. On the other hand, if you monetize via in-app ads, then perhaps your best players are those who spend the most time playing your app. Define what a ‘high-value’ player is to your app so you can set out your targeting parameters.
Once you define what a high value player is to your app, then it's time to identify where they exist. It’s important to identify which channels in your marketing mix are driving the best players so you can prioritize them.
If you’re looking to re-engage top players, you must understand what makes them tick! Analyze the defining characteristics and behaviors of your top players. Do they play most during a certain time of day or day of the week? How long do they typically play for? Are there levels in your game or features that they interact with most?
Based on these behaviors and characteristics, what conclusions can you draw about their interests and needs?
When doing game analytics to identify your segments, you might find there are inconsistencies between different groups. You might identify two top-performing groups of players that are notably different. For example, your top playing segments might include men aged 18-24 and women aged 35-44. Note these interesting divergences and stay curious to what they say about your game’s audience.
Once you have formed your high-value player segments and the trends and patterns therein, it’s time to optimize your ads towards each. Tailoring ads to the interests, behaviors, and preferences of distinct player segments, can make your ads far more relevant and engaging. Personalized ads resonate better with players, increasing engagement rates like click-throughs and conversions.
With mobile game revenue predicted to increase by 4% annually to reach $111.4 billion this year, mobile game segmentation is a key opportunity for developers.
Are you ready to maximize revenue and engagement for your mobile game? Reach out to YouAppi today to leverage our expertise in mobile game player segmentation and retargeting strategies.