How Gaming Analytics are driving the future of Gaming
Basic metrics such as DAU, MAU, Retention,
device etc… are a good way to determine the effectiveness and future potential
of gaming sites. But how are these analytics driving the future of gaming?
Analyzing Gaming metrics effectively allows companies to determine who is using their sites/games. It helps them answer questions like where these users are coming from? How much revenue is generated and from which users? Which games and activities are users engaging in most frequently and for what duration?
Which games/site ares are they engaging in when they first enter your site? etc...
Gaming companies can get started by utilizing analytics to establish current baselines and benchmarks for their games. Once
we understand how the users behave, we can measure other variables such as the impact of game and website updates, user strategy alterations, determine where the most profitable customers are coming from and more...
First and foremost, a good understanding of Gaming Analytics is necessary in order to develop and maintain effective promotional, marketing, business and user strategies.
Here are some of the most commonly used Gaming Analytics that you will need to know:
Traffic Source -
This metric refers to where the customers are coming from.
Organic Traffic: Visitors that enter a related keyword in a search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc..) and then click on your website in the search results. This traffic can be optimized to the website through SEO, SEM and more (we will discuss this in future blogs)
Direct traffic : Visitors that come to the site from typing the website url directly
Referral traffic: Visitors that come to the site from clicking on a url located on another website such as blog, newsletter, social media platform, white paper etc.
Campaign traffic: Visitors that come to the website by clicking on a campaign or ad.
Retention
Retention tells us how many users who started using the gaming site and are continuing to use the game over time. This let's us know how engaging our games are and can be important in developing ways to increase retention of our customers. This is very important in subscription based gaming sites as well as making informed decisions on what games should be continued, expanded and improved.
DAU - Daily Active Users
This
refers to the daily amount of “active” users on the site or app. In Gaming
analytics this metric refers to more than just visitors to the site, it refers
to visitors that engage the site by playing a game, commenting, or engaging
specific areas of the site. This is an important number to know when
determining how many customers are actively engaging our site on a daily
basis.
MAU – Monthly Active Users
Monthly
active users indicate how many people are actively engaging the site during
the month. We can divide MAU by the DAU to determine what percentage of the monthly users are also regular daily users.
ARPDAU – Average Revenue per daily active
user
This
is the average amount of money spent by the people who use the site on a daily
basis. Are they purchasing games? Making in game purchases? Buying
subscriptions? Etc…
This very important metric and helps us understand how the website is
performing.
Usage – by Device
This
is the type of device people are using with the games and our site. This metric can help us understand and explore why different types of games or apps. are used on
certain devices more or less than others. This information can be used to improve game play for certain devices and develop marketing strategies that focus on which game and devices the games are most successful.
EED – entry event distribution
EED tells us where the members are going first and/which games they are
choosing to play first on the site. This is very important information from a website
functionality and marketing perspective. Knowing which
games and pages the customers enter through most frequently is essential to developing
effective targeted marketing and business strategies.
Once a company has a better understanding of their users they can develop effective business and marketing strategies that will help drive business to the site, increase revenue and also improve the ability to serve their customers.
Interested in more information?
