One thing no one tells you about startups (or told me, anyway) is that it can be much easier to start one than to shut one down. A truly failed idea that never got off the ground, sure, shut it down, no one is going to bat an eye. Huge success? Hopefully you're not going to have to shut it down, enjoy the ride. But then there's the rest of the field, that to some extent worked out, is in use, people like it, but not the runaway success you were hoping for. Probably not bleeding you dry, as then it would end fairly naturally, but if it makes a little bit of money and can sort of limp on, what do you do?

For Megacool, we have reached the end. The idea generally works, sharing is more engaging when you include personal gameplay, game developers are willing to pay for tooling to help with this, and the shares convert to installs at a way higher rate than usually seen in the industry. But it was never the big hit we were hoping it could be. In October of 2015, we made the first commits towards what ended up being Megacool, and May 1st, 2025, we'll shut it down, a couple months shy of a decade later.

After the team was adopted by Medal, we've had the opportunity to work on a product that has shown much bigger potential and has achieved meaningful growth and revenue, and have let Megacool fall by the wayside. Working on mobile SDKs requires a minimum level of effort to keep up with the landscape as it evolves (not only iOS and Android, but also supported tooling like Unity), which we haven’t had the capacity to keep up with. While the product still works, has (marginally) kept itself afloat, and has seen new customers ship successful integrations on their own, it is simply not as good as it was when we stopped work on it. To prevent it from falling further into decay and becoming a potential liability from lack of security updates, we're pulling the plug before the party ends by any other means.

But what a decade it has been. We're eternally grateful to everyone who took a chance on us, from game developers to funders, advisors, friends and other backers, who extended us so much trust and grace as we tried to figure out what we were actually building, and helped both us and the company become better versions of ourselves. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

Onto the practicalities. The SDK was built to be offline capable from the start, so when the backend services stop responding on May 1st, existing integrations will keep working, although in a reduced capacity. Recording and previewing the recording will work as usual. Sharing will partially work. The recorded media will no longer be uploaded to our servers, which means that only the share methods that rely on link previews for the media to be included will stop including the media. The share itself will still include the custom message and share link, and we're going to keep just the link redirect alive for a while longer to avoid breaking existing links in the wild. The API used by the SDK, the dashboard, docs, landing page, and all web properties except the blog will disappear. Deferred deep links will stop working, which powers a lot of referrals. The mgcl.co domain will continue redirecting to the app for at least another six months. If we're still seeing regular traffic by then, maybe for a bit longer. But the page will only have a button to open the game, there will be no media preview anymore.

We will open source the SDK some time before the shutdown, to enable customers that want to keep some or all of the functionality to maintain it themselves, or customize it to fit their needs.

Thank you for embarking on this journey with us. Even as it now comes to an end we’re incredibly grateful for the experience, and hope we’ll see you again in the future.

Onwards,

The former Megacool team

In 2019, Activision added a mobile counterpart to its successful Call of Duty franchise. It was, unsurprisingly, a massive hit, with 100m downloads within its first month.

So what have Activision done to translate a PC and console First Person Shooter into a successful mobile title? In this game dissection, we’ll explore how Call of Duty: Mobile was able to hit those immense download numbers, starting with a look at its App Store listing and right through to its social features.

At the same time, there are some areas that we think Call of Duty: Mobile could improve on, which we’ve laid out below.

What you can learn from Call of Duty: Mobile

When it comes to mobile game development, Activision – and Tencent – are some of the biggest players in the global market. As a result, there’s plenty we can learn from Call of Duty: Mobile that can be applied to other mobile games to boost their engagement, retention and monetization.

1. Hand-holding through complex mechanics

While Call of Duty: Mobile leverages the popularity of a huge franchise, this is still an amazing achievement for a game that traditionally relies on quick reflexes and precision aiming – neither of which are easy to port from controller, or keyboard and mouse, to touchscreen. Call of Duty presents multiple control methods as part of its tutorial, giving players the chance to try them out and pick one they’re more comfortable with. It’s also easy to change control methods on the fly during a game.

Secondly, while the tutorial is quite lengthy, Call of Duty holds the player’s hand to guide them through the various options and mechanics. Inventory management is a core component of the gameplay, so this is introduced gradually rather than throwing players in at the deep end and overwhelming them with options.

2. “Advanced” modes are kept gated during onboarding

Call of Duty: Mobile comes with three game modes: Multiplayer, Zombies, and Battle Royale. The latter two are gated off until the player has reached a certain level, which they achieve via playing Multiplayer which is the more “vanilla” of the game modes.

By the time a player unlocks Zombies and Battle Royale, they should have a good grasp of the game mechanics (as well as enough skill to enjoy the more advanced modes, rather than floundering and having a poor experience!). Not only does this help the player to have a more structured First-Time User Experience (FTUE), it also hints at further layers of gameplay that acts as something for the player to aim for over the longer term.

3. Great copy increases immersion

It may seem like a small thing, but simple choices like calling the tutorial “bootcamp” make a big difference when it comes to immersion and player retention. This level of added detail helps with world-building, by making the player feel like they’ve gone through a military-style training course rather than simply tapping through a tutorial.

We’ve written before about the difference great copy can make to games, and this is a classic example of how a little extra polish can add some value for the player. This effect is amplified by having these tutorial messages delivered by an in-game character, rather than simply being disembodied text boxes.

4. Encourage customization and pride in ownership to boost monetization and retention

Call of Duty: Mobile – like its PC and console equivalent – places a lot of emphasis on unlocking, upgrading, customizing and personalizing items. There’s a vast array of weapons, each with multiple attachments that affect their performance in subtle but meaningful ways, allowing for different playstyles. A huge part of the Call of Duty multiplayer experience is tweaking your weapon choices

Call of Duty: Mobile encourages players to take pride in their personalization, by making the weapons highly visible in menus and allowing you to manually inspect your loadout choices. This places an extra feeling of “ownership” over these items, as you can manipulate them in-game in a physical way. That sense of pride can lead to great retention and monetization, as players either work to unlock more items, or spend to acquire them.

What Call of Duty: Mobile can improve

While Activision’s mobile spin-off of the Call of Duty franchise is clearly a huge success, there are a few areas in which it could improve the player experience and potentially grow its audience even further. Let’s take a look.

1. Video and GIF sharing of “Killcam” or “Play of the Game”

Each round of Call of Duty: Mobile ends with a “Final Killcam”, where every player gets to see the final kill of the round from the perspective of the player who pulled it off. However, the game does not allow players to share or save this moment with their friends. In fact, currently Call of Duty lets you share a screenshot of the “winners’ circle” (see below) and nothing more.

This is a huge missed opportunity. The Final Killcam is the moment of triumph or despair, and is presented in slow motion as the winning moment of the game. It’s short – just a few seconds – making it the perfect length for a GIF or a looping Twitter video.

This could be taken a step further by allowing each player to view (and share) their own personal highlight from the game, much like Overwatch’s “Play of the Game” mechanic. The Final Killcam is a slightly arbitrary highlight, and frequently there isn’t anything particularly special about it compared to a great play that might have taken place earlier in the game.

Allowing players to view, capture and share these moments would make for highly-engaging social content that could potentially pull in more players.

2. Expand the existing sharing process

The current social sharing experience in Call of Duty: Mobile is actually quite prosaic, and could be significantly improved to boost its effectiveness. Players can take a screenshot of the “winners’ circle” (like an Olympic podium) and then either save it to their device, or share to Facebook.

There’s multiple factors that could be improved here, such as:

– Allow sharing to more social platforms: Twitter, Instagram, and messaging apps

– Provide pre-written text to go with the share: at the moment, the player has to enter their own text, which increases the likelihood that they’ll simply leave it blank rather than having an engaging message

– Incentivize new players to join via sharing: for example, in-game currency could be given to new players who sign up via a shared link

– Use deep-linking to allow friends to team up seamlessly: players could join clans or jump straight into a game with their friends using deep-linking

– Allow more opportunities to share: Call of Duty: Mobile is packed with shareable moments, from Killcams to victory dances and case openings. The game already lets players examine their weapons – why not let them show these off on social media too, and encourage other players to do the same?

3. Broaden the Invite Friends experience

Call of Duty: Mobile allows players to invite their friends via Facebook only, which again is something of a missed opportunity (you can login using Line too, but not invite through the platform). Not only would it be preferable to leverage more social / messaging networks, but the existing integration is lacking in some of the personalization that would improve its effectiveness.

As it stands, players simply choose friends from their Facebook friends list, and ping them a notification. There’s no option to add a personal message, it just appears as a Facebook notification. Tapping the notification opens the app itself, which puts you in a lobby with the inviting player. This is a nice touch, but the actual invite could be much more appealing.

One thing Call of Duty: Mobile does do is incentivize playing with friends by giving +5% XP for doing so, which is a nice touch that is likely to hook some players without creating too large an advantage for those that do so.

4. Simplify the onboarding experience

A first-time player gets hit immediately with a wealth of information that will be either irrelevant – or even meaningless – to them at that stage of the user journey.

A lengthy pop-up details bug fixes, tweaks and new features, and is packed with terminology that players will not yet be familiar with. After closing this, the new player also gets hit with pop-ups for in-game items and content, which can be off-putting at best and overwhelming at worst. Simply put, there’s no need for a new player to encounter these kinds of messages at this stage, and it may be better for them to be held until further along the FTUE.

Finally, one of the first things players are asked to do is create a username. Unfortunately, no indication is given as to whether the name they choose is taken, until a player has submitted it – at which point players are told to choose something else.

A far better experience here would be to suggest a selection of similar names – for example, with a string of numbers on the end – that a player can quickly choose from. As it stands, players might go through multiple attempts to find a unique username before finally hitting one that works.

Games such as Hearthstone – another Activision property – simply add a random string of numbers to your username by default, allowing players to not only use their preferred username, but to do so quickly and easily.

5. Adding rewarded referrals: Incentivizing growth through players

Call of Duty: Mobile currently misses a big opportunity to grow its game via rewarded referrals. Doing so would allow it to boost its audience organically, by leveraging the social power of its community.

A referral could take place by allowing a player to share a customizable message to their social channels or messaging apps, inviting their friends to join the game. We touched on this in point 3, but Activision could take this an extra step by incentivizing these referrals with rewards.

Rewards could take the form of in-game items (like weapon skins or emotes) or currency. They could even be exclusive items that can only be obtained by referring new players to the game, making them highly desirable and increasing the chance of a share.

For even more information on how Call of Duty: Mobile – and other games! – can take advantage of incentivized referrals, check out our blog post.

Other game dissections

If you enjoyed this game dissection, why not take a look at some of our others? We’ve taken deep dives into some of the biggest mobile games in recent years, to see what made them successful and what (if anything) they could do better:

• Agar.io
• Angry Birds 2
• Bowmasters
• Bumper.io
• Candy Crush Soda Saga
• Crossy Road
• Love Balls
• Trivia Crack 2

Thanks for reading and watching! If you want to know about Megacool, our products and our insight into gaming growth, please get in touch – we’d love to hear from you: hello [at] megacool.co!

Dear all, I'm writing to you today to share some exciting news from us. Megacool.co has been acquired by Medal.tv, which will allow us to make game highlights shareable from both mobile and PC! Medal.tv has created a similar product offering to ours, but largely focused on PC gaming. Joining Medal.tv is a natural fit for Megacool and we're thrilled to be partnering with them.

We met Medal's team for the first time in 2016 at Casual Connect in San Francisco. They were building a mobile game at the time and were interested in using Megacool. A few years later they pivoted into building what Medal.tv is today: a market-leading platform for easy game capture and clip sharing on PC.

After Medal's recent successful funding round, CEO Pim de Witte reached out to discuss the opportunity to combine our skills and developments, in order to build the best cross-platform service for capturing and sharing game content. Our mission and plans are aligned very closely and Medal.tv acquiring Megacool.co is seemingly the best way to accomplish our vision. We look forward to forging a new path together with the talented team at Medal.

Becoming part of the Medal family will not only allow us to move faster and with more resources, but also allows us to offer a business model that will work for both large and small games studios. As many of you know, our origin as indie developers meant that we wanted to build a platform that would work for any developer – particularly those who don't have a budget for paid user acquisition. The first major release will be the launch of our new freemium model, which we hope will make it easier and more accessible for any dev studio, large or small, to take advantage of our features.

Mobile is such an exciting space to be in, and we believe current mobile titles are only scratching the surface of what's possible when you bring people together around amazing experiences at scale. The recent gain in popularity of hardcore mobile titles such as Call of Duty, Arena of Valor, and Garena Free Fire is only going to drive more developer investment, and we couldn't be more excited to be part of the movement.

Going forward we will double down on further improving our performance and reliability to allow more mid- to hard-core games to thrive on our platform. We also want to emphasize that data will be kept separate and remain as private as ever, while we are continuing to expand our enterprise offering. We are grateful for all the support you've shown us on our mega cool journey and hope you'll be part of this exciting next chapter with Medal.

🙌 With gratitude,
Aurora and the rest of the Megacool team!

Building a community for your game is one of the surest signs that you’re onto a good thing. You can’t buy a community – it relies on genuine, organically-formed feelings and bonds between your players. However, you can put some features in place that can help that community to form.

We looked at some of the ways you can build a community in this article, but in this post we’ll explore how and why community competitions can give your game a big engagement boost, particularly those that make use of gameplay replays by asking players to share in order to enter.

We’ll also look at some of the technical aspects of getting your competition up and running on various platforms using the Megacool SDK. But first, let’s look at some quick general tips for making a competition a success for you and your players.

How to run a successful community competition

Don’t lose sight of your goal: your competition is intended to get more people sharing game replays to social channels, which in turn will help refer more people to the game. Referral programs deliver a boost to acquisition, retention, engagement and monetization, and your competition should be structured and promoted with that goal in mind.

Use a tone of voice that’s true to your game: we recently looked at how important great copy is for referral marketing, and a community competition is no different. You want your players to find this competition appealing, and feel motivated to take part – and so keeping your tone of voice consistent with the rest of your game is vital.

Communicate clearly: it’s vital your players know exactly how the competition works, what the prize is, and how they can get involved. Related to that…

Keep it simple: don’t ask your players to do too much, or they’ll tune out. The fewer hoops they have to jump through, the more likely they are to engage with the competition – which means it’s more likely to be a success for you.

Now that we’ve got those down, let’s see how each platform in turn can be used for a competition that takes advantage of the capabilities of Megacool’s SDK.

Twitter

Twitter is one of the best and most flexible platforms to use for a community competition. Sharing via the Megacool SDK is smooth for developers and players alike, as you can package together a media file (such as a GIF or a screenshot), pre-written text and a link, all ready for the player to share with minimal effort required on their part.

To make this work, you need to simply inform your players to:

1. Activate sharing in the game – for example, complete a game, earn an achievement, or any other moment of gameplay that leads to a sharing prompt
2. Select the desired sharing platform (Twitter, in this case)
3. Add optional information specific to the competition – for example, their username, or some competition-specific text or hashtag. This information needs to be clearly stated by the rules of the competition, so that there’s no confusion for players.
4. Hit share!

Super-simple. Community managers can then comb through the entries on social and select winners.

Facebook

Facebook is a slightly more cumbersome platform for competitions, but can still be very effective. The main difference is that, unlike Twitter, on Facebook you can only share either a media file or a link or pre-set text – not all together.

The good news is that with Megacool, players will be able to share a link that previews the in-game content when posting to their wall, and link back to the game.

Similar to Twitter, the steps are as follows:

1. Activate sharing in the game – for example, complete a game, earn an achievement, or any other moment of gameplay that leads to a sharing prompt
2. Select the desired sharing platform (Facebook, if they are sharing to their wall/in a group)
3. Add optional information specific to the competition – for example, their username, or some competition-specific text or hashtag. This information needs to be clearly stated by the rules of the competition, so that there’s no confusion for players.
4. Hit share!

You can also pull entries into a single destination by asking players to enter by commenting on a post on your own Facebook page, for example. In that case, in step 2 above, Players have to select “Copy”, which will copy the link to the replay and then post it as a reply on your page’s post – here’s how Hollywood Story ran a competition:

Instagram

Instagram has high potential impact for running competitions – after all, you’re asking players to share something visual – gameplay replays or screenshots – and Instagram is as visual a social platform as you can get.

The main limitation is that Instagram only allows users to share replay videos – you can’t provide players with pre-set text or links back to the game for when they share. This means that only shares can be tracked, not views or anything related to player behavior after the share.

This also means you’ll need to ask your players to include a competition-specific hashtag when they go to share to Instagram. That way, community managers can easily access all entries via the hashtag, and use that to select their winners.

In order to run a competition on Instagram, you need to advise your players to follow these steps:

1. Activate sharing in the game – for example, complete a game, earn an achievement, or any other moment of gameplay that leads to a sharing prompt
2. Select the desired sharing platform (Instagram, in this case)
3. Add optional information specific to the competition – for example, their username, or some competition-specific text or hashtag. This information needs to be clearly stated by the rules of the competition, so that there’s no confusion for players.
4. Hit share!

Leverage shared content to market your game

So, you’ve successfully got your players sharing content on social channels in order to enter competitions. But that’s really just the start – now it’s time to try and leverage that shared content as much as possible, to help market your game even further.

Every entry to your competition is something potentially worth sharing with the wider community. This is where your community managers can start to compile the best clips into curated content. These video compilations could focus on the best gameplay moments, the funniest fails, crazy trickshots or whatever is most fitting for your game.

By publicising entries in compilation videos, you create an even stronger bond with your players. You also motivate them to participate in future competitions, or even send you their best game replays unprompted: the chance to be a “featured” player in a community is a powerful and appealing status symbol!

Summary

Competitions can help grow and strengthen your game’s community, as well as spreading awareness about your game. They incentivize players to show off their best moments, and also provide community managers with plenty of great content with which to promote your game.

Using the Megacool SDK, community competitions can be seamlessly orchestrated across an array of platforms. To learn more about growing your game’s audience with Megacool, visit our blog or check out our site.

Referral programs are one of the best ways to pick up new players for your game, by leveraging the engagement of your existing players who then invite their friends to play. We’ve looked at what kinds of incentives to offer for referrals, as well as how to promote it in-game and externally – but what type of program is actually right for your game?

In this post we’ll explore some of the different referral marketing programs that are frequently used in mobile gaming today:

• Content sharing
• Refer a friend
• Tiered rewards based on milestones
• Leaderboards
• Giveaways

We’ll look at how they work, and some of our recommendations based on helping to boost organic growth in a wide variety of mobile games. Let’s start with the basics.

Rewarding players for sharing content

We recently looked at some of the best ways to record replays of gameplay and package them in a way that motivates players to share. Unsurprisingly, incentives motivate players even more!

There are many benefits to getting your players to share in-game content with their friends or on social media. As well as potentially bringing in referrals from those friends who see your content and want to check out the game, you also spread awareness of your app which may lead to indirect referrals further down the line.

Refer a friend

Referrals may happen naturally – or indirectly – through content sharing as mentioned above, but you can go one better by directly incentivizing players to refer a friend.

Be sure that the referral loop requires a new player to download the game and open it (and possibly complete an action within it, such as creating an account or completing the tutorial) before you start giving out the rewards.

At Megacool, we’ve seen first-hand that players are increasingly turning to messaging apps over social media when it comes to sharing. The social importance of making a personalized, one-to-one recommendation is growing. With the deeplinking enabled by our SDK, new players can jump right into a game with their friends or even appear instantly on in-game friends lists.

Tiered rewards for referral milestones

Now we’re getting into some slightly more sophisticated solutions.

Offering rewards for a successful referral should be just the start. An even more engaging form of a referral program is to give different “tiers” of rewards based on how many friends a player refers to the game. The more players they refer, the bigger their reward.

Here are a few key tips for tiered referral rewards:

• Don’t make it too hard to achieve the first milestone – otherwise your players won’t engage with the extra tiers. We recommend no more than 2 referrals needed to reach the first reward.

• Be sure to clearly communicate that there are different tiers. This is where great copy is essential – and for a guide on that, check out this blog post.

• Show the rewards! Don’t give vague promises as to what the higher-tier rewards are – show them on the screen to help players visualize what they could be getting their hands on. It’ll also help motivate them to try and reach the higher tiers.

• Show progress! A player should always know how close they are to hitting the next tier. A progress bar, or periodic reminders that they need to refer a couple more friends, can be a great way to help them get there (and help you get new players).

Use leaderboards to gamify referrals

Leaderboards are commonly used as a metagame device, to add another layer of gameplay. But you can also use them to help gamify your game’s referral program, and make it even more engaging for players.

The concept is simple enough: the more friends a player refers, the higher up the leaderboard they place. As with milestone-based rewards tiers, players should also be incentivized to finish as high up the leaderboard as possible.

The big difference between milestone-based rewards is that a leaderboard is time-limited. For example, you could have weekly leaderboards with prizes given out every 7 days for the top 100 players who have referred the most friends. That way the rewards are frequently refreshed, and feel achievable to every player: if they miss out one week, hey, there’s always next week.

Again, your communication and copy are key here. Be creative with how this is presented. You’re appealing to your game’s biggest fans – the advocates and ambassadors for your app. Make sure they feel like that, and that placing high on the leaderboard is worth their time and effort.

Giveaways can incentivize players to refer

Finally, a special event – involving a giveaway – is a great way to give your referral marketing a boost. Offer up an enticing prize draw in the game and on your social media, with the condition that players have to refer a friend in order to enter.

The more friends they refer, the more entries they get – like a lottery ticket.

There are all kinds of rewards that you could offer to players, from in-game currency to merchandise. We broke down all the different referral rewards types, but we recommend going for something truly enticing and unique – like real-life merch – for a special event like this.

Summary

There are many different ways in which you can use referral marketing in your game, from simple share-to-social cues to special events and leaderboards.

We recommend that you don’t think of these referral program types as individual marketing strategies, but as part of one larger strategy for boosting user acquisition. Just because you have one of these programs in place, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look to build some of the additional referral layers on top. When it comes to acquiring new players, every additional one is of value!

For more information about how best to integrate referral programs in your game, and other mobile development best practices, check out the best practice section on our blog. You can also learn more on how to integrate Megacool’s referral program from the Megacool Documentation.

Referral programs are an extremely effective way of bringing in new players. Not just any players. Players that have higher engagement, retention and monetize better! Once you’ve got your program set up, the next thing to do is make sure your players are aware of it, and also buy into it. After all, it’s good for all parties: they get rewards, you get new players.

In our previous post we looked at some of the simplest ways to spread awareness about your referral program to your players, using things like social media and patch notes. In this article, we’ll explore some of the more advanced methods that take place in-app. Sure, they require a little more effort, but with it comes that boost to your game’s acquisition, engagement and retention.

Let’s get started on our ways to drive engagement with your referral program in your game.

When a player enters or exits the in-game shop

If a player has entered your game’s store, there’s a good chance they’re either thinking of making an in-app purchase, or at least browsing for ways to get their hands on in-game currency or rewards. Use this opportunity to tell players about your referral program in the in-game shop. An example of how this is done is shown below, from the game C.A.T.S. To keep the store as clean as possible, players can click the info button to learn more about the feature.

If you know that a player is not likely to monetize, you could also use a prompt to inform the player about the referral program upon exiting the store. This will show them that they can get items for free, and may make them more motivated to go ahead with the referral. Though, you may want to avoid doing this all the time as it can feel spammy to the player as their intention is to leave the store.

When a player goes to add a friend or opens their “friends list”

You definitely have their attention at this point. They’re already looking at the social options for the game, and possibly even getting ready to invite some friends without you even prompting them to do so.

Time to capitalize on that, and show them what rewards they can get. This is also an ideal point to demonstrate increasing rewards based on the number of friends they successfully refer to the game.

Best of all, it’s incredibly simple for new players to be added as friends via a referral, using deeplinking. Simply clicking on the referral link can automatically add a new player to a friends list, or even let them jump straight into a game with the referring player.

It’s common for friends lists to let you add players who are already in the game, but a referral setup using the Megacool SDK takes it one step further. Now, there’s no need for a friend to be an existing player, and to know a friend’s username: with one tap, they can join!

As part of a general onboarding process

We’ve talked before about the value of an excellent first-time user experience – a careful and engaging explanation of the game’s core mechanics, without overwhelming the player with too much information up-front.

A referral program can definitely fall into the “too much information” category if you drop it on your players too soon. For example, a worst-case scenario would be hitting players with info on the program just after they’ve opened the app for the first time. Give them a chance to play the game, and drip-feed them any useful information on gameplay, retention mechanics (such as leaderboards or achievements), the in-game economy and so on.

Ultimately, you want to retain your current players before you think about acquiring new ones. So while promoting your referral program should absolutely be part of your onboarding, it’s best holding it back until the final steps of the process.

When a player experiences a highlight moment and wants to share

Having a player share a screenshot or GIF replay of your game to social media is already great for you. Now you can let your players know that there are incentives for sharing, by introducing them to the referral program’s rewards.

Again, this is an ideal time to bring it up. The player is already motivated to reach out to their friends; now you can give them one more reason to do so.

Even better is if the player has just hit a highlight moment in the game, such as hitting a new highscore, winning a boss fight, or even failing in an amusing way. Emotional moments like those are prime sharing content, and your players will want to share them with their friends – at which point you can also tell them about the referral program.

Via push notifications

Push notifications deliver short, personalized messages to your player’s device and are a great re-engagement tool. Not only that, they’re also a good way to promote your referral program.

Not only can you use a push notification to inform your players of the programs’ release: you can use it to update them of their referral’s progress. Remember, you want your referral loop to require a new player to (at least) download and open your game. When that happens, you can ping the referring player to let them know that their friend has joined in.

If you’re using increasing rewards based on how many friends a player refers, then you should also use push notifications to keep them updated. For example, if they’re 1 referral away from the next reward tier, let them know! It might be the nudge they need to get over the line.

As part of an in-game quest or achievement

Finally, consider ways to tie your referral program to actual gameplay. That way you can promote it to players while not removing them from the experience of playing the game.

This could be in the form of a quest, that requires you to share an achievement, high-score or moment with friends. Players then get a reward for completing the quest, and a teaser for how to get even more rewards through referrals.

Summary

These steps should all help you get the most out of your referral program, and bring in more players for your game. As with everything UX-related, you should balance a need to promote the program while avoiding overloading or distracting your players from the core game experience.

Megacool’s SDK allows for seamless integration of referral programs within mobile games, giving developers the power to boost their organic acquisition with high-value users. Don’t miss our first batch of tips for promoting referral programs, and to learn more about growing your game’s audience, visit the Megacool blog or check out our site.

So, you’ve got your referral program in place – good job! Now all you have to do is sit back and let those referrals roll in, right?

Well… not exactly. We’ve all heard the line “if you build it they will come”, but in the case of referrals, there’s no time to waste waiting around. You’ve built a program for bringing in new players organically; now it’s time to tell people about it.

In this post, we’ll explore some of the ways in which you can not only make players aware of your referral program but show that inviting friends is an enticing and rewarding thing to do.

There are plenty of ways to do this, some of which take place inside your game and some of which are external methods using supporting platforms like social media. This post will focus on those external ones as they require a little less resource than in-game methods that might need you to push an app update. We’ll address the internal ones in another post.

Update your patch notes

This is one of the most straightforward ways to get a message across to your players – in the patch notes on the App Store or Google Play. You’re probably used to having a “What’s New” entry whenever you push a new feature in your game. And guess what! Your new referral program is a new feature, so update your patch notes to tell players about it.

We’ve previously looked at some best practices for copywriting in your game, but you should try and be creative with your new patch note text while also being super-clear about how your referral program works – and what the reward will be for your players. This is your chance to sell the idea as well as announcing it.

Social media announcements

Those communities you’ve spent time building on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, wherever? Now’s the time to talk to them!

Again, this is a chance to get creative and present your referral program as something that benefits your players. They invite a friend; they get a reward. Assuming you’ve made your rewards desirable, that should be an easy sell.

One of the advantages of using your social platforms is that you can get some feedback on the referral program itself. Are people complaining that the rewards are too stingy? Consider tweaking it in the future. Does it seem like some players don’t grasp what they need to do? Revisit your wording and see if it can be clearer.

Of course, that level of user feedback should be weighed against the real-time insights you’ll get from using the Megacool dashboard to power your referrals. But it’s still useful feedback – and having a dialogue with players can help build trust and engagement.

Newsletters

You may already be sending newsletters to your players when you’ve got something you want to tell them – and this is no different. If you’ve gathered email addresses of your players (and got their opt-in for marketing, of course), then a newsletter can be a highly effective way of communicating with them.

Not only is a newsletter personalized to each player, but it’s also not a platform that’s competing for a reader’s attention in the way that social media will be. One email, addressed to each player, landing in their inbox. You’ve got their attention, and now you can tell them all about your great new referral program and how they can get their hands on those sweet in-game rewards.

A newsletter also gives you scope to go into a little more detail about how the program works, whereas social media and patch notes will need you to be a bit short-and-sweet to keep your reader’s attention. We wrote about the power of newsletters, and their increasing relevancy, in our summary of gaming growth trends.

Website

Finally, your website – either for your company, or the individual game – should always be kept up to date with the latest news about your game.

As with newsletters, this is an ideal platform to lay out details of your referral program. You can even point players towards this from social media if they’re having problems grasping how the program works – although if that’s the case, you should probably look at making the program more straightforward too.

Summary

These four steps should be the minimum you do to promote your in-app referral program to your players. They’re easily created and pushed live, and allow you to reach players directly in the case of newsletters and social media posts. All of them should go some way to helping you get the most out of your referral program in the form of boosting your acquisition, revenue, and retention.

Look out for more advanced methods for promoting your referral program in our next post. To learn more about growing your game’s audience, visit the Megacool blog or check out our site.

Talking to your players is a rewarding but challenging experience. It’s a way to form trust between players and developers, as well as a method for boosting engagement with the game. Communication can inform, entertain, and motivate players into positive behavior that helps grow your audience.

There’s a lot to consider when it comes to developer-to-player communications. Come up with killer in-game copy and the rewards can be huge. Get it wrong, and you risk alienating, disengaging or even losing some of your players.

In this post, we’ll look at the importance of having a clearly-defined voice in your copy when it comes to referral marketing – but we hope you find many of these tips useful for communicating with your players in other ways too.

Why is great copy important in referral marketing?

With referral marketing, you’re trying to get your players to do something that they might not ordinarily consider doing. In this case, you’re asking them to invite their friends to download and play your game, usually in exchange for a reward.

In that one simple action, there are four principles that your copy needs to nail for the referral program to be effective:

• It needs to clearly explain what the player must do
• It needs to sell the program to your players, to make the reward seem enticing
• It needs to help players communicate the referral process to their friends
• It needs to endear your players to your game / brand

Keep these four principles in mind when drafting any copy for your referral marketing efforts.

Here are some of our quick tips for writing effective copy for your game.

With copy, less is more

You’re not writing a Ph.D. thesis here. You’re trying to convey only the most essential bits of information, in as few words as possible.

Get your copy down on paper, and then look at every single sentence, phrase, and word and think if there’s a simpler or more efficient way of saying exactly the same thing. Are you using any technical language that your players might not be familiar with – for example, “referral” instead of “invite”? Consider changing it.

If there’s too much copy, your players’ eyes may slide right off it. Remember, they’re here to play – and in most games, that doesn’t mean reading a screenful of text. That applies to those receiving the referral, too – if there’s line after line of text, they may not follow through and download the game.

Be creative, but not if it obscures your message

Making copy clear doesn’t mean that it has to be dull. In fact, if your copy is the same generic text as you might find in 100 other games then players may not read it properly (or at all).

Your in-game copy is where you can really reinforce your brand voice: the copy that builds the atmosphere, lore, and environment of your game. That should carry over to your marketing copy too. If your in-game copy is setting the tone of epic fantasy, then a little of that brand voice should make its way into your referral marketing text too.

The key is to not go overboard to the extent where your message gets obscured. But a little flavor goes a long way to giving your players a positive experience or attracting new players by showing them what they’re missing out on.

Don’t forget the incentive

A referral is an exchange: a player gets a friend to download your game, and in return, you give them a reward.

Make sure your players know that! Show the reward on the screen, and reiterate it in your copy. Make it stand out from the rest of the text – use a different color, sizing or other highlights. As a side note, make sure the reward itself is attractive enough that your player will want to complete the action – for more on that, see our blog post.

Frontload the good stuff

Treat your marketing copy like a great newspaper headline, and frontload the best bits. In the case of referral programs, that means a reward for the referring player. Make sure that the incentive hits their eyeballs good and early.

Once you’ve caught a player’s attention with the offer of the reward, you can then give them the actual steps by which to get it. It’s the difference between “invite 10 friends and get a reward” and “get a reward by inviting 10 friends”.

Personalize your copy

Nothing grabs attention like seeing your own name (or username) in a game. If your game allows players to create an account, use that information to personalize their experience within the app.

That includes referral marketing – use a player’s name when you’re going through the steps of how the referral program works. A personal touch is always going to be more effective than generic text.

Speak their language: learn your players’ voice

Your players will always appreciate being heard. Keep a close eye on how your players communicate, not just with you but among themselves.

What kind of language do they use when talking about your game on social media, or discussing it on Reddit or in general feedback / reviews? Are there certain game-specific words of phrases that they use a lot, or certain parts of your game that get talked about a lot? Those can be weaved into your marketing copy, which will make it more relatable, engaging or even work as a kind of “in-joke” between you and your players.

Keep it fresh

Finally, keep your copy fresh. That means changing it up every now and again to avoid the experience growing stale for the player. You don’t need to have hundreds of different variations for the same user journey, but it is good to introduce some variety.

If a player is going through the same journey multiple times – as you will want them to do for a referral program – then keeping the copy fresh can be a good way to keep them engaged in the process.

Iterate on your copy, and you may find that some variations are more effective than others. Optimization is a vital step in mobile game development, and copy is no different. In the Megacool dashboard you can track your KPIs and insights in real-time to help you achieve peak performance from your referral program.

Conclusion

Great copy is a challenge, but it can bring huge rewards and help grow engagement with your game. Let's quickly recap our tips for getting the most out of your in-game copy in your referral program:

• Keep it concise: less is more
• Be creative, but not if it obscures your message
• Don't forget to mention the incentive for referring players
• Frontload your copy with the most attractive bits of information (usually the reward for players!)
• Personalize your copy by using player names / usernames where possible
• Learn your players' voice, and work it into your copy
• Keep it fresh by changing your in-game copy on occasion

To learn more about best practices for referrals and mobile game growth, check out our blog or visit the Megacool website.

Rewards and incentives are a powerful way to acquire new players, re-engage existing ones, or strengthen a player’s investment in your game. They provide long-term goals for players, giving them a little hit of satisfaction in addition to their enjoyment of the actual game.

Referral programs are widely used around the world and in a huge variety of industries. Uber offer discounts on rides for customers who successfully refer someone, whereas Dropbox gives more storage space for people who convince their friends to sign up.

Referral programs are increasingly common in mobile games today. This means that unless you build something into your own game, you could be left behind and find it difficult to retain players over a long period of time.

In this post, we’ll take a deep dive into the different types of rewards and incentives for mobile game referral programs, and some best practices for doing so.

What types of rewards should you use?

Rewards come in different shapes and sizes, and all of them have their uses in terms of driving referrals. It’s worth remembering that there’s no magic solution when it comes to which reward is right for your game: each game is unique and some incentives will be more effective for your game than for others.

In broad terms, rewards can be broken down into these categories:

• In-game currency such as coins or gems - unique to each game
• Loot boxes that give random rewards
• Discounts on in-game items
• Early access to new features or updates
• Physical merchandise or exclusive content such as branded real-life items or unique in-game items that can't be acquired in any other way

Let’s look at each of these in turn in a little more detail.

In-game currency

This is probably the most straightforward incentive to offer your players as part of a referral program, but there’s also plenty of variables to consider. Offer too small a reward and your players may not think it’s worthwhile; offer too much and you may affect revenue in the rest of the game.

Currency doesn’t just need to refer to the standard coins / gems that many games use. It could also take the form of hints or extra lives. Remember, your goal with a reward is not just to make your players feel warm and fuzzy – you want them to carry on playing your game. Hints and extra lives mean that your players don’t hit a brick wall when playing – they get another chance to carry on.

Loot boxes

Loot boxes, packs, chests or crates are a way of delivering random, gacha-style rewards to players. They’re extremely widely used, and you’ll see them popping up in everything from Clash Royale to FIFA Ultimate Team.

Their popularity is fairly straightforward: firstly, players love the idea of that “lottery-winning” moment where they get lucky and hit the jackpot when they open their loot box. Secondly, as loot boxes are often sold as IAPs, giving them as rewards can be a way to encourage players to spend to get more boxes.

Games will typically offer different tiers of loot boxes, along the lines of bronze-silver-gold / rare-epic-legendary. The higher the tier, the more valuable the contents, or the better chance a player has of hitting the jackpot prize.

This allows developer some flexibility when using loot boxes as rewards: you can assign different tiers of boxes for different player actions. For example, a relatively simple action like inviting 1 friend could reward a bronze loot box, whereas inviting 10 friends could give a silver box.

Discounts

Discounts are fairly self-explanatory: a way to reward players by offering them lower prices on IAPs. However, as with loot boxes, developers can get creative as to how these discounts are achieved, and how valuable they are.

For example, you could offer a 50% discount on select items in your game’s shop for successfully referring 1 friend to the game. If you invite even more friends, the discount increases. You could even spin this so that exclusive items only become available in the shop once the player has completed certain actions.

Early access, exclusive content and physical merchandise

Let’s group these together as they go hand-in-hand. These are perhaps the most challenging rewards to offer, but the benefits are huge to both players and developers.

Early access can take the form of beta access to new features, updates or items, or even developer chats and interaction. This is not only extremely desirable for hardcore players but can also be beneficial to the developer as you can solicit feedback from a subsection of your playerbase before it hits a global release.

Exclusive content can be in-game items that general players don’t have access to – such as a unique avatar design. And physical merchandise is a great way to forge a stronger bond with your players, and boost their loyalty and feelings towards your game.

All of these can be helpful towards building brand ambassadors for your game (note: there’s more to it than simply sending some branded swag to a YouTuber!).

Your goal here is to build a stronger relationship with those players who are already passionate about your game. If you can do so, you’ll be in dialogue with people who know your game through-and-through – maybe even better than you do! – and care strongly about it. They may have feedback and suggestions that you hadn’t considered, which later get integrated into your game (which is another reward in itself). And if they’re passionate enough about your game, they may end up referring new players through their own connections or social media.

How much of a reward should you offer to players?

Naturally, there’s no magic answer to this question either, given that games – and their economies – are different. However, we can give you some pointers to help you arrive at the right answer for your game!

Tip #1: The higher the reward, the more your players will strive to earn it

Sounds obvious, but it’s still worth pointing out: if you price your rewards and incentives too low, your players might not think they’re worth the effort to jump through whatever hoop you’re holding for them.

Players will quickly get a grasp of what’s “valuable” in your game. They might base that off IAPs – for example, they may have noticed that you’re selling 1,000 coins for $1. Or it might be from gameplay experience: they’ve built up an idea of how precious a hint or an extra life is.

If you’re offering players the equivalent of a couple of cents’ worth of coins, they might not think that’s worth their time. In the worst case scenario, it may even anger players who think you’re being cheap. Remember that the goal in giving rewards is that you want your players to do something – and then you’ll reward that behavior. Make sure the incentive is big enough for them to go through with it.

Tip #2: The easier it is to get the reward, the more likely it is that players will make the effort

Keep in mind that you want your players to get the reward, because it means they’ve done something that you want them to do. In the case of referrals, we recommend that the receiving player should be required to install the game and open the app in order for the referral to count as “complete”, and the sending player to receive their reward.

By contrast, you could ask the new player to get through a number of levels or complete the tutorial before the referring player gets the reward. That may be good for the game because the new player has to experience the game, but it can be confusing for the referring player and require some extra in-game communication so that they understand how the reward works.

If you’re offering increasing rewards based on the number of players rewarded, we recommend starting things off easy with just 1 or 2 referrals required to get a reward. This will give referring players an easily-achievable reward, and incentivize them to push for 5, 10 or even more friends to join the game.

Tip #3: Don’t make your rewards too easy to obtain

Remember that rewards can actually lead to negative behavior if applied in certain ways. For example, rewarding players for sharing repeatedly to social media will likely lead to them spamming the feature. This will have a much lower rate of acquisition and conversion compared to a referral program that requires an install from the recipient.

If this becomes a concern for you, we recommend limiting players’ ability to send a new referral to one per day.

Tip #4: Don’t make your rewards too valuable

There’s a possibility that Tip #1 made you think “okay, I’ll just be super-generous with my player rewards”. Don’t.

If you’re too generous with your rewards for simple actions completed by your players, it may actually reduce your in-game revenue. A player may think it’s never worthwhile to make an IAP, or watch an incentivized ad, because they know you’ll give them a big stash of a reward for something that doesn’t require them to spend.

It’s all about balance. Which brings us on to...

Tip #5: It’s also possible to have too much of a good thing

This refers not just to individual reward sizes, but the frequency of them too. If your players are being rewarded for every little action, it might make them feel positive initially but that buzz will quickly wear off.

Players may even become jaded towards rewards and find them to be a meaningless, spammy distraction. Don’t overstuff your players with treats. Keep them happy, but also wanting more.

Some games, such as Critter Clash (below), have limits on how many referrals someone can receive. Players get a reward (loot box) with every individual referral, and the program is capped at five.

As with so much of mobile gaming, though, iteration is key. Keep trying new things until you find what works for your game and its players.

Tip #6: Prioritize rewarding the referral sender rather than the receiver

With mobile game referrals, the least you can do is to reward the sender for making successful referrals. Rewarding the receiving player is powerful too, although Apple is not clear on their guidelines around how they handle doing this (Note: at Megacool, we haven’t experienced any issues with this, and there don’t appear to be any issues on Android).

If you do reward the receiver, make sure to communicate the monetary value of the reward in the message. Remember, they’re new players and they will likely have no idea if “100 gems” or “5000 coins” is of any value, or indeed what they’re to be used for.

A nice touch is to give the reward to the receiver as a welcome gift from the friends who referred them. This gives it a personal touch.

Conclusion

Everyone loves rewards in life, and your players are no different. There’s a lot of variables to consider, but don’t let that put you off: if you can implement incentives in a way that works for your own playerbase, you’ll reap your own rewards of increased engagement, retention and revenue.

For more information about how best to integrate rewards in your game, and other mobile development best practices, check out the best practice section on our blog or learn more on how to integrate Megacool’s referral program from the Megacool website.

We all know that GIFs engage and entertain. Of all the content on our Twitter feeds or on Reddit, they’re the one thing we’re least likely to scroll right past. And when you send a friend a GIF, you can bet they’ll take the time to check it out.

At Megacool, we’ve seen that GIFs of gameplay replays are the present and future of viral acquisition in mobile games. That’s not just empty words – we’ve worked with games that have shown the following uptick in performance once they started empowering players to share replays with their friends:

1. 1.7x higher conversion rate to paying users
2. 2.3x higher average revenue per user
3. 65% higher 14-day retention

So we’re comfortable in saying that gameplay GIFs are pretty great. But how do you actually get from gameplay to a GIF? Well, that’s where we come in.

We know that no two games are the same, so it’s important to be flexible and customizable when it comes to the marketing of your game. That’s why we’ve come up with a range of methods to record gameplay, and turn it into a GIF ready to share.

What are the different modes for recording gameplay?

Let’s get a super-quick overview of what each of these methods look like, and then we’ll get into which mode is best for your app or game:

1. Time Recording runs in the background of your app, and by default keeps a buffer of the last 5 seconds of gameplay. The length can be customized, but keep in mind that people’s attention span is only about 8 seconds!
2. Highlight Recording is designed to capture the most exciting part of your game – such as a key action sequence that will make for great social content. It does this by tracking gameplay intensity as determined by metrics specific to your game.
3. Frame-by-Frame Recording grabs individual frames, rather than a continuous period of time. For example, it can record the frame at each tap of the screen, removing any “dead time” from the action.
4. Timelapse Recording captures a few frames over a longer period of time, making it ideal for condensing long passages of play into a shorter GIF-sized clip.

So – which replay recording mode is best for your game? Let’s get into it!

Which replay recording mode should I use?

One important thing to remember is that while these four modes cover all bases of replay recording, they can be further customized to suit your own game. For more on that, check out our documentation on recording (which will also show you how easy it is to set them up). As we said, no two games are exactly the same and we know that getting an exact, tailored solution for sharing is going to give you the best results.

In our experience, though, these are the four best starting points when it comes to replay recording and sharing. We’ll start with probably the most widely-used mode – Time Recording.

Use Time Recording for action-packed games

If your game is packed with thrills and fast-paced action, then Time Recording is the mode for you. Simply put, this mode is constantly recording gameplay in the background of your app, just waiting for you to give your players the opportunity to share it.

Time Recording works perfectly for endless runners, or intense twitch games, or even real-time multiplayer games with short, action-filled rounds. The multiplayer action of C.A.T.S. is a perfect example: as soon as a player finishes a round, the full gameplay clip in all its glory will be there as a replay ready to share.

Another Time Recording example is from Prizefighter where players can share the last few seconds of their match (preferably with a KO).

Use Frame-by-Frame Recording for slower-paced / turn-based games

As the name suggests, Frame-by-Frame Recording grabs a single frame at set points of a play session – for example, every time a player taps on the screen. This makes it perfect for board games or word games: titles that move at a slower-pace and involve some “thinking time” for the player.

Thinking time is great, but doesn’t make for particularly shareable content – so Frame-by-Frame Recording strips that out and leaves you with just the good bits: a player making a killer move in Carcassonne or Ticket To Ride, laying out a huge-scoring word in Words With Friends, or working on a drawing in Adult Coloring Book, as seen below.

You can also see Frame-by-Frame in action in Animal Tower Wars below: every time a player makes a move, that frame is captured. Those frames are then stitched together to make a shareable GIF.

Use Highlight Recording to capture intense, dramatic and comedy moments

Highlight Recording grabs the most interesting or exciting part of your game, by keeping track of gameplay intensity. That’s defined by metrics that you can specify, such as landing a cool combo, scoring a goal, getting an epic kill, hitting a new high score, or even failing in a hilarious way. The goal is to make sure your players can relive the most epic moments from your game – and share them with their friends.

The arcade puzzler Piffle uses Highlight Recording to grab the most intense bit of gameplay from each session and package it into a GIF:

You can also use Highlight Recording to specify a certain section of your game that you’d like it to capture – for example, an action set-piece like the one shown here in RedBull Free Skiing. Think of it like capturing the moment you go through an intense drop on a rollercoaster – it grabs the highlight of your “ride” and gets it ready to share.

Or this perfect shot in Critter Clash:

Use Timelapse Recording to show progress over time

Timelapse condenses longer play sessions into something shareable, making it perfect for tower or lane defense games like Trolls vs Vikings or Plants vs Zombies. It’s also a great fit for puzzle games like Threes or 2048, or a standard game of chess.

In games like these, the action builds over time until you reach a crescendo – either a stunning victory, a narrow defeat, or just a high-intensity battle. Timelapse builds a GIF that moves quickly through the action, without missing all the key moments and decisions that a player made in order to get to the end.

Here’s how Trolls vs Vikings uses Timelapse Recording to show action building over time until the player reaches the dramatic conclusion:

Don’t overlook the value of a screenshot

While GIFs are generally the highest-engaging way for a player to share from games, we know that some games might not be right for that format. This is particularly true for text-heavy games like BitLife, or interactive fiction like Florence.

With games like these, a screenshot can still be the most powerful way for players to capture that perfect moment and share it. Megacool recently added this feature, so you’ll never be short of options for helping your players share.

Let’s get your players sharing GIFs!

GIFs are an incredibly powerful way to engage players and acquire new ones. In order to get the most out of those GIFs, we’ve put together a range of ways for you to capture and present them to your players.

It’s down to you to choose the exact format you want to go with, but don’t worry – we’re here to help! Just get in touch and we’ll walk you through the solution that we think will be best for your game. Don’t forget, if you want more detail on any of this integration, you can check out our documentation online.

From the dawn of time, humans have always had a desire to share our feelings, our stories and our successes. From primitive language to the postal service, sharing is human nature.

Technology has made sharing easier – and it’s become a major part of the playbook for app developers and digital marketers. From tweeting our highscores to challenging friends on Facebook, we share more in 2019 than ever before. In this post, we’ll use the insight we’ve gathered from working with some of the top studios in mobile gaming, and explore the current state of the mobile content sharing experience.

We’ve pulled together data from millions of share events from mobile games, and found some surprising conclusions. Let’s dive right in.

The most popular sharing apps are not what you think

With over 2 billion people using Facebook every month, it’s an easy assumption that the social giant is the most popular destination for players looking to share, right?

Actually, that’s not the case at all: while Facebook is still the king of social networks, it’s no longer the go-to place for players when they want to show off their achievements, high-scores, and gaming fails. In fact, while it sits in second place on Android for shares, it doesn’t even crack the top five on iOS.

On top of that, another major social platform, Twitter, ranks #9 on iOS and doesn’t even make the top 10 on Android.

More and more, players are turning to messaging services to share their favorite gaming moments instead of social media. In 2019, messaging apps are no longer a small rise on the sharing landscape. They are the landscape.

The rise of messaging apps

Messaging apps like WhatsApp or Apple’s own iMessage service are now the most popular destination for players when it comes to sharing. From our data sample, as much as 70% of iOS shares and 54% of Android shares are over direct user-to-user apps vs. social apps.

Messaging apps have become the new way for players to share with friends. And that makes sense! In today’s world, we care more about curating the information that we receive – and the information that we put out there for others.

There’s enormous social strength in getting a personal recommendation from someone you know and trust. Equally, there’s social strength in being the person who made a successful recommendation: you told someone that a game was cool, and they agreed with you.

Players are evolving into micro-influencers. The days of spamming your entire Facebook feed with your latest gaming achievement are being replaced by carefully selecting the audience that you believe to be most relevant.

In addition to Messaging apps, both Mail and Copy to Pasteboard are popular apps to use for sharing on iOS. This indicates a strong interest from players to control where content is being shared and who receives it.

One other noteworthy entry on this list is the surprising popularity of the iOS Reminder app. It’s hard to say exactly what’s driving this behavior, but our hypothesis is that players are storing the content for themselves to review and share later.

Android offers greater app diversity compared to iOS

On iOS we’ve analyzed data from 25 different apps that use the Megacool SDK, but on Android we have an even larger data selection of 155 apps. This can also be seen from how dominant “Other” apps for Android are compared to iOS. There’s much more choice for users.

Why was YouTube and Instagram missing from the iOS overview?

A notable absence on the list of apps people share to on iOS are two popular share targets on Android: YouTube and Instagram. The YouTube app on iOS does for some reason not include the sharing extensions needed to make it possible to share video to it. This might be an oversight by Google, which surely makes it harder than necessary for people to share their moments to YouTube.

When it comes to Instagram they do include a sharing extension with the app that generally makes it possible to share to it, but it puts some restrictions on the type of content shared that prevents it from being possible to share to it from Megacool. More specifically, you can only share a single piece of content to Instagram - the Megacool SDK uses Apple’s recommended approach to sharing complex content, which means we include both text, a url, and the GIF. Instagram should adapt the same approach that most other apps take, which is to filter out ineligible content when the share extension is selected, instead of having overly restrictive filters that prevents the extension from being selected at all.

When it comes to sharing, which apps lead to the most clicks?

If marketing strategy A reaches 1,000 people and marketing strategy B reaches 1, it would be logical to conclude that strategy A is the one to go for. But out of those 1,000, how many actually click on the link? And how many of those lead to a new installation?

Facebook and Facebook-owned apps are dominant when driving clicks. Private messaging apps have lower click rates, but rank highly due to large volumes of shares. When sharing to a private messaging app there is usually only 1 click on a link.

So far we’ve talked a lot about the power of messaging apps, but the graphic below is a great example of the value that Facebook continues to offer to marketers looking to build awareness for their game. Facebook still has the potential for enormous reach. The average Facebook user has over 150 friends, meaning that a single share to Facebook could reach hundreds or even thousands of people, particularly if the shared content is engaging like a video clip or GIF.

Even with those impressive figures for Facebook, though, this still shows that shares via messaging apps also generate a lot of clicks. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Messages and LINE combine for almost 50% of all clicks from our data sample on both iOS and Android.

Messaging apps have lower reach but generate more installs

When you’re trying to grow your game, it’s not necessarily how many people you reach, but whether you reach the right people.

We’ve looked at which platforms have the best reach and generate the most clicks, but at the end of the day we’re all looking for those precious installs.

In our data, messaging apps continue to dominate over social media when it comes to driving installs:

On both Android and iOS, over 80% of installs from content shares are driven through private messaging apps. This suggests that developers will see a growth in organic installs by supporting content sharing to WhatsApp, Messages and Facebook Messenger. This also applies to re-engaging users, as we’ll see later.

VKontakte, the Russian social network, is a high-performer on Android, and is also considered a private messaging app in the analysis because the user can only share the content as a direct message.

Which apps are more effective at driving installs?

In addition to looking at where the install volumes come from, it’s important to look at which apps have the highest conversion rates from shares to installs. We compared each app’s conversion rate with the average conversion rate, and found that once again messaging apps are far more likely to lead to an install.

Even though shares to social networks have the potential to reach high numbers of people, a specifically-targeted share via a messaging app converts at a much higher rate.

The perfect illustration of this is from Facebook’s own Messenger app. Facebook Messenger is 4x more likely to lead to an install than a post to Facebook itself, even though that post is likely to reach many, many more people.

As we’ve already seen, messaging apps make up the majority of shares from the games we looked at, so the numbers above aren’t totally surprising. So, let’s take a look at which apps are best at re-engaging users, in our next section.

And how about re-engagement?

It’s not just new installs that are valuable to app developers. We’re increasingly seeing companies devote more of their marketing budget to reactivating lapsed players in the knowledge that they’re among the most valuable (particularly if they’ve already made an IAP before lapsing).

Most companies focus re-engagement efforts through push notifications, while sharing can also yield a powerful way of having existing players nudging each other with great content and FOMO.

Messaging apps continue to be the top-performers in getting those valuable re-activations, with Facebook posts lagging behind at less than 2% re-engagement.

Once again, this shows the power of curated, specific nature of a personal message over a wider-reaching social media post. In sending a share via a messaging app, a player is selecting a person that they believe has a high chance of being interested in the content.

In this case, it may well be someone whom they know has already played the game before – and that share is what prompts that player to become re-engaged with the game.

What are people sharing, and why?

There are several reasons for why a player would share. Here’s some of the most common we’ve seen:

• To show off/brag about an achievement
• Ask for help
• Referral
• Wanting to play together
  

As seen across the results above where we look closer at what sharing features the most install-driving have, the most effective sharing experience includes a capture of the experience, a link to facilitate the onboarding of the recipient and some pre-set text to reduce the friction. It’s important that the pre-set text doesn’t sound like a sales pitch.

Looking more closely at what content someone shares, it usually falls in under one of the following:

• When something funny happens
• Almost lost, but made it after all
• When you lost, but it wasn’t your fault

Conclusions

There’s plenty we can draw from this data, not least the power and influence of messaging apps when it comes to growing your game:

• Messaging apps are the most popular to share content with
• Messaging apps drive the most installs
• Messaging apps drive the most re-engagement
• Messaging apps have the highest conversion rate from shares to installs

The massive reach of Facebook is still very strong at generating link clicks, but the personalized nature of choosing a specific person to share to leads to a higher conversion rate on messaging apps.

The fact that so many players are choosing to share to messaging apps over social platforms is something that marketers should pay close attention to. Social media still has massive reach and viral potential, but today’s players are beginning to move away from those platforms in favor of a more personalized experience. They are realizing their role as a micro-influencer within their own social circles, and carefully selecting what they share and who they share it with.

The days of spamming a Facebook feed with trophies, high-scores and requests from a mobile game are beginning to fade away. Sharing via messaging apps may be the future, and are certainly the present.

About the data

We're analyzing anonymous data associated with the capturing and sharing with the Megacool SDK. The Megacool SDK captures the screen during gameplay and let’s the player share the content as a GIF, with a link attached to the share. The link serves as both a place where the receiver can view the GIF if media sharing was not supported for the chosen app, and enables the receiver to download or open the game.

• Data analyzed from using Megacool SDK to share game replays between October 2018 and January 2019.
• We’ve analyzed over 4.5M sharing events on Android and 1.2M on iOS
• The sharing activity can be incentivized as tied to a referral program depending on each individual developer’s implementation of the SDK.

If you’re looking for new tools to support your marketing in 2019, Megacool turns your users into micro-influencers by making it easy to record replays and share these on their preferred social apps. We’d be thrilled to assist.

Bowmasters is a turn-based aim-and-shoot game developed by Playgendary. Released in 2016, the game has proved consistently popular and is a regular in the top 100 US Games charts as well as the top 20s for Action and Arcade. With its accessible gameplay and colorful, playful style, it’s also been a regular pick for store featuring.

Bowmasters features plenty of modes and unlockables on top of its lively multiplayer gameplay. Playgendary has also kept supporting the game with new features, characters and weapons released in the form of updates.

However, Bowmasters’ success isn’t purely down to the App Store’s editorial team taking a liking to it and giving it prominent featuring. Instead, Playgendary’s title combines simple pick-up-and-play gameplay with colorful visuals and a smooth first-time user experience (FTUE).

In our video below, we walk through the FTUE of Bowmasters, from its listing on the App Store to its social features. We’ve also laid out some of the things that Bowmasters can teach us about making a successful mobile game, and some areas that we think it could improve.

What you can learn from Bowmasters

Bowmasters is a colorful, playful and streamlined mobile game, with very few barriers for the player to clear before they can enjoy the game. Let’s take a look at some of the specific points that we can learn from Playgendary’s title.

1. Incentivize video ads in creative ways

Bowmasters makes use of video ads in ways that are appealing for the player. It makes them part of other retention mechanics, such as daily rewards and free chests.

After claiming a daily reward, players can skip ahead and claim tomorrow’s reward in exchange for watching an ad. You can also claim 2x the amount of reward items by watching an ad.

This has the double effect of getting players to engage with those mechanics, as well as incentivizing them to watch an ad.

2. Give exclusive items for completing certain actions

Bowmasters comes with a wide range of playable characters which can be unlocked with in-game currency or IAP.

However, there is also a number of characters that can only be obtained when the player completes certain actions. These include following Playgendary’s social media accounts and sharing the game with a certain number of friends, asking them to join the game.

Not only will these actions help to swell the number of Bowmasters’ players and followers on social media, but it will also create additional reasons for players to keep playing the game. They’ll see news and stories on a regular basis via Playgendary’s social channels, and also have the strong social hook of their friends playing too.

3. Don't overload players with too much info too early

While Bowmasters’ core loop is straightforward to learn, there are plenty of other mechanics in the game that could overwhelm the player if presented too early. There’s IAPs, character unlocks, daily gifts and quests, achievements, and a Diamond Membership.

All of these are drip-fed to a new player, rather than bombarding them with too much information up front. It’s only after several rounds of Bowmasters that they will learn about the Membership or quests. Similarly, Bowmasters only asks players to rate the app once they’ve been playing for 20 or 30 minutes – long enough for them to get to grips with the game and give it a meaningful review.

4. Be clear about why you ask for permission to collect player data

The first thing a new player sees upon opening Bowmasters is a permissions request for sharing data with ad partners. Crucially, it lays out the reasons and benefits for asking for this information – to deliver “high-quality content that is relevant to you”. It’s clear and honest and may result in more players accepting this data use than a less explanatory message.

5. Use eye-catching text when sharing to social

Bowmasters allows players to invite their friends to the game using a range of platforms, including messaging services and social media. The default text is fun, friendly and eye-catching, making heavy use of emojis. It also contains a clear call-to-action.

This will make the content stand out on social feeds. It also looks personalized by default, as opposed to being automatically generated by the game. This should all feed together to make the shares more engaging, and increase the chance of a referral.

6. Achievements double as player stats

Bowmasters hands achievements and medals for tons of actions completed in the game. Some are larger-scale, such as dealing 5,000 damage to opponents, whereas some are much smaller such as headshots or comeback wins.

The game takes achievements one step further, by having them be repeatable. Every headshot you earn is tracked and numbered in the achievements section. This means that the achievements themselves double as player stats, giving players the ability to track their progress over time and potentially keep them playing for longer.

7. Subtle cross-promotion

Among the character choices, Playgendary has snuck in native cross promotion for their other games. Here’s an example of their cross-promotion of their other game Party Master.

What Bowmasters can improve

As successful as Bowmasters is, there are a few areas that we think it could do even better. Let’s take a look.

1. Increase the amount of social features

Bowmasters is fun to play, with colourful visuals, ragdoll physics and a playful tone with its fatalities and arrows-to-the-knee. This combination of exciting moments and cute, sometimes-surreal graphics makes for ideal opportunities to share to social media.

However, this is an opportunity that Bowmasters currently misses. The game gives players the chance to invite others using social and messaging, but very little else. There’s no opportunity to share after completing a match, getting a new achievement, or unlocking a new character. These are all things that players should be encouraged to share, not only to give a sense of pride in their success in Bowmasters but to potentially increase brand awareness and bring in new players.

2. Use visuals when sharing to social

While the messaging used when sending game invitations to friends is friendly and emoji-packed, there is no accompanying imagery which is another big missed opportunity. For a game with such an eye-catching art style, any share to social should at least have an image from Bowmasters to go with it to better show off the game.

This could be a snapshot of their winning moment (player characters often end up cartoonishly-impaled with everything from spears to baguettes), or their character dancing the victory salute at the end of every successful round. Making use of visuals here will increase engagement when shared to social, and boost the conversion rate at which players click the link to try the app.

Even more impactful would be to make use of GIFs for shares and friend invites. We’ve seen first-hand the power of GIFs when it comes to marketing, and Bowmasters is one of the most GIF-able games on the App Store today. Each action (a shot) takes just a few seconds, and the consequences are usually funny or dramatic: either a direct hit or a near miss. Those moments make perfect GIFs, which in turn make for great social content for players and for Bowmasters itself.

3. Implement referrals

Although Bowmasters allows players to send out invites to their friends on social media or via messaging apps, it lacks a proper referral marketing mechanic. Players can send out an invite, but there is no way for Playgendary (or the player) to track how many friends follow the link and download the game.

At Megacool, we’ve looked at referral marketing for mobile games in detail, and there are plenty of ways in which Playgendary could improve Bowmasters in this area. With proper referral tracking, they could offer tiers of rewards to players based on how many of their friends join the game. For example, when a friend joins, they could receive some in-game currency; when 5 friends join, they could unlock another new VIP character. This would motivate the player to refer their friends and to drive them to the game.

On top of that, Bowmasters could use deeplinking to customize a new player’s entry point into the game. They could use this to automatically add new players to a “friends list” for whomever sent the original invite, or even instantly join a multiplayer match with that player.

This is a huge acquisition upside to referral marketing for mobile games, especially a multiplayer game like Bowmasters. For more information on best practices for referral marketing, check out our blog post.

4. Inform players about multiplayer

Bowmasters keeps its multiplayer mode gated until they have achieved 10 wins in the game. This is not explicitly explained to the player, who may assume that Bowmasters is purely player-v-AI despite.

Not only that, but multiplayer should be a big draw for players to stick around and play Bowmasters for a long time and trigger them to bring in friends to play with. The fact they need to win 10 games to access multiplayer could be used as a carrot for players to strive to achieve. Bowmasters should do more to inform and highlight this to the player. For example, In the achievements menu they could add “Unlock real-time mulitplayer”.

5. Incentivize players to follow Playgendary's social accounts

Currently, Bowmasters gives exclusive items for liking posts on related social media accounts – but nothing for interacting with Playgendary’s official accounts. It’s possible to access the Playgendary Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram via the Settings menu, but this is tucked away from the casual player, and they may never notice it.

Bowmasters could offer incentives to players to like their official accounts, or simply do more to push players towards them and build up more of a social audience for future marketing and re-engagement activities.

Other game dissections

If you enjoyed this game dissection, why not take a look at some of our others? We’ve taken deep dives into some of the biggest mobile games in recent years, to see what made them successful and what (if anything) they could do better:

• Agar.io
• Angry Birds 2
• Bumper.io
• Candy Crush Soda Saga
• Crossy Road
• Love Balls
• Trivia Crack 2

Thanks for reading and watching! If you want to more know about Megacool, our products and our insight into gaming growth, please get in touch – we’d love to hear from you: hello [at] megacool.co!

Editor’s note: This post is written by Erno Kiiski and originally appeared on GameRefinery's blog. Erno is GameRefinery's Chief Game Analyst - US and has played and analyzed hundreds of mobile games on a feature level.

Being “in the top” can, of course, be defined in various ways, but when it comes to Match3 games, they tick all the boxes. For instance, when looking at IAP revenues generated during the past quarters, the Match3 genre beats its competitors quite clearly in the US:

King’s Candy Crush Saga was originally launched all the way back in 2012, but it’s still generating super-high revenues and lingering in the very top of the grossing charts. It remains the number one game of the Match3 genre today with a stunning 27% share of the whole genre’s revenues! Consequently, many designers and (players for that matter) view Candy Crush Saga as the “basic template” of a Match3 game.

On the surface Candy Crush Saga is a straightforward game: just grinding those candies level after level and advancing in the “Saga Map” with no material meta-elements in sight. And that’s that. But during the last couple of years, there has (fortunately) been quite a bit of innovation in the Match3 space, as designers have tried to create even more compelling experiences for their audiences.

In this blog post, we’re focusing on two main aspects of Match3 games. First, we’re taking a high-level look at the various matching types and their popularity (e.g., swapping vs. collapse). Second, we’re discussing the recent rise and growing importance of meta-game aspects in Match3 games.

Core gameplay – Matching type

There are several different ways how those board pieces can be matched and destroyed in a Match3 game. Let’s start by taking a look at the most common ones.

Swapping

Original Candy Crush’s matching works by swapping two board pieces to get 3 or more pieces of the same color lined up. This matching type is still by far the most common matching type with 63% of Match3 games in the top grossing 500 (iOS US) sticking with this rather traditional mechanic.

Shooting

Bubble shooters are one archetype of Match3 games and, as the name suggests, the matching of board pieces in these games works by shooting bubbles. Games like Panda Pop, Bubble Witch 3 Saga are the big hitters in this matching type. Though even as the second most popular matching mechanic, only 16% of top grossing 500 Match3 games consist of shooting games.

Collapse

Collapse is a mechanic popularized in Match3 by games like Pet Rescue Saga and Toy Blast. In this variation, players tap blocks of the same color that are next to each other. When tapped, blocks disappear and the remaining blocks “collapse” to fill the hole. Players tap their way to victory in 11% of Match3 games in the top grossing 500.

Linking

The last of the major matching types is linking. It consists of games where you link/connect board pieces by drawing a line to make a match. This mechanic is found in games like Best Fiends, Line Disney Tsum Tsum or Two Dots. Around 10% of Match3 games in the top 500 grossing are using this matching mechanic.

Overall, swapping is sweeping the floor with other mechanics. Only a handful of games utilizing other matching mechanics have reached the top grossing 500 in the US.

How do new successful games make their matching happen?

When we look at just the games launched in the last couple of years that are currently sustaining their rank in the US top grossing 200, we can see that almost all of them still use the swapping mechanic. Only a couple of them are using the collapse mechanic (Toon Blast, Lost Island: Blast Adventure) and none use linking/shooting.

Increased use of meta layer

When Match3 games first came to the market in the early days of smartphones, they were the first mobile gaming experience (or gaming overall!) for many. Back then the simple level after level approach was compelling enough to reel players in. Nowadays, however, as the whole mobile market and players have matured, more and more players expect more in-depth gaming experiences in casual genres as well. Many developers have started adding meta layers on top of the core gameplay to enrich Match3 gaming.

In the US top grossing 500, most Match3 games lack a meta element with around 55% of games still trusting in the pull of cleverly designed puzzles.

The meta element of building your own “base” such as gardens, houses etc. has become exponentially more popular in recent years. Playrix’s Gardenscapes, in particular, can be seen as the trendsetter for this meta-game trend.  26% of puzzle games in the US top grossing 500 have put on their construction hats and started building beside matching.

Another meta layer that is used primarily in puzzle RPGs (Empires & Puzzles) is different character collection or upgrade mechanics. Some casual Match3 games like Disney Emoji Blitz or Angry Birds Match are using character collection as a part of their core gameplay loop as well. 19% of puzzle games have added character collection on top of their puzzle gameplay.

How about meta in new games?

If we look at the US grossing charts and new games that have been able to break there, we find interesting statistics concerning meta layers. Most Match3 games that have launched in the past 2 years and are currently in the top 200 US have a meta layer: 3 with a character collection meta + 5 with a base construction meta. Only 3 games are without a meta and 2 of them are sequels (Toon Blast, Cookie Jam Blast), and one utilizes a famous entertainment IP (Family Guy Freakin’ Mobile Game). And all three were launched almost 1.5 years ago! Based on this data it seems like creating a new single dimensional Match3 game without any meta layer might not be the best bet anymore.

Even though Candy Crush Saga and other older simple Match3 games still thrive, there are no new successful games with this simplistic approach. Breaking into the top grossing 200 isn’t easy but based on the data unidimensional Match3 games aren’t enough anymore. For new games to gain enough attention they need to have more beef outside the puzzle solving core game.

Another interesting notion from the graph above is that if we look at Match3 games released 1 year ago or less, only 4 of those games are in the top 200. If we widen the range to 2 years, the game count rises to 11. So, it seems that less and less new Match3 games can break into the top grossing 200. Old games that have already acquired large audiences are eating the lion’s share of the market.

Quick glimpse to Asia

Match3 has always been one of the big hitters in the West, but what meta layers are the most successful games in Asia using? Let’s take a quick look at Asia with a chart.

Japanese love character collecting and gacha-based core loops. This is seen in Match3 games as well with the character collecting/development meta layer easily the most popular. Puzzle RPG games have been big hits in the land of the rising sun.

In China, there are only 6 Match3 games in the top 200 but interestingly none of them have a character collection meta. China is otherwise an RPG heavy market, but puzzle RPGs have not broken through there. Match3 games that are successful are usually very casual with no meta or casual building like in Homescapes.

Key takeaways

• The lion’s share of Match3 games are using swapping mechanics (63%), and there don’t seem to be any changes to this trend in sight.
• Most top Match3 games don’t have a meta in the US (55%).
• BUT almost all new successful games have a meta layer of some kind.
• Only 4 Match3 games were released that reached the top 200 in the last year. Breaking into the market with new games is harder than ever.
• Character collecting Match3 games rule Japan.
  
  To dig deeper into feature data like this, check out the GameRefinery tool for more insights. Sign up for free here.

Yet referrals are an opportunity that are still not widely maximized by game developers. In this post, we’ll take a look at the various ways to implement referrals in mobile games, and some best-in-class examples.

In its most basic form, a referral is an Invite Friends button within a game that lets players share a short message to social media or messaging apps, inviting him/her to try the game.

Typically, this message will be a short line of text about the game experience and a link to download the game from the App Store or Google Play. There’s no bells or whistles, and while the potential reach of the referral is high, the conversion rate will probably be pretty low due to its generic, impersonal nature.

How can we do better? Glad you asked!

1. Personalize the invite

We’ve all seen the basic, entry-level share messages pop up in our social feeds: “I’m playing Game X! Come and play too!” Let’s be honest – a lot of people see these as spammy annoyances, and scroll right past them. Lots of eyeballs, but a low conversion rate when it comes to actual referrals. Without the initial traction of engagement, a social platform’s algorithm will ensure that even fewer people see it going forward.

One way to improve this is to encourage more personalised text with the share message. Spend some time coming up with engaging, relevant pre-written text that will hook new players.

If you currently use generic share text, be aware that there may be an unintentional upside that you can take advantage of. Creative players may see your basic placeholder text and choose to rewrite it into something more engaging before they share. Keep an eye on what players are sending on social media, and consider incorporating those messages into your pre-written options when a player goes to share.

Test out different text options, and see which ones tend to drive the most referrals. Remember, referrals are a form of user acquisition. You should apply the same UA principles of iterating, testing and learning to referrals.

2. Allow invites at different points

As we’ve seen, having an Invite Friends button in your game is the bare minimum you should be doing to grab those precious referrals. A much more effective method is to give players the opportunity to invite friends at different stages during the game.

Games are rife with opportunities to share, and choosing the right moment can be the difference between a referral or no referral.

Let your players share when they’ve experienced something emotional. It could be that they’ve just set a new high-score, or beaten one of their friends, or even lost in a funny or infuriating manner. These are all perfect triggers for a share – even the supposedly-negative emotions that go with defeat.

Offering players a chance to share at this point boosts the likelihood of a referral. A player is motivated to share because they’ve just experienced something that impacted them. That enthusiasm will carry over into the share itself and be more likely to hook new players.

3. Give rewards for referrals

Incentives are good! And a helpful way to get more referrals to your game. Offer rewards for the player who is sending the invite, and they are more likely to be nudged to tell their friends about the game.

Rewards should take the form of in-game items or currency. They could even be exclusive items that can only be obtained by referring new players to the game, making them highly-desirable and increasing the chance of a share.

On top of that, you could offer different “tiers” of rewards, depending on how many people existing players successfully refer to the game. The more people that are referred, the bigger the reward for the referrer. This will incentivize players to push for more people to join the game, perhaps even going out of their way to ask repeatedly for them to try it out.

You can read more about rewarded referrals and how to implement them in our blog post.

4. Tie referrals to gameplay mechanics

An even more powerful form of referrals is when they’re tied to gameplay mechanics. This means that the referral invite itself is related to something meaningful in the game.

A great example of this is in the quiz game HQ Trivia. When a player runs out of lives, they can refer others to the game and receive more. Lives are an important mechanic to the game itself, so are very valuable to the player. They even have monetary value in the game, with players able to acquire them via IAP.

To be able to get extra lives by inviting friends is an extremely desirable option and something that HQ Trivia leveraged to great effect in becoming one of the biggest quiz games on the App Store.

Tieing referrals to gameplay mechanics and rewards makes them tangible and attractive to the player, increasing the likelihood that they’ll invite their friends to play.

5. Deeplinking brings new players straight into the game

Right at the top, we talked about the most basic form of referral: a button that sends a link to friends, which takes them to the game listing on the App Store or Google Play.

While that referral is still valuable, there are also so many hoops a new player needs to jump through before they can get the full experience from the game. And each hoop is a point where they might decide it’s too much effort, and just drop out altogether.

Deeplinking ensures that you can customize a player’s entry point into the game. For example, if they click a referral link from a friend, deeplinking can make sure that they are automatically added to their friends’ list in the game when they download. If it’s a multiplayer game, it could allow them to instantly join a multiplayer match with whomever sent the invite.

This is a big deal: making the sharing experience as seamless as possible for new players. The fewer hoops, the more likely they are to download, play and enjoy your game.

6. Allow invites to multiple platforms

The bare minimum implementation for referrals is a share to social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat. But don’t sleep on messaging services like WhatsApp or iMessage either – in fact, they’re some of the most powerful platforms for referrals out there.

At Megacool, we’ve seen an increasing trend for players who prefer to share to messaging apps over social media. In fact, heading into 2019, 9 out of every 10 shares from games that use the Megacool SDK were sent to messaging services. They’ve become the new way for players to share with their friends.

It’s great news for developers, as players are moving away from spamming their Facebook feed with referrals and instead selecting friends that they think will be most interested in checking out the game.

That personal recommendation, from someone you know and trust, has enormous value. Make sure that your players have the option to use messaging services for their referrals.

7. Gameplay visuals boost the chance of a referral

Let’s return one last time to the most basic form of referral: an invite that consists of a short line of text, and a link to download a game.

We all know we can do better than that! If you’ve made a fun, cool-looking game, this is the perfect time to show it off. When your players go to invite others, let them include an image from the game. Or, better still, some gameplay in the form of a GIF.

GIFs are increasingly important to game marketing, as they are an easy way to showcase awesome moments. They’re short, they play automatically, and they loop – all things that make them easily-consumable, easily-shareable content.

Finally... what does a best-in-class referral look like?

At Megacool we’ve worked closely with developers to bring gameplay GIFs to their players, and have seen the huge impact it can have on the likelihood of a successful referral. Here’s an example of how referrals could be implemented in an effective way in the game Flip Skater:

What does this example do well?

• Players automatically get a preview of their gameplay after they’ve finished a session, on the score screen.
• It’s eye-catching but unobtrusive: optional content that they can interact with or skip past if they want to jump back into another game.
• The Share GIF button is prominent and enticing.
• An incentive (reward) is available for sharing, and laid out clearly for the player.
• The looping gameplay remains visible throughout the sharing process.
• Once the share has taken place, new players get a visual snippet of the game which gives them an idea of what the game is about, and hooks them to download and try it.
• The shop page (below) also acts as a reminder and triggers players to refer friends to get coins. This starts the same user flow as if they'd tapped "Share GIF" in the images above.

Find out more about how Megacool can easily integrate GIF sharing in your game, and the impact it has on referrals, in our case study.

Conclusion

Referrals are a fantastic way to grow any game, and something that all developers should focus on implementing. There’s plenty of tricks and customizations that you can pull off to grab new players for your game. Let’s quickly wrap them up:

• Personalize the invite for greater effectiveness
• Allow players to send an invite at different points in the game
• Offer rewards for referrals
• Tie referrals to gameplay mechanics
• Deep-linking is your friend
• Allow invites to multiple platforms, including messaging apps
• Use GIFs or visuals when sharing

Organic marketing is a rapidly-changing space when it comes to mobile games, and referrals are evolving right alongside it. Thanks for reading and let us know if you’ve seen any other innovations when it comes to referring new players to a game.