There are many gamification strategies that game developers can track to analyze the success of their game. But when it comes to implementing gamification techniques in business, the metrics may differ.
In this article, we will discuss some essential metrics that game studios should track to measure the success the financial side of their game development.
Understanding Gamification Efforts For Business Success
Before we outline some key strategies to track gamification success, let’s first understand how gamification can contribute to overall business success. Gamification is the process of applying game elements to non-game environments such as a business setting. It aims to engage and motivate individuals by incorporating game mechanics like points, levels, and rewards into mundane tasks.
When it comes to the marketing side of games, Web3 presents unique opportunities to make the selling aspect of a game more fun and enjoyable. No one likes to feel like they are being sold to, but by using gamification techniques, businesses can make the buying experience more engaging and fulfilling. Additionally, Web3 technologies like blockchain offer transparent and secure ways to track customer engagement levels and incentivize desirable behaviors.
Some of the most popular gamification techniques comes in the form of customer loyalty programs. Airdrops, rewards programs, and token-based economies all use game mechanics to reward customers for their continued engagement, leading to increased retention rates, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, business success.
Loyalty programs are a common gamification strategy used in various industries, including gaming. By offering rewards and incentives for completing certain tasks or reaching specific milestones, businesses can keep customers engaged and loyal to their brand. This leads to increased customer lifetime value and a positive impact on the bottom line.
Make sure to read until the end of this article because we break down a case study where a Web3 game used gamification metrics to create ‘Quests’ leading to more players in their game.
3 Important Metrics To Track For Web3 Gamification Success
Now that we have a better understanding of how gamification can contribute to the marketing side of game development, let’s explore some essential metrics that game studios should track to help build their game’s brand and overall audience.
These metrics can be divided into three main categories: user engagement, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
1. User Engagement
When it comes to the marketing of your game, user engagement is a crucial metric to track. It refers to how actively involved and interested your audience is in the game’s content and brand. Some key metrics to track for user engagement include:
- Post Likes/Shares/Comments: Tracking the number of likes, shares, and comments on your social media posts can give you an idea of how engaged your audience is with your content.
- Time Spent Playing: If mini-games are added into your communities such as a Telegram bot game for example, then you can see if players are staying long enough to engage and play.
- Polls and Replies: Quizes can be a form of gamification for marketing and creating an interesting way for users to engage with your content and brand. If you create a quiz or contest where commentators win a prize, but the ratio of engagement is low, this could suggest a need to improve the gamification aspect. Better rewards or more interesting quizzes can improve engagement.
From leaderboard status, shout-outs, to in-game prizes such as NFTs, incentizing user engagement can be a powerful tool in building a dedicated community for your game. With Web3 technology, it’s become easier to create gamified elements in the marketing process while granted tangible rewards through airdrops and digital asset claims.
2. Click-through Rates (CTR)
Click-through rates are another important metric to track for gamification success. CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on a link or advertisement and were redirected to your game’s website or landing page. A high CTR indicates that your marketing efforts are effective in capturing the attention of potential players and driving them to your game. Some important factors to keep in mind when measuring CTR include:
- Ad Placement: Ensure that your ads are placed in a prominent and visible location on the platform to increase the likelihood of clicks.
- Target Audience: Make sure you are targeting the right audience for your game. An ad that targets a completely different demographic than your game’s target audience is unlikely to generate high CTR.
- Ad Content: The content of your ad should be engaging, visually appealing, and clearly convey the benefits of your game. This will entice potential players to click and learn more about your game.
With this metric in mind, team members can analyze the effectiveness of their gamification strategies and make necessary adjustments to improve CTR. For example, if there is user feedback in the comments saying they don’t trust the rewards being offered, the team can provide social proof from past winners or customer sanctification testimonials to increase trust and potentially improve CTR.
3. Conversion Rates
This metric tracks the percentage of potential customers who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service. It is an important measure of how effective your sales team and marketing efforts are in converting leads into actual customers.
- Email Conversion Rate: Your sales team should have a goal for their success rate as well as specific actions for marketing. The email conversion rate measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link, filled out a form, or made a purchase after receiving an email from your company. If there is a high email click rate but a low conversion rate, a better offer or more targeted messaging may be needed to entice potential customers.
- Website Conversion Rate: This metric tracks the percentage of website visitors who purchase your game. This is the end point of your funnel and it should be a key metric to track to understand the final impact of gamification as it relates to the bottom line. A high website conversion rate means that your gamified system is successfully engaging and converting potential customers into paying customers.
When it comes to a gamified system, a rewards system for your best customers can greatly increase conversion rates. For example, offering achievement badges or exclusive perks for completing certain actions can incentivize potential customers to take the desired action, leading to a higher conversion rate. Launching campaigns in the form of contests where an in-game NFT equals a ticket into a raffle can also be an effective strategy to increase conversion rates.
There Are Many More Metrics To Track…
Although the above 3 gives you a good starting point, there are many more metrics that you should track to get a complete picture of the effectiveness of your gamification efforts. When it comes to data knowing what to do with it is just as important if not more important than collecting them.
By understanding these metrics, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your gamification strategy and ultimately achieve higher conversion rates. Helika supports top gaming studios with their interpretation and collection of game data. With human insights and experience with crafting effective gamiifcation campaigns for marketing top-tier Web3 games & apps, Helika has the expertise to guide you in making sense of your gamification data and using it to drive real results.
Essential Metrics of Gameplay To Track For Overall Performance
We’ve gone into more detail about the metrics to track when it comes to the actual gameplay and its performance in this article here: 10 User Experience Metrics To Measure For Web3 Games
This guide goes into more depth about how Helika uses these in-game performance metrics to enhance the experience for players, leading to more engagement, better play-times and ultimately more revenue for the game.
With experience working with top Web3 game developers such as Maplestory, Ubisoft, Yuga Labs, Parallel and more, Helika’s data team and analytics products unlocks various metrics that can be used to track gameplay success. Some of these performance metrics include:
- Time Spent in Game.
- Player Retention Rate.
- Daily Active Users (DAUs).
- In-Game Currency/Token Usage.
- Social Media Engagement/Shares.
- Referral Rates/Word-of-Mouth Growth.
- High Score and Leaderboard Participation.
- Levels Completed/Achievements Unlocked.
- In-Game Purchases/Frequency of Transactions.
This type of data paired with professional insights can lead to a better product making the gamification of the marketing side of things almost effortless. You can have the most efficient marketing with gamification metrics to influence human behaviour in your favor but if the product itself has low user retention rates or other issues, it won’t lead to long term success.
Helika solves this problem. For example, Helika worked with Wanderers to increase the total levels played by 4.3x and increased progrssion efficiency by 62%. With a 5.9x more total minutes played, Wanderers attributes this success to using Helika’s in-game performance metrics to optimize their game design and engage players for longer periods of time.
Final Thoughts
There are two sides to any business. The product and the marketing. While both are important, Helika understands the importance of gamification for both sides. By providing valuable data and insights for game developers, Helika helps create more successful and engaging games.
When it comes to the marketing side, our team has helped Legends of Venari with their gamified growth efforts. This strategic team had the correct idea of creating raffles for engagement on their social channels but struggled to manage player participation across various community and growth platforms.
To address this, Helika collaborated with them to develop a tailored engagement hub within Helika Engage. This solution streamlined all community interactions into a single platform, drastically reducing manual effort and improving efficiency. The results were impressive with 337,642 users joining by quests completed and 14,686 users joining by connecting their email.
The top 3 most completed quests resulted in 126,000+ post likes, 72,300+ reposts, and 37,000+ accounts followed. By gamifying the engagement and growth process and having support from Helika, Legends of Venari has positioned itself to become one of the leading Web3 games in the industry. Contact us to see how Helika can help you achieve similar results in your game or business.
