The President and Founder of Social First, Mikko Kähärä, shares with PocketGamer.biz how the studio has successfully scaled its games in a cost-effective manner in the post-IDFA world.
Obtaining and maintaining profitable user acquisition has posed significant challenges in the post-IDFA world, making many games nearly impossible to scale. At Social First, we have developed a validated model that not only circumvents granular user acquisition and IDFA but also enables efficient game scaling in a cost-effective way.
We have affirmed that sustained organic growth can be enhanced and managed effectively. This realization is at the core of our business model, based on years of experience and experimentation with Pixel Worlds, a social sandbox MMO. We discovered that with strong social gameplay, high accessibility, and a healthy community, games can be permanently scaled through the natural network effect of social gaming.
Focus on Brand Marketing and the Network Effect
We have validated a growth model that excels in virality, long-term retention, and ultimately, monetization. By primarily utilizing wide-spectrum user acquisition campaigns similar to brand marketing, the model does not rely on IDFA or granular user acquisition.
Through experimentation with user acquisition and influencer campaigns, we accidentally discovered that after boosting traffic with influencer campaigns and broad spectrum user acquisition campaigns, we saw a substantial increase in organic growth, retention, and monetization. The model worked consistently across different geographies, indicating that we had reached a critical mass of players necessary to trigger the network effect in our target audience.
Emphasis on Social Gameplay, Community, and Player Motivations
The growth model is dependent on several factors aligning properly, including the game providing a rewarding experience for the target audience and their social circles. Additionally, the community and player motivations need to be accommodated, and the game must be highly accessible with a variety of social features. Active LiveOps and continuous content rollouts are also necessary to engage the community.
Targeting mainly Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, we realized that aligning our influencer campaigns with user acquisition content led to more effective results in introducing our game to a shared social decision among players.
While this growth model is not a one-size-fits-all solution, it serves as an efficient way to scale games when the elements are aligned correctly. At Social First, our upcoming social sandbox MMO aims to fulfill all the key points outlined through years of experience and understanding, positioned to capitalize on major trends among Gen Z and Alpha audiences.
