In terms of marketing team structure and ways of working, gaming companies are among the most advanced performance advertisers in the industry, and brands across categories can learn from their approach.

So says Fintan Gillespie, International Head of Gaming, Business Solutions at Snap. Writing in The WARC Guide to Marketing in the Gaming Ecosystem, he notes that games come in multiple categories and formats and are played by almost every demographic globally.

Given this wide range of products and players, gaming companies have developed truly global scale in their marketing efforts and become masters at predicting lifetime value (LTV), he says.

Many gaming companies pioneered proprietary LTV models via in-house business intelligence teams and these have now been commoditised by third parties, such as Algolift, offering the same solutions to startup businesses off the shelf.

“Armed with a thorough understanding of LTV, user acquisition teams within the marketing division of a gaming company know precisely how on average acquired users will reach predicted LTV by the first, third or seventh day,” Gillespie reports.

“These sophisticated LTV models are why mobile gaming advertisers can gain considerable market share in a competitive market.”

And there’s little to no media waste, he adds, as these LTVs are tied closely to the bottom line.

For any consumer looking to scale up as they grow marketing spend, he suggests, “the accuracy of predictive LTV is now of fundamental importance.”

And while user acquisition teams in mobile gaming are always willing to test new platforms they will very quickly move budget away from those that don’t perform versus the goal.

For four more lessons that marketers can learn from mobile gaming, read Fintan Gillespie’s article in full: What marketers can learn from mobile gaming advertisers.

WARC subscribers can read the complete WARC Guide to Marketing in the Gaming Ecosystem here.

The WARC Guide is a compilation of fresh new research and expert guidance with WARC’s editorial teams in New York, London, Singapore and Shanghai pulling in the best new thinking globally. It also showcases the best on WARC – case studies, best practice and data sourced from across the platform.

Sourced from WARC