Is This Really All There Is? More Ways to Monetize - Mike Hines

MIKE H INESD E V E L O P E R E V A N G E L I S T , A M A Z O N A P P S T O R E

@MikeFHines l inked in .com / in/MikeHines45

I S TH I S ALL THERE I S ?

W HAT ' S NEW IN MONET IZ AT ION

A B O U T

M i k e H i n e s

Amazon Appstore

@MikeFHines

Founder @ 2 Financial Services StartupsFounder @ 2 Software Startups

QA Engineer @ Now SoftwareQA Manager, Product Manager @ MicrosoftEvangelist @ Amazon.com

Mentor @ GameFounders, Dev Bootcamp

Games Judge @Casual Connect Indie Prize, White Nights, and Pocket Gamer Very Big Indie Pitch

Speaker @ GDC, GDCE, Casual Connect, Pocket Gamer Connects, AnDevCon, White Nights, CES, PAX Dev

I N S I G H T S

AndroidDevs

iOS devs AmazonFire OS

41%

48%

60%

% D

evel

op

ers

abo

ve P

ove

rty

Lin

e

G E T D E V E L O P E R S E A R N I N G M O R E

An app must make more than

$500 per month if it is to fund

future app development and

marketing.

$500 per month is the app

poverty line.

T H E R E I S R O O M F O R I M P R O V E M E N T

M A N Y M O N E T I Z AT I O N O P T I O N S , B U T…

Premium

In-App Purchase

Ads

• Cost of $3.15 and $1.80 per download for iOS

and Google Play respectively in the US often

eclipses user lifetime value (LTV)1

• Free apps attract more users that premium

apps

1 Chartboost: https://www.chartboost.com/insights/2016

A M A Z O N C O I N S M E R C H B Y A M A Z O NR E A C H A M A Z O N

C U S T O M E R S

MORE WAYS TO MONET IZ E

A M A Z O N C O I N S M E R C H B Y A M A Z O N


R E A C H A M A Z O N

C U S T O M E R S

AMAZON COINS

A M A Z O N C O I N S

Purchase Apps, Games, and In-App Items

Buy Amazon Coins and save up to 15% on apps, games, and in-app items.

Developer continue to earn the standard 70% revenue share

£1 = 100 Amazon Coins

Unique Promotion, Reward and Gifting Opportunities for developers to use


F O R C U S T O M E R S

“If you own an Android device, this is

the only way to go!

I play GoW Fire Age and have saved

quite a bit buying gold packs with

Amazon Coins.

Amazon makes buying coins easy!”

263k viewers10MM min watched65.9 min per uniqueHighest single day rev

A M A Z O N C O I N S : P R O M O T I O N S

A M A Z O N C O I N S : C A M PA I G N C O N S O L E

Configure Coins campaigns to give coins back to customers who purchase items from Amazon! Incent purchase of specific items.

A M A Z O N C O I N S : C A M PA I G N C O N S O L E

U.S. data from App Annie and internal sales data

THE EFFECT ON POWER USERS

T A R G E T P O W E R U S E R S

• Create a Coins Rewards Campaign

to target your power users.

• Promote the campaign in social

media.

• Promote the campaign on your

YouTube and Twitch channels.



C U S T O M E R S



C U S T O M E R S


MERCH BY AMAZON

T-shirts? Really?

W H Y S E L L T - S H I R T S

M E R C H B Y A M A Z O N

• I know I need to do

marketing...

• ...but I’m not an eRetailer or

t-shirt designer!

W H A T T - S H I R T S D O


• Establish your brand

• Increase word of mouth marketing

• Improve retention and engagement

• Generate additional revenue

E S T A B L I S H Y O U R B R A N D


• If people are willing to wear it, it’s

real

• It connects a digital ‘Virtual’ brand

with real live people

Brand A collection of…

• Relationships

• Memories

• Stories

• Expectations

…that impact a customer’s

decision to buy.

I N C R E A S E W O R D O F M O U T H A D V E RT I S I N G

WORN T-SHIRTS =

ENDORSEMENTS

CLEVER SHIRTS START

CONVERSATIONS

WITH YOUR BEST

ADVOCATESInfluencers Mainstream

Willingness to adopt

# o

f p

eop

le

R E T E N T I O N A N D E N G A G E M E N T

M E R C H B Y A M A Z O M

• Commemorate memorable

events

• Pride in association with a

clan or team

• Increases emotional and

financial investment

“More mature

industries have been

using t-shirts for

decades.”

E A R N A D D I T I O N A L R E V E N U E

MANY FREE TO PLAY DEVS CLASSIFY

THEIR PLAYERS AS WILLING TO PAY

OR NOT WILLING TO PAY.

WHAT WE'VE FOUND IS SOME FOLKS

WHO DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR

DIGITAL GOODS ARE FINE PAYING FOR

A SHIRT.

B r y a n M a s h i n t e r

B a c k f l i p S t u d i o s

S e l l b r a n d e d m e r c h a n d i s e i n y o u r i O S , A n d r o i d , a n d F i r e O S a p p s N o i n v e n t o r y r i s k

N o u p f r o n t c o s t sA m a zo n P r i m e s h i p p i n g b e n e f i t s fo r c u s t o m e r s

List price $19.99

- Amazon listing fee (sale price* 15%) $3.00

- Amazon costs $9.31

= Royalty $7.68

Your share of sale price 38.42%

P R O M O T E S H I R T S I N - G A M E


• Platform independent

• Android

• iOS

• Online

• Shirts may appeal to fans

who don’t buy IAP items

• No out-of-pocket cost to you

80% of orders come from in-

game promotions.

20% of orders happen outside

of your app!

B U I L D A G O O D S H I R T


• Pick art identifiable with your game

• Pick 3 (maybe 4) shirt colors

• Strongly consider $19.99 for price

• Ask fans what they want

• Start promoting your shirt outside of

your game (email, social media,

etc…)

Just because lots of shirt

colors are available doesn’t

mean you need to use them

all!


C U S T O M E R S



C U S T O M E R S


REACH

AMAZON

CUSTOMERS

Aug-14 Oct-14 Dec-14 Feb-15 Apr-15 Jun-15 Aug-15 Oct-15 Dec-15 Feb-16 Apr-16 Jun-16 Aug-16

M I L L I O N S O F C U S TO M E R SR A P I D M O N T H O N M O N T H G R O W T H

UK AMAZON APPSTORE CUSTOMER [CUMULATIVE]

R E A C H A M A Z O N C U S TO M E R S

AMAZON FIRE TVAMAZON UNDERGROUNDAMAZON COINS MERCH BY AMAZON

THANK YOU!

Mike Hines@MikeFHines

@AmazonAppDev

developer.amazon.com/appstore bit.ly/AmazonSummitFeedback

Mobile

Is This Really All There Is? More Ways to Monetize - Mike Hines