Unlocking games monetization in emerging markets with behavioral science

3 steps to improve the appeal of IAPs in emerging markets with the help of behavioral science

Successfully launching and monetizing titles in emerging markets has been one of the hot topics in the gaming industry for the last few years. And rightly so — the player base is growing strongly in markets like India, Brazil and Russia. In fact, 4 in 10 players are coming from emerging markets for most top grossing apps on Google Play. However, the growth in the number of players doesn’t translate into the number of purchases. For the same app only 1 in 10 orders on Google Play is coming from emerging markets.

With traditional barriers to spending in emerging markets weakening and players opening to the idea of spending on mobile games, developers have an opportunity to increase the number of buyers and transactions for their titles. Of course, we have to be realistic here and accept that we can drive that ratio only to a certain extent — there’s no solution to get every player in emerging markets to start spending on mobile games. But what developers can achieve is reaching those players who can spend — those players who have no problem in buying a treat for themselves, but might find it hard to spend on digital treats.

Generally, across the world consumers expect prices to reflect their local context. If players feel the price isn’t reflective of their reality — they might decide not to spend it at all. In fact, 62% of Brazilian players we interviewed, at some point of time considered spending money on mobile games, but felt the cost was too high and decided not to (source: Google Consumer Survey, Mobile Gamers, n=1000, December 2018, T2B).

So how can developers respond to this? In order to secure locally relevant price points for your game:

Securing the right price points alone might not be enough to entice players to spend. There is much hesitation due to the lack of value perceived. This can manifest in different ways: spending on gaming can be judged as wasteful or frivolous and not seen as valid as spend on a physical item or other forms of entertainment. Value has a greater meaning in markets with lower disposable income and people want to be sure they are receiving the most out of their spending.

So how can developers drive better value perception of IAPs? Through building the right promotional offering — that feels locally relevant to the consumer:

The final step in increasing the attractiveness of IAPs is through ensuring that the value of the offering is clearly visible for players, as it can easily get lost in the clutter of the game or competing promos and offerings within the store. Too much choice, too many price points and communication overload can confuse the player and result in abandoned purchase.

Developers can strengthen the value message within the game through visual cues and simplifying the purchase decision and journey for them. So how can developers improve the store design to show better value to the player?

It’s important to remember that embracing behavioral science principles to your title isn’t about completely scraping and redesigning the game design or economy. It’s about identifying opportunities for further growth and applying little tweaks to prices, promotions, and the way they’re communicated to the players. By taking these into consideration, you can reach new audiences and increase revenue from new growing markets.

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