The first session determines almost everything, or how to help the user to love your game.
In this article I will consider the importance of the first session of the user, its impact on the subsequent values of the KPI project and ways to optimize on real examples from the industry.
What does a regular retention schedule look like? Let us turn, unexpectedly even for myself, to a study dated 1885 and devoted to the forgetting of learned material. The fact is that the usual retention schedule has exactly the same appearance, despite the past 130 years and the fact that we are talking about another sphere of life activity.
As can be seen from the graph, the more time passes, the more likely it is that the user will remain for a longer period. Accordingly, the less time passes from the beginning of the user's life, the more likely the user will leave the project. I lead to the idea that the main part of users who have left the project, does this in the first days after the first visit. Moreover, on the first day. And even more - in the first session. That is why the first session is very important.
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If you want to optimize, say, 28-day retention - start with the first user session. Its optimization will increase 1-day retention, which, in turn, will increase 28-day retention and all subsequent retention.
According to swrve , more than 19% of users leave the game immediately after the first session. If the second session was followed by the second, then most likely the third and all others will follow. It is in his first session that the user becomes familiar with the product, forms an opinion about it. And your task is to ensure that the first opinion does not become the last. Tell the user about your application, show the benefits of this application over others.
Study the first session of the most active users.
Think about what actions the user should perform to gain a deeper understanding of your product and its benefits. This is perfectly illustrated by the example described in the twoodo blog . Twoodo is a service for teamwork, and to improve their performance, they did the following:
This seemingly simple sequence of actions led to the fact that the number of active users increased by 75%, the number of invited friends increased by 112%, and the number of messages and tasks increased by 139%. Needless to say, retention also increased.
For example, the service I use allows you to select user segments by registration date, by their activity, by the execution of an event, by the regularity of entries:
Using these segments, it is possible to analyze the performance of various events during the first session separately for the most and least active users.
By aha-moment we understand the achievement of an event, after which the user is guaranteed to remain in the application, that is, a certain activation of the user. It is assumed that the user at this moment understands the advantage of using this product and shouts: “Aha!”.
Examples of aha moments from the industry:
There is no limit to perfection and retention - this is an indicator that can (and should) be always optimized. Do not be afraid to do an extra iteration and an extra A / B test.
This perfectly demonstrates the example of Zeptolab . Before the game King of Thieves came out in its current form, 120 ideas were proposed, about 50 prototypes were developed. Only five prototypes reached soft launch. And two years later, a single game came out. Initially, one-day retention was 26%, and seven-day retention was 9%. At the same time, 60% of users did not even reach the multiplayer part of the game. The next iterations, new prototypes, the addition of a new tutorial, the league system, the large “Find a match” button, and the indicators have grown significantly: 1-day retention has become an unprecedented 56%, and 7-days retention has grown to 32%. And the LTV user since the first soft launch has grown 26 times.
In general, the tutorial format for the first session fits well: while studying, the user simultaneously understands the product interface and its features. At this stage, each minimal user action is important for his future activity, so we recommend logging each, albeit small, user step in the tutorial.
The Tutorial steps report in the service I use allows you to see the places where users have the most difficulty:
One game project decided to improve its retention rates, both in 1 day and in 28 days. It was decided to start with the optimization of one-day retention, namely with the tutorial. In the tutorial, which lasts an average of 15 minutes, more than a hundred (!) Steps were allocated, starting from loading each texture and ending with the dead enemy base. The largest churn rate was recorded in the steps when the application accessed the Internet connection. Therefore, it was decided to make the tutorial offline and measure the results.
Referring to the Game Analytics material , which, in particular, describes seven reasons why users can leave the game at the very beginning. The list is fairly obvious, but it would not be superfluous to go over it and check your game:
About the importance of the first session
What does a regular retention schedule look like? Let us turn, unexpectedly even for myself, to a study dated 1885 and devoted to the forgetting of learned material. The fact is that the usual retention schedule has exactly the same appearance, despite the past 130 years and the fact that we are talking about another sphere of life activity.
As can be seen from the graph, the more time passes, the more likely it is that the user will remain for a longer period. Accordingly, the less time passes from the beginning of the user's life, the more likely the user will leave the project. I lead to the idea that the main part of users who have left the project, does this in the first days after the first visit. Moreover, on the first day. And even more - in the first session. That is why the first session is very important.
')
If you want to optimize, say, 28-day retention - start with the first user session. Its optimization will increase 1-day retention, which, in turn, will increase 28-day retention and all subsequent retention.
According to swrve , more than 19% of users leave the game immediately after the first session. If the second session was followed by the second, then most likely the third and all others will follow. It is in his first session that the user becomes familiar with the product, forms an opinion about it. And your task is to ensure that the first opinion does not become the last. Tell the user about your application, show the benefits of this application over others.
Study the first session of the most active users.
Think about what actions the user should perform to gain a deeper understanding of your product and its benefits. This is perfectly illustrated by the example described in the twoodo blog . Twoodo is a service for teamwork, and to improve their performance, they did the following:
- Allocated a segment of the most active users;
- Studied the first session of these users and noted for themselves what events these users committed on their first visit;
- Selected a segment of less active users who left the project after only a few days;
- We studied the first session of this segment, laid it out into events;
- Compare the events of users from the first and second segments;
- Found differences in the events and identified those events that were committed by users, who then became the most active, and were not committed by users, who then left the project. For example, these were such events as:
a) inviting at least two friends;
b) enter the name and surname;
c) loading a profile picture;
d) loading the company logo;
e) creation of at least five tasks, etc. - Built these actions into your interface.
- We conducted an A / B test to compare the effectiveness of the new interface with the old one.
This seemingly simple sequence of actions led to the fact that the number of active users increased by 75%, the number of invited friends increased by 112%, and the number of messages and tasks increased by 139%. Needless to say, retention also increased.
For example, the service I use allows you to select user segments by registration date, by their activity, by the execution of an event, by the regularity of entries:
Using these segments, it is possible to analyze the performance of various events during the first session separately for the most and least active users.
Find your aha-moment
By aha-moment we understand the achievement of an event, after which the user is guaranteed to remain in the application, that is, a certain activation of the user. It is assumed that the user at this moment understands the advantage of using this product and shouts: “Aha!”.
Examples of aha moments from the industry:
- Twitter. Achievement of 30 readable users;
- Facebook Adding 7 friends in the first 10 days;
- Zynga Just returning to the game the day after the first visit;
- Dropbox. Add at least one file to your folder on the service.
Iterations are not superfluous.
There is no limit to perfection and retention - this is an indicator that can (and should) be always optimized. Do not be afraid to do an extra iteration and an extra A / B test.
This perfectly demonstrates the example of Zeptolab . Before the game King of Thieves came out in its current form, 120 ideas were proposed, about 50 prototypes were developed. Only five prototypes reached soft launch. And two years later, a single game came out. Initially, one-day retention was 26%, and seven-day retention was 9%. At the same time, 60% of users did not even reach the multiplayer part of the game. The next iterations, new prototypes, the addition of a new tutorial, the league system, the large “Find a match” button, and the indicators have grown significantly: 1-day retention has become an unprecedented 56%, and 7-days retention has grown to 32%. And the LTV user since the first soft launch has grown 26 times.
Optimize the tutorial with small steps
In general, the tutorial format for the first session fits well: while studying, the user simultaneously understands the product interface and its features. At this stage, each minimal user action is important for his future activity, so we recommend logging each, albeit small, user step in the tutorial.
The Tutorial steps report in the service I use allows you to see the places where users have the most difficulty:
An example from personal practice
One game project decided to improve its retention rates, both in 1 day and in 28 days. It was decided to start with the optimization of one-day retention, namely with the tutorial. In the tutorial, which lasts an average of 15 minutes, more than a hundred (!) Steps were allocated, starting from loading each texture and ending with the dead enemy base. The largest churn rate was recorded in the steps when the application accessed the Internet connection. Therefore, it was decided to make the tutorial offline and measure the results.
Analyze other reasons
Referring to the Game Analytics material , which, in particular, describes seven reasons why users can leave the game at the very beginning. The list is fairly obvious, but it would not be superfluous to go over it and check your game:
- Unsuccessful intro before the game;
- Too long gaming session;
- An error in the choice of an audience;
- The market for your audience is oversaturated with good games;
- You have tested your game too little;
- Your tutorial slows down the player;
- The game is too complicated for new users;
findings
- Remember that they meet on clothes, and the first gaming session determines the subsequent activity of the user.
- Optimize the first gaming session, this will increase both one-day and subsequent retention;
- Examine the most active users and see what they did in their first session, unlike the first session of the least active users. Identify the differences and paste them into your interface;
- Find the moment after which the user remains in the project. Make the user's path up to this point easier;
- Do not be afraid of unnecessary iterations when optimizing the first session.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/291640/
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