1. EXPANDING PEAK GAMES ACROSS THE POND:
GROWING IN THE US
ERDEM İNAN

2. Peak Games
• Founded in October 2010, basedin Istanbul / Turkey, a team of 100
people
• 300M+ Installs globally, 2 Games in Top 100 Grossing in US Stores, 2
Games in Top 5 Grossing in TR Stores.
• Active in 150+ Countries with 10+ Titles in Synchronous Multiplayer&
CasualCategories
• Flagship Titles: Spades Plus (US), 101 OkeyPlus (TR), Okey Plus (TR), Toy
Blast (US)

3. Team
• BI & Marketing Team
• A Team of 15 People: Analytics, User Acquisition & Art, Big Data Team
• Providing services to 10+ products in User Acquisition, CRM and Analytics
• 10+ Game Launches; Regular User Acquisition Campaigns in many
countries at large scale.
• Myself:
• 4 years at Peak Games.
• Leading the User Acquisition + CRM + Analytics teams
• Engineering Background with an Economics MSc.

4. Content
• How we grew two games in the US?
• The differences and similarities of games in different genres
• The differences and similarities of marketing in different genres
• Why we focused in the US?
• Team advantages of focusing in one country
• Business advantages of focusing in one country

5. Test
Phase
Android
Live
iOS
Live
iOS
Commercial
Launch
Product
Iterations
Aggressive
Push
Start
Major
Content
&
Service
Updates
Toy Blast Growth Timeline

6. Toy Blast: (Puzzle)
Top 30 Grossing Games in iOS in the US
Top 30 Grossing Games in Android in the US
iOS Ranking in Time Android Ranking in Time

7. Test
Phase
Spades Plus Growth Timeline
Regular
Marketing
Period
More
Aggressive
Marketing
Period
Regular
Marketing
Period
Aggressive
Marketing
Period
Mobile
Version
Live
Largest
Spades
Community!
Seasonal
Decline
Platform
Featuring

8. Spades Plus: (Card)
Top 100 Grossing Games in Android in the US
Android Ranking in Time

9. Toy Blast - Puzzle
Mass
Less Targeted Audience
Higher Short Term Retention
Less time & short term reasons to pay
Virality / Hit Effect
Huge Market with Many Games
Content-driven
Content Operations
Popular Game
Spades Plus - Card
Niche
Highly Targeted Audience
Higher Long Term Retention
More time & long term reasons to pay
Community Effect
Winner-Takes-All Market
User-driven
User Operations
Traditional & Cultural Game
Differences in Product

10. Toy Blast - Puzzle
Lower CPIs & Faster ROI
Less Precise Targeting
Higher Paid User Quality
Higher Short Term Marketing Impact
Strong Display Marketing
Low Locality across the US
More Aggressive Pushes
Spades Plus - Card
Higher CPIs & Slower ROI
Super Precise Targeting
Higher Organic User Quality
Higher Long Term Marketing Impact
Strong Keyword Marketing
High Locality in certain states
Regular User Acquisition Campaigns
Differences in UA Strategy

11. Toy Blast & Spades Plus UA Similarities
Creative Optimization
App Store Optimization
High UA Effect on the Growth
Cultural Effects in UA (US Effect)
10+ Acquisition Partners’ Management
Major Acquisition Partners
Similarities in UA Operations

12. One Market Strategy: Only in the US?
- ROI Perspective: Better opportunities elsewhere => YES!
- We could have done higher ROI campaigns in 150+ countries at the
same time. But we did not…
- Instead we focused consistently in the US; eventually hitting the
ranks in top 100 => top 50 => top 30.

13. Advantages of Focusing only to the US
• Market Specific Know-how:
• Creatives
• Partners & Sources & Pub IDs
• Ad Units
• Competitors
• Learning the customers’ expectations
• Running with one country’s calendar
• Team Focus: Everyone can go into great level of detail with one country.
• Language & Time zone Focus
• Increasing organics

14. UA is Cultural + UA is Regional
• Some games fit better with some cultures / countries => regions.
• Learning who the real players are, might greatly increase your effectiveness.
• Non-Gamer Interest Clusters performed ~40% better in ROI when compared to gaming
clusters. (Decreased Costs and Increased Response to Ads)
• Target by State, By Famous Local & National Celebrities, Local Card Clubs etc.

15. United
States
CTR:
2.05%
CR:
33%
South
Korea
CTR:
3.08%
CR:
20%
Netherlands
CTR:
1.23%
CR:
22%
Belgium
CTR:
0.88%
CR:
36%
Turkey
CTR:
2.44%
CR:
33%
Germany
CTR:
1.33%
CR:
37%
United
States
CTR:
1.48%
CR:
42%
Italy
CTR:
1.04%
CR:
33%
South
Korea
CTR:
0.99%
CR:
26%
Cultural
Differences
in UA Visuals

16. 4th July Game of Thrones Season Premiere
St Patrick’s Theme
Halloween Episode
US Tax Day
Popular &
Contextual
Content

17. Organic Installs
• Understanding organic installs is crucial.
• Organic Installs = DAU Driven Organics + Marketing Driven Organics
+ Rest (App Store Keywords, Category & Store Rankings, Similar
Games, Other Games of the Developer)

18. DAU Driven Organics
• DAU drives organics => For viral spread you need people playing.
• If your game grows then you will have more organics coming in.
• More Organics will mean:
• Higher Conversion Rates for your campaigns (Yes, UA takes some organics on
itself. :/) thus lower CPIs.
• Lesser budget constraints since the revenue increase will be more significant.
• Your user base will be easier to sustain.
• Even more organics => ASO, Category rankings, more peopleplaying your
game.
• Is the market finite? Not that we know. :) (For a mass game)

19. Marketing Driven Organics (1/2)
• One User LTV > CPI is coming to an end for many genres. It was
extremely safe.
• We must rethink how we think of LTV.
• Including an install’s effect on organics.
• Including an install’s effect on DAU and market penetration.
• Thinking on the opportunitycostof not buying an install.
• Thinking of an install that you will buy next year.
• We must rethink our ROI expectations.
• An install is one of the fastest increasing assets in value.
• Missing a potentially successful game is worse than spending x% more
than you would ideally spend.

20. Marketing Driven Organics (2/2)
• Paid User Acquisition drives organic installs in different ways:
• View through attribution => Very Powerful
• Marketing users own virality => Powerful
• Store rankings => Less powerful
• User Acquisition has a self-fulfilling loop: Your LTV can increase
with Marketing => Marketing Driven Organics are usually better in
quality than regular organics.

21. Summary
• Different Genres require different game operations & user
acquisition strategies
• Focusing in one country has many direct & indirect advantages
• Basic LTV calculation without a sophisticated look into virality,
organic installs and opportunity cost cannot lead to aggressive
marketing strategies for 90% of the F2P companies.

22. Thanks.
Erdem İnan
Director, BI & Marketing
erdem@peakgames.net
Our team is growing, and we want you to join us!