4 differences between customer acquisition and customer retention in Gaming

What is customer acquisition in gaming?

Customer acquisition is increasing the number of users for your online games through various marketing endeavors. However, unlike traditional marketing, user acquisition for applications and games aims to convert users immediately. Customer acquisition is one of the most critical marketing steps to building a sustainable competitive gaming business. Since the gaming industry is a cut-throat vertical, only the strongest survive. Gaming operators scramble to grab new customers from their competitors. That is why a sound customer retention system is necessary, which we will be looking at in the upcoming sections.

Why is customer acquisition expensive?

We have to establish the fact that customer acquisition is costly. Getting new players for your gaming platform is not an easy task. Even though the online gaming industry has expanded in recent years, one cannot simply get a paying playing customer into their gaming platform. The customer acquisition procedures are time and money-consuming. To get a new player, gaming operators have to carry out intensive marketing day in and day out. Since the competition is very high and other gaming sites provide excellent promotional offers, you must at least match their offering. Hence, the high expense. However, marketing automation software like OptiKPI can reduce your acquisition cost to a bare minimum while getting enormous traffic. Following are some player acquisition strategies you can implement in your marketing to improve your ROI.

Highly effective customer acquisition strategies:

A gaming platform requires a fantastic player acquisition strategy to reduce the cost of onboarding new players. In addition, the marketing should attract high-quality visitors to your website or app. Following are some of the best customer acquisition strategies:

• Advertising on Google and Social media
• Incentivized Referrals
• Cross-promotion
• X factor
• Testing
• Content marketing
• Branding
• Marketing automation

For more details on how to implement the above strategies read - How to acquire a New Player?

What is customer retention in gaming?

Customer retention is a term used for retaining paying customers. In gaming, customer retention is the most important KPI for the business's longevity. Therefore, it is imperative not to lose depositing players. Thus, customer retention or player retention rate determines the performance of the gaming business. Customer churn is directly proportional to retention. It is straightforward; the company is in a horrible state when an online gaming site has a high churn rate. At the same time, a company with a good retention rate is guaranteed a smoother ride.

Customer retention is the backbone of a gaming brand:

As an online gaming operator, retention is critical. The number of downloads and website visitors alone won’t provide helpful information on player engagement. Thus, you must know how many players return to your game after the first login. If a player does not return, you lose the player and the acquisition cost spent on that particular player. Hence never take your eye off the retention process. Players who are happy with your gaming site/ app tend to stay with you. Therefore make sure you provide the best experience to all your customers. A brand is built upon a steady following. Try not to lose trust, cater to your players' needs, and stop posting irrelevant content to their faces. If you think about retention strategies, think OptiKPI. We are the No.1 customer retention software for the gaming industry. With our expertise in iGaming, we have crafted a marketing automation software that solves all your challenges. To know more about how to use OptiKPI to boost your customer retention, read this article - How to increase customer retention in your online casino or sports betting site?

4 differences between customer acquisition and customer retention

Starting new vs. Engaging existing customers

Player acquisition is getting brand new users into your platform. It requires all the heavy lifting. You cannot start and stop acquisition campaigns just like that. Customer acquisition is an ever-going mission; spreading the word about your gaming business is the first step. After that, the marketing mission focuses on educating potential customers about your brand, the new ones who know nothing about your brand.

Customer retention is engaging the existing users to retain them with you for as long as possible. This marketing procedure focuses on players who are familiar with your platform. Customer loyalty is the foundation for building a strong gaming brand. Your retention campaigns enable you to convert casual players into loyal ones. For a Gaming business to be lucrative in the long term, customer retention should be the principal focus.

Marketing cost

Marketing cost largely varies according to the size and scope of your campaigns. But when comparing acquisition and retention, it is fair enough to say the former is expensive compared to the latter.

Customer acquisition is like starting from scratch that involves considerable expenditures. You need to get potential customers' data, grab their attention, educate them, offer lavish discounts, and more. In contrast, player retention campaigns are only targeted toward the existing players. With OptiKPI, you can bring down the cost of both the acquisition and retention costs to a bare minimum. Read more on how to use journeys in OptiKPI to take care of a player experience - Player Journey

ROI

The return on marketing investment is a critical metric for any business. In iGaming, the success depends only upon the effectiveness of their marketing. Nonetheless, you cannot go on a spending spree in marketing; that is like poking holes in a ship. Instead, using the resources most effectively will help businesses sustain themselves in the long run. Hence, gaming operators should focus on improving their marketing ROI. And once again, the ROIs differ for acquisition and retention campaigns.

User acquisition is certainly not an easy marketing task. You need precise marketing strategies to carry out effective campaigns for outstanding ROIs; otherwise, your resources are at a loss. You can use the following acquisition tactics powered by OptiKPI to boost your game - How to acquire a New Player?

Strategies

By now, you know that customer acquisition and retention are two completely different entities. Hence wholly different strategies are required to tackle the challenges. However, the basics never change, acquisition strategies focus on new players, and retention strategies are used to engage existing customers. We assist you through your marketing journey with our software. OptiKPI empowers you to use your data diligently. Read "How to boost customer loyalty for online casino: 100% successful strategy from OptiKPI" for effective strategies for boosting customer loyalty.

How to boost acquisition and retention in your gaming platform?

Using marketing automation tools in the gaming business promises long-term success. Because competition is at an all-time high, make informed judgments to remain at the top of the game. Your player data will assist you in expanding your business. You can examine campaign outcomes like a pro with powerful analytics dashboards. Create a 360-degree perspective of each participant to understand what works and doesn't regarding marketing investment. You may methodically enhance your benefits of client retention with the aid of marketing automation tools. What is the best customer retention and acquisition booster software? OptiKPI is the best gaming marketing software solution in the market. Following is a tutorial video on using customer acquisition and retention list in OptiKPI - Acquisition & Retention List Complete Tutorial | OptiKPI Data Types | How to Create Segments

OptiKPI: The best marketing automation software for iGaming

OptiKPI is the most effective marketing automation software for increasing online gaming retention and acquisition rates. Our platform's significant characteristics are compliance, marketing, and risk management. In addition, we help you leverage user data to benefit in the long run. We take a long-term strategy to increase customer lifetime value. Consequently, our clients have seen revenue growth of more than 30%, and team productivity increased by 60%. Through improved customer data in real-time, our platform allows you to enhance your marketing and reporting, increase team productivity, and expedite compliance. You can integrate OptiKPI into your marketing system immediately and deploy it. We have a highly qualified technical team in place for you. Get in touch with us anytime and get personalized solutions from any part of the world.