Mitch Smiley is responsible for digital user acquisition campaigns for Animal Jam, an online game for kids. COPPA regulations prohibit behavioral targeting and remarketing of children under 13. To effectively acquire new users within these restrictions, Smiley's strategy includes setting up analytics to measure campaign performance, testing different ad placements and creatives, and focusing on contextual targeting of kid-friendly content and communities. Testing of mobile user acquisition is also underway for the Animal Jam mobile game.

1. 1
KID-FRIENDLY
DIGITAL USER
ACQUISITION

2. BACKGRO
UND
2

3. • Mitch Smiley – Global Marketing
Manager, WildWorks
• Responsible for marketing campaigns, with
with a focus on digital user acquisition.
mitch@wildworks.com
linkedin.com/in/mitchsm
miley
ME
3

4. ANIMAL
JAM• Browser-based
online game
• #1 online social
game for kids in
the U.S.
• 50 million+
registered users
worldwide
• Core demo: girls
7-12
4

5. THE
PROBLE
M
• How do we run a successful,
ROI-positive user acquisition
(UA) campaign for a game
geared towards children?
5
REMARKE
TING
BEHAVIOR
AL
TARGETIN

6. CHILDREN’S
ONLINE
PRIVACY
PROTECTION ACT
(COPPA) 6

7. COPPA
OVERVIEW• Goal is “to place parents in
control over what information
is collected from their young
(<13) children online
7

8. HOW COPPA AFFECTS
DIGITAL UA• No behavioral targeting or
remarketing
• Recommend working with a 3rd
party to verify compliance
• Under-13 digital media market
on track
to reach $2.5bn by 2018* - so
how do we spend effectively?
8
*source: http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2015/12/21/how-new-eu-data-privacy-laws-change-kids-and-teens-ad-market-forever

9. DIGITAL
STRATEGY
9

10. 13
MEDIA CONSUMPTION
• American tweens (8- to
12-year olds) spend an
average of 4:36 per
day on ‘screen media’
• 68% of screen time is
non-TV for tweens.
87% for teens
• Increases to 6:40 for
teens
• 66% of tweens play
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-
census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens

11. 10
SET UP EFFECTIVE WEB
ANALYTICS• Conversion Tracking – signups,
payments, time played
• Relevant Attribution Model
• Ad network publisher/sub-ID
tracking
• Send traffic quality
events/reports back to vendors

12. 11
ESTABLISH ACCURATE
BACK-END METRICS• Churn rate, ARPPU, LTV
• LTV / Conversion rate = signup CPA
payout ceiling
• Measure paid accounts separately
Example:
$100 LTV / 5% conversion rate = $5
value per registration

13. 12
• Research
your target &
their interests
• Sites with
audience
overlap,
YouTube,
game portals
CONTENT &
CONTEXTUAL
TARGETING

14. WHAT
WORKS
14

15. 15
GREAT CREATIVE

16. 16
SIMPLE LANDING
PAGE WITH CLEAR
CTA

17. 17
CREATIVE +
PLACEMENT FOR
DIFFERENT
GOALS

18. PAID
SEARCH• Embrace misspellings & branded
keywords
• Maximize SERP real estate
18

19. PAID SEARCH – BRANDED
KEYWORDS
• Paused branded
keywords
for 2 weeks
• Gained 16% in organic
sessions
• Lost 20% from
branded keyword
sessions 19

20. YOUTU
BE
20
• Content
targeting
• Pre-roll

21. AD NETWORKS / CPA
21
• Establish CPAs based on expected value
of registration
• Track sub ID quality – stay on top of
campaign managers
• Scale with patience
• Tips: in addition to conversion pixels, set
up tags to measure quality – gameplay
threshold, paying user, etc.

22. 22
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
#FanArtFri
day

23. WHAT
HASN’T
WORKED
23

24. GROW NOW,
MONETIZE LATER• Huge registration volume, low
CPA in
Southeast Asian, Latin American
markets
• Poor monetization and ROI
24

25. CPM-BASED
DIGITAL BUYS• Very rare for CPM buys to meet
CPA goals
• Can fit campaigns with branding
goals
– not a good fit for CPA-based
UA campaign
26

26. MOBI
LE
27

27. 28
ANIMAL JAM
MOBILE
OVERVIEW• Mobile game launched August
2015
• Free-to-play with premium
purchases
• Not monetizing via
whales/unrestricted IAP
• Limited scope of UA

28. 29
MOBILE UA FINDINGS
• Use attribution platform vs.
home-grown system
• Determine marketing objective
prior
to launch – IAPs/monetization,
app store rankings, install
volume
• Video works best

29. LOOKI
NG
AHEA
D
30

30. CONTINUING SHIFT FROM TV
TO DIGITAL• US digital spend to overtake TV in
2017 (eMarketer)
31http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Digital-Ad-Spending-Surpass-TV-Next-Year/1013671

31. ‘KID-SAFE’
SOCIAL/VIDEO
• Moderated ‘kid-safe’ social
channels
• Influencers & branded content
33

32. ‘KID-SAFE’ AD
NETWORK
GROWTH• Playwire, SuperAwesome etc.
• Still early – volume hasn’t
shifted to enable CPA pricing
32

33. EU LEGISLATION (GDPR)
• Goes into effect May 2018
• Similar to COPPA
• Data collection from children
(TBD, under 13-16) requires
parental consent
34http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/reform/index_en.htm

34. THANK
YOU!
35
Contact:
mitch@wildworks.com