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SAN FRANCISCO — In 2015, Facebook wants to help game developers by making better recommendations to gamers based on what it knows about them.
Dan Morris, the head of game partnerships at Facebook, said today in a talk at the Game Developers Conference that the company aims to help mobile game developers with monetization, reach more players, and boost installations and re-engagement with apps in 2015.
Right now, Facebook assists developers reach players by targeting ads to those who have shown that they play games based on what they have installed on their smartphones and tablets. But that’s where its information stops. So Morris is asking developers to integrate Facebook’s App Events technology into their apps to get better performance.
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App Events collects data on whether a gamer completed a tutorial. It also collects social data (guild participation), and information on level completion and purchases. With this data, Facebook can make much better recommendations through its GameRankings engine.
“Post installation, we lose visibility,” Morris said. “This gets us the rest of the picture.”
With better recommendations, Facebook can improve installations that a developer gets. It can also improve re-engagement with an app by sending procedural, contextually relevant reminders to players who have not played recently.
Facebook is taking the data and rolling it into its GameRanker tool, which makes recommendations to mobile players. It helps substanially with daily installations.
“The more installs we drive, the better off you will be,” Morris said.
Facebook’s ads auction is available to its audience now. The social network has limited points of entry for game discovery on mobile, but the company is expanding that by enabling those who are already searching for games to dive much deeper into game discovery.
“In 2015, we are trying to grow the organic picture for discovery and re-engagement,” Morris said.
Above: Facebook ad for Game of War in Zeptolab Cut the Rope game.
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