A huge aspect of many mobile games is that titles are kept alive for years. However, with the desire to keep games alive for long periods of time and stiff competition all around, even successful games may need a boost further down the line to increase player engagement and increase metrics.

In this guest post, AppQuantum producer Oleg Nalimov shares how the team took 2021’s idle merger Gold & Goblins and added sandwich offers after its initial launch. The trick worked and the game soared to subsequent success. Here's the story.

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Long story short: we incorporated offers from a more complex casual genre into our idle game and immediately saw improvements across multiple metrics. In addition, sandwich offers positively impacted monetisation and allowed players to choose their own comfortable level of engagement. This piece will detail a specific instance where we identified a new growth opportunity for our project, experimented with fine-tuning, and why we believe these offers will become ubiquitous in the near future.

Released in 2021, Gold & Goblins quickly experienced growth, becoming a top two performer in both installs and earnings among idle games. The project had a really fresh and energetic vibe, thanks to its captivating and unique blend of idle and merge mechanics, stylish visuals, pleasant animations, and sounds. It nailed that overall look and feel. Plus, it boasted a good amount of content and the ability to scale up quickly.

When it came to monetisation, our approach was cautious, avoiding interstitial ads and frequent offer appearances. All of this creates huge potential for further growth and is intentionally done specifically for this project.

Together with Redcell Games studio, we decided to create an atypical product with a focus on meditative and unique gameplay for that time, which will entertain players for years without unnecessary distractions. Indeed, many players have remained loyal to us practically since the release despite the game being three years old.

Introducing sandwich offers was our strategy to enhance the game's metrics. At the time, and even now, such offers are rare in idle games as they are in more intricate genres. Yet, we're confident these offers will soon become standard across all our idle titles - both existing and forthcoming and will be explored in other genres as well.

Now, let’s dive deeper.

Where did sandwich offers come from?

The concept of "sandwich offers" emerged from an analysis of our initial monetisation strategies and events. Internal analytics quickly revealed a notable lack of offers at the time.

About half of our in-app purchases were being made directly from the in-game bank, which traditionally should not be the primary source of purchases. In the current gaming landscape, it's seen as ideal for only 10-20% of IAPs to come from the bank, with the remainder stemming from targeted offers.

The bank serves as a baseline for "standard" pricing, setting the context for special offers and deals, which are expected to be more attractive. Typically, higher bank prices target wealthier players who've exhausted all special offers, whereas the average player prefers to snag deals, just like during sales in offline stores.

Sidenote: Another situation, but not ours, is when 50% of in-app purchases are for buying no ads. This indicates that the game has very low content depth. You buy no ads and essentially don't need anything else.

A skew towards bank purchases signalled an imbalance in our offer strategy and highlighted a growth opportunity. The first step was to expand our offer range without upsetting the game's carefully crafted balance and player experience.

Given that our game was already leading its genre in key metrics, we realised that looking to other idle games for inspiration had limited value - we already had everything they offered and more. Thus, we turned our attention to more complex genres, specifically casual games.

By leveraging popular analytics tools, we compiled two lists for our research:

• Games with a similar audience profile.
• Top-performing games in terms of revenue.

Redcell Games CEO Stephen Williams also shared that he closely monitored top Match-3 games. It was there that we found unconventional approaches to offers, which we decided to test in our own game. Such strategies weren't common in idle games back then, largely because not all games had enough content. Additionally, not everyone looked at more complex genres as references.

Why sandwich offers made a difference

The crux of in-app monetisation hinges on two pivotal questions: how do we encourage more players to engage with in-app purchases, and how do we increase the average expenditure on these purchases to boost the game's overall revenue without compromising player satisfaction?

Previously, a trending strategy for monetisation focused on behind-the-scenes segmentation. Essentially, we'd analyse the median payment over a specific timeframe (last month, three months, two weeks, etc.), which would then inform several offer options for the player: one at their usual spending level and a few others slightly higher.

Sandwich offers tackle this challenge by presenting a series of alternating paid and free offers, letting players decide their stopping point. Rather than making assumptions about player preferences, this approach empowers players to choose their comfort level.

This strategy has proved effective in encouraging first-time in-app purchases (since the mix of paid and free offers essentially gives players two for the price of one) and re-engaging those who might have ceased using IAPs.

Sandwich offers serve a triple purpose:

1. Encouraging players to make their first IAP.
2. Motivating players to progress through the offer chain, featuring a mix of increasingly appealing paid offers and complimentary bonuses, showcasing the value on offer.
3. Adapting semi-automatically to each player, allowing them to progress to their level of comfort.

For Gold & Goblins, we saw more than a 4% increase in Day 365 LTV after the first iteration. These are impressive gains for a large-scale project generating over $1 million a month and running for several years, especially when considering the relative profit margin. Besides, we’re already crafting the next iteration of offers.

Currently, sandwich offers represent about 10% of the revenue from all offers in Gold & Goblins, a percentage we believe has room to grow. While we explore other monetisation strategies - since relying solely on offers isn't advisable - we've initiated a trial with a high volume of offers on another project and look forward to sharing those outcomes.

Ultimately, the introduction of sandwich offers requires ongoing development, testing, and fine-tuning on any project.

Practical insights on implementing sandwich offers

In Gold & Goblins, we developed eight offer chains tailored to player progression within the first year. Each chain lasts about two to three days, but there's potential to introduce far more.

On a different project, we established a weekly cycle, starting with a chain optimised for newcomers, followed by three additional chains cycling through each week.

A critical aspect to consider is the pricing progression within a chain. For example, if a player's comfortable in-app purchase threshold is $7, constructing a chain with steps like $3, $5, $10, $25, $50, $75, and $100 will likely see a significant drop-off after the $10 mark. A more effective approach could involve tailoring the chain closer to the player's comfort level, for instance, $3, $5, $7, $10, $12, $15, $20, $25, and $30.

This is why the system is considered semi-automatic. Although players choose where to stop, our role involves blending segmentation around comfortable payments with the chain concept effectively.

For those considering sandwich offers, I recommend experimenting to see how they resonate with your audience. Emphasising more offers around the comfortable payment range is usually beneficial.

Another variable worth testing is the chain's length. We've been using chains of eight offers, but exploring shorter or longer chains could yield interesting outcomes. A hypothesis suggests that shorter chains with steeper price increments could be effective, though I'm not yet in a position to share concrete results.

Moreover, the balance between paid and free offers warrants exploration. For instance, coupling a paid offer with two free ones, where 70% of the value is in the free offer, signals to players that a minor extra expense unlocks substantial additional value.

Final thoughts: Will sandwich offers become ubiquitous?

For us, they will definitely be implemented or tested on all projects from now on.

However, it’s critical to grasp that offers are merely enhancements to a foundational balance that must possess significant depth. This approach is feasible for most of our titles, but smaller-scale projects with less content might find reduced utility in such offers. Regardless, we’re keen to explore this mechanic further since it's player-friendly and doesn’t overburden the gaming experience.

Presently, sandwich offers predominantly feature in large casual games due to their extensive content. Yet, I believe games with a life cycle of a year or more - be it battlers or others - can just as easily integrate them. In hyper-casual games, where a purchase might only extend to no ads, the gameplay doesn’t offer the depth needed for such a layered offering strategy. Clearly, in such frameworks, a weekly chain of eight offers wouldn’t make sense.

Consider sandwich offers as just one variation within the broader strategy of balancing and monetisation. A robust game balance paves the way for effective and appealing monetisation, which is why our primary focus is always on fine-tuning the balance.

We’re brimming with hypotheses about monetisation strategies, many of which are either currently under test or poised for future exploration.

Edited by Paige Cook