Around 60% of Snapchat ads are for games

• 37% of Snapchat users aren’t on Facebook daily.
• 50% have already made an in-app purchase of some kind.

While the worlds of apps and mobile games are often compared competitively, gamification and M&A are bringing these two worlds increasingly close together.

At Pocket Gamer Connects London, Snap Inc lead of app growth strategy Sara Antonelli took to the stage to discuss the social platform’s large overlap with gamers, partnerships with the games industry and opportunities to reach users less likely to be found elsewhere.

37% of Snapchat users aren’t on Facebook daily, for example, and 53% don’t use YouTube daily, Antonelli said.

Meanwhile, the crossover between gamers and Snapchat users is said to be high, with 61% of users interested in finding new games and 78% playing games every day.

Games are boosting retention

Antonelli highlighted that many Snapchat users are already accustomed to making in-app purchases, with 36% of them having made a payment in the app and 50% having made an in-app purchase of some kind, whether on Snapchat or elsewhere.

It wouldn’t be such a new experience for these users to make an in-app purchase in a mobile game, therefore, if developers are able to reach them.

This led Antonelli to talk on stage about Playables, which allow the app’s 477 million daily active users to play mini versions of mobile games, advertising with links to install the full version.

"Playables might seem like something from the past, but not for Snapchat," she said.

"Users interact in such a playful way, and we have been seeing really, really strong results when it comes to this particular UI. Users are used to it - they’re already open to the camera, and playing with features, and now they’re more engaged with having that Playables feature enabled on Snapchat."

The results have been "quite impressive", Antonelli claimed, citing one game’s 37% drop in CPIs while sustaining a 19% increase in ROAS. She suggested users who play a game within Snapchat and then download the full version have high intentions to play.

Though Snapchat’s Playables serve to advertise others’ games rather than its own content, they have increased retention time within the app. Antonelli noted that around 60% of ads on the platform are now for games.

It’s in line with gamification trends seen across the mobile app industry, such as daily login bonuses and other incentives to keep users returning to an app regularly - learning lessons from mobile games.

Companies like Duolingo have taken gamification a step further by acquiring the majority of NextBeat’s team, a spinoff from Supercell’s Space Ape, as the learning app continues to gamify.

Snapchat, Duolingo, and many other app developers attended Pocket Gamer Connects London this week, alongside hundreds of companies from across the games industry.

Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco is taking place on March 9th.