UA tips for the Amazon Appstore from Wooga and Huuuge Games

The iOS App Store and Google Play represent the majority of the mobile game market, and that's enough to satisfy many developers. But the Amazon App Store offers a good hidden opportunity, particularly for US-based users. Amazon users are high quality, according to two mobile user acquisition experts who recently joined our latest webinar.For the monetization basics on Amazon's Appstore, see our primer on Amazon's scale and ad rates. In this post, we'll go over more in-depth pointers by Jason Conger, Head of User Acquisition at Wooga, and Misha Syrotiuk, Head of Ad Networks and DSPs at Huuuge Games.

All about Amazon users

Most Amazon users are in the US, and for the casino and puzzle audiences of Wooga and Huuuge, they're usually female and over 35, according to Jason and Misha. Other markets Amazon is active in include the UK, France and Germany.Both experts find the audience to be high quality, monetizing in between the high ARPDAU seen on the iOS App Store and the relatively lower numbers on Google Play. The catch, however, is that the audience is small, and there are relatively few ad networks serving the store (where you're at the right place because Chartboost is one of them!).

Amazon's small scale is generally a good thing

''It's not the same as Google & Apple. You can't compare it directly. If you're expecting a revenue stream to rival either of those platforms you're looking in the wrong place,'' says Jason. Instead, he calls Amazon a complementary revenue source.So why bother? Because there's less competition which means an easier time succeeding. Amazon is the cheapest store to acquire users in, according to both experts. That can particularly be true when searching for users in the non-US markets, says Misha. ''[The] volume will be super small but you might be one of the few advertising there, so the user's quality could be backing up your investments of time and money,'' he says.

Unique advertising opportunities

Amazon offers advertising opportunities that don't exist on the other stores. One of these is wake screen ads, which display on the user's device while it's locked. Jason mentions that for this ad format specifically, they were able to pick up inventory in the month of April due to Covid-19. ''We saw a huge rise in available inventory with major brands pulling out ad spend in conjunction with a drastic drop in CPIs,'' he says.Wake screens offer a variety of advertising options to test, including animated and interactive screens, lookalikes and custom audiences, and tier 1 and tier 2 inventory. ''We have good luck with videos of beautiful scenes showcasing hidden object gameplay,'' says Jason.January is also a good time to advertise on Amazon, says Misha: many users have received a new device as a gift, but during that month, most brands have reduced their advertising spend, once again leaving an opening for game developers.

It's easy to develop for Amazon

About 75 percent of all apps can be directly ported from their Google Play build to Amazon with no alteration, according to the company. Amazon, unlike its larger competitors, is also willing to give developers personalized attention. ''Prepare to negotiate and manage a lot of contracts, IOs, creative back and forth, volume and performance ups and downs, and more with Amazon directly,'' says Jason.The final reason to go to Amazon? The company is a growing giant that always has the possibility to capture more of the market. ''We also see it as an investment into the future of Amazon who has the resources to rival Google and Apple,'' says Jason.

For a full recap of the webinar covering both monetization and UA on Amazon Appstore watch the recording below.

To get your app on Amazon, check out the company's own Developer's Guide to the Amazon Appstore. Once you're there, install the Chartboost's SDK to display ads, or reach out directly to our team.