Essential KPIs for Evaluating Marketing Campaigns in New Game Launches: A Data-Driven Growth Marketer’s Guide

For a data-driven growth marketer in the gaming industry, evaluating the effectiveness of a marketing specialist’s campaign strategies for a new game launch requires focusing on critical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPIs provide actionable insights across acquisition, engagement, retention, monetization, and overall campaign ROI—ensuring your resources target the highest-impact areas for player growth and revenue.

1. Awareness & Reach Metrics

Impressions: Total ad or promotional content displays indicate campaign visibility. High impressions with low engagement may suggest issues with targeting or creative relevance.
Reach: Unique users exposed to your ads; vital for understanding true audience size and avoiding ad fatigue through oversaturation.
Cost per Mille (CPM): Cost per 1,000 impressions benchmarks ad spend efficiency; essential for optimizing budgets against competitive industry rates.

2. Engagement KPIs

Click-Through Rate (CTR): Percentage of users clicking your ads reflects ad creativity and targeting relevance. Track CTR closely to detect messaging effectiveness.
Social Media Engagement: Likes, shares, comments, and mentions drive organic buzz. Use sentiment analysis tools and platforms like Zigpoll to measure community enthusiasm and gather real-time player feedback.
Video Views & Completion Rate: Beyond views, completion rates measure how compelling your trailers or gameplay teasers are—low completion indicates a need for tighter, more engaging content.

3. Acquisition Metrics

Cost per Install (CPI): Key paid user acquisition metric. Benchmark CPI against customer Lifetime Value (LTV) to ensure profitable growth strategies.
Install Conversion Rate: Percentage of ad clickers who complete installation; low rates warrant reviewing app store assets and install flows.
Quality of Installs: Measure early retention, session lengths, and in-app behaviors post-install to distinguish high-value players from low-quality users.

4. Retention & Post-Install Engagement

Day 1, 7, and 30 Retention Rates: Track these retention cohorts to understand player stickiness and long-term engagement drivers.
Average Session Length: Indicates depth of player engagement per session; analyze alongside frequency for full context.
DAU/MAU Ratio: The ratio of Daily Active Users to Monthly Active Users measures “stickiness” and ongoing player interest; a ratio above 20% signals strong engagement.

5. Monetization KPIs

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): Tracks average revenue generated per player over a given timeframe.
Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU): Focuses on spend from paying players to understand monetization effectiveness within your paying segment.
Conversion Rate to Paying Users: Percentage of users making at least one in-app purchase; combined with ARPU and ARPPU, this reveals the health of your monetization funnel.
In-App Purchase Frequency & Spend Levels: Identify player spending behaviors to tailor targeted promotions and optimize offers.

6. Virality & Referral Metrics

Viral Coefficient: Measures organic growth via player sharing and invitations; a coefficient above 1 indicates exponential referral-driven growth.
Share & Invite Rates: Frequency of players sharing or inviting friends helps track social proof and advocate engagement; incentivize and tag referrers for accurate tracking.

7. Community & Feedback KPIs

Player Sentiment & Net Promoter Score (NPS): Use platforms like Zigpoll to collect qualitative feedback directly from players, complementing quantitative KPIs and guiding marketing adjustments.
Support Ticket Volume & Resolution Time: Track support demand and response efficiency to identify product or communication issues early.

8. Campaign Efficiency & ROI Metrics

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Measures revenue generated per dollar spent on ads; crucial for budget prioritization and overall campaign success assessment.
Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): Estimates total revenue per user over their engagement lifecycle, helping validate or adjust acquisition budgets relative to CPI.
Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) & Funnel Conversion Rates: For influencer or press outreach, track qualified leads converting into active promotion or user acquisition.

9. Cross-Channel Attribution & Multi-Touch KPIs

Assisted Conversions: Quantify conversions influenced by channels earlier in the funnel, not just last-click, for accurate channel value attribution.
Multi-Touch Attribution Models: Adopt data-driven models to allocate conversion credit across all touchpoints, providing a holistic view of marketing impact and player journey optimization.

10. Post-Launch Growth & Optimization Indicators

Content Engagement: Monitor participation in in-game events, updates, and community campaigns to ensure sustained player interest.
Churn Rate: The percentage of players ceasing play post-install; high churn flags retention or satisfaction challenges requiring intervention.
User Segmentation & Cohort Analysis: Analyze KPIs by demographics, platforms, and user behavior cohorts to tailor marketing efforts and improve campaign precision.

Leveraging Real-Time Player Feedback for Optimized Campaigns

Integrate real-time polling and surveys with tools like Zigpoll to gather player preferences, pain points, and feature requests. Combining these qualitative insights with your quantitative KPIs offers a 360-degree view of campaign performance, enabling data-driven adjustments to messaging and game features for maximum player acquisition and retention.

Final Thoughts: KPIs as a Strategic Compass

Tracking and analyzing these KPIs empowers growth marketers to measure authentic campaign impact beyond surface-level metrics. Balancing acquisition costs, engagement depth, retention quality, and monetization efficiency is essential to sustaining successful game launches in today’s competitive market.

For enhanced marketing analytics, integrating advanced survey platforms such as Zigpoll can unlock direct player voice data, fueling smarter marketing decisions and stronger player relationships.

Optimize your marketing campaigns by mastering these KPIs and leverage data-driven insights to drive growth, player loyalty, and revenue for every new game launch."