How would you increase the monetization of Farmville over and above the current features by 10-15%?
Meta- Pankaj Jain
How to answer this Facebook pm interview question:
Clarifying question:
I have never played Farmville, can I confirm that this is a game that is played on Facebook where the user creates and manages a farm? Yes, and mobile app
What are the current features? In-app purchases, ads? Both
When we talk about monetisation, is there a specific metric that we are trying to improve by 10-15%? You choose
1. Farmville’s mission is to entertain users by allowing them to create their own farm and sharing achievements with friends. This is the player’s little corner of the internet that they can control and be proud of. Escapism comes to mind, users come to Farmville to have fun.
2. Our goal here is to increase the monetisation of the game i.e. generate more revenue through the app. The metric that I believe makes sense to use here is gross revenue increase (i.e. excluding expenditures), and we want to increase gross revenue by 10-15%.
3. I want to explore various ways of achieving this goal and their pros/cons:
#OptionsOpportunity SizeImplementation CostUser Impact
| 1 | Increase the frequency of ads on the platform | H | L | H (negative, interrupts fun) |
| 2 | Increase the floor price of ads | L (advertising spending limited due to COVID-19) | L | L |
| 3 | Increase the price of coins that can be purchased through the app | M | L | H (might put off users from purchasing and playing) |
| 4 | Run an offer on coins: get more coins for less $ (increase volume of sales) | S (users may end up spending more than they intended because of the offer) | M | M |
| 5 | Add missions to win coins (advertising opportunity and can be joined with offer on coins if user loses the mission) | H (missions need to be developed) | H | H (engaging – user has a challenge to complete) |
| 6 | Sell merchandising | L (assumption is that there would be little interesting for a Farmville T-shirt or mug) | H | L |
| 7 | Pay to gain access to early-bird features | M | S | M (access to features that friends don’t yet have) |
| 8 | Monthly fee to remove ads from the game | M (needs to be priced appropriately but would also make ad placements rarer, driving bid inflation) | M | H (no ads means more playtime) |
| 9 | Marketplace: users can exchange virtual possessions and Farmville takes a cut (coins) | M (transaction fee needs to be small) | H | H (get rid of surplus and access unavailable supplies) |
4. Options 5 (missions), 8 (monthly subscription), 9 (marketplace) are the most interesting. New channels of revenue that would keep the user engaged in the game.
5. I will start with #8 given that the opportunity/cost trade-off appears to be more advantageous.
6. Before adding a new pricing model, I want to check whether players would be interested: user research to understand how many are willing to pay to get rid of ads and how much they are willing to pay then analyse whether the loss in revenue advertising is lower than the gain in monthly fees. Send notification to users when they login to play that an ad free version could become available to them and register their interest. Do A/B test on pricing to see how many register their interest based on the announced price.