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scottmuleweb · 2 years

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Quick User Acquisition Tips to Start Testing Today

Max Mikhedov is User Acquisition Lead at Easybrain, a mobile game developer with more than 750,000,000 downloads. Max has 10+ years of experience developing and promoting products in different markets such as mobile games, fintech, automobile and consumer electronics.

Read Max’s blog in Russian here.

It’s natural to be afraid to start something new. We might be scared of failure, or we might feel that we lack the right investments and resources. But even when conditions are less than ideal, there are exciting opportunities that are worth testing—and you will never know what works unless you try.

I apply this idea to both my work and my personal life. In my user acquisition career, I have tested plenty of new traffic sources, types of campaigns and approaches to creatives. To be successful, you have to test widely and consistently to find what will boost performance. In this article, I explore best practices for testing that drives performance.

1. Learn What’s New on the Market

Always keep an eye on what’s new on the market. Look at the latest trends, analyze competitors’ campaigns & creatives and dive into similar markets. This will help you stay on top of upcoming trends and what’s popular with audiences. To keep informed about the latest developments in the industry, I recommend the following:

Attend industry conferences—both offline and online

Stay in touch with other marketing professionals through organizations and events such as Liftoff’s Mobile Lunch Club.

Subscribe to the newsletters of companies that are thought leaders in topics like traffic sources, creatives producers and analytical systems.

2. Analyze Performance Early On

There are many opportunities to test. Start by trying a new campaign or creative type with your current partner instead of launching a new traffic source. In my experience, new types of campaigns (optimized for retention, event or ROAS) tend to improve performance faster than completely new sources. Keep an open mind, but I wouldn’t recommend testing something new just for the sake of testing. Before implementing a new test, you should always consider the potential value that testing will bring.

3. Choose What To Test Wisely

When a channel is new, it means that only a limited number of companies on the market have tried it. On the one hand, embracing the new can mean a performance boost while your competitors are still hesitating. On the other hand, trying a new channel means adopting something that hasn’t been proven as a reliable source of traffic by the majority of the market. I would encourage you to examine your figures closely early on. If you see that your ARPU or ROAS figures are much lower than expected, you might reconsider how much to invest in a particular test.

To sum up, test regularly. As a rule, I would recommend investing 5-10% of your resources into finding new opportunities and testing them.

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scottmuleweb · 2 years

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Part 2: Mastering YouTube Influencer Marketing for Mobile Apps

Alexander Ruban is User Acquisition Lead at Product Madness, a leader in social casino apps. Alexander started his UA career at popular mobile gaming companies like Pixonic and Wargaming. He quickly became a team lead who worked in ad networks, influencer marketing and ad tech projects. Before moving to Product Madness (and London!), Alexander was Chief Marketing Officer at a startup inside Mail.ru. Currently, Alexander leads a team at Product Madness that covers programmatic advertising, influencer marketing, App Store Optimization (ASO) and Apple Search Ads (ASA).

Learn more about Mobile Hero Alexander.

This is the second part of a two-part blog series where I walk through setting up your first YouTube influencer marketing campaign, analyzing the results, and scaling. You can read part one of the series here where I explain how influencer marketing can help app marketers reach new audiences, essential questions to ask when working with an agency, and the first steps to building a media plan.

Now that you understand the value of influencer marketing, let’s explore how to navigate a YouTube influencer marketing campaign.

Learning Phase

Imagine you are launching a campaign in a new user acquisition (UA) channel. Before you decide to continue or pause, you must pass the learning phase. In this phase, you stabilize performance to understand what works for your product and what doesn’t. The difference between traditional UA and influencer marketing is the manual work of all the learning phases and optimizations.

Traditional UA provides device-level targeting, which allows us to test campaigns quickly. You can set up a campaign focused on ROAS, engagements and retention. The algorithms then learn which users to target and optimize towards them. There is also real-time access to all users through one platform. For example, in a ROAS targeted campaign in GoogleAds, you instantly send ad impressions to all available inventory on the platform. The campaign works 24/7 until you pause it. For traditional UA, the combination of these two advantages unlocks fast learnings for campaigns.

With influencer marketing, you don’t have these privileges. You can’t target devices or user profiles. You can’t conduct A/B tests since you can’t split the targeting audience within one influencer campaign. There is also no option to optimize the campaign on the fly or to pause. You’re out of luck then, right? Wrong. Let’s take a look at an influencer media plan and what we can do.

With expected views and prices, you can forecast the number of app installs. As a reference, use the average Install Rate (IR defines the conversion from impression to install) from broadly targeted UA campaigns. Since you don’t know what works with an influencer’s audience, the IR from broad campaigns is a good starting point.

Make Well-informed Decisions Based on Other Assumptions

Step 1. Install forecast Install estimation formula:

[Expected views] x [Expected Install Rate] = [Expected number of installs]

Step 2. CPI forecast Once you have the expected number of installs, estimate the CPI.

[Priced] / [Expected Installs] = [Expected CPI]

Step 3. ROI forecast Just kidding—you can’t do it now.

Step 4. Apply estimations to each YouTube influencer in the media plan.

Step 5. Compare estimated CPI with the average CPI from broader UA campaigns. Here you begin to see a complete picture of what to expect from your first YouTube influencer marketing campaign. If you notice any costly channels, eliminate them from the media plan.

Fight Chaos to Make Estimates Accurate

It’s not a smart move to judge performance with small sample sizes. Plus, performance varies based on channel characteristics and your creative strategy. Your estimations won’t be accurate on the first try, but don’t worry—this is the learning phase. At this stage, you need to acquire sufficient data to see what performs and doesn’t. To minimize “estimation error,” I suggest the following.

Work with more influencers. Test five to ten YouTube influencers per channel category and get a glimpse of long-term potential (or if you need to stop working with one!)

Segment your media plan according to the channel categories. Then launch five to seven influencers in each channel category to see how they perform.

Use a creative brief for all channel categories, which ensures that influencers will deliver the same message. You don’t need to create a strict brief—allow the influencers to “influence” the audience with their personality. The only thing you need to watch out for and keep cohesive is the core message and CTA across all campaigns.

Remember, the goal of your first YouTube influencer marketing campaign is not to achieve ROAS targets or estimated installs. It is to set up a starting point—see what works and how to improve.

Analyze the Forecast

After your first campaign is over, analyze how accurate estimations were and build a new prediction model. Pointers and questions I keep in mind after an influencer marketing campaign finishes include:

Analyze the overall conversion rate. What was the overall CPI? Install Rate?

Analyze the performance per category. Which ones performed best and worst?

What categories drove the most volume and revenue?

Did your campaign cause an uplift in organic installs? Can you detect it and attribute it to influencer marketing activity?

Scaling and Beyond

Here comes the exciting part, scaling. Continue to test new formats and categories. Once you have reliable data per channel category, use the average install rate and post-install metrics to estimate the future success of activities within each channel category. For newer campaigns, you will know what channel types perform best for your app.

Improve subsequent campaign estimations with previous data from prior campaigns. Here is an example of how the estimation formula slightly changes:

[Expected number of installs] x [Average install rate in category] = [Expected CPI per category]

The more data per channel category, the more accurate the overall forecast will be. To combat outliers and “estimation error,” increase the sample size of influencers launched per category. This provides a more accurate average metric to use for future campaigns. Once you have a reliable sample size per channel category, the forecast accuracy increases.

Bonus: Creatives

There are excellent influencers and lousy influencers. Some will create customized content, while others will bluntly follow the brief without improving your message.

An excellent creative example comes from Crypt on YouTube, where he promotes a social casino gaming app through a rap! He followed the brief but put extra effort into making the advertising unique. I wish all integrations were like this, but these tactics require more preparation time, making it less scalable.

There are some cases where it is okay when an influencer strictly follows the ad integration brief. The script supports the creators if they struggle to add a “personal touch” to the ad integration. A unified brief becomes beneficial when you launch over twenty influencers—it is less time-consuming for the creative review process.

My main takeaway with influencer content/creatives is to control conversion rates through the ad integration brief. Once conversion rates stabilize, work on brief improvements that will increase the performance of influencer marketing campaigns.

Closing Remarks

Be ready to learn and adapt. There is a lot of manual work in the learning phase and optimization of YouTube influencer marketing campaigns. When done correctly, you will have reliable data for future campaigns. Here’s my closing advice:

Categorize all influencers’ YouTube channels by genre.

Collect data after each campaign.

Rely on average conversions per genre/category to forecast the average performance for each influencer and group of influencers within the segment.

Calculate the Lifetime Value (LTV) of each category to see which performed and what to test next time.

Use a reliable sample size and refrain from making assumptions based on small sample sizes. The more campaigns you run, the more accurate your forecasting and results become. The more historical data you have, the more dependable your forecast will be.

Extra tips on how to continue scaling YouTube influencer marketing campaigns:

Use different briefs for each of your targeting segments. For example, if you have ten influencers in the humor category, add more jokes and fun gameplay to the brief in ways that align with the creators’ styles.

Consistently improve your forecast model with historical data.

Launch multiple influencers in each category to avoid performance fluctuations and focus on overall performance.

Verify forecasts with actual results and improve them from one campaign to the next.

In case you missed it, here’s part one of this blog series. In it, I share insights on reaching new audiences through influencers, questions to ask when working with an agency, and the steps to building an influencer marketing media plan.

The post Part 2: Mastering YouTube Influencer Marketing for Mobile Apps appeared first on Liftoff.

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scottmuleweb · 2 years

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Making of Iron Harvest: Perfect Asymmetry in Level Design (Part 1/3)

How to create balanced Multiplayer Levels without mirroring everything.

One of the most important parts of every competitive multiplayer game is the right balancing. Countless hours are poured into making sure that no player has an unfair advantage. This becomes much harder if you talk about an RTS with several factions made up of countless units, instead of singular characters or classes. If those RTS factions also happen to be asymmetric themselves, with, among other things, different damage and range values for even the most basic units, things get even more complicated.And that’s just the characters and units. Often forgotten in these discussions are the levels themselves that have to be balanced as well. Arguably, this is somewhat understandable, after all, there is an easy solution: Just mirror it! Keep it symmetrical, either along the horizontal or vertical middle line or around the central point and that’s it! By being symmetrical, your map is guaranteed to be balanced and fair as long as your units and factions are also balanced and fair.

And while this does work very well, and there are countless games I could list here that follow this approach, it just comes with one major weakness: Those perfectly mirrored maps? They are perfectly mirrored. So much so that they often feel obviously artificial and, for the lack of a better term, “gamey”. This can be somewhat hidden with a good art direction, and, if your game places less of an emphasis on immersion or environmental narrative, even ignored in favour of competitive maps.

But with Iron Harvest, a real-time strategy game set in an alternate Europe of the 1920s, we had the added problem that we very much wanted our maps to feel like real places with real purposes.

This had been one of our guiding principles long before we really started getting into creating maps for the Multiplayer Mode of our game, and already shaped several maps of our campaign: Everything needed to have a purpose. From a gameplay perspective, but from a narrative one as well, every building needed to have a reason to exist in the way and form it existed in; every part of cover needed to have some explanation for its position behind it.

While quite arduous, this process helped give our maps an incredible atmosphere and it would have felt weird to abandon and ignore it for our multiplayer maps completely.

To add in another complication, we realized during some early tests that the mirroring of levels can be surprisingly difficult if your tools and your engine are not specifically set up for this.

And while entirely asymmetrical maps were technically an option, we did not consider ourselves up for such a challenge this early on in the project, especially since most of us did have little to no experience in this specific kind of multiplayer map design.

So here is how we managed to create balanced and fair multiplayer maps without them feeling artificial and being to obviously mirrored.

Giving the fact that we had never done an RTS before and we are all standing on the shoulders of giants, we analysed Company of Heroes 1 & 2 maps extensively and tried to figure out what makes them work.

Picking apart the Past Considering our lack of experience, we started looking into some of the greats in RTS history for hints on how they solved similar problems.

In the end, we found our answer while studying the original Company of Heroes. Similar to Iron Harvest, Company of Heroes has a setting very close to reality, and as a result, very few of its maps are perfectly symmetrical. It also is still beloved among fans even today and has a very passionate map-making and modding scene.

We spent considerable time studying those communities, both to collect data about their preferred maps and annoyances but also to look at their tools and guides for map-making. We also experimented with the official Editor for Company of Heroes, which in turn allowed us to study its maps in much greater detail without the restrictions or distractions of live gameplay.

And this is also how we found out how they solved our current problem in an equally simple yet brilliant manner: The maps were still mirrored and symmetrical. Except that this symmetry was restricted to elements with a clear gameplay purpose only. Most other elements were placed much more loosely. Additionally, they used different versions of gameplay elements that looked wildly different from each other but were identical in function at opposing locations. As a final touch, they did not measure their symmetry with a ruler, mirrored elements as it turns out, were often not perfectly mirrored after all, with a meter or two and some degrees of a discrepancy between both objects being the norm.

Proof that this worked was the simple fact that we hadn’t been able to see this without the use of the editor tools. Looking at maps just from a zoomed in gameplay perspective or a small stylized minimap full of icons this simple fact was never apparent. Only after we started using the Editor and gained the ability to zoom out and look at these maps as a whole, we started seeing the patterns.

Asymmetric Factions Already a difficult task in itself, the balancing of the Multiplayer maps for Iron Harvest was further complicated by Asymmetric Factions: Factions whose base units have different values and whose advanced units are completely different from each other, all with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. The biggest difficulty was range. Each faction’s infantry units ended up with a different range in which they could attack enemies. This complicated our first attempts to place cover in a balanced way, as each faction benefited from different distances to other cover or important Points of Interest. The solution turned out to be less cover, not more: Factions with lower ranges also had higher damage values and benefitted from direct fights without using cover for themselves, so instead of trying to offer good cover for everyone, only to see some factions never use it, we reduced cover to make room for more aggressive strategies.

Parts 2 and 3 of this article as well as further “Making of Iron Harvest” articles will follow soon!

Magnus Brauckhoff Game & Level Designer

Magnus wanted to learn how to create games from a young age. After finally finishing his Bachelor’s Degree in Game Design in 2017, he moved to Bremen and started working as a Level Designer on Iron Harvest at KING Art Games. Having released the first big game he was part of, he is already eager to see what comes next.

The post Making of Iron Harvest: Perfect Asymmetry in Level Design (Part 1/3) appeared first on Making Games.

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scottmuleweb · 2 years

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Out Now! Liftoff’s 2021 Social Casino Gaming Apps Report Is Here

Social distancing measures worldwide paved the way for social casino games to rise in popularity–and revenues. In the U.S., where the pandemic pushed almost 1,000 casinos to close their doors, social casino titles hit the jackpot, according to market research firm Statista. Total global gross gaming revenue (GGR) of the social casino segment amounted to $6.2 billion in 2020. It forecasts this figure will increase to $7.5 billion by 2026.

Top titles in this genre can win big. Statista reckons the average value of a social casino in-app purchase comes in at roughly $11.92. That’s almost 2x the amount players in other genres spend on IAP. No wonder social casino towers “among the top-grossing mobile gaming genres worldwide.”

But winning big spenders is bound to get harder in the next 12 months. The market is seeing increased movement—and competition—as traditional gambling and casino companies enter the market. Fortunately, marketing isn’t a game of chance. Marketers can harness market data to inform longer-term strategies and campaigns to turn every session into an opportunity to drive usage and boost loyalty. They can also experiment with game mechanics and features to provide players perks and bonuses that deepen engagement and drive in-app purchases.

That’s where this report uniquely provides insights to help social casino companies optimize campaigns and product. Liftoff draws from 83 billion impressions and 12 million installs to deliver ad performance insights alongside GameRefinery, who share unique feature data and metrics to show how marketers can get the most out of their games. Download your free copy of the report now!

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY NOW

You can also read the report in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish.

Report highlights include:

Liftoff’s signature cost and ROAS data

GameRefinery’s proprietary Motivation Framework analysis

A granular view of the competitive Social Casino landscape

App feature insights to power your next innovation

Real insights from Mobile Heroes and industry insiders

The post Out Now! Liftoff’s 2021 Social Casino Gaming Apps Report Is Here appeared first on Liftoff.

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scottmuleweb · 2 years

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Winner Takes All: An Expert’s Strategies For Social Casino Success

Social Casino games are booming, but Apple’s privacy push threatens the health of the market. To continue to grow, marketers have had to learn new ways to reach users. No one knows this better than Saikala Sultanova, Senior Director of UA & Growth at Product Madness. We spoke to Saikala about the current challenges the industry faces. She shares her take on the Social Casino landscape in 2021, the impact of iOS 14.5 on the industry, and how to make the most of your creatives.

How have events over the past year affected Social Casino games?

The past 12 months have been a critical time for us, with preparations for iOS 14.5 taking up most of our bandwidth. Now that the updates are live, we’re working on further improvements.

There are a few reasons why we’re always adapting. For example, one short-term challenge we didn’t expect was that everyone tried to move some of their iOS budget to Android. Obviously, the increase in demand impacted Android performance. It meant we needed to recalibrate our spend on Android too.

iOS 14.5 wasn’t the only unique difficulty. Covid-19 also created new challenges and opportunities. We saw immense growth in revenue, but a softer growth in our user base. This is because user behavior changed. Many people now work from home and spend more time on their phones. They are more likely than before to reopen apps they have already installed. But this also means that finding new users is much harder even if players are more engaged. That’s what most of us are experiencing in the gaming industry.

Have there been any surprises from iOS 14.5 since launch?

I think the biggest difference for everyone is getting used to SKAN and figuring out how to maximize the output from conversion values. I don’t know of any company that has nailed it just yet. There are still a number of limitations we have to work through. Three that come to mind are:

Limited post-install data. With conversion values being set as they are, you can track far fewer events than before.

Changes to conversion window reporting. The recommended window is no longer than 24 hours. This severely shortens the length of conversions we can track.

With no official documentation on its criteria, Apple’s ‘privacy threshold’ further limits the data we receive.

How have Apple’s changes affected your work, in particular?

Let’s be honest. We’re animals of habit. User acquisition managers are used to laser targeting and retargeting. We’ve grown accustomed to knowing how our users behave every step of the way. We track users from play session length to how they convert down the funnel. This isn’t to say we won’t get used to new methods, but it will take a little time.

A key point of focus is how we view our user base now. We view our iOS new users as blended, both organic and paid. That’s because there’s no way for us to accurately identify and separate which install is paid and which is organic. SKAN only provides delayed aggregated data, so it has become difficult to optimize. But it’s now universal, and we’re learning to operate better in this new world.

Has your approach to creative production changed in 2021?

We try to look beyond shapes, sizes, formats, etc. In our operations with programmatic partners, we create and submit all aspects of an ad. There’s no need to focus too closely on a single creative element.

When we do need a creative concept, we make a full set of everything so we can push the same creative concept at the same time on all channels.

Before we get to a concept though, we test different iterations. If it’s something completely new, we test to see if it works. If there are signs of life and we want to put it into the main mix, we can do that after we identify the winners.

Are there any secrets you’re working on?

Right now we’re trying to improve the first two or three seconds of our video assets. Regardless of whether it’s an interactive or a normal video, we need to fine-tune the first few seconds to make it even more engaging.

We don’t necessarily want people to tap an ad straight away and download our game. But we do want to grab the attention of a potential user with a story and showcase the features of the game.

Big wins and mega wins always work. But we are trying to diversify the ways through which we get to the big wins. We begin with something that grabs attention, then we go into game features, and we close with interactive end cards.

Admittedly, it’s harder to build a narrative or storyline with slots apps, but it is possible. This is an area we’re working on with our internal and external creative teams. We’re creating a variety of assets, from full-blown TV creatives to pure performance ads.

Are spammy ads a topic of discussion when formulating ad creatives?

They used to be. They were popular with hyper-casual games mainly. These were the main users and abusers of misleading ads. But it seems to have gone out of fashion.

Advertisers are trying to step up their game by making high-quality creatives. Stories are important because there’s so much content and media out there. Our users are changing, but just as importantly, their mobile devices are changing as well. More people have high-quality devices that allow them to consume high-quality content.

Do all these aspects make app production feel like a rat race for product and UA teams?

For the product team, it’s business as usual. For marketing creatives, it is an added cost, and it’s quite labor-intensive. But there are ways of outsourcing some part of the ad production and then resizing in-house, or vice-versa. There are different production structures that people practice to make it work. Basically it comes down to this: you have this budget and you ask yourself, “what can I do to get what I need?” Once you know, you need to be creative about getting the most bang for your buck.

If you were a marketer about to join a company that wanted to take its already successful game to the next level, what is the first thing you would do?

Let’s assume they have some budget and their game is in good shape. My recommendation would be to look at the target market and ask who they built the product for and how they are going to monetize.

Historically, casino games were consumed predominantly in the English language. There was no big need to localize them. But times have changed, and now there is an appetite in Asia, LATAM, and Europe—plenty of it. But it’s not just the content. You also need to localize the pricing and monetization mechanics because globally, consumers do not spend the same way they do in the US. IAP packages need to be different. CRM, Live-Ops, and offers need to be different. Think about the frequency of ads, the value, and the creatives.

If it is a company that has the luxury of being flexible, I’d recommend paying attention to localization. You can reach more countries, more people, and expand your business further than you even know.

Want to learn more about Social Casino games? Our latest report on the subgenre is now live and ready for you to download. Discover the trends behind this exciting game type and see how you can emulate some of the best features games are making the most of.

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scottmuleweb · 2 years

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Mobile Ad Fraud and the Impact on Finance Apps

Kirill Grigorev is Senior Marketing Manager at Dataduck, a creative publishing studio that delivers tailored service and works globally across multiple channels. Before joining Dataduck, Kirill worked as a lead designer for three years, developing banners, interstitials & other ad creatives. From 2017 on, Kirill has focused on user acquisition, ad creative optimization, and finding new media sources at Dataduck.

Read Kirill’s blog in Russian here.

Ad fraud evolves as rapidly as the marketing industry itself. As anti-fraud systems learn to prevent fraud schemes, scammers simply move on to new solutions that allow them to continue to reap profits.

Severe threats from a year ago now cause fewer damage thanks to successful blocking solutions such as anti-fraud systems built into MMPs. But old systems of fraud are already being replaced by new techniques that are more difficult to recognize.

In this post, I cover one of the most common fraud schemes in mobile marketing, its main indicators, and its impact on the performance of financial apps.

Attribution fraud

Attribution fraud is the most insidious type of fraud scheme in mobile marketing. It is difficult to recognize and equally difficult to assess its impact on a campaign. In this scheme, platforms attribute an organic conversion, or a conversion generated by a different source, to a fraudulent one.

Types of attribution fraud include Click Spamming and Click Injection (intercepting installs). Additionally, unscrupulous partners often increase the attribution window for tracking links. This allows them to generate more conversions. To prevent tampering, check your attribution windows regularly when working with a new partner.

Other times, the method is less obvious. For instance, a publisher may use a click URL to track impressions as well as clicks. The absence of clicks or clicks that outnumber impressions by a factor of 10 or 100 are possible indicators of malicious activity. But then again, not all partners have a technical base for tracking impressions. These indicators should only be used in conjunction with other indicators.

More advanced fraudsters mask click injection with forms of non-attribution fraud, i.e., fake installs. When this happens, abnormal metrics might neutralize each other, making their activities much harder to spot.

The Negative Impact of Attribution Fraud

Attribution fraud causes major harm to the marketing industry. Not only do companies suffer financial losses caused by overpaying for installs and post-install events that are organic, but they also suffer forms of indirect damage with far-reaching implications. Because these are harder to quantify, many advertisers underestimate the impact of fraud.

Indirect damage from attribution fraud (mainly click injection) affects the metrics of legitimate and high-quality traffic sources. If attribution fraud is widespread, legitimate traffic sources will attribute to fewer conversions, which lowers Installs per Mille (IPM). Sources of Cost Per Install (CPI) based purchases will receive fewer install event postbacks, and because the conversion rate has fallen, the algorithms will automatically decrease the ads’ display priority. When CPI is stable, the traffic volume via quality traffic sources still declines. This reduction can be considered indirect damage.

IronSource suggested a possible solution in its report “Monetization and UA benchmarks for mobile games in 2021.” It recommends tracking the total number of installs each time a new traffic source launches. If there is suspicion that already active sources are non-incremental, you can pause the campaign and see how the indicators change (Source).

Advertisers who attract users from many different traffic sources are highly vulnerable to attribution fraud. There are specific app categories where attribution fraud proves especially attractive for fraudsters—for instance, financial apps with relatively high CPIs and CPAs. If your product offers traditionally high payouts for installs or post-install events, it makes sense to monitor carefully the quality of the traffic sources you work with.

Recognizing Attribution Fraud

Abnormally high Assisted Installs combined with a low CR (click-to-install conversion rate) and anomalies within long CTIT (hours, days) may indicate Click Spamming. You can also look at the number of clicks per traffic source—abnormally high values may be a good indicator. With Click Injection, anomalies mainly occur in the first seconds of short CTITs, while CRs may sometimes be too high, too.

Latest Trends

Since mid-2021, Dataduck began encountering a new type of attribution fraud: Impression Flooding. This technique is very similar to Click Flooding but less effective due to its specific features. With MMPs, impressions often have a lower priority and a narrower attribution window than clicks, so the traffic received by this method is significantly smaller than through click flooding. We are currently investigating sources believed to be engaging in this type of fraud. We aim to develop an optimal strategy to minimize the negative impact of these sources on user attraction.

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scottmuleweb · 2 years

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PHP vs Python: Which One to Choose for Web Development?

Choosing the right programming language is very important for any development project. Nowadays, Python and PHP are two popular programming languages that most businesses like to use for web development projects.

When comparing these two, choosing one becomes a bit difficult. Although many websites are developed in PHP, Python has also becomes very popular in the last few years.

But, which programming language is right for your web app – Python or PHP? In this blog post, we will discuss the basics of the two languages and then will proceed to their comparison. So, let’s get started!

What is Python?

Python is an open-source programming language that aims at object-oriented programming concepts. Guido Van Rossum developed this language in 1991. Currently, it is one of the most extensively used languages, providing high-level, easy-to-understand syntax.

According to Stack Overflow Survey 2021, Python is one of the most wanted and loved languages. Many companies in the world use Python with their apps. It acts as a scripting language for web browsers, and thereby, you can use it for web app development.

What is PHP?

PHP or Hypertext Pre-processor is a suitable choice of programming language for web developers. It’s an open-source server scripting language that is used for creating engaging, user-driven website pages. PHP is the actual choice of language with some outstanding features, plugins, libraries, and add-ons to maximize colossal community support and functionalities.

Rasmus Lerdorf developed PHP or Personal Home Page in 1995. After that, it got its new name, i.e., PHP-Hypertext Pre-processor. Almost all web browsers support PHP and it is fantastic for the backend development of web apps.

PHP empowers almost every website on the web. It’s a flexible, pragmatic, and fast language that can tackle dynamic content on HTML websites, session tracking, and databases.

Features of Python

Python can run on different hardware platforms using the same user interface.

It is easy to read, learn, and maintain.

It provides a perfect structure and support for large programs.

Low-level modules are easy to include in the Python interpreter.

Python features the support for automatic garbage collection.

You can integrate Python with C, C++, and Java programming code.

Python provides high-level dynamic types of data and the support for dynamic type checking.

It assists in an interactive mode of testing and debugging.

Features of PHP

PHP is easier to employ and code than other scripting languages.

It supports different databases like MySQL and Oracle, and hence, provides database integration.

PHP gives access to log in by making a summary of the latest user accesses.

Compared to other scripting languages like JSP and ASP, PHP is more efficient.

It features a few predefined error reporting constants that create a warning or error notice.

Since PHP is an open-source language, you can download and use it for free.

Pros and Cons of Python

Here are the pros and cons of using Python programming language for web development:

Pros of Python

A general-purpose, object-oriented, and versatile language to employ across different fields

Features cross-platform code reusability

Easy to use, read, learn, and maintain

Features automatic garbage collection

Develops GUI apps

Can integrate easily with programming code of other languages like Java or C++

Has libraries like Tensorflow for math-intensive tasks

An open-source, uniformly unfolding language

Highly graphic and makes amateur favorable

WORA functionality makes it portable

Cons of Python

Not much useful in mobile computing, browsers, and mobile app development

It uses a massive amount of memory to offer ease to a developer

Works slower than other website development languages

Makes delays in the testing of web apps

Error detection becomes difficult due to dynamic typing

Gigantic for a simple and small app or website

Duck-typing causes run-time errors

A bit simpler for some specific tasks

Pros and Cons of PHP

Below are the top benefits and drawbacks of using PHP for web app development:

Pros of PHP

Sustains top-notch debugging

Features copious pluggable frameworks Open-source and object-oriented

Features a large ecosystem

Gives support for other database interfaces like No SQL, PostgreSQL, and so forth

Get supports from several operating systems and works cross-platform

Gives support for database collection modules

Flexible and platform-independent

PHP-based apps support all operating systems like Windows, Linux, and UNIX.

Features in-built SQL support

Many open-source PHP frameworks are available to use for free

Cons of PHP

Impeded and wired performance

You cannot change its core behavior

Uses weak typing that can lead to wrong knowledge and data to users

Not suitable for content-based apps

No IOT alliance

An inadequacy of security protocols and features

When to Choose Python?

Python programming language becomes more popular nowadays. Below are some of the cases when you should opt for Python:

Building websites utilizing the Django framework

Seeking deep data analytics

And working in areas like robotics and data science

When to Choose PHP?

PHP is a popular server-side scripting language among developers. Here are some cases when you can select PHP:

Less investment

Developing blogs, web applications, and websites

Working effectively on the server-side

Why Choose Python?

Python boasts many advantages, and thereby, it is these days’ technology. Here’s why you should select Python for web development:

Python eliminates the difficulty of coding and deals with garbage collection and memory addresses automatically.

Python syntax is quick to comprehend, and it’s easy to debug also. Hence, its source code is easier to maintain.

With a range of pre-built libraries, Python web development is easy.

Having a framework for the web, Python supports GUI apps. For instance, Django, WXPython, Tkinter, etc.

Since it’s a portable and versatile language, you can run Python on different operating systems or platforms.

Python considers a database-friendly interface that can store a massive. amount of data for essential commercial DBMS systems.

Python’s interactive shell aids unit testing before implementing a product.

Why Choose PHP?

Since PHP is a powerful programming language, we have some reasons to choose it:

It is open-source and free to download

It’s a scripting language that runs on different platforms like Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, and UNIX.

PHP is compatible with every server, such as IIS, Apaches, etc.

It is easy to learn and works effectively on the server side.

PHP supports a wide range of databases.

PHP vs Python: The Detailed Comparison

You get a detailed overview of the languages, their features, pros, and cons. Now here’s a PHP vs Python comparison based on different parameters!

A detailed comparison will help you decide the most appropriate language for use, how easy and efficient it is to work with and give the best result for your web development efforts.

Let’s start the cold war between Python and PHP!

1. Community Support

PHP and Python have excellent community support. Since PHP has been in the market for a long time for web app development, it has a large community of developers who can immediately offer support.

Here, Python matches with PHP closely. Since there are many Python developers who continuously building Python apps constantly, community support is excellent. So, none of them is a clear winner here.

2. Flexibility

Machine Learning powered web apps are in high demand these days. And ML is a significant point of Python also. Hence, Python provides excellent machine learning libraries, such as Pandas, Tensorflow, Theano, and Scikit-learn. These libraries are rapid, robust, and unique, and most significantly, they can perfectly function with a web framework.

Remember that Python is beneficial in several fields and not just in web development, whereas PHP is significant only when it comes to web development. So, here, Python scores more than PHP.

3. Ease of Use

Python is an open-source, portable, and versatile programming language that is easy to employ. Moreover, python syntax’s programming is also simple. Compared to PHP, coding is easier to grasp with Python.

PHP is not an ordinary programming language as it’s used only for designing dynamic website pages with HTML. It makes PHP less productive than Python. Hence, in terms of ease of use, Python triumphs over PHP.

4. Speed to Market

Python features a great set of third-party libraries, packages, and modules to finish a project quicker. For example, Django is one of the popular web frameworks written in Python. It drags the MVC pattern to enable developers to build apps fast using a great division of concerns and reusability.

PHP also boasts its set of tools, incorporating frameworks and libraries. For example, Laravel is the most famous PHP framework that accepts the MVC pattern and arrives pre-packaged with several helpful features for web development like templating, routing, authentication, and so forth.

5. Web Frameworks

Both PHP and Python provide powerful and well-designed web development frameworks. Many big companies use web frameworks that PHP offers. For instance, Symfony and Laravel are mature frameworks, and a large community supports them. Thereby, PHP makes web development easy.

Python also provides many extraordinary frameworks. The two most famous Python-based web frameworks are Flask and Django. These are highly scalable, fast, easy to use, and secure. Developers usually prefer Django over PHP-based frameworks to enjoy an easy setup and shorter development period.

6. Library Management

Python employs Pip for dealing with packages. Pip makes sure that Python app development is rapid, easy, and fulfills all development needs.

The library management of PHP is less potent than Python. Python has a broader assortment of packages and handy tools for easier web app development. Hence, Python is the clear winner here.

7. Security

In terms of security, Python is a preferred option for businesses. For example, Django boasts many pre-built security features that help safeguard the apps from different security threats. Moreover, different government entities also depend on Python as their secret hacking tool.

Although its robust community support has addressed most of the security problems, PHP is less robust than Python in terms of security. Therefore, Python triumphs over PHP at this point.

8. Environment Management

Python has been the best programming language when it comes to handling environments. Its Virtualenv system helps install different versions of the language and move among them immediately.

PHP cannot compete with Python in this matter. VirtPHP, an analog for PHP, is there, but it’s archived and not quite maintained. Hence, developers like to use containers with PHP. So, Python is a clear winner here.

9. Ease of Learning

Python is undoubtedly easier to learn. You can pick up this general-purpose programming language very quickly. It is easy to choose a programming course for beginners. Python programs are shorter and easy to write as compared to other languages.

On the other hand, PHP is made for sophisticated web apps, unlike stand-alone, simple programs. It is not a general-purpose language at all. Hence, it takes more time to learn PHP as compared to Python.

10. Debugging

PDB or Python Debugger is an in-built debugger of Python. It uses many debugging strategies. PDB features dynamic typing and allows developers to work effortlessly without announcing things straight at the beginning of a program.

PHP also provides an XDebug package for addressing bugs and error-checking the codes for developers. However, PHP development is significantly slower in discovering and removing bugs. Hence, it experiences many security problems.

Concluding Thoughts

Although both PHP and Python perform great in web development, Python triumphs over PHP in many points. However, this does not imply that you have to select Python and neglect PHP. Both PHP and Python are excellent programming languages for developing web apps.

At last, it largely depends on your project needs as well as your PHP or Python abilities, knowledge, and expertise when you are building your web apps.

FAQS About PHP vs Python

Why prefer Python over PHP?

There are many reasons to prefer Python over PHP for modern web app development like flexibility, security, high performance, easy to use, simple syntax, etc.

Which is more secure Python or PHP?

When it comes to security, Python is a preferred choice for businesses. It has many security features to develop complex apps. Where PHP has had a dreadful history when it comes to security.

What is Python mostly used for?

Python, a general-purpose programming language has a broader usage including web development, AI, ML, big data, mobile app development, game development, etc.

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