GTM Sauce

B2C · preschool play app

How Sago Mini World grows

4 tactics and 3 figures from 1 interview.

About Sago Mini World

What it is
Flagship entertainment subscription app, a 'digital playground' for preschoolers
Who it's for
Parents of 3-4 year olds
Business model
subscription with free experience

As described in the interviews, not independently verified.

Sago Mini World's 4 tactics

Sago Mini · B2C · preschool app studio

Send players of your older apps to your main subscription app
About 1M installs in a year; filled part of the gap left by lost ad channels

After iOS 14 cut kids apps off from Meta and Google UAC, Sago Mini turned its back catalog of older apps into a lead-generation channel for its flagship subscription app, Sago Mini World, alongside first-party CRM cross-promotion between its products.

Workedportfolioproduct-virality
Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2023-01-25

Sago Mini World · B2C · preschool play app

Advertise inside free kids games that match your age group
Surprisingly good on iOS; weak on Google Play, especially for the learning app

Run ads on game ad networks (Unity Ads, IronSource, AppLovin) in placements inside free-to-play apps that are close in experience and age demographic to Sago Mini. Gameplay trailers excite kids for the entertainment app. Focus spend on iOS.

Mixedpaid-social
Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2023-01-25

Sago Mini School · B2C · preschool learning app

Aim ads for the learning app at parents and ads for the play app at kids
Shifting further toward parents for the learning app; no numbers

For the entertainment app (Sago Mini World), gameplay-trailer ads that excite the kid. For the educational app (Sago Mini School), which needs upfront buy-in from parents, ads are geared toward parents, and spend is indexing further toward parent marketing over time.

Unknownpaid-socialpositioning-niche
Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2023-01-25

Sago Mini World · B2C · preschool play app

Add a character creator and more customization so older kids keep playing
Guest calls it a major step; no numbers

Core age for Sago Mini World is 3-4, so a kid acquired at 4-5 retains 12 months at most. Rather than acquiring 5-6 year olds, the team adds features to stay relevant to existing players as they turn five: a character creator and more personalization and customization.

Unknownretentionfeature-development
Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2023-01-25

Sago Mini World by the numbers

MetricValueContextSaid in
paying users100K subscribers
approximate
Active subscribers reached before any account system existed (~2.5 years without one)Sub Club by RevenueCat
2023-01-257:32
downloads1M installs/year
approximate
Installs of Sago Mini World driven by cross-promotion from Sago Mini's back catalog of apps in 2022Sub Club by RevenueCat
2023-01-2529:03
retention12 months
illustrative
Maximum possible retention for a kid acquired at age 4-5 given the 3-4 core age rangeSub Club by RevenueCat
2023-01-2544:25

Topics

Personalization in onboarding and paywalls1Running a portfolio of apps1App virality and word of mouth1Ad creative and creative testing1App retention and churn1Picking a niche and positioning an app1

Interviews