Gamification in Financial Apps: Unlocking New Opportunities for Growth and Engagement

Gamification in banking is a part of so many digital growth strategies that it is now seen more as an ultimate way to enhance customer engagement. Interactive software solutions possess the competitive leverage needed in a crowded fintech market, bringing new innovative ways to optimize already well-functioning segments. It sets a new set of expectations for customers, and now they seek faster but, more importantly, engaging solutions. 

According to Finances Online, the conversion rate of companies that use gamification reached over 700%. Gamification has been used in learning, training, customer service, onboarding, banking operations, and many other aspects of the digital finance market. So, the gamification market continues to expand with a market CAGR of 17%.

In this article, I will focus on the benefits gamified applications bring to financial institutions and the most successful banking gamification examples. So, let’s find out how to implement entertaining elements into everyday routine tasks in any financial institution.

What is Gamification in Banking

First, let’s get straight to the definition of gamification. Gamification is a strategy of implementing game-like components into non-gaming platforms. 

Generally, gamification in fintech has great potential to increase revenue, customer engagement, and customer acquisition. It can produce over a 45% increase in sales margins, and its market size is currently expected to reach 48.72 USD billion by 2028. The popularity of fintech gamification apps is being actively proven by companies willing to bet on it. 

So, with the gamification app meaning removed, let’s find out the value of gamification in the finance domain. It can increase revenues, customer retention rates, and other benefits that I will cover in the next paragraph.

The Benefits of Gamification for Banking Apps

As we’ve mentioned before, the many benefits of gamification financial services revolve around engagement and revenue growth. 

Overall, gamification can do a lot for your business, yet it is an investment that needs resources, including monetary ones. Is it worth it for your business? Let’s look at the benefits: 

1. Drive up customer acquisition. Gamification is entertaining and builds up a sense of competitiveness in the user base. This would drive them to use the app more often and recommend it to their social networks. Even big companies like AliExpress from Alibaba gamified certain elements of their interface and features to enhance customer acquisition.
2. Enhance customer satisfaction and retention. Gamification financial services show immediate progress from completing simple tasks. This overall contributes to customer satisfaction and, as a result, makes your audience more active. For example, gamified websites get a 29% increase in customer activity.
3. Enhance revenue generation. More active customers and an improved customer acquisition process will increase the business’s revenue. Users are more likely to get invested in unique and groundbreaking solutions that function fast. Gamification, real-time payments, and robo-advisors can be these solutions.
4. Lower marketing expenses. Gamification can lower marketing costs by enabling users to spread the word about your product on their social media accounts. One of the biggest examples of this in real life is the referral programs of applications like Revolut and Wise. They offer bonuses for inviting a user via the share link, and it launches a totally self-sufficient marketing chain.
5. Differentiate your financial app from competitors. Unique elements such as gamification badges or mascots contribute to the brand development strategy, and interesting features like gamified tracking systems make your app recognizable.

However, gamification isn’t exclusively about customers; it also concerns employees. According to Review 42, 72% of surveyed employees stated that gamification motivates them to work harder. Incorporating gaming elements into the routine, like internal currencies or long-service bonuses, can achieve higher employee efficiency. Overall, according to TalentLMS, over 87% of employees feel more socially connected if the game elements are included in their workflow. 

As the above-mentioned benefits come into play, you’ll have a unique way to become not only a recognizable but also a preferred company for your customers. And now, if you have an idea of how to improve your business with such a strategy, you need to know how to implement it. 

5 Best Business Practices for Gamification Adoption in Financial Institutions

I’ve worked with digital-first banking long enough to understand that sometimes even the best products need competitive leverage. So, gamification in banking can definitely help you become not only more recognizable and efficient but also more successful and profitable. There are several ways to integrate gamification into your business. In this paragraph, I will talk about the most effective and easy-to-do ones.

#1 Streak-based reward system 

The notion of streaks stands behind the simple game’s success. It works simple enough: a player has to log in systematically or perform banking transactions every day without breaking the streak, and then the game rewards the player for consistency and loyalty. A streak-based reward system can be the first gamification in banking practice you incorporate into your workflow, capturing the attention of your customers and making them log in or perform other desired tasks systematically.

One of the banking gamification examples, Fortune City, places an emphasis on the gaming element, using streak-based rewards for building a city with users’ activity. Fortune City is a budgeting app that allows users to track their spending. Different expenses users generate different types of buildings and integrate them into the city that users are building. 

This interactive idea makes Fortune City increasingly interesting for users, enabling them to track their spending just by casting a look at the app’s interface. It has over 1M downloads in mobile app stores and a 4.5 stars rating. 

When to implement: this feature would work best for companies seeking to improve customer engagement. Streak-based reward system would enhance customer retention rate and upscale impressions, making users enticed to use the application over and over again.

#2 Referrals and Shares 

Award users for sharing your application with their friends or showcasing it on social media. This would help your app to go on track for self-promotion and become a crucial addition to marketing campaigns. To drive even more success to such campaigns, consider rewards for the sharing experience. You could give users coupons, unique awards, or even real money after their referral goes through the onboarding process.

When to implement: this strategy can be efficient for companies that are seeking to implement self-sufficient marketing and can be added as an additional aid for marketing strategy. Main goal for this method is to drive more people to use the application, hence the perfect time to implement it is when you’re launching marketing campaigns.

#3 Progress Bars and Leader Boards

Competition is a good motivator for users. Creating a leaderboard and progress bars would do two great things for your app and for your users: show immediate progress to boost satisfaction levels and create a sense of urgency and competition. This would drive your users to choose your banking app, among others, and prompt the internal inkling to win. One of the most famous examples of gamified applications in fintech is Revolut. They utilize the leaderboard method. The platform rewards users with points they can accumulate by making payments and transferring funds. The points are later compared to other users and posed into a leaderboard with a possibility for Revolut’s customers to win real monetary rewards.

When to implement: this feature would prove to be productive for fintech that have the need to enhance customer engagement and impressions. The sense of competition and community would imply to users that they can achieve more by using your app more, so the ideal time for it is post-production to close the need to drive more downloads.

#4 Badges 

Badges can be unique and personalized, allowing users to build their own interface/avatar/mascot within the gamified application. It would give them a sense of control over the application and their own account, enabling the curiosity to explore more and get more rewards in the end. You can also allow users to share their achievements on social media, enabling self-sufficient promo campaigns. 

One of the gamification examples in fintech, this time specifically in banking, is Ukrainian challenger bank Monobank. It has the same functionality as any brick-and-mortar bank, including debit and credit card issuing, multi-currency transactions, customer onboarding, etc. However, it is a full challenger without any physical branches. 

Taking into account their target audience’s needs, Monobank implemented badges for people of this age group. The badges are used to make payments and transactions in the app. The badges also enable users to customize their “avatar,” Monobank’s mascot, which looks like a white cat wearing different clothing. The clothes depend on the rewards the user gets. Users get a task to complete payments in a certain amount of time, and for this, they get rewards. 

Monobank also utilizes mini-games. There is a hidden game in the Challenger Bank app. If a user updates the page with their bank account balance, a small rocket will fly from the bottom of the screen. If one presses on the rocket, it launches a Space Invader game. The point of the game is to catch orange cats and deflect red missiles. Some of these games are aimed at raising charity funds and helping different organizations, such as pet shelters and refugee centers. 

Currently, Monobank has 8M users and is used by every 10th Ukrainian. After successfully conquering the Ukrainian market, the bank launched its Poland-oriented department, Stereo by Mono.

When to implement: badges can make your business more recognizable for the users, as it creates a sense of customization and uniqueness. If your goal is to make your application memorable, there is nothing better for it in the gamification world than badges.

#5 Rewards and Celebrations 

Rewards would show users that the banking application is ready to deliver real bonuses for their achievements. Referral bonuses are the most popular ones, but you can add hidden games and issue small rewards for them, implement a saving system that rounds up the saving account a few cents every year, and these small details would make your users stay.

Celebrations are also important to make the user base feel validated. It would be nice to issue a special badge or any small reward for the most loyal ones who stay with the app for years. 

When to implement: this business strategy would help you achieve customer retention, as it is aimed at rewarding those who stay the longest. It would be best for established businesses that need to reduce customer churn.

Tips for Gamification Adoption

The adoption of gamification in banking and financial planning should be seamless and not feel reckless or forced. Certain features might work well for your unique case, while others won’t deliver the desired effect. I have compiled a list of tips that have helped my clients or other people I know in this paragraph.

1. Define your target audience and what motivates them;
2. Conduct research and analyze user data;
3. Identify business goals and set realistic KPIs;
4. Gather feedback and stay agile about changes; 
5. Don’t dive head first into gamification; add small features and analyze their performance. 
6. Take a risk to achieve better results. Don’t repeat what has been done before you; do something unique!

Gamification is a business strategy, so it should be treated as one. Create a business plan and a roadmap to follow when implementing it, set realistic goals, do financial management, and track your progress at every step.

How to Implement Gamification in Banking: Step-by-Step Guide

1. Gather data on your current performance metrics and identify areas where gamification could improve them. These might include metrics such as user engagement, conversion rates, customer satisfaction, or employee performance.
2. Research successful banking gamification examples and how they have achieved their business goals.
3. Plan the implementation and create a roadmap. Include specific features and mechanics that would be used and how they would be integrated with existing systems and processes.
4. Estimate the costs of implementing gamification and the potential return on investment (ROI). Take into account tangible benefits (such as increased revenue) and intangible benefits (such as improved customer loyalty).
5. Address any objections or concerns that your executive team may have about gamification. 
6. Mitigate potential risks and challenges of incorporating gamification in your financial app. These include risks associated with security, regulatory compliance, and ethical competition. Ensure that you provide the necessary steps to secure data, comply with regulations, and prompt healthy competition.
7. Be ready to change. As with any strategy, gamification requires flexibility and change, so you should be ready to act upon the feedback your business receives. Do A/B testing as much as possible to ensure that your solution works as intended. 

Methods of Gamification in Fintech

If you are looking forward to reaping the benefits of fintech gamification, choose the right method for gamification in banking. It would greatly impact the way your users perceive your app and the overall effectiveness of the strategy. 

Loss aversion

This method effectively interacts with the fear of losing. People are afraid to lose a whole lot of things, from bonus points to earned progress. This might motivate them to take the desired actions and use your gamification app more often.

Mystery box

Leave some space for curiosity and surprises. Secret games or puzzles will make your users want to explore the app. Hidden messages and surprises intrigue people, and this is a great way to engage your audience.

Scarcity and limited-time offers

Both scarcity and limited-time offers prompt the feeling of urgency. One of the most well-known methods is a spin-the-wheel game that gives users time-limited bonuses and only a few minutes to play it. 

Fair competition

Competition is a factor that often increases gamification’s effectiveness due to its ability to show immediate progress. Whether it’s a progress bar, leaderboard, or limited rewards, these motivate users to use the gamified application more often to achieve better results. 

Challenges

Challenges in fintech gamification could be related to the personalized experience of every user. The gamified application can propose to someone who spends a lot on a certain item group to abstain from it for a certain time and reward them with a cashback on the favorite item group for completing the challenge. 

Customization

It’s important to allow users the needed self-expression. Gamification in banks can use limited versions of physical or digital card designs only available for certain achievements. This would create personalization combined with the reward system, which would be effective in enhancing customer retention rates. 

Key Thoughts

So, as profitable as gamification is, it is important to know how to implement it and how to measure its effectiveness, just like with any other new strategy. And despite game mechanics having the greatest potential to attract new customers to your fintech company, you still need a reliable technical partner to go through this update.

If you have any doubts, hesitations, or questions – contact DashDevs and cast them all away. We can provide you with a consultation to help you figure out what you need and how to get it.