5 answers
Jack
Student
Elk River, Minnesota
3
Questions
Asked
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How do I advertise my games once I have made them?
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5 answers
Benjamin Caraballo
Consulting
2
Answers
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Updated
Benjamin’s Answer
Start small! Post on your social media accounts to start spreading the word to your friends and family. You can also consider reaching out to local newspapers or perhaps your school newspaper if it has one; they might pick up a story about a local game designer.
Stephen Ramirtha
People Manager
18
Answers
Scottsdale, Arizona
Updated
Stephen’s Answer
To add on to Benjamin's answer, I recommend figuring out your main selling points for the game. Is the gameplay a novel take on an old favorite like platformers or RPGs? Is the soundtrack and graphics amazing? Is there a ton of replayability and hidden secrets? Once you establish your main selling points (think three would be a solid number), look at other video game trailers and take note on how they splice their gameplay together to tell a story. From there, you can use your own gameplay to highlight the three main selling points. This will give you plenty of content to use on your social media accounts to promote the game.
Identify the game's main selling point (three is a solid number)
Collect gameplay footage that highlights those selling points
Watch gameplay trailers to understand how to highlight your selling points
Edit a few trailers of your own using your gameplay footage
Schedule them on your social media pages
Stephen recommends the following next steps:
Wowie! Thanks! What other steps should I take if any?
Jack
I think from a promotion standpoint, as people comment on your posts, answer them back and see if there are common questions they have (I'd imagine like release date would be one of them). Of course you don't want to spoil your full game, but if there are questions or things your audience gets excited about, you can plan like a release date announcement trailer!
Stephen Ramirtha
Ani Grey
Senior Business Program Manager
2
Answers
Redmond, Washington
Updated
Ani’s Answer
Building upon the insights provided by Benjamin and Stephen, it's crucial to pay attention to your gaming community. What aspects of your game do they enjoy, and what areas do they believe could be improved? Are there glitches that require fixing? Is there a need to revamp certain gameplay elements? While the allure of launching a game and swiftly transitioning to a new project can be strong, the distinction between a decent game and an exceptional one lies in the developer's commitment to continuously refine, modify, and enhance their game, guided by the feedback from their players.
Patrick McNulty
Sales Manager
1
Answer
Shoreline, Washington
Updated
Patrick’s Answer
If you have a method to generate revenue from your game through in-app purchases and a basic business strategy in place (including profit and loss calculations and a plan for income generation), here's a step-by-step guide to enhance your business:
1. Start by raising $5,000 for advertising expenses.
2. Refer to this article for insights: https://sensortower.com/blog/state-of-mobile-game-advertising-report-2021.
3. Identify your target audience or the perfect customer profile.
4. Utilize an advertising network like Admob. Allocate $500 to $1000 as a trial budget to reach your target group of players over a few days.
5. Swiftly shift more funds into the best-performing ad group.
Once you notice a surge in player engagement at the initial stage of your game (the top of your funnel), it's time to optimize in-app purchases and user journey. Look for high bounce rates or choke points. This will ensure that as you increase the number of new users, you can swiftly guide them through the game and promote various aspects of your experience.
1. Start by raising $5,000 for advertising expenses.
2. Refer to this article for insights: https://sensortower.com/blog/state-of-mobile-game-advertising-report-2021.
3. Identify your target audience or the perfect customer profile.
4. Utilize an advertising network like Admob. Allocate $500 to $1000 as a trial budget to reach your target group of players over a few days.
5. Swiftly shift more funds into the best-performing ad group.
Once you notice a surge in player engagement at the initial stage of your game (the top of your funnel), it's time to optimize in-app purchases and user journey. Look for high bounce rates or choke points. This will ensure that as you increase the number of new users, you can swiftly guide them through the game and promote various aspects of your experience.
Dan Abend
Consultant
3
Answers
New York, New York
Updated
Dan’s Answer
Hi Jack,
In addition to the responses above, I would suggest you take the first step of identifying the right core audience for your game. It will help make the above steps more effective!
The simple way of doing this is even just thinking about it - ultimately, who is your game best suited for? If you had to picture the person who is most likely to buy this game, who are they? What other things do they really like to do? What things do they not like to buy? Where do they live / where do they spend their time?
A more effective path would be to get some real data on this. You don't have to do anything too fancy! Make a survey using Google Forms or another free site and list out some initial questions on age, demographics, geography, gaming habits (are they casual gamers, first time gamers, e-sports enthusiasts, etc.), how they game, what platforms they use, what gaming (or relevant) communities they're a part of, and more. Then, present a few sentences that describe the concept of your game and ask them a few questions about it on a numerical (e.g., 1-10) scale. How interested in it are they from the description? How likely would they be to try it? To buy it for $XX? etc. Then call out some specific elements of the game (e.g., the gameplay, the storyline, the world building, the social/community aspect, whatever applies!) and ask them to rank which is most appealing to them.
From either of these, now you have a sense of 1) who is most likely to buy your game 2) what they like to do / where they spend their time / what channels (like social media, gaming websites) they engage on 3) who is most likely to NOT buy your game 3) the same information as #2 but about your unlikely customers.
Those who fall into point 1 are your "core" customers. The more time you spend learning about and defining this group of people, the more effective all of your marketing will be! Ultimately, you want to create and present a product that is "perfect" for this group. If you do, that's called product-market fit and you'll be off and running towards a success. You'll always have a core group to build off of.
Now, start your marketing using the steps provided by answers above, but focus it towards your defined core! This will save you a LOT of time, money, and energy and help make smarter decisions that will ultimately be more effective. For example, where should you start advertising? Answer: where your core says they spend their time! What should you focus your marketing communications / advertising on? Answer: the elements that resonated most with your core! You can even feed some of their characteristics you gathered into the advertising engines on popular platforms like Instagram and ensure your message is reaching the right people if you choose to do any digital advertising.
Ultimately, if you build a core following correctly through that marketing, you'll have enough people that should hopefully really like your game. Now, tap into them to share their excitement by being advocates. This is called grassroots marketing. Encourage them to share the word on forums and sites, incentivize them with free in-game perks or other bonus opportunities for every post they make or better yet, every new sale they can generate from word of mouth. If you find any that really love your game and who are super enthusiastic, you can even use them in your advertising!
There's of course more to do to keep the momentum, but if you put in the effort to define your core and then plug and play some of the suggested steps from other, you'll be on your way to launching a success!
In addition to the responses above, I would suggest you take the first step of identifying the right core audience for your game. It will help make the above steps more effective!
The simple way of doing this is even just thinking about it - ultimately, who is your game best suited for? If you had to picture the person who is most likely to buy this game, who are they? What other things do they really like to do? What things do they not like to buy? Where do they live / where do they spend their time?
A more effective path would be to get some real data on this. You don't have to do anything too fancy! Make a survey using Google Forms or another free site and list out some initial questions on age, demographics, geography, gaming habits (are they casual gamers, first time gamers, e-sports enthusiasts, etc.), how they game, what platforms they use, what gaming (or relevant) communities they're a part of, and more. Then, present a few sentences that describe the concept of your game and ask them a few questions about it on a numerical (e.g., 1-10) scale. How interested in it are they from the description? How likely would they be to try it? To buy it for $XX? etc. Then call out some specific elements of the game (e.g., the gameplay, the storyline, the world building, the social/community aspect, whatever applies!) and ask them to rank which is most appealing to them.
From either of these, now you have a sense of 1) who is most likely to buy your game 2) what they like to do / where they spend their time / what channels (like social media, gaming websites) they engage on 3) who is most likely to NOT buy your game 3) the same information as #2 but about your unlikely customers.
Those who fall into point 1 are your "core" customers. The more time you spend learning about and defining this group of people, the more effective all of your marketing will be! Ultimately, you want to create and present a product that is "perfect" for this group. If you do, that's called product-market fit and you'll be off and running towards a success. You'll always have a core group to build off of.
Now, start your marketing using the steps provided by answers above, but focus it towards your defined core! This will save you a LOT of time, money, and energy and help make smarter decisions that will ultimately be more effective. For example, where should you start advertising? Answer: where your core says they spend their time! What should you focus your marketing communications / advertising on? Answer: the elements that resonated most with your core! You can even feed some of their characteristics you gathered into the advertising engines on popular platforms like Instagram and ensure your message is reaching the right people if you choose to do any digital advertising.
Ultimately, if you build a core following correctly through that marketing, you'll have enough people that should hopefully really like your game. Now, tap into them to share their excitement by being advocates. This is called grassroots marketing. Encourage them to share the word on forums and sites, incentivize them with free in-game perks or other bonus opportunities for every post they make or better yet, every new sale they can generate from word of mouth. If you find any that really love your game and who are super enthusiastic, you can even use them in your advertising!
There's of course more to do to keep the momentum, but if you put in the effort to define your core and then plug and play some of the suggested steps from other, you'll be on your way to launching a success!