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Mobile games account for a whopping 48% of revenue for gaming in 2022, and this trend is expected to continue well into the next decade. Mobile gaming is a huge market thanks to a variety of factors, but the biggest challenge for it is marketing. A lucrative market means an incredibly competitive scene.
Today, we’ll be discussing the best strategies to use for marketing your mobile game. The surge of competitors can be overcome with strategic thinking, proper budgeting, and persistence. Mobile games are a very lucrative market, but standing out is crucial if you hope to make a profit off of the industry.
Optimize Your Platform
It’s important to have a launching point for your marketing campaign, and it starts with the platform you’re selling the game on. You can grab as many leads as you like, but it won’t matter if none of them decide to play the game. To ensure they give your game a chance, it’s important to optimize your store listing as well as SEO.
On the app store, make sure you have an eye-catching logo, concise descriptions of the gameplay features, testimonials upfront, and clear screenshots showcasing the best parts of gameplay. Make sure the keywords are present but not overwhelming. The player must follow your CTA by being as pleasing to them as possible.
Diversify Distribution Channels
Once you’ve got your main platform optimized, it's time to start distributing. It’s important not to put all your eggs in one basket. You never know which channels might be the ones your game blows up in. An account on every major social media platform is a must. For one thing, they’re all free, and secondly, some even come with business versions of their regular site.
For example, Facebook and Instagram are huge communities with dedicated marketing platforms for paid ads. Twitter is fantastic for engaging with the game’s players and getting an idea of what they want out of your idea. TikTok grew fast and is being used by brands for punchy viral campaigns.
It’s also important to learn when to extend a marketing campaign or just do it for a one-off event. Active partnerships are a huge investment, so one-offs are a great way to dip your toes without committing too much. If it’s a success, that’s when evergreen tactics can be used to keep yourself familiar with a specific community.
Utilize Targeted Advertising
Mobile games are a vast medium. There’s no ethical way to market your game to everybody, so you have to bunker down and pick a niche. A great way to find out who to target is by studying the demographics of games similar to yours. From there, it’s a matter of figuring out what your biggest demographic also likes to visit.
For example, if you’re a rhythm game developer, you’d want to buy ads to play specifically before a music video. A cooking game should be played before or even the sponsor of a cooking video on YouTube. Dress-up games should be played before a fashion video. Targeted ads help you find out the best way to finance your marketing campaign.
Video Ads
Video ads are a must for a mobile game marketing campaign. There’s no way for players to see if they’ll like a game’s gameplay unless they see it in action. That can’t be communicated with a screenshot or a description. Creative ads are a fantastic way to get your mobile game viral. For example, take a look at Raid: Shadow Legends' aggressively wacky marketing campaign.
While they certainly have a huge budget, the fundamentals are the same. They show off gameplay and promotional events but frame it with a genuinely entertaining video. An entertaining ad communicates to the audience that they genuinely care about the game. If they’re willing to put this much money into marketing, the game must be pretty good. That’s the idea you want to plant in people’s minds.
Analyze Your Marketing Data
Marketing campaigns need to be fast at adapting to current trends, and you can’t do that without hard data. Data is a crucial factor in staying organized while marketing. Metrics such as player retention, conversion, and the contrast between profit and marketing expenses are important to stay informed.
In the digital age, many marketers might get overwhelmed by information overload. Thankfully, there are plenty of apps out there that streamline the data-gathering process. Databases such as SQL and simple excel spreadsheets are fundamental to any marketing plan.
Conclusion
Whether it’s play-to-earn online games or free-to-play puzzle dungeons, it’s important to market them in a clever and cost-efficient manner. Where possible, always defer to experts in the industry and take their advice to heart. Mobile games are a thankfully growing market, so there are still tons of new things to learn. It’s just a matter of knowing your priorities and keeping yourself open to change.
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