How to do game marketing?

Hi guys,

I recently dropped out from a full time job with very good payment package to enter a startup in developing mobile games (iOS and Android). We have some potential ideas to turn into good games, coding is not a big deal as we can handle and outsource if needed. The biggest issue causing us headache is marketing. Our game will be globally available.

We're just a small team and so is the marketing budget. We cannot afford paid media since it's like to water a desert by a can of water. For owned media, we have a web with forum, a FB page, Twitter account, YouTube channel. All those are new and lack of traffic. We can do ASO (AppStore Optimization), product review, create a trailer,... But I think that's not enough.

Do you have further suggestions? I do appreciate your help.

Really guys? No one here to discuss about game marketing. Maybe you guys care about game playing only :)

@tubingo: I have a few thoughts, but in a few days because I'm pretty sick right now and don't feel like I'm up to typing out a bunch of paragraphs at the moment.

you need to map out who your audience is

@MirkoS77: Sorry to hear that you're sick. Stay at rest till you feel good.

@The_Last_Ride: Yes, of course. I mean the online tools/channels here to approach prospective players. I'm asking for game marketing tips in general because our portfolio will cover several categories.

Social media, youtube, do interviews, release gameplay, show the game off, etc. There's lots you can do

Could always go the- Be John Romero's bitch route

@tubingo:

I'd used Google ads if I were in your situation.

Otherwise is to find a partner with a portal such as app of Iphone and wish to do the frontpage.

Of course having a fb and a g+ and a website is a good idea.

well it seems there is two style :

1- the Sony Microsoft style
2- the Nintendo style

the first style is about pretty graphics, cinematic and sometimes with a hit song and ... you know nothing about the game. Nintendo games are about the gameplay with a silly music or some people randomly having fun with the game.

Hey... I'm an online media buyer. For mobile, if you want fast results you will have to spend money unfortunately. I would use Facebook ads CPI until you get about 500 installs. After that if you have proper sharing buttons in game your game can go viral.

@meathead373: Can you be more specific on that?

@Coco_pierrot: I think good UI but poor gameplay will soon kick users away. Of course, stunning UI is a big plus. What you shared was just about game production, I'm stuck in marketing, buddy.

@amekhov: Thanks. I guessed you meant the kickstart. I've been mulling over Google GDN, FB, game cross marketing. What channel do you think is the most efficient?

@MirkoS77: HI there, Are you better now? You have any idea to share?

@tubingo: A good friend of mine is the marketing manager for NA for Gameloft - It's a real hard job to do, especially if your budget is very low (obviously Gameloft has a high budget) so I wish you the best of luck. These companies spend millions on marketing for a reason and if they thought there was a way to do it cheaper, they most certainly would.

The only other way to mass market your game on a very low budget is to bring out the next Fez / Angry Birds / PvZ and so on and gain mass appeal in a viral way etc but as you know, there is no formula to success.

Your cheapest option is Facebook marketing.

@tubingo: Well, I responded what I see everytime I see a pub about a video games. There is two style of publicity for video games right now.

the sony Microsoft style which were the publicity is more about the atmosphere and the pretty graphics and you don't know anything about the game and most of the time it is pretty much like E3, prerendered animation that people drool over but is nothing compare to the actual game.

Nintendo publicity is more about either having a familly having fun around a game or they show actual gameplay with a silly music that get stuck in your head ... see Splatoon.

I know I'm no help but it is pretty much what it is right now. I see that many game deveopper are active on Facebook and twitter to promote their stuff. Sometimes they do contest around the game. They record YouTube video of people playing it to make it more fun than it is and post them on Facebook etc.

@seanh: Thank you for your viewpoints. I know even big name like Angry Birds spends tens of millions, too. Most individual developers have little or no budgets on marketing. I recently focus on ASO instead.

@Coco_pierrot: Oh, I got your point now. Sorry for misunderstanding you before. For the way Microsoft or Nintendo is doing, that's trailers/teasers and they head into different psycho-based marketing strategies. I heard a lot on using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, too.

@tubingo: That was the marketing for his game Daikatana, ment it more in jest

@amekhov: Hi there. I'm thinking about buying some ads from Facebook and Google. My ad is for a new game and the ad will directly take users to the app stores. What kind of ad do you think will be more efficient (I mean click ROI)? There are several types of ads offered by FB and the GDN by Google. As before, I noticed that FB allows us to choose many user characteristics to shape up our target audience. Like what they do? Where they live? What are their hobbies?.... But now we can choose region and interest only. That would build a vague audience.

Thank you in advance

Hey @tubingo

Sounds like you're pretty serious about it. Your professionalism and attitude is a good start.

It's abit of a tricky one, although I am not in the game industry, I work in a product design consultancy. We have been getting alot of marketing software enquiries since App-based products are becoming a thing and sometimes we file a commercialization plan for them.

Alot of developers are probably in the same position. While they have a huge install base and are quite easy to get software on them, Android, iOS and Steam are really competitive for the amount of smaller developers putting out content on these platforms. Curation for trying to stick out of the pack can be rough.

You of course need a good/interesting/gimmicky product first and foremost - if your game is great or hits the right market, people will talk about it through word of mouth: creating content generation without much (or any) resources on your end; it could be as simple as a reddit post made by you, a thread about it from someone that played it, a tweet, a shared screenshot. Media of all sorts wants content to engage in viewers/readers and it may not even be paid. As for Facebook? I'm not too confident that it's all that viable of a place when it comes to foster external game promotion, as a prerequisite, you have to have people 'Like' or join something to even deliver advertising content to them. Facebook is very insular by nature when it comes to anything that's outside of interpersonal and local communication, in my opinion.

And with that brings up modern 'Free Media'. I am talking about Youtube channels, most of whom are willing to cover your game as it benefits them with content for their channel - you get the promotion, they cover the game in whatever mode that attracts viewers to their channel that brings them hits. There are plenty of youtubers curating coverage for games out there and i bet that if you have a good game that they AND their audience will like, they'll love the ability to have a first/exclusive look at the game. I cant really recommend you any Youtubers, there are plenty that will guarantee 10k+ viewers to a game made on a similar scope to yours and this can run parallel across multiple youtube channels. It may sounds easy, but It may require abit of research on your end to find the right youtubers and youtube audience for your game.

You also have startup gaming sites that are small and trying to do their own thing through written content or video, who are more than willing to do interviews, previews etc provided that they see you have a product that catches their interest for a story piece, or maybe even just a piece about you if you have an interesting background story to tell about the development of the game and what it's like. Most of these people are doing it as a combined passion in games and writing so they'll likely offer free coverage if the game interests them.

Then you have Twitch streamers who can generate alot of buzz for your game. It is abit more specific to certain games (your game has to be fun to watch), but there have been a number of games that have blown up for different reasons because some popular twitch streamer stumbled upon a game and streamed it.

I think you may be overestimating how costly it is to advertise your game. I've seen several small games that have had a little advertisement, not on a place like Gamespot of course, but other smaller videogame publications. But personally, I dont bother clicking them and i can almost guarantee that a good number of gamers are a little savvy and have installed adblock already for their browser.

Finally, a good attitude, professionalism and company image goes a long way. Good will and transparency to an audience is very much highly appreciated in fostering support for your game. The gaming 'community' can be a cruel mistress, one wrong move (like offering paid promotions to a youtuber, a filing of a copyright claim or one of you not being able to take criticism) and it can turn really sour and have gamers not wanting to support your game and bad press can spread like wildfire. But If there is something that gamers love, it's the insight, transparency, modesty and connection to the people that makes content for the hobby they enjoy.

Good luck and I hope all this helps.

@illmatic87: Hi there. Thanks for sharing great points. I'm sorry for being late. I submitted a reply days ago but for some reason, it disappeared.

I think you have a great mindset on game marketing even though you came from another field. Actually, I have a YouTube channel, a website with community tool integrated. I also tried creating game videos and shared on YouTube, I carefully dealt with keywords and ASO tips. After all, things have not been really bright. I ascribed all that to game concept. Imagine you have a game with a so-so gameplay idea, now you handle it to some Vlogger. I guess the Vlogger will assuredly hesitate on making a viral video with respect to the game because the gameplay concept is not interesting enough to go viral. In marketing, we call that " millions of dollars cannot save a bad idea". I think I'll have to invest more on game ideas. Anyway, all you shared are just great and every developer should count on them.