Searching for an ultimate guide to mobile game marketing?
Look no further.
In this extensive article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to market your game including paid and organic user acquisition strategies. You’ll find tons of tips and examples for every stage of mobile game marketing. I’ve also included some useful mobile gaming statistics.
Let’s dive right in!
What is Mobile Game Marketing?
Put simply, mobile game marketing is the process of promoting your game to get more players and subsequently, earn more in revenue.
What Is the Best Way to Market a Game?
There are many different ways to market a game and get more users. The two most common paths are paid and organic mobile game marketing, each of which has its unique strategies.
Here’s what makes them different.
Paid marketing includes paid advertising campaigns on different ad networks. Organic mobile game marketing is a term that describes all free marketing strategies that can result in more users. For example, optimizing the app store, posting on social media, maintaining a website, etc.
A good mobile game marketing strategy includes both.
Paid Mobile Game Marketing
In order to market your game with paid advertising campaigns, there’s three things you need to master. You need to understand your target audience, come up with top-notch creatives, and learn how to run successful advertising campaigns on different ad networks.
Target Audience
The very basis of any marketing strategy is identifying and understanding your target audience. The same goes for marketing a mobile game.
Developers can’t simply target mobile gamers as a whole because that’s a very large and diverse group of people. One has to be much more specific than that.
Naturally, the target audience depends on the game genre, specific game features, and markets the game is available in.
Start narrowing down gamers according to their location, age, and gender, i.e., player demographics. For example, the main target audience could be 21-34-year-old female gamers from the US. You can choose several such groups to target.
However, knowing the age, gender, and location of your audience is just a starting point. Next, you need to figure out the type of gamers you want to attract, according to their motivations and interests.
Here’s how you do it.
Player Motivations
It helps if you write down the main characteristics of your game. For example, a simple-to-play casual match-3 puzzle game with design and décor meta elements. This alone tells you a lot about what type of gamers you should target.
In this case, it’s casual gamers, puzzle gamers, and gamers with interests in design and décor.
We can go even further.
The main things that motivate players to play a match-3 puzzle game are thinking, solving, exercising cognitive skills, passing time, relaxing, etc. Thus, you can target players with these specific interests.
Player Archetypes
According to player motivations, GameRefinery identified eight player archetypes. This can also help you narrow down your target audience as well as understand them better. It’s based on the aforementioned player motivations. Later in the article, you’ll see how useful this is when creating ads and running ad campaigns.
Here’s an overview of each player archetype.
Expressionist
For expressionists, it’s all about expressing their identity through customization, decoration, storytelling or role-playing.
King of the Hill
King of the Hill players are focused on competition and playing against others – this is what drives them when playing mobile games. They feel most satisfied when they outperform friends or random people and come out on top.
Networker
For Networkers, gaming is a social activity and working together with others towards a goal is what they enjoy the most. Co-op playing and community building are game features that will catch their attention.
Skill Master
When they play mobile games, Skill Masters are always trying to improve their skills and appreciate a steep learning curve.
Strategist
As the name implies, this type of gamer enjoys strategic thinking and planning in mobile games. Making the best out of available resources, planning, and executing tactical maneuvers is what they do best.
Thinker
Thinkers want to engage their minds while playing mobile games. Thus, they enjoy brain teasers, puzzles, and anything that will improve their cognitive skills.
Thrill Seeker
For Thrill Seekers, gaming is all about excitement and action. The adrenaline rush of a fast-paced game is what they enjoy the most.
Treasure Hunter
Exploration is the main motivation of Treasure Hunters – they want to learn what’s out there. Furthermore, they like to collect items and grow their collection of valuables.
Creative Production
Now that you understand how to identify your target audience, the next, and most important, step in a paid user acquisition strategy is creative production. It refers to creating ad creatives that will help you market your game.
For mobile games, video creatives work best and have the highest conversion rates.
Creatives need to be interesting enough and present the game in a good light to grab viewer’s attention and make them download the game.
The Process of Creating a Video Ad
The process of creating a video ad consists of market research, writing a script, and creative production.
Thus, the first step is to do some research and analyze competitors’ ads. You can do that on Facebook’s Ad Library or use intelligence platforms. Furthermore, try to identify creative trends for a particular genre.
By doing this, you’ll get a better sense of what works and what doesn’t. Remember, top publishers meticulously test every creative, so if it’s working for them, there’s a big chance something similar will work for your game as well.
Then you need to write a script. This consists of outlining each scene, as well as adding notes for editing.
Once that’s done, it’s time to actually make the video creative.
Here are some tips that will help you.
Tips for Creating High-Performing Ad Creatives for Mobile Games
- When writing the script, consider the game genre and features, as well as the target audience. Think about what would appeal to them based on their motivations and interests. Furthermore, take into account market research – if you identified an interesting creative trend, try it out.
- Do thorough research on your competitors’ ads and see what works, and what doesn’t. Also, you will gain inspiration and see new trends.
- Always include gameplay footage in ads – it makes it more authentic. However, make sure the scenes are edited in an exciting way – otherwise, they can get boring.
- User cinematic scenes sparingly and strategically (if you decide to use them at all). That way you avoid the risk of misleading players.
- Develop each creative around one game feature/player motivation. That allows you to target different groups of gamers based on their interests.
- Make the ads short and simple – 15 to 30 seconds is the sweet spot for mobile game ads. People’s attention spans are getting lower as we speak, so anything more than 30 seconds would be testing their limits.
- Start with a bang – video ad creatives should grab the viewer’s attention in the first few seconds. Otherwise, they’ll just keep scrolling and you’ll lose them. There are many ways you can go about it. Many ads start off with an exciting gameplay scene that gives them an adrenaline rush, others pose a challenge to the viewers to pull them in. You can split test different intros to find out what keeps viewers glued to their screens.
- To make the video creative more appealing, be smart about editing – it can make or break the ad. Furthermore, make sure to add music, sound effects, and captions where needed.
- Editing, other than the video itself, can also include editing your script. It is important to know where to draw a line. Yes, it can be hard to fit everything you want to show in 15 to 30 seconds, but keep editing until you’re left with the most important parts.
- It’s important that the tone and atmosphere of the video creative make sense with the game. For example, if you have a slow-paced puzzle game, the ad should have a relaxing and tranquil atmosphere. On the other hand, fast-paced creatives with fast-tempo music and tons of sound effects are more suitable for action games.
- Every video ad should end with a call to action. Whether it’s a simple “Play now” or something more customized, it directs viewers to download the game and start playing.
- Don’t think you can make a couple of ads and call it a day. Quite the contrary – your creative output needs to be high. Not only do you need to come up with many unique ideas, but also create many variations of each ad.
- Keep in mind that no matter how hard you try to make the perfect creative, you’ll never know what works if you don’t test it. Everything else is just guesswork. When you produce many ad variations, you can A/B test them and identify the top performers.
Examples of Top-Performing Mobile Game Creatives
Now that you know the basics of creating a video ad that converts, here’s how that looks in practice.
I’ve picked top-performing ads from popular mobile games and analyzed them to show you what makes a good creative.
The data source for these mobile game creatives is AppMagic, a leading mobile game intelligence platform. Get 3 days of free access to all AppMagic’s features, as well as 10% off, by clicking this link.
Lily’s Garden
What makes Lily’s Garden ads so unique and riveting is the fact that all of them tell a story. Lily is the game’s main character and a charming girl next door who faces many challenges and hardships. We see Lily go through breakups, pregnancy, weddings, steamy hot romance, sexual awakening, and much more. It’s like watching a reality TV show.
That’s what makes ads for this game so successful – people want to know what happens to Lily and can’t take their eyes off these ads. It shows you the power of a good narrative. It’s no wonder most match-3 and other casual games are incorporating storytelling elements.
Above, you can see an example of a classic Lily’s Garden ad.
The first 10 seconds of it are all about the storyline – Lily finds out her partner is cheating and now needs to find a way to keep herself and her baby warm in a mansion in ruins.
The ad then transitions into a mini-game where to goal is to get logs to the fireplace. The player is unsuccessful and Lily and her baby are left freezing.
This is a good example of how to incorporate several different mobile game marketing trends into one video – narrative elements, mini-games, and fails.
According to AppMagic, this is the top-performing Lily’s Garden video ad of all time.
Genshin Impact
Currently, this is the top-performing ad creative for the mega-popular RPG game Genshin Impact – it has more than 36 million impressions. What makes this ad unique and interesting is that it’s not the classic fast-paced, adrenalin-inducing mobile game video ad. Quite the contrary – this video creative is soothing and relaxing.
There’s a good reason for that. It targets a specific group of players – those who primarily play mobile games to chill out, relax, and explore open worlds. With serene gameplay scenes and meditative music, this Genshin Impact ad does a great job of attracting this player archetype. As someone who enjoys open-world RPGs for exactly those reasons – unwinding and enjoying the gorgeous scenery – I’m lured in by this ad.
Royal Match
Most of the top-performing video creatives for Royal Match are classic mini-game ads. I’ve included this one because it’s a bit different – it’s a good example of a simple influencer ad. According to AppMagic, this video creative has more than 32 million impressions.
The ad features Rick Hoffman from Suits going through various Royal Match’s features and benefits like no WiFi required, gorgeous graphics, smooth animations, etc.
Interestingly, this is a Cameo video which indicates this is probably a one-time thing and Rick Hoffman is not a long-term ambassador for Royal Match.
Furthermore, the ad is incredibly simple – there’s no gameplay footage or effects – just a selfie video and captions. This goes to show how effective influencer marketing for mobile games is – even the simplest influencer ad can make a big splash.
Project Makeover
In the first second of the ad, we see a young girl in a swimming suit. She has hairs all over her body, which is emphasized for shock value.
When the camera zooms in, we also see that her face is covered in pimples. And just like the girl in the previous video ad – she smells bad.
The first step in the makeover is the waxing of the armpit, which is unsuccessful and leaves her in so much pain.
The makeover continues with horrible black eyeliner, which makes the girl look even worse.
Looking like that, she approaches a guy on the beach who is shocked and rejects her.
All Project Makeover ads follow a similar formula – a girl who is not looking up to a certain standard is given a bad makeover and rejected by her crush.
Psychology tells us that people like watching fails, which is the starting point for these ads. If I could use one word to describe Project Makeover ads, it would be – schadenfreude.
Rise of Kingdoms
In order to instantly capture the viewer’s attention, the first few seconds of a video ad need to be catchy and out of the ordinary.
This Unity ad for RoK accomplishes just that. We see the popular Rise of Kingdoms mascot having his mugshot taken.
Ok, I’m interested. It’s a great video hook.
The character tells us his story – he starts as a criminal. After he’s been left stranded on a desert island, he begins collecting resources, expanding the island, and building a city. In other words, he ends up extremely successful despite his initial hardship.
It’s a dramatic story about overcoming adversity.
There are a couple of things I want to unpack here.
Notice that the ad tells a dramatized emotional story about this character. Moreover, he has a distinct personality. When I watch the ad, I feel connected to him and I want to see him win. That’s exactly the point of this ad – to get people invested in the story. It targets gamers who love narratives in games.
Furthermore, this ad is all about starting over and using your creativity to accomplish something outstanding. Thus, it speaks to gamers whose main motivations are creativity, resilience, beating the odds, and building something from scratch.
Another thing I want to emphasize is that this ad, just like most other Rise of Kingdom ads, is all about cinematics and not gameplay scenes. I rarely saw any actual gameplay footage in RoK ads.
This is tricky.
Yes, cinematic scenes look infinitely cooler than gameplay footage. That can result in more users. However, by using cinematics, you’re misrepresenting the game. That can result in players being disappointed once they download the game.
In other words, it’s risky not to include gameplay footage.
Homescapes
This is an example of a classic Homescapes mini-game ad everyone has seen. There are so many variations of it.
The premise is always the same – help a character avoid a catastrophe by moving the pins and solving the puzzle. The ads always end up with a fail, even though the puzzles are mind-numbingly simple. It most likely makes viewers think they’re smarter.
The only thing that changes from ad to ad is the puzzles.
League of Legends
The first 10 seconds of this 30-second video ad include high-production-value cinematic scenes. When I say high-production value, I truly mean it – the scenes look exquisite. This is the perfect way to hook viewers in right from the start. They depict an adrenaline-fueled fight between champions.
Then the creative transitions to gameplay footage, which is commendable. Many publishers opt for cinematics only, which tends to misrepresent the game.
Riot Games went a different way. While there are cool cinematic scenes at the beginning, there’s also gameplay footage that shows players what the game looks like. It’s refreshing to see.
The gameplay footage is equally exciting and demonstrates how fun MOBA games are. To finish off the ad, there’s a short scene depicting Jinx, looking badass with her weapon.
This ad has everything – cool cinematics, exciting gameplay footage, and an array of champions. It’s fast-paced, dynamic, and exhilarating – just like the game.
Paid Advertising Campaigns
Once you have done some research and have creatives ready, it’s time to start advertising on different ad networks.
To start, I recommend you go with Google and Facebook.
On Google, you’ll need to create a Universal App Campaign. It allows you to promote your game on different Google properties. What’s great about Google’s app campaigns is that you don’t need to design each individual app in a campaign. Google does that for you. All you need to do is upload your assets and set the language and location of the ad. Google then tests different asset combinations and ads that perform the best are served more often.
Simple, right?
On Facebook, I recommend that you go with Automated App Ads. What makes them different from manual app ads is that they require less input, just one ad and ad set per campaign, has machine learning adjustments, and dynamic creative testing. Furthermore, you can optimize for goals in an easier way and there’s a new optimization type called App Installs with Events.
You can also run Automated App Ads along with standard Facebook app ads. The basic strategy for this approach is to identify winning creatives and optimizations with standard campaigns and then run AAA to scale them.
Best Ad Networks for Acquiring Players
According to AppsFlyer’s most recent Performance Index, the top ad networks for acquiring high-quality players more likely to give you high retention are:
- Google Ads
- Unity Ads
- ironSource
- Mintegral
- AppLovin
- Vungle
- TikTok for Business
- SHAREit
Check out more ad networks for acquiring gamers here.
Organic Mobile Game Marketing
Along with paid user acquisition, you can also market a mobile game organically. Organic user acquisition is primarily the result of good app store optimization. However, publishers can also market their game by using content marketing strategies and influencer marketing.
In this section, I explain each one and give you some practical tips to get you started.
App Store Optimization
A well-optimized app store page can improve the visibility of a game on Apple and Google and thus bring many new users – for free. If the game is good enough, it might even end up on different lists or as an Editor’s Pick game, which is an additional boost. Plus, ASO supports paid user acquisition because people are sent to a game’s app store page after they click on an ad.
For those reasons, it’s worth your time to master app store optimization.
Here are the basics.
The main app store elements are the game title, icon, description, keywords, screenshots, and an app promo video. All of them work together to improve the visibility of your game as well as entice users to download your game.
Game Title
Here are some tips for choosing a title for your game. It’s best that it’s two to three words long. According to Appbot, this is found in most apps.
Make sure that the title is descriptive or at least creates an association with the game. You can even add some keywords.
Your title should reflect the style, theme, and of course, the story of your game.
Also, you can include some words that could showcase the genre of your game.
The genre might be important to certain players since some of them search for games similar to those that they already played and liked.
Of course, you don’t need to include the words “adventure”, “action” or “RPG” in your title. But, try to think of words that you associate with that genre and check out your competitor’s game titles.
Also, make sure that your title is unique, which also proves how important it is to do a thorough research of your competitors.
If you see that the name you’ve chosen is too common, try to change it because you might have issues with being found on Google.
But, don’t go too far with uniqueness, such as including special symbols. Even a simple + can make it difficult for people to find your game, especially with Google’s search algorithms.
Of course, you should also check the terms and conditions of the app store that you’ve chosen for your game. You don’t want your game to be removed because of inappropriate word choice.
Another suggestion for selecting good and relevant game titles is to pay attention to localization.
If you want your game to be popular worldwide, you should stick to English names, or words that are completely made up, but easy to pronounce. Good examples of this case are Pokémon, Roblox, both very popular franchises.
But, if you plan on conquering non-English speaking markets, you can localize your title and other ASO elements according to the languages of these particular countries.
Game Icon
Along with the game title, the game icon is one of the first things users see on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. That’s what makes it really important.
There are many icon styles you can choose from like cartoonish, anime, realistic, pixel/retro, etc. Some depict game characters or mascots, while others depict objects related to the game (e.g., slots, weapons, cars, dice).
All of that depends on the game genre and specific game features. For example, an icon trend for strategy games is to show a sideways portrait of a game character or a mascot (e.g., Clash of Clans, Lords Mobile). Many role-playing games also feature game characters.
When working on your game icon, make sure to do some research and explore what competitors in your genre are doing.
In the image above, you can see some of the current trends when it comes to style, objects, and colors. (GameRefinery)
Cartoonish and modern styles are the most popular, along with blue, grey, and brown colors. Most icons feature an animal/mascot character or a person (face/bust).
Description
In the description, you need to lay out what your game is about, its main features, updates, etc.
On Google Play, make sure to include relevant keywords as that can improve the game’s rank and visibility.
Keywords
On Apple, there’s a designated keyword field. Add features that describe your game, its functionalities, and features.
It also helps to do some keyword research beforehand and see which keywords your competitors are using.
App Promo Video
An app promo video is perhaps the most important app store element, especially when it comes to mobile games.
Why?
Well, because it’s in video form, it’s very immersive and has the power to give viewers a real taste of the gaming experience. Furthermore, an app promo video allows publishers to show off their game in the best light and demonstrate its best features.
All that tends to drive conversions.
Find out how to create the perfect app promo video here.
Screenshots
Images are another visual app store element, along with game icons and an app promo video. Their purpose is to illustrate the main game features. Make sure they’re nicely designed, follow your brand identity, and showcase the best aspects of your game.
Content Marketing
There’s also a lot you can do with content marketing. This includes posting on social media channels, getting featured in articles, and maintaining a website for the game.
Here are some tips for each one.
Website
Even though most users search for mobile games on app stores, some discover games through websites. That’s why it’s worth having one.
Furthermore, a website is a great place for displaying different information about the game that’s perhaps not available on the app store pages.
For example, many publishers post updates, behind-the-scenes footage of how the game was made, and even talks with developers on their website. That type of content not only attracts new players but engages existing players as well and creates a community around a game.
And, of course, you should also have the basic info on your website like a game trailer, explanations of different features, and App Store and Google Play links.
Social Media Channels
Another way to get the word out about your game is by posting on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Additionally, this can help you build a community.
By this, I don’t mean paid advertising campaigns I’ve talked about earlier, but simply posting interesting content.
For example, some developers post info about new updates, introduce characters, post user-generated content, talks with developers, etc. Basically, anything about the game that users might find interesting.
This encourages sharing and engagement, which is how other social media users might discover your game. Discord is another great place for engaging fans and building a community around your game.
Furthermore, it can be beneficial to post videos on YouTube and even stream on Twitch. However, for streaming platforms, it’s best to collaborate with influencers.
Influencer Marketing
Finally, let’s talk about mobile game influencer marketing. According to MediaKix, 90% of advertisers say ROI from influencer marketing is as good or better than other marketing channels.
The most viral mobile game influencer collaboration is the aforementioned Coin Master campaign which included celebrities like the Kardashians, J.Lo, and Cardi B.
Furthermore, esports are becoming more and more popular in the mobile gaming genre. There are many gamers streaming their favorite mobile games, and among them are a lot of influencers.
For example, Habby partnered up with PewDiePie for Archero. The famous influencer filmed himself playing Archero with his girlfriend.
Granted, smaller game studios might have the budget to hire someone like the Kardashians or PewDiePie. However, there are micro-influencers they can collaborate with.
Final Thoughts on Mobile Game Marketing
As you can see, there are countless ways to promote a mobile game and get new users. We advise that you try a mix of paid and organic user acquisition strategies for the best results.
Additionally, make sure to try different approaches and test everything – that’s the only surefire way to find out what’s working and what’s not.
If you need help with mobile game marketing, make sure to reach out – it’s what we do best!
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