I am thinking of spending one of those 3 sums advertising my next game when it is ready.
What would be the most cost effective way to drive downloads?
I was thinking for 250 maybe
$50 facebook for mobile installs iOS
$50 facebook for mobile installs andoird
$50 admob android target
$50 admob iOS target
$50 youtube trailer
I have had some suggestions I should focus on only 1 platform. I also have been suggested chartboost would be good. Finally I have also been told I am pretty much wasting my time for such a low amount and better just posting in forums and hoping (which I would do in addition to that.
I have zero experience with that sort of thing, but I have read accounts of devs who spent just a little on marketing and it’s typically just not effective enough to be worth it. There may be a minimum amount you have to spend to really get the word out in a significant way.
i think it really depends how and what your advertising dollars get you. figure out what seems right. theres different schemes based on clicks, views, days, etc…
I guess my goal is just enough to get people to play and then if it is good they will tell people. I just want to give people a chance to know it exists.
That’s much much too small to bother with. You would be better off spending $500 on the youtube trailer and hoping to get some exposure on a mobile gaming site.
For a paid game $50 would be lucky to get you ten installs (unless your game looks amazing and has wonderful copy). If you were very lucky you might get a few hundred installs for a free game. Even if your game was free and you spent the $500 in one hour on one platform you wouldn’t likely make a dent on the charts.
If your game is really viral and also really good you might want to try it, but if not I’d say spend your money elsewhere.
Do you have analytics? Social integration? If not spend it on some kits from the Asset Store to enable these things. How is your web site? Your trailer? etc
I’ve worked on several projects. Some of them got buried, some of them still earn reasonable amount.
Around jan 2013, i helped setting up a chartboost campaign with a small budget of 600 bucks. We payed about 50cents per install (minimum) over several weeks. It did get some initial exposure, yet i don’t think that we’ve recovered even a 100 from those. I am not saying that its not worth it, just that paying for ads is not a sure way to earn money, but its a right step towards gathering a user group.
More importantly, you should really focus on getting reviews. Make a press release, register the app on IGN/Gamespot etc, make a few ituneCard giveaways at TouchArcade for reviews, try to get into http://androidandme.com/tag/Android-gaming-weekly/ and androidPolice
Some app reviewers don’t even submit reviews without a good demo video. On android, you can also get a week long feature ad for just 10 bucks at Bam. (be careful though, they have a very loyal following, but brutal and smell bullsh1t from a mile away)
Get as much exposure as you can first, then focus on some specific ad network
I think you might as well take you money and burn it, then do a youtube video of you doing it. Maybe you would have better luck renting a booth at a convention or using that money to get a good sound track.
“A Steam code” and “A link to download the game for free” – just give your game away. Don’t ask if someone wants a code, or hide them away.
I think Mike Rose’s credentials run pretty deep (various editorial positions for sites like Indiegames, Gamasutra and Pocket Gamer) and his article is backed by survey results.
Not that it hurts to have these things said clearly.
I am looking at this generally but I feel I made mistakes on my first game and want to improve on my second. The links in my sig for the work in progress is the next game.
I will implement fb/twitter for high scores (I am hoping i can give a small ingame reward for posting to fb or twitter.
Game advertising is a subject I am very interested in. If done right I think it can allow a game developer to control his destiny rather than hope for blog reviews and Apple features. But I think you need a long term plan plus a fair amount of money, time, and analytics to get it right.
The market is mature enough that the price of advertising has reached an equilibrium so that it is just high enough/low enough to barely make it effective. The larger companies/publishers make it work by leveraging every ounce of value from a player (the lifetime value of the player). This is a long term approach that takes into account the lifetime purchases of a player in that game, ad revenue, how many friends each player recruits, and how effective the publisher is at cross promoting their other games. Consequently, I imagine it is much more difficult for an indie with one game and a few hundred bucks to make advertising successful.
I’d say its probably a bit of both. Give your download codes directly to those reviewers/people you really want to look at your game, as it would be silly to put anything in the way of them trying your game (i.e. having to email you back), but for the majority, the cases where you don’t know or think the lesser known sites/reviewer/person is going to be a big influence or might not even look at your game then ask for them to email you.
^ Agree. If I had $$ to burn, I’d consider burning it in this order:
High Quality Product. Hire an artist or buy a plugin.
Catchy Title/Keywords/Writeups - Hire a writer
Beautiful Art, Icons, Screenshots, video - Hire an artist or media expert to give you beautiful icons, screenshots, etc…
Compelling Monetization - Hire a fellow Game Designer to improve your design
Notice that advertising is not in that list. Use your money to invest in assets, Unity upgrades, art, writers, etc… Until your product is FAN-FRICKING-TASTIC - advertising is a waste.
Guess what? The only metric I’ve seen to be quantitatively linked to success is … the number of apps previously released. So, get your 2nd game out there, and then your 3rd, and your 4th. Save your money, to keep you going longer. The long-game takes a while.