I have been running ads for my game Steam Flyers on facebook in order to get more likes to its page. It’s an action arcade flying game. What I discovered is hard to believe. People ages 35 and over are more likely to like the facebook page.
I assumed most of my facebook fans would be typical teenagers or guys in their 20’s and 30’s. When I look through my facebook fans, alot of them are actually men in their 50’s who are really into politics.
Here is a graph displaying the general synopsis of my ad campaign. As you can see, people ages 13-34 take alot more ad impressions in order to get them to like the page. But once you reach the 35-44 age range, there is a dramatic change. People ages 18-24 cost twice as much to get a like from than it does a 45-54 year old.
blue bar = likes
green bar = impressions
I had alot of different settings in my ad campaign targeting different interest. Although, most of them were targeting “flight simulator” “war thunder”, and “steampunk” fans, Older people were more likely to like the page under every interest i’ve tried.
This would not really be a problem however…
There is another flying game on facebook that has alot of older men as fans called Flying Tigers. There game appears to be doing poorly on Steam and has very little views YouTube. I’m guessing it has something to do with not targeting the right audience.
When I look at War Thunders fans on facebook (a very popular flying game), they appear to be your typical gamer (Males ages 13-30).
So thats why i’m skeptical about all of the likes from older folks. I am worried that they are not actually gamers and wont lead to any sales, or generate much buzz for my game. Maybe they just want to look at the screenshots but are not interested in buying the game. So the money for ads would be a waste.
Your thoughts? Why do you think think its harder to get a like from a 20-30 year old gamer than it is a 40-60 year old?
It looks like mid 20th century style. WW2. That is what they’re liking. Same with that flying tigers. You would need to be a history buff to fully appreciate it. War thunder has a mix of jet fighters and modern military stuff and a more hollywood art style.
Its like why does a Captain America movie have younger fans than a historically accurate ww2 wartime flick?
make a jrpg, or pixel game, you will get younger folks, i think personal culture has an importance, you game reminds me of laputta (myiazaki) and younger don’t always have that culture
If you are sure about this it is probably a great thing for two reasons: 1) you have identified your target market so should be able to figure out how to reach them beyond Facebook and 2) people older than 35 are generally going to be in a better position to spend money on “luxury” items such as games.
I fall into the age group you have identified and make about 3 times as much money now as I did back before I reached 35 years on the blue marble. Being older within the range you are describing definitely isn’t a bad thing. It is not like being a “starving” college student or a 70-year-old living on a low fixed income.
Remember the average age of a gamer was 37 until just a few years ago when thanks to the mobile market it quickly dropped to 30 years old (which seems to show the majority of mobile gamers are very young). You do not seem to be targeting mobile so the average age for your market is likely spot on with what you are seeing on Facebook. People like me don’t simply stop gaming just because another month or year passes. It would make no sense. If anything I am looking forward to the day when I am in semi-retirement and ultimately retirement so I can spend more time playing and working on games.
That does make some sense. Although I think younger people will be more likely to spread the word through digital means. Such as blogging about it, tweeting, and making youtube videos, etc. I will probably target both young and old audiences. Young people for their viral effect and older audience because their cheaper to get to.
Of course this is just an assumption and I could be completely wrong.
One theory is people ages 20-35 are more critical of games because they grew up on them. So they wont like a page so quickly. I noticed teenagers ages 13-17 are a little more likely to like a page than ages 18-35. Maybe its because they have not grown a strong skepticism of games yet.
Watching my daughter on Facebook (she’s younger teenager) she likes things that she sees & likes but she may never see anything or search for anything like that again, she just sees it, likes it & moves on so getting younger people to like your game on social media may not necessarily equate to them then actually doing anything about it.
I on the other hand am in your (way) older group & tho I’m on Facebook I try never to like anything because I dislike the spam I then get in my newsfeed, & I’m also wary of what organisations know about me.
Also, most people Facebook on mobile devices so it may not translate across to people then moving onto a PC to play the game.
Checking the latest stats on gaming put out by the digital games people (this is the latest Australian one http://igea.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Digital-Australia-2014-Infographics.pdf) & you will probably start to see that a lot of older gamers are moving towards the casual games on mobile. This isn’t set in stone but personally I’ve only played my Xbox in the last 2 yrs when I had a binge on world of tanks for a month or when my son has asked me to play something with him, otherwise I’m on the iPad. I don’t PC game as I have no keyboard mouse coordination. But, I wouldn’t say I’m indicative of every gamer my age.
I agree with the behavioral tendencies of the teens. From what I have seen they will like hundreds of things in minutes even sometimes. Literally see a photo like, scroll like scroll like scroll like.
Interesting about the Australian gaming market stats. Seems reasonable though. Shows 19% of Australian gamers are over 51 years old. And I think that will just increase each year. I mean it makes sense. I think kids even very young kids are already gaming. I don’t think many people currently over 51 will take up gaming (some might) but obviously next year all of the gamers who are currently 51 will be over 51. The year after be the same for all of the gamers currently 50 years old and so on. Just depends on if there are more people being born now compared to 30 years or so I guess. A lot of boomers.
I have playing games most of my life ever since the first ones came out that I had access to. Started at home in 1980 and a couple years before that for the arcades. I don’t think this is the reason I still like retro games so much and am less critical as far as 2d/3d and such. Because I know others who started playing around the same time who like the modern games better. Maybe half of them are like that. The others are more like me in that “a game is a game” as far as whether it is 2D / 3D / passable graphics / Knock Your Socks Off Graphics. And I also know some teens who just love games period whether retro style or modern. So I think it all just depends on each individual.
Just a thought, but it could be that the big games in your niche are all focusing on the younger audience. More saturation makes it harder for any one particular item to get attention. You might be one of very few games that the older segment of the audience sees, though, so with less competition you’re more likely to get the hits.
As you’ve already identified, a critical factor to consider is how likely those hits are to turn into a sale and/or how much effort it will take to do so. It could be that a “like” is harder to get from someone younger but the total effort per sale is lower.
@roger0
Are those statistics from the ad platform you are using or some other form how you are collecting analytics?
Your findings are very interesting.
Might want to adjust the adds to reflect a more mature audience and see if the statistics change.
Surveys find that the average gamer is a male in the mid-30s. That’s because those of us in our 40s grew up on the early games in the 1980s and many people in that age range still play them, which boosts the average age. Nostalgia for one’s lost youth has a lot to do with it, as well as the fact that games are now a major general entertainment medium. Even women in their 60s are a core audience for certain types of casual games.
I don’t think it’s surprising that a steampunk flight combat game would attract men in their 30s. The steampunk genre often appeals to people in that age range who have an interest in history. Flight combat games often appeal to older male gamers because there used to be quite a few flight combat games back in the old days, such as the original “Elite” in the mid-80s.
I found that Flight Simulator fans are more older, ages 35-60. Some of them are actual pilots. However, my game is not a Flight Simulator, its just an action arcade game.
I am still getting decent like rates from teenagers 13-17 though not quite as good as older people ages 40-60. Maybe I should target teenagers more. People ages 18-40 are the hardest to target. Its like I have to choose between two extremes, very young or very old .
Steampunk games have a difficult audience to target. I tried promoting my game in one of the large Steampunk groups on Facebook, but the group admin wouldn’ t post anything about it, and my own replies didn’t get much interest. It’s a hard group to pin down, since the people run the gamut from teens who like black leather Goth-like outfits with a vague Steampunk theme, to older men who like steam engines, to older women who like dressing up in Victorian costumes, talking about bustles, and fantasizing about having tea in ornate greenhouses. How do you market a game to that type of group? I have no idea. Of course, “Guns of Icarus” gained a large following from general gamers, but that was probably mainly because of the multiplayer teamwork.
For a game like mine, I am going to have to go with the war thunder fans. Steampunk fans may like to look at the screenshots, but they probably wont buy and play the game. That’s my guess work anyway. However, its still probably worth it to post screenshots and trailers in their facebook groups now and then.
More specifically, you want to target Steampunk flying enthusiast, such as people who like airships, etc…
You’re probably seeing skewed results. For example I’ve run some facebook ads before and generally speaking find that older people have more time on their hands and generally are more likely to click and like stuff, whereas younger people are in more of a hurry and are more particular/discerning about what they will like. So don’t just assume everyone is equal.
That’s anti-American / anti-European!
Sorry - off topic.
Facebook is an odd place - really, seems like imaginaryhuman hit on it, younglings are trying to see it all, while old dogs are only interested in seeing things that relate to there interests. In addition to that imo - younger audience are more likely to click to check it out for a couple minutes and not come back again, while, if interested, the more mature audience will click after they have researched and found it’s something they really are interested in, are willing to spend time with and are more likely to revisit if there first impressions are positive.
Older = more funds available, but less spontaneous, younger = less funds available but more spontaneous.
“War Thunder” fans seem to run a large gamut, though, because it has several gameplay modes ranging from arcade to hardcore simulation (in which the planes are almost impossible to fly unless you have a pilot’s license). I’ve seen Youtube videos of hardcore older gamers playing the simulation mode with voice chat enabled, and they sound like military veterans. But there’s also the teenage COD guys in there playing the arcade mode.
I’m not sure there is much of a Steampunk enthusiast group out there. I’ve pretty much given up on that audience. I think it’s probably better to get average gamers excited about the gameplay itself plus the ambiance. “Diluvion” did well on Kickstarter mainly, I think, because the average gamer liked the visuals and the idea of submarine combat even if very few of them had previously had much interest in submarines. I don’t think the game would have done well if it just tried to target a Submarine Fan audience because there probably isn’t much of one, and the game is fantasy rather than historically based.
If your going to put effort into marketing its best to target special interest groups in order to get the most results. Its Easier to grab someones attention who shares similar interest rather than a completely random gamer. And Steampunk is a niche crowd although its probably not as small as submarine fans.
The bulk of your sales may not come from Steampunk fans, although if you target them they will hopefully become the evangelist who tells the broader audience about the game.
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