It’s taken you months to turn your stellar idea into a gaming app. You’ve done your research and found your target audience and now comes the fun part – learning how to market an app so that the right people find (and fall in love with) your game. But, where do you start? You’re probably thinking that you’ll just post it on social media and that’s all you have to do. Hate to break it to you, but you need a more robust video game marketing strategy than just to rely on your followers on Facebook or Twitter.
If you’re freaking out because you’re new to this whole thing, don’t worry because we have tips for building a marketing strategy that’ll get your game into the right hands. We have a lot to cover, so let’s dive in.
6 Video Game Marketing Tips
1. Build a Strong Social Media Presence
Social media plays a very big role in advertising, and it’s no different when you’re figuring out how to market an app. Be sure to create accounts on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram that are dedicated to your game. You’ll want to engage with other members of the gaming community and other indie game developers.
Reddit is a great place to go because there are countless indie game subreddits to join like:
2. Create Attention-Grabbing Graphics
A great way to get people to notice your game is to create attention-grabbing graphics for it. This can include things like a logo, banners, buttons, and the like. The “name of the game” here is for people to notice your posts, recognize your game just from the logo/graphics, and be interested in learning more about it.
To make the best graphics, we suggest using a screencap of the title screen of your game or other interesting parts of the game. You can use a program like Canva to make the graphics, logos, banners and even edit videos — if you opt for the Canva Pro version, which is $12.99 per month. Otherwise, you can still make great graphics with the free version.
3. Use Paid Ads
In the beginning, paid ads may or may not be in your budget. However, if you’re able to, take out ads on the platforms you’re most active on. For example, The cost to advertise on Facebook is typically $0.97 per click or $7,19 per 1,000 impressions. If you’re hoping to get likes on your ad, it’ll be $1.07 per like. Facebook has an in-depth guide that’ll walk you through the process.
If you want to advertise on Google and show up at the top of search queries for indie mobile games, you can customize your plan based on your budget.
4. Post Video Previews on YouTube
Okay, YouTube is a social media platform but it has something other platforms don’t — it’s also a popular search engine as well. You can create a YouTube channel and post videos of gameplay, how-to-play videos, behind the scenes videos and so much more. You can post your videos on your other social media platforms and they can be shared by your followers.
Plus, if your game channel becomes popular and meets the requirements, you could monetize your channel, thereby bringing in extra funds that you can use to make improvements on your game and place more ads.
5. Hype Your Game Early with a Landing Page
Long before your game is ready to launch, you should start working on a landing page for your game. You’ll have to spend a little bit of money to buy a domain (BlueHost isn’t the cheapest domain hosting service, but it’s one of the top-rated services and it starts at $3.95 per month for the first 36 months) It’ll be a great jumping off point for getting interest in your game.
You’ll want to put the following information on your page:
- iOS Store and Google Play links for your game
- A trailer for the game
- The game’s social media links
- Call to action link or button (ex: Buy It Here!)
- Screenshots and gameplay videos
- News and updates
6. It’s All About Optimizing for the App Store
You know how websites use search engine optimization (SEO) to draw more traffic to their website? There are over 5 million apps between Google Play and the iOS app store and you’ll want to do the same thing when you’re putting your game on those app stores! Here’s a great guide about App Store Optimization you should check out to up your ASO game.
Be Consistent With Your Video Game Marketing Strategy
The name of the game with coming up with a strong mobile video game marketing plan is consistency. Come up with a brand theme and stick with it. Create a schedule outlining when you’ll post what kind of content on what platform (ie: post 30-seconds of gameplay footage on Facebook on Mondays and share a new screenshot on Instagram on Wednesdays, etc.). Immerse yourself in the very community you’re marketing to (gamers and mobile gamers).
With these tips, you’ll be one step closer to getting your game onto the phones of thousands of gamers — if not millions!
