HI.... boxers i have created a lot of games but nobody is downloading it...i don't even have a marketing budget i am just 17 yrs old...I have only windows laptop...i don't have a mac i can't even send my game to publishers like ketchapp and voodoo...now i am in a state of giving up is there someone who can help me?
Hey bud. Welcome to the forums. The ugly truth that you are about to find out is that nobody will ever download your games if you don't promote it. And people in this forum have actually done a really good job building amazing games over time, but what we all lack is the marketing side of it all. Aaaand, marketing a game is more crucial than making a good game. Many people have learned how to make good games, but in the end when it comes to marketing we all suck, because it's actually very hard. And not to mention expensive af. And that is why the people who actually achieve something in this department, even in this forum, will choose not to share the information. (And if you ask me, they are doing the right thing). If you ever want to make money making games, contact a publisher. I am sorry but this is how things work. I wish we could all work together on a flawless marketing strategy that would make us money 90% of the time. Like, for example, after a few months of collective work, we should be able to make a marketing model like this: 1. You make a game 2. You integrate game analytics in it 3. You do a soft launch in certain countries like Canada or Australia (don't spend money on promotion, just let your game acquire a few hundred users) You check the metrics for your game. If the retention (1-2-7 days) reaches a certain number, proceed to step 4. If not, alter your game, update, check your metrics. Rinse and repeat until you reach the desired numbers of user engagement (I don't exactly know what these numbers are or what they should be, I am just trying to put a frame of a marketing model here!) 4. Ads. I can't actually believe that after all this time we haven't settled on the optimum mixture of ad networks, that everyone should be using. Anyway, you just integrate advertisements in your game. 5. Publish and promote. Now, promotion is a very tough one, because this is where you will spend money. And that is why it's very important that we find the best and most efficient way to do it. And that is also why step 3 is essential, because it will determine whether you will make back the money you spend on promotion. Now we all know that voodoo does facebook and instagram ads. And it works for them, so why wouldn't it work for everybody else? But how much money do they initially spend, and how much do they keep throwing in every day, just to keep their games on the top charts? And how much money do they spend before making profit from a game? Hard to know. Mind here that when a game is on the top charts, let's say top 100, it has an extra minimum of 100% increase on organic downloads, which is also a huge thing to consider. 6. Profit (lol) I mean, if people here could share just a bit from their experiences, perhaps we could fill the gaps on this marketing plan. (the metric numbers on step 3, the best ad networks for step 4, the promotion methods on step 5) I know that people have a hard time talking about money in general and especially their revenue and all, but we should consider it
A link to your games would be good. There could be many reasons - bad screenshots, unappealing games etc.
First of all, you don't need a publisher to make money, yes, a publisher will help you make big money, but it can be done without one. If it's Android, just try using Google Ads (previously known as AdMob) you can set daily budget to whatever you want, however low you want, and you can set the target cost per install. I've used Google Ads (Admob) many times, and got games to making high 3 figures/month in a short time period (not much but it's solid and steady) after a couple of months I was making that without a penny of advertising, no outgoings, pure profit. The fact of life to live by when in this business or any business for that matter, is that you cannot make money with spending money. Also known as you have to speculate to accumulate. If you really want to get published though, find other publishers, Ketchapp and Voodoo aren't the only ones out there. Miniclip are also a mobile games publisher, try them, they have a super simple submission form to fill in for your game. Search for publishers and send a few messages out there.
I read all the comments, and I would say everyone is right but in their own perspective. I would recommend watching this before even making games. For example: If there's a demand for potatos and you are supplying chicken, of course you can't make money,
Good reviews lead to more people downloading the app. Best way is to use any review exchange community . It gives more genuine reviews than paid reviews . Now a days Google has some strict policy against paid reviews . So use any good Review Exchange sites . I recommend http://appreviewdesk.com/ . Buy some keyword installs also. It will boost your app ranking to top 10 chart . For keyword ranking I suggest https://apprankpro.com/, which has a large number of user, and they support multiple countries . From my experience it gives 100% genuine keyword installs than other sites .
I am just getting started in game dev. I have about 7 games published. My day job is marketing, I manage 1M in ad spends for ecommerce and now diving into campaigns for app installs. I currently use Google Ads and just going for Android installs and the whole iOS, Firebase thing is a bit all over the map to get ads actually working. I am getting installs for .02-.04cents on Google Ads. So .. for a few hundred you can get 10k downloads. One of my games has about 80k now, I just released my first BB game and in 1 day got 230+ downloads. Drop me a note if this interests you, happy to help with that. I may be new to BB and building games but I am a marketer by trade.
FYI .. the game with 80k downloads .. I only bought 4k downloads with ads. I noticed a spike at 5k and over 10k as well. Currently with no ads the game gets 500 downloads a day.
Here are a couple screen shots with some stats. Still trying to understand the optimization with app installs. I do this daily for other marketing objectives. Happy to help anyone out with their campaigns if they want. I am new to Buildbox .. I have published two games in the month I have been using the software and already seeing revenue from ads on them. working on other games and still learning ... so its my way to help give back if I can since I am really just taking from this forum as a 'newbie'.