Mobile Game Marketing Guide: How to Promote a Mobile Game

July 8, 2024
July 8, 2024

The global gaming market is worth over $92 billion, but with over 700,000 games competing for their share of that market, a good mobile game marketing plan is essential. The right marketing strategies will give you a leg up on your competition, allowing you to attract more players and keep more of the players you already have.

Key Takeaways:

  • A mobile game marketing plan includes the tactics and strategies mobile game developers use to promote their games to their target market.
  • Your marketing plan is important because it helps you stand out in a highly competitive market. Your marketing strategies can also improve your player retention and monetization efforts, leading to increased revenue.
  • Marketing strategies to consider for your plan include market research, paid campaigns, content marketing, app store optimization, and influencer and social media marketing.
  • Additionally, you can improve your marketing campaigns by incentivizing referrals and soft launching your game.

What Is a Mobile Game Marketing Plan?

A mobile game marketing plan includes the tactics and strategies mobile game developers use to promote their games to their target market. Your marketing plan functions like a blueprint for your marketing efforts.

Why Is Mobile Game Marketing Important?

The availability of game engines and AI tools that shorten development time and make game creation more accessible has led to an explosion of games on the market. More competition makes it harder for players to find your game on the app store.

Marketing helps get your game in front of potential players, increasing your chance of attracting a large audience. Marketing also helps you retain the players you already have by promoting new features, events, and content releases.

Marketing can help drive microtransactions, leading to better conversion rates and increased revenue. It helps keep your game relevant and provides ample data to use in the decision-making process.

Which Strategies Should You Include in Your Mobile Game Marketing Plan?

There are many strategies you can use to improve your marketing plan. The exact tactics you choose depend on your target market and goals.

Market Research

For any of your marketing strategies to work, you must first understand your audience. Market research identifies who your target market is, what you can do to attract them to your game and keep them once they start playing, and how you can measure the success of your efforts.

Few games appeal to every type of player. To succeed, it is best to focus on a specific niche market.

Use tools such as Google Trends to identify what is popular and assess whether there is a potential audience for your game. Study your competition and explore social media trends.

Define the key performance indicators you will use to assess the market performance of your game. Examples include average revenue per user, retention rate, daily active users, session length, and conversion rate.

Identify which marketing channels you want to use. Marketing your game on channels your target market doesn’t use won’t be successful, so it is important to match your channels with your target market.

Paid Campaigns

Paid campaigns involve purchasing ads in search engines and other games and on social media platforms to attract new players. Because you are paying for placement, including this strategy in your mobile game marketing plan can yield results faster than organic methods such as content marketing.

You can also target specific groups of people based on their interests and demographic information. Video ads are best for showing off your game’s graphics.

Playable ads allow potential players to try out the gameplay. Create enticing landing pages for players who interact with your ads.

Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner to identify keywords that are likely to convert well and include those keywords in your advertising copy. Study your competitor's ads to learn what works and what doesn’t.

Four ways paid marketing helps companies
https://www.brafton.com/blog/paid-search-blog/paid-marketing/

App Store Optimization

Players searching the app store are likely to convert better than random people on social media because they are already looking for a game to play. App store optimization helps your game rise to the top of the app store search results.

Improve your app store rankings by making your listings eye-catching, soliciting positive reviews, and using relevant keywords. Show off your game’s best features with high-quality graphics and videos.

Influencer and Social Media Marketing

Social media provides you with a potential audience of billions of people. However, there is a lot of competition for that audience’s attention.

Including influencers in your mobile game marketing plan can grow your game’s audience by promoting it to the influencers’ existing social media following. Partner with influencers who align with your brand’s values and the market you are targeting.

Post regularly on the social media channels your audience uses and respond to comments. Tell your brand’s story, but don’t make your social media entirely self-promotional. Share other content that your audience has an interest in.

Soft Launch

A soft launch allows you to get feedback from a small group of players before you release your game to a general audience. This provides you with the opportunity to find and fix bugs before you officially release your game.

It is also an early opportunity to gauge how successful your monetization strategies are. Invite journalists, testers, and bloggers to your soft launch. These players not only provide valuable feedback but can generate buzz for your game.

Comparison of soft and hard launches
https://themanifest.com/software-development/blog/software-soft-launch

Content Marketing

Create content for your mobile game marketing plan, such as images, videos, and infographics, to share on your website and social media channels. This content attracts visitors and can boost your search engine rankings.

Use this content to generate buzz about your game, build brand awareness, and establish your game in the community. Encourage players to share their user-generated content with their social media followers.

Referrals

Incentivize players to refer friends, family, and social media contacts to your game by offering discounts or in-game items. Because players tend to keep playing games that their friends also play, this strategy attracts new players and helps you retain the players you have.

How Can You Get the Most Out of Your Mobile Game Marketing Plan?

The team at Sonamine can help you craft a successful mobile game marketing plan and maximize the revenue you generate from the players your marketing efforts gain. We offer engagement, retention, and monetization services that can help you meet your goals. Contact us today to start.

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