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9 strategies for marketing mobile games



Given the oversaturation of the mobile games market and fierce competition for good players, one can only dream of creating a hit with subsequent viral spread. However, with the right marketing, your mobile game has a chance.

The development and release of the game is just the beginning of the journey. If you do not have a competent promotion strategy, then your game runs the risk of being lost among others. The hardest part is to make the game stand out from the rest; the only way you convince people that it is worth downloading.

You may have just launched a new game; maybe you want to restart the existing one; it is possible that you just need new players - regardless of the situation, there are a number of marketing tactics for promoting mobile games, and you can apply some of them yourself - there are even free or relatively inexpensive ones among them.

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Translated to Alconost

Below we will look at game marketing strategies that you can start using right now - they will help to increase the pace of downloads and make users talk about your game:

1. Campaign for pre-registration in the store and on the landing of your game
It is very advisable to open users early registration on the game is not only an excellent strategy for promoting the application until the official launch, it also allows you to increase the recognition of the game.

On Google Play, developers are allowed to create a pre-registration campaign and pre-prepare a page with a game profile in the store. Anyone who passes pre-registration will automatically receive a push notification from the store about the game’s release and, thus, will be able to install it immediately after the release. Thanks to the distribution of notifications to many fans who have passed pre-registration, the pace of application downloads will jump sharply.

In addition, many developers offer those who have passed pre-registration, in-game rewards - for example, new characters or new weapons. On Google Play, it’s easy to create exclusive rewards for pre-registered users.

Regardless of whether you are conducting a pre-registration campaign through a landing page or through a page, you will probably want to include video teasers and screenshots in it, which will feature game characters and other attractive visual content.

2. Promotional videos and video ads A
video demonstrating a stormy action is more eloquent than any screenshots or descriptions in the store. Video trailers are absolutely necessary for any game, and they can be actively used in both organic and paid advertising.

In the trailer, you should flaunt the most exciting game episodes, or show those things thanks to which the game will be perceived as unique or definitely exciting. Try different versions of the video lasting 30 seconds, 1 minute and up to 2 minutes - but no more, otherwise the user will be distracted.

Alconost Tip: Google Play and the App Store have specific video requirements. Our video department will be happy to help tailor your video to the store, create promo videos from scratch, and also make voice-over video in any language.


An example of a 30-second trailer from Alconost

3. ASO optimization
tactics ASO includes a number of tactics that help you position your mobile game in order to increase its recognition and position in the ratings of the store. The goal is to help detect your game in the search results of the store by emphasizing those keywords that are especially relevant for your game. In addition, it will help drive traffic to your game’s page and convert visitors to players.

Using keywords will be most effective if you work on the following points:

  • Game title, subtitle and description
  • Ratings and reviews
  • Number of game downloads
  • User interaction with the game (user retention and involvement, game removal rates)

In addition, the icon of the application and its screenshots are significant components of ASO - they contribute to both the visibility and clickability of the game. Start by researching which keywords best describe your game. Analyze which keywords from the top of search results best fit your game.

Using the right keywords, use them wisely. Historically, keyword density has been an important factor, but within the ASO, it is becoming less and less significant. For maximum effect, use the most relevant keywords with the highest traffic score in the title and subtitle (short description) of the game.

Alconost Tip: Translating game descriptions is a great way to test new markets. Nitro Online ServiceIdeal for this task: convenient and quick translation of short texts into any number of languages ​​at once. In addition, we offer a free translation of the description and a discount on ASO in our promotion with ASODesk .

4. “Soft launch” in test markets
“Soft launch” or soft launch (soft launch) allows the marketer to “feel the water” without diving right into the depths of the market. Typically, with a soft start, a game enters one or more small markets before it goes on sale to leading markets or around the world. This way you can evaluate how much the application captivates users, how it works on a small scale before developing its promotion. Currently, many publishers in the United States are using soft launch to better understand the place of the game in this market, and only then decide when to switch to scaling.

Soft start helps to check the cost of attracting users and the lifetime value of the client (LTV) in different demographic groups and geographical locales and compare them with ideal indicators of a potential user. Soft start provides feedback on all kinds of indicators and allows you to judge, in particular, application performance, expected budget, what users like and dislike, etc. Based on this data, you can determine where and when it is most advisable to focus on the growth of users.

5. Cross-promo with other games
Cross-promotion ("cross promotion") can be a simple and inexpensive way to increase the audience of the game. This is a strategy in which the advertiser turns to an audience of existing games, offering these users a new game. The goal is to engage motivated users while maintaining a low CPI (installation cost).

As a rule, a new game belongs to the same genre as the game through which it is promoted, because your target audience is users who are interested in this genre. It is also justifiable to aim at former users of your old game and draw their attention to the new game. Perhaps they abandoned the old game, as they are looking for new gaming sensations, and the new game will be exactly what they lacked.

6. Influence marketing
Influencer Marketing is currently booming in the gaming industry. In the past few years, countless streamers with millions of subscribers have appeared. Although there are many different platforms for streaming games in the world, YouTube and Instagram remain the most popular gaming channels.

Influencer gamers have built up a vast database of people who are addicted to games, and therefore are ideal allies for a marketer focused on attracting users. Many popular gamers have thousands of subscribers who receive a notification whenever a gamer uploads a new video. In addition, the profile of the gamer-influencer is usually indicated by a schedule that increases the number of views and helps to maintain user interest along with the active maintenance of profiles on social networks.

Influence marketing has skyrocketed in popularity and continues to gain momentum. A growing base of influencers generates a ton of engaging content that helps promote the game and attract new users. In the modern world of millennials and zetas, a successful strategy for working with influencers can have a tremendous effect, guaranteeing a big jackpot for your game.

Successfully choosing an influencer and negotiating with it yourself can be a daunting task. In this case, WeQ will come to the rescue with WeQ Influencers with native advertising from carefully selected influencers on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other popular social networks.

7. Reviews and special materials in the media
Now a lot of online materials are published with stories about games - take, for example, resources such as IGN, GameSpot and Polygon. If your mobile game is mentioned in the media, this contributes to both the search engine optimization of its landing page and increases the ASO of your game. The more backlinks from good, trusted sites, the better.

There are several different ways you can promote your game in the media — for example, through previews, game reviews, or through articles that cover your storyline in detail. Do not miss the opportunity to give an interview so that you can talk about the development of the game.

Do not give up if the plot of your mobile game is not interested in the site the first time. Selecting content, the editor takes into account many factors: including whether it’s a good time to publish and what are the current trends. Try again and again until you find a site that you find interesting.

8. Localization of the game itself and ASO
Consider localizing your game to expand its geographic distribution. To do this, it is important to conduct your own research, since in different countries they prefer different operating systems (iOS and Android). For example, according to the Statista resource, more than 80% of smartphones sold today work on Android. However, in the US, more than 50% of smartphone owners prefer Apple. If your game is available on both iOS and Android, and yet it supportsmost popular languages , organic audience coverage is automatically increased.

You should also take into account the localization of ASO, that is, you need to localize the description of your game in the store and select keywords for the main markets. We already talked about ASO optimization in point 4.

Alconost tip: You can learn how to get the most out of ASO optimization and localization in an interview with Full HP studio . They also talk about how to get featured from Google Play and about the features of promotion in Asia.

9. Create a YouTube Channel
Start a YouTube channel dedicated to your game. YouTube is an ideal platform for game dev companies, as you can publish game teasers and trailers here. For potential users, video is the fastest and most convenient way to get to know the world of your game.

The gameplay in your videos should capture viewers from the first seconds. Whether it’s a teaser, trailer or video with the passage of the game, be sure to add a bit of suspense and intrigue to it so that the user wants to install the game.

As in any social network, you need to communicate with users and engage them in discussions. For example, you can ask at the very beginning or at the end of a video what else they would like to see in your game. By involving users in the development process, you acquire a loyal customer base. They will want to return if they see that you have added exactly those improvements and features to the game that they recommended to you.

About the translator

Translated by Alconost.

Alconost localizes games , applications and sites in 70 languages. Native translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources.

We also make advertising and educational videos - for sites that sell, image, advertising, educational, teasers, expliner, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.

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