Introduction
The mobile gaming industry has been on the rise in the past few years, even more so in the period of the pandemic when people shifted to digital entertainment. This triggered a significant competition among developers, which necessitated the need for fresh approaches to mobile game marketing. Simply putting up flashy ads does not make an effective mobile game marketing campaign, but rather the knowledge and cultivation of consumer preferences.
Understanding the Current State of the Mobile Game Market
Although people have downloaded games and spent more money on games during the pandemic, it has returned to slight growth starting from 2022. Although, it has been perceived that competition has been increasing due to the participation of other key players in the market. If there is one lesson to be learned from the success of mobile games such as Genshin Impact and Clash of Clans, it is that marketing matters. Modern developers aim at occupying the largest possible share in a highly competitive market by concentrating on the acquisition, retention, and satisfaction of users.
Identifying the Right Audience
The target consumers constitute an important factor that an organisation needs to identify when developing a marketing plan. Developers must move beyond a simple classification of players and pay attention to the audience and what they are motivated by. For instance, a puzzle game will appeal to those gamers who like to engage their minds but are not interested in high-intensity games. In this way, marketers can understand what motivates players, and accordingly align their gaming ads to appeal to players of certain types such as the adrenaline junkies, the thinkers or the social butterflies.
Optimising for App Stores and Social Media
Visibility plays a significant role in the promotion of a game before release to the market. An effective landing page can create hype and collect user emails, through which marketers can inform them of the game’s launch. Another crucial one is app store optimization (ASO), which includes keyword research, creating strong and engaging descriptions, and eye-catching app icons. The best features of the game should be shown in promo videos and gameplay screenshots, while Twitter, Facebook and Instagram can build expectations before the game release.
Leveraging Organic Marketing and Influencers
Basic and natural promotion techniques like, participation in social networks and active involvement in gaming groups should be employed for long-term engagement. A proper communication with players through such services as Discord and Reddit can also help the game’s developers to gain the trust of players and become warmly welcomed. Another influential factor of word-of-mouth communication is the user-generated content or what is also known as UGC.
There is another useful approach – influencer marketing. Thus, it can be stated that endorsements of OMCs by micro-influencers with less number of followers, but higher engagement rate may be worth more than the endorsements with macro-influencers. Engaging these influencers would mean having long term players within the ecosystem of the game thus making them loyal players.
The Bottom Line
As in any other industry, marketing in the mobile games sector is a challenging stream, especially in today’s highly saturated market. Starting from analysing who is the best target market to reach to correctly using the social networks and influencers, the developers should consider numerous strategies to make themselves heard. Therefore, the strategies above, if tried out and with a major focus on the players, could prove quite beneficial to marketers in achieving the right strategies, which would keep their mobile games afloat.
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