App-y Days: How to Market Your Mobile Game

Much like with any video game, a mobile games’ success can often be heavily reliant on the success of its marketing campaign. Making a great mobile game is one thing but marketing a mobile game and getting in front of the perfect target audience is certainly another. Becoming the next Clash Royale, Raid: Shadow Legends or Among Us is no easy feat. So, in this article we will be looking at the key areas of mobile game marketing strategies that you will need to target as a game developer launching a mobile game.

A question that is asked a lot when bringing a mobile game to market is, at what point should I start marketing my mobile game? The answer is as early as possible! This may seem like an obvious point, but all too often mobile games don’t perform as well as they could have done due to the marketing campaign starting too late in the game’s lifecycle. Some early ways of beginning your marketing campaign for your mobile game include, building social media and community platforms, producing video content and trailers to be shared on YouTube and across your social channels, paid media campaigns targeting social media follower acquisition, alpha and beta testing and more.

Do not be deterred from kicking off your mobile game marketing campaign until your game is ready to launch, it is important to build game awareness among potential players from an early date to give your game the best possible chance of success when it launches.

A great way of building up awareness for your mobile game is through thoughtful and targeted PR campaigns. There are many mobile game specific press outlets out there, and if you can build good relationships with these outlets, you can give yourself and your game a sure-fire way of reaching your target audience. Throughout the development process of your mobile game, you can pinpoint key milestones that you can underpin with press releases, to ensure that your game’s lifecycle is well documented, and to squeeze the most marketing potential out of your development process.

If your game is being released on both Apple and Android, then this is something to consider carefully. There are press outlets that cater for both operating systems individually, and some that cover the entire mobile gaming industry. Take into careful consideration the platform(s) that your mobile game is launching on and target your press outreach accordingly.

Influencer marketing is another key weapon in your marketing arsenal when it comes to marketing a mobile game. The mobile game influencer scene is full of interesting and entertaining characters, some with audiences in the millions. Building good relationships with these influencers from an early stage will be paramount to helping your game reach your target audience. In a study conducted by YouGov in 2021 it was found that 28% of gaming influencer followers were classified as ‘heavy gamers’ (11+ hours spent gaming a week) with a further 49% of gaming influencer followers classified as ‘moderate gamers’ (3-10 hours spent gaming per week). This indicates that as many as 77% of gaming influencer followers spend at least 3 hours gaming a week themselves and proves the value of influencer marketing as a tool for marketing your mobile game.

Mobile game influencers can be found on YouTube and Twitch, but TikTok is proving to be an ever-growing market for showcasing mobile games. One thing that TikTok holds over YouTube and Twitch in terms of marketing your mobile game through influencer marketing is that TikTok is predominantly a mobile app, with a very small percentage of its users preferring to access TikTok on desktop, whereas a far higher percentage of YouTube and Twitch users access the platforms via desktop. This means that it is easier to convert installs when marketing on TikTok as it is an easier journey for potential players to download the game.

As well as advertising on TikTok through influencer marketing, you can also look at paid advertising and boosting on TikTok as a viable option. Boosting your game on TikTok can be a great way of reaching your target audience and to gain downloads for your game. TikTok audiences respond well to ads that are either entertaining, unique, or honest, but respond less well to ads that are perceived to be too corporate or insincere.

It is important to consider the assets used in your paid advertising, they must be attention grabbing and enticing in equal parts and give the best possible summation of your game without being flooded with too much detail. If you can produce good visual content underpinned with attention-grabbing copy you could have a perfect way to gain installs for your mobile game.

Alongside this you may want to look at building out your game’s presence on social media. As we have mentioned, TikTok is a great place to build a large social following due to the high level of mobile users on the platform. Sharing images and video clips of your game’s development journey, being responsive and interactive with followers and sharing insights into the life of a mobile game developer can all be great ways to begin building a strong following on social media. You must also make sure that the assets you use across your social media are targeted towards mobile users, as this is where you will see the most value and highest conversion rate in terms of installs.

Once you have considered these aspects of mobile game marketing you can build out your overall marketing strategy and execute it. A lot of the key angles you can take with marketing your mobile game can be fine-tuned and harmonised in a way that means each separate aspect of your marketing campaign comes together to support one another. By carrying out the things that we have outlined in this article you can be assured that you are giving your mobile game the best possible chance at success.