How to market your mobile game

To launch a successful mobile game in today’s competitive market, you need more than just a great idea and polished gameplay—you need a smart marketing strategy.

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This guide provides essential tips to help you promote your hyperPad-made mobile game and take it to the next level. You will need to develop strategies and detailed plans long before your game even hits the App Store.

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Let’s explore the key steps to make sure your game stands out in a crowded market.

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1. Understand & Target Your Audience 

When you’re making a game and thinking up ideas, there's a process to follow. First, you create a story. Then, you add characters and backgrounds. After that, you decide what kind of game it will be—like a puzzle game, a Mario-style game, or something totally unique!

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Once you have all the game parts figured out, think about who will play your game. Who do you want to attract? Your players could be kids, teens, or adults, and they might like different things based on their age, where they live, or what they like to do. The more you know about your audience, the better you can make your game fit what they enjoy.

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For example, if you are making a Pokémon Go game, your age target will be between 16-25 years since this age range watched the show and plays these games (Analysis of Pokémon GO: a Success Two Decades in Marketing, 2016).

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2. Organic or Paid Advertising?

Once you know who your audience is, you can start the next step of your marketing plan: growing your game’s visibility using organic and paid advertising. It’s good to use both, but you need to balance them. Let’s break down what these types of advertising mean:

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• Organic channels: These include social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. You can also create blog posts or other content that you can share for free. Doing this helps people find your game on Google and other social platforms by using important words, called keywords, that link back to your website or social media. These keywords are crucial because they make it easier for people to find, buy, and download your game.

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• Paid marketing: Paid advertising also needs careful planning. You have to decide who you want to reach, how much money you’ll spend, and which social media platform to use. There are many ways to do this, and the best method often involves trying different things and seeing what works. Trends and algorithms change often, so you’ll learn by experimenting and noticing what works best.

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3. Use Nostalgic Marketing

Try to link your game’s marketing strategy with a nostalgic message. Research shows that nostalgia, or making people feel happy about the past, can influence how they behave. Nostalgia marketing is becoming more popular. For example, the game Pokémon GO used nostalgia to become a huge hit, with over 10 million downloads. It was the fastest mobile game downloaded in a week (Molina, 2016). In 2019, the game was downloaded more than a billion times (Thubron, 2019).

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Another example in the media industry is the TV show Stranger Things, where the whole show plot has a nostalgic message. Thus, when making your game with a nostalgic message, you can also bring positive memories of childhood by letting people relive previous experiences that shaped their identities and personalities (Eloranta, 2022). Nowadays, games are closely connected to and influenced by media. The most successful games are often the ones that create a warm, nostalgic feeling.

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So, when creating your game, think about using storylines that bring a nostalgic feeling, like those in Super Mario or Zelda. Research shows that in the gaming industry, customers spend more money on products that bring back childhood memories (McCarthy, 2019). In addition, psychology has proved that nostalgia can influence a customer's decision to purchase a product (Eloranta, 2022). It creates a positive impact by bringing back good memories (Eloranta, 2022). Marketing your game with nostalgia has been proven to be effective.

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3. Find the Right Marketing Strategies

Marketing isn’t just about spending money and hoping for the best. It requires strategy, research, and noticing patterns. If you want your game marketing to succeed, try doing the following:

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• Competitor research: There’s a saying, "keep your enemies close." This means you should watch what your competitors are doing to succeed and adapt those ideas for your own game. Start by typing keywords into Google to see which companies come up (these are your competitors). You can do the same on social media, checking which content appears and which businesses are most popular. Use this information to improve your own marketing.

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• Identify patterns: When you gather information, start looking for patterns like popular hashtags, content design, and other strategies that work well. The goal isn't to copy others but to find ideas that you can uniquely adapt for your game’s marketing. Inspiration is key in marketing and game design. Also, pay attention to what doesn’t work. For example, while YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok are popular in the gaming industry, that doesn’t mean you should ignore platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Instead, focus your efforts on the platforms that give you the best results, especially when planning paid advertising.

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5. Create Amazing Content  

Research shows that mobile advertising is the most personalised approach because each phone has a person, which can lead to a positive or negative response from customers (Mittal et. al, 2022). It’s important to know who your target audience is and create the right content to attract them to play and buy your game. When marketing, focus on identifying trends and doing research to develop a plan for consistent content. For organic channels, make sure to regularly post useful things like tips, inspirational quotes, reels, and memes.

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Testing what works best for your audience is key. If you're planning paid ads, make a short, clear video with a strong call-to-action, like "download today." Short videos work best for grabbing attention, so keep it authentic and focused on your game. Research shows that advertised video should bring instant emotional engagement or it might turn off potential influencers and customers (Mittal et. al, 2022).

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Reward Your Customers            

When building your marketing campaign, consider rewarding your customers with giveaways, discounts, and any other rewards. Research shows that this strategy can reduce customer irritation and bring a positive response, as well as viral marketing (Mittal et. al, 2022). You can gamify rewards by adding a point system when your game is first downloaded. On social media, you can offer giveaways, like an iPhone or headphones, to draw attention. Announcing the winner afterward can also boost engagement on your social media.

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Take Aways

Here are some steps to help market your game effectively. First, identify your audience by asking "who, what, where" to get specific. Next, learn about paid and organic advertising and how to use them together. Consistency in both will give you an advantage. Finally, use nostalgia marketing by creating a game with a familiar plot or message that resonates with your audience. As an example, Nintendo sold more than 10 million retro units since relaunch (Abrams, 2019) by connecting the product to the past, which can lead to customer attraction.

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After you have a nostalgic product and message, focus on finding marketing strategies. Look for patterns and study your competitors. Create high-quality, visual content, like videos, which are popular in the gaming industry. Also, add rewards to your campaign, as people love discounts and gifts. These tips are based on research, but remember, marketing is about trying different strategies to see what works best for your game and audience.

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Download hyperPad today and start creating your mobile game with your marketing ideas! 

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References

Abrams, A. (2019, February 1). Nintendoand the magic of Nostalgia Marketing. FM Magazine. Retrieved September 23,2022, from https://www.fm-magazine.com/issues/2019/feb/nintendo-nostalgia-marketing.html

Eloanta, J. (2022). Marketing inthe Streaming and Gaming Industries: A Study of the Nostalgia MarketingStrategy and It’s Effectiveness. Metropolia. Retrieved from https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/749891/Eloranta_Joona.pdf?sequence=2

Mittal, S., & Kumar, V. (2022).A strategic framework for non-intrusive mobile marketing campaigns. InternationalJournal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 13(2), 190.https://doi.org/10.1504/ijemr.2022.121819