Hi All,
Whats the best way to market your games once they are complete.
Its very hard to get eyeballs on your application.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Marketing Iphone Game
(13 posts) (9 voices)-
I suggest you search in the forum, arian487 (right?) posted a really nice an informative topic about this.
Basically, Release Lite versions, update rapidly (but non dirty updates, not nice...), put ads in your LIte and reference to your full app.That's basically it, most of the other things you can do - would do nothing. Getting featured by Apple or reviewed by TA is probably the best marketing (lol)...
I heard people distributed apps on Cydia, and got about 7-15% users that supported them.Here's arian's post:
http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/topic/716
VERY USEFUL!!
a quick search in the forum would give you all of the answers.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Despite it's widely accepted that (good) reviews on website doesn't help a lot for the sales, and will never get your app in the charts, I'm pretty sure it helps on the long run, to keep the number of sales above zero. Being featured on many websites will bring a constant (low) traffic on your game for a long time.
Posted 2 years ago # -
bradparks
MemberI think that getting lots of reviews early is a big thing.... I'd say that as soon as you release your game, get as many promo codes to people as possible, with the condition/request that they review the app for you (if they like it ;-). This supposedly carries alot of weight.
Also, screenshot wise, I'd make sure that the first screenshot is really nice. Remember that it doesn't actually have to be a screenshot. It could be a collage or even include marketing text. I haven't seen alot of apps do this, but have seen some, and between the icon, the app name, and the first screen shot, I think lots of people make their decision on whether or not to try something out!
A YouTube video seems to be a major requirement too, so have this and a nice screenshot before you send it out to the review sites.
Here's a few links I've found too:
http://www.mobileorchard.com/five-tips-for-getting-iphone-reviews/
http://www.mobileorchard.com/6-tips-to-get-your-app-noticed/
Hope it helps!
Brad
PS: One other thing I think would help an app get noticed, but haven't implemented, is a facebook notification feature to let friends know when they're friends are playing a game, and compete, etc.
Posted 2 years ago # -
bradparks
MemberHere's another article for marketing iPhone games that is targetted at indie developers. Alot of what it says is start marketing long before you release the game, via twitter, blogs, and exclusive content to review sites....
http://appgamer.net/features/2009/sep/3/industry-game-marketing-and-pr-lock-it-down/
Posted 2 years ago # -
bradparks
MemberOne more idea occurred to me ;-) That is, if you've had a game out there for some time, and it isn't getting "picked up" at all, why not consider basically re-releasing the game as a new game, by essentially changing the name of the game and posting it as a brand new game? You could change some simple graphics / title screens, etc, to make it a bit more unique from your original game, but I wouldn't even worry about that too much. I'd worry about it just enough to ensure that Apple doesn't get upset about it. I think alot of developers put alot of time into their first game, then it doesn't go somewhere, and they're left thinking "what next", and ultimately go on to build another new game, and apply their learned lessons to it.
Doing this would of course get you back into the "new apps" section, and help you start again for a game. For games that didn't get any press at all, this may be the time to fix what once went wrong ;-)
Food for thought!
Brad
PS: Of course, you could also close out your old game at the same time, but that might leave your old customers in a bad spot. But seriously, for a buck a shot, they got a game already, it just wouldn't get any updates from that point on. Or I guess it could, but you'd basically release updates for it at the same time as the new game.... Once again, food for thought!
Posted 2 years ago # -
shazbox
MemberI have yet to actually release the game we are working on, but I have a feeling that Facebook Connect will be a huge part of the marketing.
You can set it up to post feeds from your game however you like. This give you a chance to have an image and link to your website with some text or whatever that is seen by all of the friends of that person.
If you haven't already implemented it, it isn't very hard to do.
I read some sort of study or something at some point that said as far as advertising value, every 13 times you have your app posted onto a Facebook page is worth the average cost of a top 10 app.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Question: Has any of you tried advertising in facebook? If you have, did you find it useful? if you haven't, do you think it is worth the price?
Thanks!
PD: by the way i wouldn't mind if you became an Aqua Rush fan! :P (I made it 5 minutes ago so there isn't much content)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1520846133&ref=name#/pages/Aqua-Rush/266706275639?ref=mfPosted 2 years ago # -
I'm back guys :) lol
In response to you, there is no 'good' way. There are only things that you should do, but almost everyone else takes these necessary measures. Hopple had coverage from SlideToPlay which is one of the bigger iPhone websites out there and we got almost nothing from that.
You can try contacting bigger guys like IGN to get some sort of article written but they usually choose themselves and nowadays they pretty much do the big games. The 'best' way is hope that Apple features you, you're guaranteed some big bucks like that but you have no control over that.
In my topic I stated that all the marketing we did, through admob and everything else had almost NO effect on sales. I mean, we paid 100 bucks to have our ad shown on admob to 100 000 people in 15 minutes, through that we had 400 clicks (an insanely low number), and out of that 400 we have 0 conversions. People are desensitized to ads.
It takes a great app, and definitely a bit of luck. I've played some great games that never made it anywhere near the top 25. Just post in forums, and hope it takes off.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Oh I forgot to mention, posting on Cydia in my opinion is one of the best things you can do. Hopple now has 90 000 users on Cydia. It's a pretty large userbase and you'll find the users are quite loyal. I posted the full version of the game for free on Cydia and put in admob. I got a low click rate and then I just updated the game where within the game itself after they post a score I just requested very nicely that they click an ad. Telling them how hard it is for a developer.
The click rate shot up to 10-12% which is huge for anyone that's ever used admob. Made some money from admob too, not crazy amount but definitely decent. When THM releases their second game (I'm not with them anymore), they're going to use Hopple to advertise the next game, FuzzyNauts. It won't be a crappy admob which people ignore, it'll be within the game asking them to please check it out.
That way 90 000 will see it, and it's more personal then an ad. All that's needed is a couple of really good days and conversion and then the app can shoot up and it MIGHT take off. I truly believe Cydia is a very good way. The amount of games is so low too, you're almost guaranteed 60k + users.
Early reviews mean almost nothing. A company has 20 iPhone to its name, and right after release they are free to download it and review it well on each account. There are so many high rated games that release that its impossible to differentiate.
Posted 2 years ago # -
By the way I think something as small as the name can be HUGE. Think about it, your average user looks at the free apps and sees a bunch of apps with the word lite in it. Then he/she sees your game in new releases WITHOUT that word.
Personally I download it if the game looks decent. At the very least they get a click from me to read the description. And then make the full version 'pro' or something. It's so easy to overlook it otherwise. Again its an unfortunate dirty little trick but in this market, it must be done.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I have a related question... does anyone know who to contact to get IGN Wireless to look at a game?
Posted 2 years ago #
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