How to advertise?

General (non-technical) Marketing and Monetization
#1

Ok, I am trying to figure out how some games get their name out faster! What am I doing wrong?

I have tried earnestly to get a review written about my game. I had one person, but he has to check, of course after he got 11 promo codes from me!

I have posted on facebooks, twittered till I can’t tweeter twatter anymore! I have networked, with everyone.

I see for instance Float did real good, and they should, it is an awesome game! But what did they do advertising-wise? Do I need to pay advertising. What advertising do you all use?

P.S. Here is my game, please tell me if you see any faults!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/capture-the-flag/id425835780
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGtO6qIWv_I
http://twitter.com/luckiiclovrlabs

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Jason [import]uid: 7197 topic_id: 8371 reply_id: 308371[/import]

#2

How did you make this video posted on youtube? I am looking for good app to create promo videos [import]uid: 12883 topic_id: 8371 reply_id: 32920[/import]

#3

Snapz Pro X [import]uid: 7197 topic_id: 8371 reply_id: 32944[/import]

#4

But I am looking for something better. Snapz Pro X has an issue with color correctness, and matching the audio up with the video frames. As you can tell in my movie, the cannonball shoots off and creates a boom, which is late in the movie but on time in the game. This can make your game seem unprofessional. If I find something better I will post it here. [import]uid: 7197 topic_id: 8371 reply_id: 32950[/import]

#5

Wink in Windows is a free awesome option. I used to make howto videos for my boss. It work great. [import]uid: 7197 topic_id: 8371 reply_id: 32951[/import]

#6

How old are you? If your a young kid you could try to get on the news? Make a lite version and put key words of other popular apps in your description.

–META NAMES ARE EVERYTHING–

Make a blog, and post your app everywhere!

Thats how you market for FREE! [import]uid: 29181 topic_id: 8371 reply_id: 33480[/import]

#7

  • Post in forums (look for the relevant section). Offer promo codes there to keep interest in your thread.

  • Tweet using hash tags, especially if you don’t have many followers - Tweet funny/interesting things using trending hash tags - possibly incorporating a cheeky link about your game :stuck_out_tongue: Use bit.ly or google url shortener so you can track how many clicks the tweet got, so you can refine it.

  • Contact every review site you can find, and ask them to review it

  • Contact youtube reviewers - a video review is nice to point people to

  • Consider making your app free for a day with a free app a day type website. Some charge - Its probably not worth paying to do it.

  • Subscribe here: http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/ and read their promotion section, and ask other developers in there for ideas. [import]uid: 8872 topic_id: 8371 reply_id: 35501[/import]

#8

I’m in much the same boat, I feel that I’ve exhausted my social net and after my initial surge, I’ve dropped off to nothing.

I’ve got a pretty established personal twitter account and out of the 600 people following me I’ve gotten 2-3 retweets total.

I have over 700 people on facebook, and outside of a few people I have on a much tighter community I’ve had 1-2 people acknowledge that it even exists.

Now I’m on another social net that is much more personal and they did a good job of promoting me and such, but if you’re not already there, it’s not going to do you any good, its a very “anti-advertising” bunch.

Your twitter account only has a hand full of followers. You need to get your followers up into the zillions but you are not going to get people to follow you if all you are are product announcements. Your twitter feed needs to be a mix of unique content, retweets of relevant information, replies to your followers. Just looking at your twitter stream I’m not sure I would follow you. Looking at my twitter stream for my game specific account, I’m not sure I would follow me.

But all that said, Twitter and FB so far have been wasteful.
My attempts at review sites have yielded nothing so far, but I did get a small site agree to review it after they do 3 other paid reviews. I’m not in a position to pay for any, nor am I sure your return on investment (ROI) would even pay for itself.

I was contemplating using a $100 google ad word credit but I have to make sure to keep it free. In some tests, that $100 credit would get me around 30-40 clicks with a CPC (cost per click) of around $2.00 average. So once I get past my free $100, if I wanted to continue that I would be spending $2 to try and get a click through so someone would buy a $1 game. That math was a quick and huge FAIL.

So I’m working to get OpenFeint/GameCenter added to my game, to try and get to that audience a bit. Get some achievements added etc.

But I’m still going to struggle against marketing.

My next step is to introduce a lite version of the game with in-app purchases either to upgrade to the full version or buy the ship upgrades that are earned in the full version.

I wish there was a magic answer for this. [import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 8371 reply_id: 38538[/import]

#9

I doubt there is any magic answer for app store marketing however I found this a good read - http://www.crawlspacegames.com/blog/marketing-your-app-on-a-shoestring-budget/ [import]uid: 5833 topic_id: 8371 reply_id: 38541[/import]