Promocodes giveaway. Does it make any sense?

[AA_Stacy]

Hi! Maybe there is the thread dedicated to promocode giveaways on this forum...
So what can you tell about promocodes giveaways? Are they really good way to promote your app? What is your experience?

[NickFalk]

My personal experience is that I've had little- to no effect by promocode give-aways. I aknowledge though that my less than stellar success is probably due mostly to the nature of my previous apps.

I believe promo code-giveaways could be useful as a tool the get the word-of-mouth going if you have a title that you believe should spark interest.

[Amelia]

I find that promocode give aways have generated interest in our game and, though not making a huge difference in sales, does get the game out there and creates some loyal fans who will do reviews for you and the like.
I feel for our next update, I will be a little more aware of where they are going. we ran out pretty quickly.
definitely feel it is a good way to generate "buzz" around your game or an update. whether or not that leads to sales in abundance is dependent on the game i think.

[EssentialParadox]

I believe a well-hyped game would do well to have a promo code giveaway in the form of a contest. That used to be the original idea, at least; the contest atmosphere would help anticipation for the game.

It seems that somewhere along the way a few developers forgot the point (or just got lazy) and are just giving away promo codes left and right without a contest, which doesn't do very much by way of marketing at all.

[kranx]

Are there any good examples of promo codes give-away contests?

[Stroffolino]

Blindly giving away promo codes in bulk is only slightly more useless than submitting them to the typical overwhelmed review site.

One nice way to build goodwill is to offer them to folk that have tried a lite version of a game and provided feedback. Putting promo codes into enthusiastic fan's hands is usually a win-win situation.

I believe a well-hyped game would do well to have a promo code giveaway in the form of a contest. That used to be the original idea, at least; the contest atmosphere would help anticipation for the game.

It seems that somewhere along the way a few developers forgot the point (or just got lazy) and are just giving away promo codes left and right without a contest, which doesn't do very much by way of marketing at all.

[jak56]

i believe that giving codes to reviewers will do you good (toucharcade, slidetoplay, etc)

[Jaytee]

i believe toucharcade specifically requests that you do not submit promo codes when asking them to review your game.

[bravetarget]

i believe toucharcade specifically requests that you do not submit promo codes when asking them to review your game.

I thought it was just if you were asking for a 5 star review.

[da shiz wiz 19]

i believe that giving codes to reviewers will do you good (toucharcade, slidetoplay, etc)
Cept for this kid.

This is what I would do, in order of priority:
1. Give promo codes away to people you know will give feedback, and reviews.
2. Start a contest (twitter, icon, game ideas, etc.). Something that requires people actually DOING work. But throughout the contest make sure you hype up your game a bit (too much is bad). People WILL be looking at your game for the contest. Then offer only like 5-10 codes. That way you can hold more contests in the future without waiting for an update.
3. Send a video of your game, with all the information needed to a major review site (Slide to Play, etc.). DON'T send it in to the smaller sites. I'm sorry to all those reviewers, but they just dont have a big following. Ask if they want to review it, if they do send a code.
4. If you become desperate ask people to PM you for a code.

But NEVER just giveaway codes. it's a complete waste.

[micah]

Each time I release a game prepare an email about the game, and I include a paragraph saying that promo codes are available if the reviewer is interested. Then I email it out to a huge list of review sites / submit the forms on their websites. I don't actually give out promo codes to them unless they ask, and it turns out that only maybe 5% ask, so I save a lot of promo codes.

And I've found that giving out promo codes on TA (even without a contest) doesn't really do much for sales on a whole, but I think it does get people to see your game and talk about it a bit. If you make people PM you for a code, then only TA forum users get the codes, as opposed to leechers, and I think people appreciate that. And if you ask people to write an iTunes review, they almost always do.

[fairlady]

Are there any good examples of promo codes give-away contests?

We've had some success with promo code contests... here's an example of one of ours:

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=18489&

By having a contest, you're more likely to generate some discussion about your game rather than just putting into the hands of a random person. Plus, it's fun to hold a contest and get involved with your customers a bit! :)

[da shiz wiz 19]

If you make people PM you for a code, then only TA forum users get the codes, as opposed to leechers, and I think people appreciate that. And if you ask people to write an iTunes review, they almost always do.

Leechers still get them. You just don't know the leechers when they ask for a code...

For devs: Join the promo code exchange group. Then you can see ALL the leeches trying to trading away 10-20 codes.

[AA_Stacy]

Each time I release a game prepare an email about the game, and I include a paragraph saying that promo codes are available if the reviewer is interested. Then I email it out to a huge list of review sites / submit the forms on their websites. I don't actually give out promo codes to them unless they ask, and it turns out that only maybe 5% ask, so I save a lot of promo codes.

Actually, it's a huge problem I think. Including promocodes in press releases is not a guarantee of reviewing. But the number of promocodes are limited to 50 and when I include promocodes to newsletters about the game, I can just waste them for nothing. And the same time those 5% who request codes, are bloggers who daily have 7-25 readers on their web page. How to find the balance?

[travisdunn]

Any number of things could impact the responsiveness of review sites, but for a basis of comparison I submitted Rogueship (http://www.rogueship.net) to about 20 moderate-sized sites, withholding the promo codes but asking if the editors were interested, in which case I'd be happy to send them plenty of codes.

Of those sites, only one responded, at which point I gave them the codes. None of the others have been in touch.

My feeling is that I may have been ignored by one or two sites due to withholding the codes, but most likely they are just too busy and don't have time to respond unless they've decided to review in the first place.

I'll probably resubmit to the sites later after at least one more update to the game. Overall, though, I'm happy I didn't toss my codes into the ocean. Instead, I gave them away to actual players who had valuable feedback. I think actual users and contests are probably the best way to spend codes.

[AA_Stacy]

Cept for this kid.

This is what I would do, in order of priority:
1. Give promo codes away to people you know will give feedback, and reviews.
2. Start a contest (twitter, icon, game ideas, etc.). Something that requires people actually DOING work. But throughout the contest make sure you hype up your game a bit (too much is bad). People WILL be looking at your game for the contest. Then offer only like 5-10 codes. That way you can hold more contests in the future without waiting for an update.
3. Send a video of your game, with all the information needed to a major review site (Slide to Play, etc.). DON'T send it in to the smaller sites. I'm sorry to all those reviewers, but they just dont have a big following. Ask if they want to review it, if they do send a code.
4. If you become desperate ask people to PM you for a code.

But NEVER just giveaway codes. it's a complete waste.

Your recommendations are very good, thank you.

It's not a problem to get a review on the small site, but it's hard to have your game reviewed on such site as TA or Slidetoplay or 148apps... even when you send promocodes...

[Amelia]

We got a really great response from reviewers when with holding promocodes. We just put in a paragraph that was something like "due to the limited amount of promocodes we receive, we will give you one upon request". and then people emailed back with requests. I think we got a 10% response rate (though not all the reviews have come out yet, and not all were from big sites).
Some of the bigger sites we gambled and sent promocodes to, without confirmation first. Figured that it would be more likely they would review. I guess it's a gamble. but at least one, for us, came through with just sending a code out.

[FancyFactory]

For the upcoming release of Age of Tribes I'm planing to offer codes in first line to review sites - but they have to actually request a code (so I dont send them in the first mail). Seems to be the best way from what I'm reading here. And the rest of the codes will go to the most enthusiastic players...

[KGameLover1]

For the upcoming release of Age of Tribes I'm planing to offer codes in first line to review sites - but they have to actually request a code (so I dont send them in the first mail). Seems to be the best way from what I'm reading here. And the rest of the codes will go to the most enthusiastic players...

Since i beta-tested, can i be counted as an enthusiastic player? LOL. :)

[jak56]

For the upcoming release of Age of Tribes I'm planing to offer codes in first line to review sites - but they have to actually request a code (so I dont send them in the first mail). Seems to be the best way from what I'm reading here. And the rest of the codes will go to the most enthusiastic players...

request eh?:)

[FancyFactory]

request noted for booth of you ;)

[jak56]

request noted for booth of you ;)

huh??? oh....

so do i count as an enthusiastic gamer or a reviewer?

answer: TRICK QUESTION! im both!:rolleyes:

[Hodapp]

i believe that giving codes to reviewers will do you good (toucharcade, slidetoplay, etc)

Any serious review site buys all their own games. Seems kind of weird to be critiquing games you got for free otherwise. The only promo codes that are useful to us are pre-release codes.

[jak56]

Any serious review site buys all their own games. Seems kind of weird to be critiquing games you got for free otherwise. The only promo codes that are useful to us are pre-release codes.

thanks for correcting me.

[lfg_grace]

Hi! Maybe there is the thread dedicated to promocode giveaways on this forum...
So what can you tell about promocodes giveaways? Are they really good way to promote your app? What is your experience?

I really enjoy promo code contests because it's an opportunity for me to interact with TA users. We try to conduct promo code contests that are fun and creative. Many TA users are quite gifted artists and writers. It's amazing to see what they can produce! For one of our current contests, I decided to have MidianGTX come up with the concept and host the contest. Midian's super creative (more so than I am) and he came up with a really fun idea.

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=41283

I paired up with Midian based on his response to one of our earlier promo code contests, which was to guess the story/plotline of our current game, The Horrible Vikings. A lot of people in that contest wrote amazingly funny and creative answers. Did the promo contest lead to increased sales of The Horrible Vikings? I have no quantitative data that could answer such a question definitively. Did the promo code contests bring attention to the game? Absolutely. There are many wonderful TA users who strongly support indie developers and will spread news of your game.

If you need creative inspiration, perhaps you can PM MidianGTX and see if he has any good ideas that will inspire you.

Also, the rules regarding promo codes, are posted here -
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=3726

[MikaMobile]

I don't think promo codes are a very useful tool, as Eli pointed out its a bit hard to trust a review where the player got it for free. In my experience, customers who are excited about our games/apps will write about them, make videos, and generally give us free, honest publicity with no effort on my part. Further, a lite version is way more likely to get people off the fence and try your game than the paltry amount of word-of-mouth generated by contests and giveaways.

I've given out very few promo codes for either of our games, mostly because its like a full-time job figuring out who's legit and who's not. It's crazy how many requests I get, some of which from tiny sites I've never heard of, or kids looking for free games. The most offensive e-mails I get are from people who are impersonating legitimate sites - one was claiming to be Arn from this site, but using some bogus hotmail account (clever). After that experience I just decided any e-mail with the phrase "promo code" gets filtered to my spam folder.

My policy is to give them to people or establishments I know and recognize, but in general I've never seen any review or press coverage give a meaningful increase in sales. Giving them out to random people is pretty fruitless.