I wonder if anyone has any advice about our advertisement on the front page of Touch Arcade. We're very new to marketing. The ad has been up for a day but has gotten virtually no clicks. Perhaps the look of the ad is no good? Or the message on the ad? The game name? What about the "available on the app store" message, perhaps it would be better if it instead linked to a website with more information and a video about the game. Other ideas I was thinking about were: Have it link to the post about the game in the touch arcade forum. That post has the video and a lot of positive comments from players. Mention the 99 cent price in the ad. Some ppl don't want to spend more than that on a game. Although other countries use other forms of currency than "cents" Thanks for your time, Randy
The first thing I thought was "grab dee'z nuts" and since then have ignored the ad. also, the ad itself isn't very good looking, looks like 10 mins in photoshop playing with the plugins to bevel some text. very amateur-ish looking.
I agree with Dogmeat that the name of the game, for me, is a massive turnoff. Having "grab" and "nuts" in the same sentence reads like a play on words that makes me scared to click on it. Even ignoring the text, there's nothing about the ad that makes me want to click on it. The ad does little to show what kind of game it is, or to offer anything visually that makes me peaks my curiosity. You've got a bee on one side of the screen, and a squirrel on the other. You'd probably have a lot more clicks if you showed the bee being chased by angry squirrels or vice versa, with a big question mark - i.e. the first frame of a cartoon panel, leaving people wondering what the punchline is.
I thought it was eye-catching. I already have the game (got a promo ) or I would have been drawn, personally, to click on the ad. As Dogmeat mentioned, it seems like a lewd play on the name. If this is intentional then I would say leave it. If you aren't tied to the message, maybe rephrase.
i say its the name, "grab bee's nuts" just scares me, change it and if thats the actual name of the game just change the entire thing, like get the nuts from the bee
The look of the ad is okay, as it shows a lot of what's in the game (bees, squirrels, nuts and balloons). I also think having a link to the app store is fine as well. As dogmeat said, the name is a problem. I thought the same thing when I saw the name. Anytime you have the word grab and nuts in a title, it's going to be open to double entendres you may not have wanted. I can tell you as a writer (and this goes for any creative field whether writing, game developing, music, etc) one of the hardest things to get right is a title. Essentially you have to sum up an entire work in a mater of a few words. I have no ideas at the moment, but if I think of anything I'll let you know. As an FYI, I did d/l the gam and think it's a lot of fun.
I think it's not a problem with the name of the game, it's a bit irrational to suggest changing the established name of the game. In and of itself it's a decent name; just the "grab" part could probably go. Whatever you decide upon, keep the Open Feint icon and maybe add the text "Open Feint" next to it, as I would think this is a good selling point for the game
Haha - I actually thought the name was hilarious, and it was the only reason why I clicked on the ad. I pretty much never click on ads normally. However, when I went to the store, the first screenshot turned me off. You really need to fix the outlines of the balloons and nuts and those cherries (?) in the upper left. I thought the ad looked cute and cartoony, but the game tries for some photorealism, and it doesn't mesh together very well.
Thanks a lot for the feedback so far. The double entendre of the game's name was intentional, but clearly "grab bee'z nuts" was taking it too far.
The ad copy, "grab bee'z nuts", is kinda ridiculous. makes me want to stay away from the game, though that's just my opinion; it may work to attract others. the graphics send me the message that the game is not a sophisticated game. looks kinda childish. as someone who works in marketing research for a living, my advice would be to convert impressions (number of times the ad is seen) into clicks. usually the way to do that is by making sure the ad conveys a specific benefit of the product, which, if you're not getting clicks, is clearly not happening. if you want to pm me, i'd be happy to offer my advice, and possibly work out a way we can do something more research-oriented to find out what is and isn't working.
I checked it out earlier today an frankly I actually clicked because I thought the graphics in the banner looked so bad. (No offense). I think the screenshots actually looked a lot better than the graphics on the banner which at least is a change from the norm. Based on the reception the game actually has gotten I must say it seems the ad doesn't live up to the quality of the game...
I'd agree - however the add does kinda grab the art style of the game, it just looks a little more crudely drawn. The in-game graphics are better, and despite the obvious joke the title is drawn from, the game is fun to play. I'll take Grab Beez Nuts over creepy Dexter any day of the week!
We're going to resubmit our ad art. Here is what we plan to go with. Any thoughts about this one? note: I thought I already posted this reply, so sorry if it double posts.
I definately like the new one better. I will be interested to see if you get more clicks. I'm wondering now about my own ad that I'm planning on running in that same spot. It concerns me that you said you didn't get too many clicks, because the ad grabbed my attention. Maybe I too need to rethink my banner. I, like many other indie game devs, fall into the category of having no marketing savy. Here is a rough proof of the banner I'm currently planning on running. Any feedback would be much appreciated. http://www.championsoft.com/stuntdriverapp
Wanted to point out that the ads usually catch my eye, but I usually look at the name of the game and look it up elsewhere, rather than click the ad itself. The number of hits on the banner may not mean that much...
Sorry to be an *@%$# but I have to disagree with the others. I feel the new one is just way too crowded and simply seems to go for the kitchen-sink + friends approach. I rather see you redesign the whole thing, starting with composition etc. Gathered, the banner format is hopeless when it comes to this but still... I also think the actual drawing of the bee and squirrel leaves a bit to be desired. I think you should design some high-quality artwork and then downsize it... Perhaps a dynamic close-up of the bee kind of flying "out" of the banner chasing a nut? Check out the Bee Movie game-cover. I don't mean to suggest that you copy this in any way, but it's got a dynamic flow. Again, sorry to be so negative, but I think your app deserves a lot better. The banner seems like something of an after-thought if you know what I mean...
