The right budget for your Game

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by rajonbuzz, Mar 29, 2015.

  1. rajonbuzz

    rajonbuzz Well-Known Member

    Jan 21, 2013
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    We are going to launch a new game. We have a plan to spend some money on it. What will be the right budget? If you have a game to promote then how much money should you spend for accelerate the download? And where should you sped?
     
  2. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    Anyone here would just be guessing, but you need 5 figures to really make any sort of a dent.
     
  3. PikPok

    PikPok Well-Known Member

    Nov 26, 2009
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    The "right budget" really depends on your financial situation, so nobody here could really answer that for you.

    My advice would be not to spend everything you have on a single game, but to spread out your available capital across a series of games, allowing you to spread your bets and have some runway. Creating multiple games also allows you to learn from success and mistakes to make subsequent games even better.

    If you are new to creating games, then you probably don't want to spend more than 5 or 6 months on a single game, so as to not over invest. So that might be way to derive a budget if you work backwards from that.

    At the very least, make sure you have enough money to keep running for several months after you plan to release something, because even if you release a game that is successful it takes a couple of months to get that money back into your bank account.
     
  4. Eggsavior

    Eggsavior Active Member

    Mar 19, 2015
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    Depends on the market, starting from $20-50K for a mass market game on a developed market, according to several marketing agencies we have been talking to. Anything less than $5 000 is considered guerrilla marketing, but it may be enough if your game is so great everyone will just love it! :cool:
     
  5. rajonbuzz

    rajonbuzz Well-Known Member

    Jan 21, 2013
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    Yep, I have that figure. Now tell if you have $10,000 then what are the places you should spend your money.
     
  6. rajonbuzz

    rajonbuzz Well-Known Member

    Jan 21, 2013
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    Thanks for your advice. I think at least you should try once whatever your budget is. My question is what are the effective areas a developer should concern for effective marketing? What will you do if your boss gave you $5000?
     
  7. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    I would spend most of it on chartboost pay per install (assuming the app is free) and hope that my inapp stuff exceeds the cost of install. This would get you 3-4K installs.


    I would also spend a small amount (less than 500) on things like fiver and prmac to try and get the word out there in some more organic ways.
     
  8. PikPok

    PikPok Well-Known Member

    Nov 26, 2009
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    If you only have $5000 to spend on a marketing budget, then you are better off not doing any marketing and spending that $5000 on making the game even better or adding/improving sharing capability. That kind of marketing spend just wouldn't get you any real visibility.

    That would improve the chance of featuring, better word of mouth, and more virality.

    If you feel you have to spend $5000 on marketing, then you could consider running a campaign here on TouchArcade. The site has a large community of hardcore users and is visited by journalists from other sites, so if your app appeals to that sort of demographic or could otherwise get traction from that then you could consider that.
     
  9. rajonbuzz

    rajonbuzz Well-Known Member

    Jan 21, 2013
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    Thanks for your advice. Don't you think Press Release is an important sector? If so then which press release site would you prefer?
     
  10. rajonbuzz

    rajonbuzz Well-Known Member

    Jan 21, 2013
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    Thanks buddy, What do you think, what should be the marketing budget for great app? (As you know every day thousands of apps are launching in the app stores) One more thing, by saying 'TouchArcade campaign' what do you mean? Do you mean to advertise with 'TouchArcade'?
     
  11. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    PRMac is a press release, however the reality is unless you have something unique and super polished the bulk of sites will want to be paid for reviews. Most people who have got coverage have been from people they have had some sort of connection with .
     
  12. PikPok

    PikPok Well-Known Member

    Nov 26, 2009
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    Well, it depends on what you mean by 'marketing'.

    Most apps with launch budgets behind them focus on spend on user acquisition, so ads directly into mobile networks designed for prospective users to be one or two away from installing their app. Budgets required to generate a meaningful number of users will run fro the hundreds of thousands to the millions of dollars, given getting 'quality" users into your app is going to run you between $2-4. If you want to make a rankings play and are happy to attract 'trash' users who might download your game but either never play it or never spend, then you might be able to get them for between $0.10-0.50.

    Marketing spend on other media such as magazines or TV also generally commands high budgets in order to get large reach and produce meaningful download numbers and user conversions. That is typically why most games which spend in these channels are already large successes such as Clash of Clans or Game of War. These games are spending millions of dollars a month on TV campaigns, but they have the advantage of not only having high LTV, but also those campaigns can re-engage lapsed players so it has a retention benefit they can offset the cost against. So they can afford it.

    Which I guess leads me back to a $5000. That isn't going to get you very far on quality user acquisition. And it isn't enough to have a sustained rankings play. And it won't get you meaningful coverage in traditional channels. Which is why I'd suggest putting that budget back into dev to make a game which is more polish, more viral, and more eye catching for Apple.

    But if you had to spend $5000 on marketing, you can get decent value for money by spending that on banner ads and site takeovers here on the Toucharcade website. You'll generate some awareness amongst the press and hardcore users by doing so, and that might carry far enough to give you some meaningful downloads if your app is good enough. But, if you don't have a great app, spending $5000 marketing it is a waste of time.
     
  13. Storm Factory

    Storm Factory Active Member

    Apr 8, 2015
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    I just made a post about doing a $1,000 budget marketing campaign. For that campaign, my goal is to hit 10,000 downloads. That's on the upper end of success. I know for that amount of money, I could get at least 2,000 downloads using Facebook Mobile App Install Ads. The last Facebook campaign I ran got 1,500 install for $600.
     
  14. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    As someone who buys a lot of games i do find the above very true. I've seen a lot of marketing for some apps, i do then click on say the advert to see the app on the app store and often think 'nah' when i then see it as it doesnt look great.

    I do think theres too many companies trying to 'flog a dead horse' so to speak e.g. spend to much marketing on an app which is just poor.

    Quality apps like Leos Fortune and Monument Valley often arrive with no marketing hype but the huge positive posts from people seem to carry it through to lots of sales.

    But when an apps decidedly average its depressing hearing how much companies spend just trying to get sales. I think testers are so important, DONT test internally or with family/friends, ask on a site for third party testers and see what they think.

    Devs need good honest feedback, that can help them a lot
     
  15. rajonbuzz

    rajonbuzz Well-Known Member

    Jan 21, 2013
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    The very first thing I want to say you, 'THANKYOU'. You have spent some time for me and write such wonderful suggestions.
    Buddy,
    Suppose my app is good enough to attract thepeople. Suppose I have a unique game play which I found 96% (around 500+) peoplesay positive. Suppose I have done the ASO and localization for my game and in2/3 weeks I’m gonna launch my game.
    Here the question arises….
    What would you do for such kind of game? And howmuch money should you spend for such kind of game? Regarding the theory that I havegiven bellow….
    I want to be the spot right away.
    I want a huge download in the very first day.
    I want to create a buzz
    I want to spread the news in press
    I want to advertize with iAD and some other ADagency.
    &
    I want to go door to door for my game so thatpeople will at least know about my game.
    Thank you once again for your suggestion.
     
  16. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    If you are going to launch in 2/3 weeks and nobody here even knows about your game you already failing. You should be at least doing the free stuff like posting on forums trying to create some prerelease demand to help your opening downloads
     
  17. rajonbuzz

    rajonbuzz Well-Known Member

    Jan 21, 2013
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    Hey, that's nice. Did you start your campaign for one country or whole world?
     

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