I am thinking of spending one of those 3 sums advertising my next game when it is ready. What would be the most cost effective way to drive downloads? I was thinking for 250 maybe $50 facebook for mobile installs iOS $50 facebook for mobile installs andoird $50 admob android target $50 admob iOS target $50 youtube trailer
I don't think any of those sums would be enough to do anything. You're spreading everything too thin. You'll probably get a few hundred downloads from each of those but you're not going to get into any charts etc. You're also splitting your advertising between two platforms (android and iOS) - I think choosing one at a time putting effort into building a following then moving to the other would be better.
My line of thought is that if the game was good, then those people would form the seed. But if sucked well no amount of advertising I can afford would help. So you think that 250 might give me 1500 downloads? Are you saying I am better off doing nothing? I know it won't put me up the top of the charts, but I was hoping to get in top 100 of category which is fairly easy (I have done that in a few countries with low downloads on other games).
Im assuming your game is free. At $.20 per install (pretty good rate) you'd be at 1250 downloads for $250. I'm not saying you'd be better off doing nothing, Im saying you want to maximize your results for what you're spending. You want a positive ROI so you need to plan out what you're trying to accomplish. If that goal is hoping the game will go viral from your 'seed', then your plan might be viable. If you're trying to climb the charts and get organic downloads from the charts, your plan probably won't work. Most games don't go viral which is why I suggested consolidating your funds and potentially having more success from maximizing organic downloads from charts.
That is my goal, to create a seed. I know I don't have the money to force it to the top of the charts. But I also realise I need to let some people know it exists. Yes is will be free. There will be IAP purchases, but they will just be additional level packs. With the consolidation strategy which one would you choose? Would you still release android and iOS at the same time?
Facebook mobile ads weren't worth it for me for Android. I had better results with Chartboost doing 2 campaigns (2 different banners), with CPI at $0.05 to $0.015. Never tried it for iOS. I recommend consolidating your mobile ads for 1 platform like flathead said. Perhaps just release on Android first (since its much more easier to try out changes), do the campaigns, and see how well that goes. If its successful, use that money to boost the Android version. To be honest though, without thousands of dollars into the mobile ads, its going to be tough to get up the charts.
What would I do with $250 advertising budget? Buy a train ticket to a convention and walk around wearing a sandwich board. If I had 50x more, I'd hire a pr agency. There's nothing in the middle that I'm aware of.
Thanks for all the replies. This is certainly making me think. I was confident I had a decent strategy, now I am kind of thinking what should I do? If you make a game the goal is for people to play it, so I think just putting in the app store and posting on some forums isn't enough. I guess my long term goal was around 5K downloads and then if it was good it would grow, if it sucked then I would at least know, rather than say oh great game but nobody played it. For chartboost how many of those clicks resulted in downloads?
Chartboost minimum spend is $100 a day with a recommendation for $500 I was going to try that as well until I saw those prices. How that works for anyone I got no clue. I think you should keep your money in your pocket and just keep plugging away on forums. If it's free, you'll get 5000 downloads if the screenshot and icon are good. If they're not, pay someone $250 to improve them.
Which forums other than TA's are the best for targeting iOS gamers? I agree that it's a good strategy.
Rubicon: You've got a few nice games there and it looks like they have been quite successful. Do you have any experience with PR agencies, if so can you recommend anyone?