How to wisely spend 15k-30k on new app marketing.

[Michal.FE]

Hi,

We're working on a new game and have a rather sizeable budget of up to 30000$ that can be used on marketing the game. I'd like to ask you what actions did you find worth the money in your experience with paid marketing.

The game is an RPG game with very nice visuals and great gameplay so I'm not afraid about the quality of the game, rather convincing people and letting them know that a game exists at all. I think that the most important moment is the premiere day so I'd like to concentrate the efforts on the day the game is released.

So far I thought of this kind of actions and would like to hear your opinions on them and, If you'd be so kind, to share some of your ideas.

- Facebook/Twitter share/retweet contests with small iTunes gift cards as a prize.
- Buying site skins for a week or two on major App Store Gaming sites (Ta, STP, 148Apps etc. but are they worth it?)
- Buying advertisements on reddit.com relevant subreddits
- Facebook and AdMob ads? (I've read they are not really worth their price, but maybe someone has different experience)
- Press releases via PRMac
- Buying reviews on fiverr for 5$/each

Do you have any other ideas that I could use? Maybe some services that I accidentally omitted?

Best,
Michal

[mr_wexer]

Forget PR Mac.

I'd talk to PR companies like Triplepoint or Appular to see what kind of launch campaigns they can run for you.

6-8 Week runs cost around $6K-$10k

[BravadoWaffle]

With that kind of a budget, I'd look into working with a larger marketing agency as mr_wexer mentioned, getting a high end trailer video constructed, and also working with ChartBoost or PlayHaven to acquire some initial users.

Don't waste too much on advertisements, web advertisements don't convert to mobile sales almost at all. They don't really cross the platform gap very well.

[Blackharon]

Originally Posted by Michal.FE

1) Facebook/Twitter share/retweet contests with small iTunes gift cards as a prize.
2) Buying site skins for a week or two on major App Store Gaming sites (Ta, STP, 148Apps etc. but are they worth it?)
3) Buying advertisements on reddit.com relevant subreddits
4) Facebook and AdMob ads? (I've read they are not really worth their price, but maybe someone has different experience)
5) Press releases via PRMac
6) Buying reviews on fiverr for 5$/each

Do you have any other ideas that I could use? Maybe some services that I accidentally omitted?

Best,
Michal

I've numbered your list to make it easier to talk about each item.

1) Of course. The added benefit of this is Facebook and Twitter fans are long term commitments (usually) so you'll have a larger audience by default each project.
2) Judging from how poorly our banner ads did, I'd pass on this. If the goal is getting downloads now, certainly not. If the goal is long term awareness this could help.
3) Unknown. We haven't tried it.
4) Facebook ads CAN help you A/B icons, character art, and other banners, but as a tool for getting your game downloaded I'd also pass. Same goes for Adwords.
Haven't tried AdMob.
5) As they said above: With your budget get a full service PR firm to help you. They'll have the contacts, the expertise and the experience. TriplePoint accounted for some 20+ reviews for us including IGN and (likely) TouchArcade.
6)Reviews on the App Store? No. Just no. Each review is a drop in the ocean.

I noticed you don't have TapJoy/Chartboost or similar service planned. I'd take whatever money you budgeted for banners and put that in your plan instead. I've heard from reputable sources that those made a big difference. We'll be trying that at the launch of our next game.

[Wizardo]

Hi. I checked out your homepage and watched your trailer. I noticed that when you click full screen or any other control in the youtube video, a new window pops up and directs you to the itunes page. Was this intentional? It was kinda irritating. The trailer did look really cool though.
Good luck with your game.

[Rainier]

I'm inclined to think advertisements on reddit will not work very well. Redditors are huge fans of AdBlock, so in addition to the poor positioning, historically low conversion rates of ads, and AdBlockers, you'd probably be better off taking others' advice and putting it toward those download boosting programs or a strong PR firm.

[MICHAELSD]

Make sure the game really is good and unique, or you'll just end up wasting the money. Advertisements on sites such as TouchArcade (and mine - can't promote it though) could certainly help though and are cost-efficient for the most part.

[R3v]

Of course go for Facebook Ads, they are must have now. Still in beta, however Facebook have already launched mobile ads for driving mobile app installs.

They promote your product in Facebook mobile app with big button Install app which leads users directly to App Store / Google Play. And they are still cheap, since there is a little competition.

Tho, I think you still need to sign up for beta.

[pat3ck]

- Buying site skins for a week or two on major App Store Gaming sites (Ta, STP, 148Apps etc. but are they worth it?)

That's a nice option if you have a deep budget. It will give your app exposure to targeted audience.

[iMing]

Originally Posted by Rainier

I'm inclined to think advertisements on reddit will not work very well. Redditors are huge fans of AdBlock, so in addition to the poor positioning, historically low conversion rates of ads, and AdBlockers, you'd probably be better off taking others' advice and putting it toward those download boosting programs or a strong PR firm.

I was at a conference where the developers of the Jenga game said they got a surprising number of conversions from reddit