Best bang for your buck

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Runloop, Mar 29, 2011.

  1. Runloop

    Runloop Well-Known Member

    Nov 16, 2009
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    iPhone Developer
    Southampton, UK
    Hi all,

    I've scheduled the release of my new game for next Tuesday. I've written to as many review sites as I can. All the forums have a thread about it which I'll update when the game comes out. And I'll shortly be writing a press release to go out that day as well.

    Now, I've got access to a fairly healthy budget (for an indie) for advertising. So if you had £1000 ($1600) to spend promoting your game what would you do with it to get the most attention?

    Possibly ideas:
    • Advertise on TA
    • Run a competition to win an iPad 2
    • Admob

    My game:

     
  2. Runloop

    Runloop Well-Known Member

    Nov 16, 2009
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    iPhone Developer
    Southampton, UK
    Someone on Twitter just had the suggestion of offering an iPad 2 for the first person who creates a puzzle that 500 people play. I think this is quite a good idea:

    Firstly, as anyone can create a puzzle in the paid or lite version, so no purchase necessary.

    Secondly, to play shared puzzles you do need the paid version. So it might inspire groups of people to all get the game in order to play a puzzle and win the prize.

    Does this sound feasible?
     
  3. BravadoWaffle

    BravadoWaffle Well-Known Member

    Sep 25, 2010
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    Sounds easily gamed by a determined 13 year old. :(
     
  4. Runloop

    Runloop Well-Known Member

    Nov 16, 2009
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    I don't know. I've made it pretty difficult. However, maybe they should be reward for ingenuity?
     
  5. TinyTechnician

    TinyTechnician Well-Known Member

    Apr 21, 2010
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    Los Angeles
    If you have money to spend on marketing I think contests are the way to go. Contests generate a lot of buzz, especially if you have a big enough budget to reward something as big as an iPad2.

    Also, I kind of like the idea of sending that marketing money straight to the people who play your game...where else would it be going? To Google and sites who already have a cash flow coming in? Though I do think having an Ad here on TA is a good idea...this site gets a lot of traffic and well...I'm all for supporting the places and resources that we as indie devs use and go to :D

    So my 2 cents, contests all the way and then maybe create some FaceBook/Google ads to promote the contest itself :)
     
  6. headcaseGames

    headcaseGames Well-Known Member

    Jun 26, 2009
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    #6 headcaseGames, Mar 29, 2011
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2011
    very hard to say. Nearly a year ago I ran a contest for an iPad with my game (when they were brand new the 1st time around, to boot). I thought I was being all clever in doing so. it really backfired on me..

    I tied the promotion for the iPad contest in with all my PR for my game release. Nobody in the media cared at all (I was surprised) and I wasn't even able to generate much buzz between all my connections (which were pretty built up) as I had hoped. In the end a 15-yr-old kid cheated and took the prize fairly quickly and easily (he got me on a technicality, it's quite humbling to be bitch-slapped by a 15-yr-old I tell you what)

    Since then I've spent money on much smaller prizes and got much more buzz that way (it's amazing how excited people will get for $1.99 apps) I'm not saying iPad2 or similar prize is a bad idea, it's just not very easy to get good mileage out of it.

    It's very wise to have a marketing budget of >$1000 and I don't even know if that is enough. I am smack in the middle of researching how the hell to promote my own upcoming release and throwing some money around in that regard.. most of it goes to apps given out to people to draw them into my Facebook page and stuff like that, get them talking & involving their peers..

    as for buying adspace on TA or whatnot, I can't speak from experience but unless you have a Gears of War looking type of game I don't imagine it would get you much return..
     
  7. Syndicated Puzzles

    Syndicated Puzzles Well-Known Member

    Best bang for my buck (actually a buck 80)

    Amazing 18 year old that didn't have bus fare. Skinny with great big cans. Stayed at my place for 2 weeks until I got sick of not getting anything done.
     
  8. Runloop

    Runloop Well-Known Member

    Nov 16, 2009
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    iPhone Developer
    Southampton, UK
    Hmm... that does sound quite humbling. Maybe I'll avoid that approach and go for the smaller prizes like you suggest. I want to reward players for adding to the content.

    Fortunately, the way I've collected the data allows me to be quite versatile. One other approach could be to offer a weekly prize for the most popular puzzle. This way there is incentive to keep creating puzzles. This could be simply $20 of apps. Which for kids is a big prize I guess, and for me is next to nothing.
     
  9. Red1

    Red1 Moderator
    Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze

    Nov 26, 2010
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    lol...
     
  10. Runloop

    Runloop Well-Known Member

    Nov 16, 2009
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    Not really appropriate, but whatever.
     
  11. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    well the problem with the comments so faar is that, none of them worked.

    giving out different games to people did not do much at all to 180 sales in general.

    as for creating buzz.. to be honest.. one (1) ipad, doesn't really catch much attention imho.. its no enough.. it might be of interest for the general lurkers around TA.. but for something that goes international.. it does not sound like much at all..

    i assume (assume assume) that the 500er number is backed up a bit by the price of the device you want to hand out.. at the end you could hand out 10 ipads or 50.. if you put the "played goal" high enough..

    the question should not be around to hand out an ipad to a single player, but to attract buzz around the game..

    since this is all theoretical.. a little question to think about..

    would it be more important to hand one ipad out with one 500 played level..

    or to offer alot more but and scope for a bigger target.. if a level (or several) are to be played by 10k+ users.. this also means you sold at least this kind of numbers.. so your backed up by the success of the game to hand out more prices..

    if the game flops you will not reach the alot higher goals for the contest and no prices will be given out..

    if you look at contests which have a entry fee (your game in this case), they are usualy all finetuned so that the participants of the content are paying for the prices + big change for the runner of the contest.. so these contests are to earn money and to act as marketing..
    they are never suppose to go out with a minus, no matter how you turn it..

    another general problem is the contendens needs to be creative.. they does not need to beat highscore X, or achievement Y , but need to create something worthwhile other player will want to play..

    this may be a hard sale.. no matter with what prices its backed up against..


    at the end its all tricky.. if there would be a "right" way todo it.. well everyone would do it "right"...

    well good luck with anything you do!
     
  12. goldglover411

    goldglover411 Well-Known Member

    Apr 11, 2009
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    surprisingly, 25-50 dollar itunes cards generate a lot of buzz, especially on twitter and forums....... everyone wants money to spend on other things, because chances are if they are interested enough to buy your game, they will want to buy others too
     
  13. TinyTechnician

    TinyTechnician Well-Known Member

    Apr 21, 2010
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    Los Angeles
    Wow, after reading all the comments it seems like my suggestion of going for a big prize contest is not favored.

    What can I say, I've never had the funds to run such a thing and in my opinion I thought these contests did well...they at least caught my eye when others were running them. I think Camera++ had some big contest with a DSLR camera as the prize...I remember everyone talking about it but maybe the prize itself wasn't the buzz maker...maybe there were other funds used to generate that amount of buzz.

    I still like the idea spending marketing funds directly on players though, so I'm still in favor of contests. Maybe what headcaseGames says, start with smaller contests and see if that works. If it doesn't then you didn't spend much money on it and you could still run a big contest (though make sure the restrictions of the big contest catch all the loop holes).
     
  14. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    to what audience? promo code lurkers? kids and teens with no credit card and no income?

    its all a pov.. a 50$ promo card is for a normal guy with normal income nothing to hunt after..

    and then a ipad2 looking at 500$.. a bit steeper but in the end nothing "big" again..

    chances are high (like 100%) that any participant has already an ios device to play the game on and create levels with..

    so what you offer then is something they already have in a slightly different flavour..

    to make something that gets notices one needs to offer something thats out of the scope of an normal guys income.. if they read the news line they need to think

    "they do what?! .. thats crazy.. cool lets take a look"

    at the end its really depends what the audience is one is aiming for.. for some a cheap contest may be best, for some an ordinary ad camapign my attract the most interest.. for another it needs to be something huge..

    at the end its pretty linear thing.. the bigger the offer the more attention it will get..

    offer "a million dollar" and you will get your news site writing about it..
     
  15. kongzhong

    kongzhong Well-Known Member

    Jun 3, 2010
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    it's easy to win a ipad2
    but it's hard to let users know there will be a ipad2 to win
     
  16. Awesome_Sauce

    Awesome_Sauce Well-Known Member

    Dec 19, 2010
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    Use smaller prizes

    I agree and think that you should do a contest with smaller prizes. Maybe multiple 20 dollar gift cards. And make sure that you post many sites forums ESPECIALLY TA's promo code forum. I check that at least a couple times a day and i know a lot of other people check them too. You do see the occasional iPad 2 giveaway, but that doesn't seem to get that many people. Mostly because though it is an iPad 2, it's too much of a hassle to send it and other stuff. gift cards are easy all you need to do is send the code. So i would save the money and just giveaway 20 dollar gift cards to the first 5 people who's levels get 500-1000 plays (you choose the number). And maybe you give a gift card to the whoever's advice you take/which idea you take?;)
     
  17. What about buying iAds? Device-to-device promotion, your app could become an impulse buy? Has anyone done this, did you get a good return on investment?
     
  18. Runloop

    Runloop Well-Known Member

    Nov 16, 2009
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    iPhone Developer
    Southampton, UK
    Aren't iAds too expensive for a tier 1 app?
     
  19. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    Berlin, Germany


    there you got a prime example of the users we like to call advanced lurkers.. 14 post in 3 month most of them centered around promo codes..

    so yes, this is the audience (no offense saucy) you are aiming for if you go with tiny prizes in tiny portions..

    why because the chance it bigger for thoose guys to get something..
    but thoose are not the audience who would buy your game in the first place..
    thoose kids spend their money on the big names, and try to lurk off everything else..

    at the end its up to everybody else, but if you do a small contest you will get small to no coverage.. thats the way it works..
    again offer a "million" , something big, and you turn heads.. offer micro prizes and you get people on board who turn every penny around and moan about games costing $.99


    and iAds as an advertisier are as faar as i know whay out of the scope of ordinary indie developer.. if i recall right the latest minimum budget for a iad campaign was like 500k$ (recently dropped from 1 mil)
     
  20. lws

    lws Active Member

    that's for non-developers. you can talk with Apple about a deal, if you're a developer and want to advertise your apps.

    http://advertising.apple.com/developers/
     

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