Ok, so my game has good user reviews (5 stars average! Yay!), freshly patched... now I need to market it seriously. Christmas cash, lol. Does advertising 'work' for you pro developers? Also, how do you advertise in those little banners when you use some ad-supported iPhone apps?
I think it largely depends what you expect out of advertising, as it seems like a staggering number of people think the success of any advertising campaign can be directly measured in sales and raw click throughs. This might be anecdotal, but it seems like more than anything else what advertising helps the most with is just overall brand recognition- At least around TouchArcade. With so many fish in the sea, it seems like one of the best way to drive sales is just by building a reputation as a studio and getting a fan base who are excited to see the next thing you put out who faithfully buy your games on day one to help with that initial boost up the charts The source of that excitement/loyalty could be through tons of things, such as releasing existing good games, being active in the community, or brand recognition through advertising. It's no magic bullet though, that's for sure, and any advertising you do should be a part of a bigger multi-faceted approach towards not only promoting just your game, but your studio in general.
Hmm... so branding... about that... Which do you think is better: To appear 'pro' and have like a cool studio name, or just keep designing games as an individual? (it's just me but sometimes my brother helps) Personally, I liked 'tiny wings' because I think it's very cool that this one guy has created a really beautiful piece of art, like an electronic painting almost.
It doesn`t matter at the Beginning if you are an Indie or a huge Company - It`s still the Quality of the Product that has to shine and not the People behind it. Take a look at Angry Birds/Tiny Wings and all those other Clones on the Market - None of them had the same success so far and while some even had the same Quality Level as Angry Birds/Tiny Wings their lack of bringing an unique Experience will always have an impact on their Salestats. It mind sound harsh but you could be the honest and polite person on earth - if your Product doesn`t have an outstanding Quality and a unique Brand/Gameplay/... it won`t be a success.
Personally, I hope this is true. I don't have a lot of money but I have a little notepad full of what I think are unique game concepts and ideas. They will come to life in the coming months, muwahaha.
I can vouch for, no advertising does exactly what it doesn't say on the tin. Erm the tin being banners etc. Advertising is what the competition are doing. It helps them with the things mentioned above by Hodapp, plus you can at least hope for it to pay for itself. Obviously we all need to have high quality in many/all areas of our apps too!
None. I figured if I put an app out there it would generate a few sales which I could use the money to re-invest. The plan fell flat at stage 2 (twice), still paying for equipment a year later. I've had plenty of offers to advertise and they mostly look attractive...lesson is that you need money to earn money, as well as to make it!
As for personal name or studio name; my account shows both, though that was unintended. As I worked alone through most of the developments then in hind sight I would not have entered a studio name. The idea of having a bunch of like-minded friends build a brand was highly motivating for me, but I work too hard...shall we say! Now I outsource when I can, on a royalty basis. It's not ideal - ultimately you need a team located in the same building to get things 'really' done.
This is absolutely correct - it ain't just anecdotal. There's a expectation (due to the nature of online ads) that people clicking on an ad = sales. But if you approach it similar to how one would approach traditional media like tv, radio, magazine ads - in order to build awareness & recognition, with the added bonus that your audience can view app info immediately - then you won't be disappointed. But then that leads to the question of how can I tell whether advertising is effective, and the answer to that is to conduct market research. But that also takes time and money. Advertising, even online ads, usually has to be seen by a user multiple times - taking out a $100 ad on a highly popular website with rotating ads means that you're probably not going to get much traction. Hence the reason that usually bigger companies can afford advertising. So then publishers, developers, and advertisers (big and small - we did have a global financial collapse you know) start thinking of how to reduce ad spend while still effectively promoting a product. And so enter the world of social, where you can take advantage of your initial group of users - your fans, early adopters, the guys ahead of the curve - to start promoting the product for you. And if your app is well designed, situated for viral growth (or both), you can expect the number of users to expand beyond that initial circle of users. And whether it explodes and becomes the next Tiny Wings or something...well that's just timing and luck.
I think advertising plays a big part actually, even though the product itself is what the people care about.
@smashdev2011: I agree. Make more apps and cross-promote them w/in each other. That's the best advertising money I spent. This also allows you to spread the word easily everytime you launch a new title. Make some of your apps FREE and you'll increase app visibility. Aim for really good quality apps and not just 1 week projects. Hope this helps!
We actually wrote a couple posts about this topic on their blog. While we go on a rant in one post, that's probably not very useful to you Instead, you should check out the awesome guest post written by Zack Hiwiller about how to hack mobile game advertising. It's one of our most shared and cited blog posts so hopefully that means its useful . Rant post: http://betab.ly/rB3HJG Useful post: http://betab.ly/yEqQVZ Good luck!
Hey Smashdev2011 I fixed the quotes. Apparently linking to ������������������������ causes some kind of error. Strange Also, I noticed that you're in SF. We have a game monetization meetup in the area if you're interested: http://www.meetup.com/SFGameMonetization/ Cheers! Edit: Err, yeah, our URL (see signature) seems to be returning an error on this forum. Just check out those blog posts I guess
