If a game has no users, it is as good as scrap. This does not mean that the game quality or design is bad. In the Android gaming market, more than 5 million games are published. Hundreds of games are being published every day, which is increasing the competition.
In this immense crowd, a single game may disappear, irrespective of its quality, but due to having a poor or no marketing strategy. A game can only be successful if it has a significant number of users and good retention.
Let's have a look at few of the user acquisition techniques through the following topics:
- Game promotion channels
- Game blogs and forum discussions
- Paid user acquisitions
- Other techniques
There are several ways to promote the game in the market. There are some game promotion channels that advertise in various mediums. A specific game genre channel promotes the same kind of games. Let's look at few of these mediums:
- YouTube channels
- Android forums
- Sports forums
- Facebook promotions
- Twitter and other social platforms
There are several YouTube channels that review and promote Android games. Many users follow certain channels for better games. Developers can approach these channels to review and promote their games in a way that users can get to know about the game.
A good game review from such channels can get developers a significant amount of users. However, such channels might charge developers for reviewing their games. Thousands of users may be found from such channels.
There are hundreds of Android forums available, and there are thousands of active participants that can be found talking about games, apps, development style and standards, and so on. Such forums are also good platforms to promote Android games. However, developers should be specific to the topic, and the game should have the potential to be talked about. A few hundreds of users can be achieved through such channels.
If a developer uses any Android-specific special feature and has implemented something new through technology, such forums are an excellent medium to reach out to users who are technology enthusiasts and hungry for new implementations.
There are many forums for specific sports. This method works mostly for games in the sports genre. The developer should talk to other members of a forum about games of the same sport. For example, if a developer has made a cricket game, then the game should be posted and promoted through cricket forums.
This method has an added advantage. As the forum is specific to the same sport, then the developer might find a few people who are experts in the sport and can share their valuable opinion about the game, which may make the game better.
Facebook is currently the largest social platform, with billions of users. It is a common practice for developers to use this platform for promotion of games. Social networking can find a significant number of users for a game.
Each game should have a page that should be maintained properly by the developer. This page is one of the communication mediums between the user and the developer. Such pages can be used to talk about the features and elements of the game so that new users have a good idea about the game even before they start playing it.
Twitter and other social platforms are also useful for game promotion and increasing the user base. Timely tweets about game updates and features can help increase the user count.
A social platform need not necessarily be a digital or web platform. It can be anything, like a social event in real life. Many developers organize events to showcase their games or participate in various events and competitions to get recognition. Good recognition for a good game can help gain more users.
Game blogs and creating forums for developed games can help in user acquisition. However, this technique works after the game develops a decent user base so that there can be a significant number of people who will participate in the discussion.
The developer can create a game blog for the game, where users can share their opinions, criticism, or suggestions for the game. This can make a game famous, which always helps gain users.
There are many marketing agencies that find users for games. Usually, such agencies charge developers for user acquisition. If the developer has the strength to spend real cash to gain users, then this is probably the best possible solution.
User acquisition charges may vary with region. The developer needs to research more on this, depending on the game genre and type; the users gained can repay the developer with more revenue. Sometimes, the wrong choice of promotion and a wrongly acquired user base may lead the game to disaster.
Besides the preceding techniques, there are several methods to gain users. Developers may come up with their own ideas for promoting the game. Some of them are as follows:
- Many times, the developer approaches users individually to promote games
- Many times, the game is promoted verbally through friends and family
- Many times, developers run campaigns for the game
- The developer may approach a good publisher to get help acquiring more users
- Sometimes, celebrities are used to promote the game
There is no fixed path for promoting a game and acquiring users. It is always a good habit to keep all the options open and aim for the maximum possible outcome.