Today in the competitive landscape of mobile gaming, traditional user acquisition (UA) strategies can be costly and may not always yield the desired return on investment.
At Tiny Wizard we're always on a lookout for ways to effectively market a new mobile game with reduced reliance on UA.
Here I'd like to share a few suggestions and ways you can improve your user-flow and implement a variety of alternative strategies that focus on organic growth, community engagement, and innovative promotional tactics. Let's not pretend these are rocket-science breakthrough insights, but it's always good to have a list in once place!
1. App Store Optimization (ASO) - Most obvious, but ever so important!
Optimize App Store Listings: You know the drill - work on those keywords, always run A/B tests for descriptions and visuals. This is a easy and quick win that can give you those 2-5% of extra KPIs!
Encourage Positive Reviews: Work with your Community Manager to prompt satisfied users to leave good reviews and ratings and always try to answer those bad reviews in the store - we want people to know that you care. Better credibility = more downloads!
2. Leverage Social Media and Community Engagement:
Build a Strong Social Media Presence: Don't be shy to remind your players of the game even when they are not playing. Engaging social media content will keep users entertained and loyal to your product.
Engage with Online Communities: Participate in gaming forums, Reddit threads, and Discord servers to interact with potential players, gather feedback and competitor insights, and create a sense of community.
3. Implement Referral Programs:
Referral Bonuses: Encourage existing players to invite friends by offering in-game rewards for successful referrals, fostering organic growth. Go an extra mile and create a more complex systems that reward players for referrals long term!
Friendship Systems: Build friendship systems that motivate players to play together and benefit from completing group milestones!
4. Collaborate with Influencers and Content Creators:
Go Small (yes): A lot of people will be surprised with this, but smaller communities and influencers are capable of bringing tremendous results. These communities tend to trust their influencer much more as they expect more genuine content from them. Long story short, don't blow all your influencer budget on big names. Reserve a good half of it for small and mid tier influencers.
User-Generated Content: Encourage players and creators to generate and share content related to your game, such as fan art or gameplay videos, funny moments, guides etc to enhance visibility. And don't forget to negotiate rights to use this content in marketing.
5. Implement Gamification in Marketing:
Interactive Ads: Use playable ads that allow users to experience a core USP of the game, increasing engagement and interest and allowing people to capture the essential hook as early as possible.
Gamify community content: Create live-ops events outside of the game, community leaderboards or events that happen outside of the game - that amplifies engagement and does not require dev support.
6. Organize Events with Third-Party Partners:
Small-Scale Tournaments: Collaborate with third-party gaming communities and platforms to host tournaments, fostering engagement and attracting new players.
Community Events: Work with local gaming groups or online communities to organize tournaments or community events that showcase your game. This is a great way to target a group of people that is guaranteed to like the genre of your product.
7. Monitor and Analyze Performance:
Data Analytics: Always track performance of your activities to make sure you can estimate your contribution and keep improving the impact.
A/B Testing: Constantly experiment with different marketing messages, visuals, and channels to determine the most effective approaches.
Conclusion: As you see there are many ways that can help you attract users besides traditional UA, BUT that does not mean that you should avoid UA. The best strategy is always to combine these ingredients. In what proportion? It's up to you to discover the recipe for your game's success.