Mobile Game Launch: Crafting a Winning Strategy

For an effective mobile game launch, having a good strategy makes a world of difference. While there's no guaranteed route to success, you can increase the probability through strategic planning and execution. Considering the gaming industry's increasing competitiveness, it's crucial to adopt strategies that maximize your game’s potential for success.

In 2022, the entire games market generated revenue of over $184 billion and it's projected to grow to $211 billion by 2025. The revenue of the global games market will likely continue to increase over the next few years. This growth may be influenced by the continuous expansion of the gaming industry, the popularity of mobile gaming, and the introduction of new gaming platforms or services.

So how do you ensure you don’t get lost in this dynamic market? By undertaking activities that contribute to the success of your game. For starters, having a good launch strategy will likely help. But remember that these five tips below can be modified and applied to non-mobile games as well.

1. Set a launch date for mobile game launch

First things first, you need to decide on your mobile game’s launch date. This will help you set clear timelines for your entire project. And, at the same time, encourage your team to meet the deadlines.

Many gaming studios tend to postpone or reschedule their launch dates, which on most occasions proves to be detrimental. So, select a realistic date and keep checking your progress and performance quality to ensure you’re hitting the mark. It will also help with a pre-launch marketing time frame, allowing you to work on concrete marketing strategies before your mobile game launch.

2. Get researching

Research is an indispensable part of a successful marketing strategy, but you’ve got to do it right. From your target audience, and competitors to game genres and more, you need to keep an eye on your industry. This will help you identify any potential opportunities and threats, plan your every move, understand your customer needs and concerns, and cut any impending investment risks.

Audience

Knowing who your target audience is vital to channel your marketing efforts and also for your game development. Your target audiences are the people who are interested in downloading and playing your game, and you can decide on them based on your game’s style. Delving deeper into your ideal gamer demographics will give you an idea of how to draft better mobile game launch strategies.

Competitors

Competitive analysis is the practice of identifying key competitors and researching their product offerings, marketing, and sales strategies. There are two types to consider: direct competitors, those that fall within your game's genre, and indirect competitors, which cater to a similar target audience

Use specific keywords related to your game in your app store listing to find your competitors and analyze what they’re doing. Try checking the types of ads that your competitors are using to target their audience. Using tools such as the Facebook Ad Library will help you gain insights into their game advertising strategies. By studying your competition, you can improvise your business strategy.

3. Build an online presence

Create a website for your game

A key part of your mobile game launch strategy is your website or landing page. It's a great way to keep your audience updated about your project’s milestones. You can make it interesting by adding game trailers to let the audience know what they can expect. Consider adding a timer to create excitement about your game’s launch date. 

You’ll also need to use compelling graphics and copy to attract new visitors. Make sure to include links to your social media accounts, app stores, and press releases. Most importantly, use compelling calls to action (CTAs) to get your audience to take a desired action. 

Get your social media pages going!

Social media is an indispensable tool for video game promotion. Sharing information about game launches, contests, new deals, rewards, and more is all possible on social media. These platforms are excellent for creating a buzz and reaching out to your audience. 

Gaming companies should consider a range of platforms to reach their audience. Using these platforms can help you not only keep your existing followers engaged and updated but also attract new ones. And creating your social media account doesn’t cost a cent, so ensure you create at least one. 

Start a community or become active in others

A great way to get your game out there is to start your gaming community. Online communities are virtual spaces where people who share a common interest gather to discuss relevant topics. However, building your gaming community can be quite a task if your company is new in the gaming space, so you’ve got two options. Choose platforms like Discord to establish yourself, or become active in existing gaming communities.

Build connections

Elevate your mobile game launch strategy by building connections with your audience. From asking them to subscribe to your newsletters and signing up for your game demos to encouraging and motivating them to like your posts on social media, the more creative you are with your content the better your user engagement will be. 

4. Soft launching is essential 

Whether you’re an established organization or an emerging company seeking to establish your game, soft launching is a great way to know the pulse of your audience. So what’s a soft launch? It’s when you release your game to a restricted audience before launching it to the general public. This is one of the best methods for you to track customer behavior and see what works. Practicing this helps you test your game’s efficiency in terms of bugs, technical glitches, or any other issues that may arise in your game’s design. 

Soft launching also helps you split-test your marketing strategies, check user retention rate, and optimize your monetization approaches. Split testing at this stage helps you test different designs, and approaches and record audience responses to make informed business decisions by observing the key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter. 

A smart way to reach a targeted audience limited to specific geographies at this phase of your mobile game launch is by employing app store optimization (ASO). Employing ASO helps you optimize your gaming app to rank higher in-app search results, making it easier for your target market to find you. 

However, make sure you consider the points below before you soft launch your mobile game:

• Budget for soft launching your app
• Duration of your soft launch
• Geographies that you’re targeting
• Categories of users whom you want to reach
• Game features that you want to include in your soft launch release

By considering these elements you’ll get a clear picture of your app’s position. However, you need to keep in mind not to spend too much time and resources at this phase. Use the insights gathered to make your game better before you launch it on a global scale.

5. Time to release your game

Once you’ve upgraded your game after taking into account the feedback from the soft launch, it’s time for you to pivot it to a wider audience. A hard launch is when you release your game in its entirety to the public. Once your mobile game is available, announce the same through email marketing, updating your website or landing pages, and also on social media. 

Unlike soft launches, it's a challenge to upgrade the features or fix any errors after the hard launch. While soft launching helps you enhance your app, hard launch lets you present a perfect product to your audience that can generate revenue.

Press releases for your hard launch

One way to get the word out for your hard launch is with a press release. Get your press release kit ready and have it up on your website. It'll help game bloggers, journalists and influencers learn more about your game. Additionally, paid ads can maximize your reach and generate the hype that you’re looking for.

6. Track, optimize, and continue marketing 

Your game is live and available in the market. What comes next? Well, your work is not over yet. Knowing how your game is performing is essential to its success. You can use the following KPIs to track and optimize:

• Daily active users: How many users have logged in to your game on any given day? This metric answers this question.
  
  
• Retention rate: It's the number of users who’ve returned to play your game in the last 24 hours, two weeks, or 1-month timescale.
  
  
• Monthly active users: This reveals how many users actively play your game in any given month.
  
  
• Average sessions per user: This metric reveals the number of times users come back to play your game in a day.

And when it comes to optimizing, ASO is the way to go. But ASO is an ongoing process that involves adapting to market trends, analyzing user behavior, and making data-driven adjustments. With the aim of increasing the visibility of your app, which can lead to an increase in user acquisition.

Conclusion

An effective mobile game launch strategy is your key to the quest for success! Take control of your new game and market it in a way that generates the necessary hype and revenue. However, all said and done, achieving this feat is not easy. While the steps can seem pretty straightforward, if not done well can work against you and all the time and effort will be in vain.

Considering a mobile game launch strategy is essential for your app’s success. However, it’s a difficult task to do. But teaming up with a game marketing agency can help you design game marketing strategies that deliver results. At Game Marketing Genie, we can tailor a game launch strategy depending on your niche market.