PROMOTION : Are google pay per click ads worth a go to promote your game?
StormyStudio
United KingdomMember Posts: 3,989
PROMOTION PROMOTION PROMOTION....
I'm considering spending a bit of money to try and promote 'Quake Builder'.
I'm already sending out a press release to lots of review sites (I will continue to do that, once I've got some more promos to give away).
But I was wondering has anyone tried using google adwords, I would of thought if you were specific with your search term the price would not be too bad e.g. 'best iphone puzzle game' and pay up to 25 cents / 15p per click....
I may give it a go, and set a maximum budget and see how well it works.
Otherwise it means paying for reviews which I'm not sure if I agree with that...as all the big review sites 148.com and others don't seem to charge for reviews. Though you can obviously pay to advertise on them....
I don't want to waste the money if my game is not worth it, but at the moment I'm still quite proud of it, and I've already submitted one update.
Also got a 'lite' version coming out in the app store soon (currently waiting for review) hopefully that will help get sales up a bit..
I've been posting a load on Touch Arcade...so much so that I'm even annoying myself. But I'm sure this has led to a few sales. Also gave away about 30 promos to users if they private messaged me with their best joke/ or reason why they deserve one.
Sales at the moment have not really blown me away yet...28 on day 1, down to 5 sales yesterday. And its not yet been out a whole week.
I'm aware you need to do some marketing to get the message out there to beat the 200,000 other apps. It's just a shame its not as much fun as making the game in the first place.
Will make some more videos soon, something controversial to see if it can get some TV air time....
I'm considering spending a bit of money to try and promote 'Quake Builder'.
I'm already sending out a press release to lots of review sites (I will continue to do that, once I've got some more promos to give away).
But I was wondering has anyone tried using google adwords, I would of thought if you were specific with your search term the price would not be too bad e.g. 'best iphone puzzle game' and pay up to 25 cents / 15p per click....
I may give it a go, and set a maximum budget and see how well it works.
Otherwise it means paying for reviews which I'm not sure if I agree with that...as all the big review sites 148.com and others don't seem to charge for reviews. Though you can obviously pay to advertise on them....
I don't want to waste the money if my game is not worth it, but at the moment I'm still quite proud of it, and I've already submitted one update.
Also got a 'lite' version coming out in the app store soon (currently waiting for review) hopefully that will help get sales up a bit..
I've been posting a load on Touch Arcade...so much so that I'm even annoying myself. But I'm sure this has led to a few sales. Also gave away about 30 promos to users if they private messaged me with their best joke/ or reason why they deserve one.
Sales at the moment have not really blown me away yet...28 on day 1, down to 5 sales yesterday. And its not yet been out a whole week.
I'm aware you need to do some marketing to get the message out there to beat the 200,000 other apps. It's just a shame its not as much fun as making the game in the first place.
Will make some more videos soon, something controversial to see if it can get some TV air time....
Comments
The other option is to promote that, for limited period, a portion of your sales will be donated to earthquake survivors.
My game mutant mayhem has now hit zero sales for the last four days :-( It was selling around 2 or 3 a day for the first few weeks but now it has comletely died.
I am going to release if for free for a few weeks until the next up date has been relased (more game modes and lots more features) then release it with new screen shots and keywords. Hopfully this route might work. Oh I finaly got around to reviewing your game on the app store, good luck mate. Quake Builder it a really nice game (top 10 gamesalad game easy). So sending money on advertising will most prob pay off :-)
Initially when you set up your account it looks pretty in-depth and appears as if it has great potential. Just like AdMob (now kinda owned by Google) it's a pay-per-click model. The amount that your willing to pay per click will determine the chances of it appearing in the ad list on-screen. (Higher "bid", means higher chance).
I initially tried AdMob but they charged a minimum of $50 a day - and I wasn't willing to risk a few hundred dollars without knowing what type of return it had. I had read many mixed results on advertising results.
I signed up for Google Adwords, which costs an initial $5 for registration, and then you pay per click. I then set up a few dozen keywords that would give access to my ad. Once you ad and your keywords are complete you wait for approval from Google (much like Apple approval process).
Once they go through and approve your Ad, you can start generating hits. HOWEVER - here is where it went all wrong. Although they did eventually approve my Ad, they refused to approve most of my Keywords (these are how your ad knows when to show on screen).
It appeared that Google would refuse to allow keywords that were trademarked in any way. Stuff such as "iPhone", "AppStore", "iTunes", "iPod Touch", etc, were not allowed. However, months before I signed up for Adwords, Google had gotten new rules for trademarks in place, and according to their license agreement such keywords were fine for the US (only place I had the ads turned on). However, many many many weeks went by and they never approved the keywords. I contacted support a few times, and used their forum system, but never got a response, and never got approval on the majority of my keywords.
Because 95% of my keywords were prohibited (though their agreement stated they were allowed) I never got a single hit for a month. Eventually I tired of trying to deal with them, and canceled my account (and lost my $5).
Overall it was a VERY frustrating experience, and I doubt I will try them again. However, I should note: This was in the 2nd half of 2009. It is very possible they have retooled the system, and those issues are not still valid. Perhaps someone who has tried them more recently can shed some light on this.
I REALLY hope that GameSalad will incorporate iAd somehow as I would LOVE to use that system in my games. I also plan on looking into the cost of advertising on iAd, although I'll wager it won't be very cost effective for a .99 game.
@ Barkbark...like your style...could be the way to go...as long as Apple don't pull the game.
@VMLweb - Are you thinking advertise your own games on iAd...
@Chase - you may be right, only comes with 5 levels - hopefully if there are people out there that love physics puzzle games they will happily pay the 99c to play the full thing.
@Lazy Pix, thanks for the top 10 GameSalad mention...whether or not its true (I can think of a lot of good GS games) it makes me feel good about the effort put in.
@JontiStudios - sounds like a rubbish experience...will see how it goes...I used it recently to advertise my folks holiday cottage they are renting out...no trademarks needed..So we shall see.
Need to improve some things in my game still...
Gonna post separately for advice on how to do them though..
Anyone else tried Pay per click ads?
They accepted that sooty volcano game by MrFunk.....;-)
eeek... that is possibly bad bad taste...but I've typed it... so..lets test the waters...
Edit...ok its been 30 min since I typed the above and I really like the title...hmm...maybe worth a go...
I have started to redesign it, this is where I am at the mo:
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/7320/bigitunesicon4.png
Any suggestions would be more than welcome. :-)
Email: Simon at lazypixelgames dot com