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Android Game Promotion 2023 – How To Make It Successful

Android Game Promotion can be quite stressful. You have to find new users every day to grow your user base and interact with your app to have arrived at a point where the app marketing just runs from itself. This viral android game promotion is what you should aim for, but why is this so important?

Android phones are currently the rank one in terms of smartphone operating systems. The operating system is running more than half the smartphones around the world. And everybody loves games. They are responsible for over 70% of the worldwide app download traffic. Take a look at our infographic to see how Android is dominating the app industry.

Android Game Promotion Facts

So building games for the Android phones is a safe bet to make the profit. Although people do prefer free games overpaid ones in the android play market, if your android game has the factors that make it more attractive and engaging than other competitors, then it will surely sell.

The major problem with Android developers is that they are techies and not marketers. In order, one existential question occurs: how to make an android game successful.

The people that have success will most likely not give out pieces of advice to possible competitors. But well, here I am, sharing some of the working tips which you can utilize and create a buzz about the latest Android game you developed. Always remember, your android game should be rock-solid, and best android game promotion comes with the word to mouth marketing. And if you have any trouble with your android app marketing, just contact us.

Tips for Developers to make the android game promotion successful:

Here are my favorite tips to promote Android app games. You don’t have to use every single technique that I will tell you about, but every single step can and will if used correctly, help you get more downloads for your app. You should take a good look at these points if you are interested in buying an externally developed app.

Finish and Optimize the app before you start the android game promotion:

Before you submit your Android app to the market, keep in mind that the application has to be fully playable and should have a good interface.

One of the most under-appreciated but most important elements of modern game development, HUD, and UI design determines how players interface with the most core systems of a game. The User Interface of an android game can have a major influence

They serve to not only provide vital information about player characters’ status and the state of the world but are often key to shaping player behavior.

The urgency with which a health indicator signals a terrible wound or a mini-map emphasizes a quest icon, can dramatically affect how players interact with a game and what gameplay elements get priority.

Recognizing this, we reached out to developers who have some experience in the realm of HUD and UI design, to get some feedback about what some of the best designs in this space are, and what they do so well.

Clash Royale – Surface and scroll

Clash Royale is full of design lessons that are broadly applicable. A large part of its appeal stems from taking a simple premise (adversarial tower defense, with each player defending a king and two towers and buying offensive units) and presenting in an extremely sleek and refined package.

Android Game Promotion

Om Tandon, UX director at DIGIT Game Studios, praises Clash Royale for avoiding the pitfalls of so many other mobile games trying to appeal to a “mid-core” audience — players that fall somewhere between casual and hardcore.

“If you look at most mid-core mobile games today, you see a generic, cloned approach to a home screen, usually a base or a lobby screen with multiple entries point to other sections of the game like battles, events, shop, social, etc,” Tandon says this approach leads to a jarring sort of friction as players move back and forth from area to area or return to the home screen, each with distinct art and backgrounds.  And it increases load times, as “more and more features are dynamically populated by communicating with servers, instead of being native.”

Clash Royale solves this problem with a HUD that surfaces player controls instead of tucking them several layers deep in cumbersome menus, and a snappy UI that lets plays swipe through multiple tabs instead of treating them as discrete menus.

“Drill-downs are further reduced by populating secondary pieces of information on top of each primary scrollable section,” Om says. “And tab scrolling design is further complemented by an instantaneous population of content in each section, eliminating ugly load times.”

TAKEAWAY: The key takeaway from Clash Royale’s slick design is that information should be surfaced and as readily accessible as possible and that it’s no fun having to wait just to load one of a huge number of discrete menus.

It does not have to be the maximum end product, but it has to have every initial feature that you need to hook players in the game. Never make a mistake of submitting a partial game or a buggy game.

 Submitting a partial app will lower your users’ ratings and will blow your plan permanently. Also, it is known that Google’s play market algorithm will rank your android game higher if the users rate well in the initial stage. That’s one of the tricks to improve your download count.

But one thing that I will always recommend you and that should be your number one priority for your android game promotion is:

Get a gorgeous icon for the Android game promotion

How To Make Android Game Promotion Successful
App Store Optimization by Optimizely

This Infographic from Optimizely shows why.

Have you ever downloaded an app with no icon or an unappealing icon? Well according to the app market, people download apps on large based on their icons. Crappy icons blow your game to the bottom and will indicate an unfinished or poorly made app. Optimize and beautify your icons.

You should also make a list of at least 5 keywords that you think people are going to search for in the play store to find a game like yours. This is the initial step of every app store optimization. If you don’t know how to determine good keywords for your app, I would suggest you take a look at our post on ASO or you take a look at every one of your competitors’ games.

Don’t make this one crucial mistake for your app store optimization:

When looking up keywords of your competitors, if you are not going for a big budget marketing campaign and don’t’ have a social following that allows you to get 10.000 installs on the first day (note: you can order them from us if you want), go for long tail keywords with low competition and medium search volume. If you can, find keywords with no competition and high search volume, but it is very unlikely to find such gems.

Use a landing page for your android game promotion

Android Game Landing Page
Android Game Landing Page Design by https://www.indiegamegirl.com/

Yes, you read it right. I always recommend app developer to create a landing page for your android game promotion. Yes, your app will be listed in the app store, but it’s always a good idea to have a custom landing page for your game. This will not only help you promote your company as a whole, but will also help you to get more downloads for your app in the long run. Take a look at clashroyale.com

This Page has two main objectives: Building a community and getting in touch with (potential) users outside the play store. Content is king in 2018 regarding online marketing, and Android apps are surely one big part of the online marketing world.  

If you have never created a landing page, I would suggest you go with WordPress. This will help you to take care of the branding on your page and to add sections for screenshots and videos so that bloggers and (potential) users can find out more about your game.

If you can, create the landing page right away, not only after you published your game on the play store. This way, you already have an asset that you can use to get email addresses of potential users and you can also promote it on social media or with paid advertisements to get the masses hyped for your game.

Use Social Influencers for your Android Game Promotion

Are you struggling to decide if social media influencer marketing is right for you and your app?

Would you like to know how Influencer Marketing can yield an ROI of up to 650%? And why they are the best way to promote Android app games for a burst of installs?

Think about your most common daily used apps. Probably you use them daily.

What is the reason that you downloaded them and use them so regularly?

Did you come across them based on an ad in another app or social media?

Or did you get a mail sent by from a person involved in the app creation directly to you because you signed up for updates?

Chances are high, that you began using App because all your friends or colleagues were using it.

I would bet that you use one of your three top used apps because your colleagues at work, your family or your friends recommended it to you.

In other Words: Word-of-Mouth was your main influence.

This is one part of influencer marketing.

And App #2 and #3?

App #2 – did you download it because someone you follow on Twitter or other social media suggested it and you found it very useful? Can you remember who it was, a friend of your other a person you follow because he is part of an industry you like?

This is also influencer marketing.

And App #3?

Celebrities you follow on social media suggested it or used it.

Influencer Marketing as well.

Do you see the pattern?

Now think about the last time you saw an ad on TV, or on the sidebar of a webpage. Or the last ten.

Did you click on the ad or bought the item promoted? Chances are slim, that you actually did that… 

Android Game Promotion does not always trigger purchases, especially when it comes to mobile apps.

But is marketing android apps now dead and gone?

Thankfully not.

In today’s “socially connected” world, people tend to buy or download apps that those in their circle of influence use.

This is what marketers call Influencer android app promotion.

Android Game Promotion Facts about Social Influencer

As an app marketing agency, our focus is on building a brand’s integrity and ensuring that its sales continue over the longest possible tenure.

So, I’ve seen the concept of influencer marketing being used in the past.

However, its prominence in current times is inescapable.

Anyone, wanting to stay in the market must ensure that he/she is up to date with social influencers.

How exactly can Influencer benefit your android game promotion?

The basis of social influencer marketing is that it has certain qualities that render it exponentially more trustworthy to a potential customer than any form of traditional advertising. Here are its key differentiating factors:

  • Cost: Unlike traditional forms of marketing where the company pays a salesperson, celebrity or any person to intentionally recommend or promote their purchase, influencer marketing does not indulge in payment of any kind. The only exchange between the company and the ‘influencer’ is that of the usage of the product or in this case, the mobile app and the conveyance of interesting or pre-release information to the influencer.

This, of course, means that on the whole, a marketer will spend only a minute fraction on influencers compared to what would be spent on traditional android game promotion activities.

  • Credibility: Everyone knows that ads are not always trustworthy, and also that celebrities are paid to promote brands. So, when someone in their social sphere who’s a known expert in the concerned area recommends an app, they are much more open to giving it a try.

Android Game Promotion Facts about Social Influencer

For Example: Say you’re part of a community or group on Facebook about great vacation destinations. If the admin happens to suggest a particular app on travel and gives a couple of great personal experiences with the app, it’s more than likely that you and most others in the group get clicking to download the app.

  • Reach: Although traditional means of advertising appears to be far-flung, influencer android game promotion is more specific and has a ripple effect on its audiences. In fact, using social influencers can even cross countries and language barriers, provided that your app is capable of handling different languages and time zones.

Example: You hear about a great app on a social media site, you download and are impressed by the results. You then recommend it to your personal circle of friends and so on. Thus, the reach is indeed far-flung, and its impact/influence does not diminish with each share. The more people talk about the app, the more it’s popularity and credibility increases.

Using Social Influencer marketing for your android game promotion

Getting influencers to promote your android app for free is not as easy as it sounds. Firstly, because he/she has to begin using your app and in the process be quite pleased with its utility and design. Probably you can ask your app makers to embed the first feedback provided by him and re-release a version. You can also get in contact with android game review sites like androidcentral.com to get

If your app is able to do this, then the rest is easier. Bear in mind that the influencer will be willing to promote the app, only if it’s relevant to his or her group of influence. On the other hand, persuading a social influencer of an app that’s not relevant to his group, can also make your efforts less effective.

In order to use social influencers, it’s of utmost importance that you find the right influencers for your app. You could use a number of strategies to do this, however here are a few tried and tested steps in the right direction:

  • Do a search on social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram etc, for groups or common interest communities. The success of this endeavor, however, lies in how effectively you pinpoint one or more relevant categories that your app falls into. Pick the right keywords and then hit search.

The reason why you start on social media platforms is that studies have shown that users tend to spend more time on social media sites than on regular web pages.

  • Which social media site do you start with is also a tricky proposition. One way is to choose according to the diagram shown below. i.e., start with looking for influencers on youtube, then Google+ and then Facebook and so on. The reason being, you’re likely to get the most clicks/visitors through these sites.

Android App Promotion Facts about Social Influencer

You’ll also ultimately find that one or two platforms are home to the largest and most active influencers (who are relevant specifically to you).

So, pick one platform, to begin with, and see how it goes.

  • Alternatively, use online tools such as BuzzSumo, Klear, Klout etc., to find influencers or opinion leaders or experts in your area. i.e. related to the category that you would classify your app in. These tools make it much easier to pinpoint where influencers are most active and what the most talked about topics are. That way, you can begin marketing to your potential influencer at the perfect time.
  • As you begin streamlining your list of influencers, consider tangible aspects such as the number of followers he has, the level of activity, how long he’s been active, has the influencer promoted any product or service in the past? If so, how were the responses to his review/recommendations?

Using Social Influencers is a necessity in today’s cut-throat environment.

Great app development strategies can give you a head start, however, cannot make your app a hit.

The fact that over half of all launched mobile apps are now dead signifies the great need for apps with strong marketing back-up.

With scores of apps to compete with your app, however good, needs to be marketed properly.

Utilize the right strategies, identify the right influencers and only use the most effective platforms.

Instead of trying to use all social media platforms, use only the ones where your target audience has a tendency to ‘hang-out’.

Improved Spending, upping your credibility and expanding your reach is well worth the efforts you spend in identifying potential customers in your niche.

On the whole, finding, connecting with and engaging an influencer is not an easy task.

But it can be made a lot easier if you are clear about your app, its category and sub-categories and what you are capable of offering to your potential customers, then, you’re well on your way to success in mobile app marketing.

Use Paid Media for the Initial Phase of our android game promotion

Use a service like Adwords, richtech.info, or Facebook Ads to get your app out there. This will cost you some money, but it will help you get at least a medium traction and if used correctly, you should get a high enough rank

The best way to get a lot of installs fast is by using paid media such as Facebook ads. Facebook offers to advertise for an app (Both Android & iOS), and you can target users based on various factors such as age, location, mobile OS and many more. If you have an email list, you can use that to target your ad to a particular list.  Head over to Create Facebook Ads page & get started. If you are on a budget, you should go for a less targetable, but a more direct approach to app marketing.

Use social media

Social media can be the most important thing for your android game marketing strategy if you have social features integrated. (Hint: Do it, if you can) Submit your game to social media like Stumble upon, Reddit, etc. and if your game deserves some attention, then you might be in for some better downloads. Don’t forget to submit to the Reddit Android section here Android Reddit.

Submit to Multiple Android stores:

Do you know there are multiple stores to submit your Android app? Google play store is the most popular, but there are many others such as the Amazon app store, which is good too. Here I’m listing down some of the popular app stores where you can submit your Android app. You don’t have to build your game from scratch, just marketing graphics size to match to typical store.

Make a Freemium app

This has been the best way to get people to download premium games.

The free apps get the user base and then it will tend the user in buying add-ons or the full version if he likes it. Or you can simply launch a free app with an ad and promote an add free with some advance feature in your premium version. You can also consider launching your game for free for the first two weeks to increase the user base and later on you can upgrade the price. This android game promotion strategy works most of the time and for most of the apps I know of and is one of the fundamentals to create ASO for your paid app.

Promoting through Reviews

Nobody will buy your game unless you promote it. Hence marketing the Android app is as important as building one. The best method to market your game from my experience is through content and reviews. There are a few review sites that offer paid reviews. For paid option If you’re targeting specific to the android market, you can try few like androidtapp.com or pcworld.com or any service depending on your budget.

Few options:

Android Game Promotion through free content

But there are services that offer free publicity like MobileStartupz.com. It’s a startup voting community that ranks apps submitted every month end. If your game idea is good and fun, then it might even be on the site front page for a month if it gets enough votes. A site is also a good option if you have the same app for different operating systems because they accept Windows,iPhone and Blackberry apps as well. You can try this if you want to get an initial boost of downloads.

Promote your Game on YouTube

Make a couple of YouTube videos showing how the app can be useful to people or entertain them. Try to make the video using better clarity and understanding which is also worth sharing. Moreover, when you are going to drop a Pitch Email to any bloggers for review of your game, make sure to send him your video link. This will help a blogger understand your product better and will help them to write better app reviews. Moreover, most of the time you will see your videos will be embedded along with a review article, which will help in creating more awareness. We offer some campaigns to make your YouTube Videos more visible as well.

Press-release:

An effective tool to promote mobile apps is to send press releases (NDP) to media, websites, and blogs according to the category and topic of your app. There are many other tools to promote your app, but today we start with a very fast and simple one that has a high return if we do it right!

The effectiveness of the press release depends on several factors to promote your android game

Provide new and relevant information on an interesting topic to attract media attention.

Save the journalist or blogger time, write very briefly, neatly and synthesized and offer attractive materials about your application (press kit).

Send the press release to a selection of media regularly visited by the users/customers downloading your app.

Essential elements of a press release to promote your android game

  • App Name (example: Smartaxi, Toxic Origin, Family Team, etc.)
  • Description
  • Download link
  • Videos
  • Pictures
  • Price
  • Contact

In most cases, press releases are sent by e-mail, with the advantages and disadvantages of this medium. If your mailbox is full of spam and irrelevant messages every day, you can imagine how much a journalist gets.

It is important that the subject line of the email attracts attention right from the start in order to arouse curiosity and to want to know more about your application. Focus on writing a message that expresses what makes your application special. Spend time with it because it is important to encourage them to read.

Okay, you got their attention and they want to know more. Just as important as the topic, is the message. Here are some tips for writing good news:

Write a personalized Email 

Whenever possible, communicate personally and directly, including the initial welcome with his name and a small reference to the article or interesting news that have been previously published and whose topic matches your business app.

Description of your Android Game

In a paragraph, you should summarize what your application does, to whom it is directed, why it should be installed and what is the benefit for someone who uses it. Avoid using commercial language. It should be short and descriptive. It should contain information about whether the app is free or paid for, as available through app purchases or subscriptions, etc. Add an additional paragraph by highlighting some of the most important features of the application.

Download Links for your Android Game

It contains download links from stores where you publish your game: iTunes, Google Play, etc. Add links to your website, blog, press area, video, screens, etc.

Contact

It enables you to be available for further information, to answer questions or to invite you to an interview. Email, Phone, Skype, Twitter

Some common mistakes in preparing the press release that you should avoid when you promote your android game

Insert the word urgent in the subject of the message.

Too formal, more direct is better!

Press to have a message published. Avoid sending your press release continuously otherwise you will create a bad image and in the future, your messages will be deleted directly.

Insert files into the message. Better add your shortcuts to files in your post to avoid overloading your inboxes.

Send random press releases to mass media and blogs that have nothing to do with your app theme.

Don’t forget the App Store Optimization as part of your android game promotion

A fun and an exciting Android game that is easy to use, with unique features that set it apart from the competition, has all the ingredients to become a successful app. However, and unfortunately, not everything depends on the quality of the tool, but is part of mobile marketing. SEO and ASO (App Store Optimization) or optimization in the application markets is a basic requirement for the application to be known and successful by users and to achieve the success you expect. Positioning a mobile application within the various app stores is not easy, but there are a number of important points for your android game marketing strategy that can lead a particular mobile app to the top of the rankings of the various marketplaces.

If you follow these tips, you will have a better chance that your app will get user reviews and more people will get to know it and install it and as a result, your app will start to rise in the top lists of App Stores.

SEO as part of the android game promotion on all platforms

How to position an android app? Obviously, the number of downloads and positive reviews are data that help. For example, in Google Play the comments are very important; the more positive they are in relation to the total volume of ratings, the better the positioning of the respective application. But in the Mobile App Store, the number of positive reviews does not have the same effect. But the number of downloads is also important, so a large number of negative reviews at a stroke can prevent the application from reaching the top.

But not everything in SEO depends on the rating of the users or the downloads. There are other factors that influence the good positioning of the applications in the marketplaces.

Name

It largely depends on the name whether the application has a sufficient effect both in the search engines and in the app stores. The URL that the application receives in the marketplaces is automatically generated from the name, so the introduction of keywords is very important. In the case of a brand, you should include it in the name of one of the keywords, but be careful with it, as the marketplaces usually check ownership rights.

Labels

To select the right ones, you should use the words of your users that you think they choose to find the application. It is desirable that the name and the field for the tag do not share it. On the other hand, it is important not to overuse competitors’ keywords or use unrelated keywords to avoid penalties or rejection of your application to the App Store.

Description

It should contain essential information about the application, highlighting features that differentiate it from its competitors. The first few lines should help you answer the question: “What is it for?”. It is also not bad to give a comment about the ratings on relevant websites and where they were awarded. In addition, it is also very important to consider the target group. If the intention is to reach different countries, the possibility of translation in different languages should be taken into account. The inclusion of keywords does not help the position, but they are very useful when searching in marketplaces.

Audio-visual support

The images must attract attention and represent the application. They also have to meet the requirements in size and format of the individual markets, they can be cut to size and thus lose quality. On the other hand, videos are an important element as they help to increase the number of downloads and installations, even for paid applications or in-app payments.

Android Game Promotion and distribution

Once the application is ready for the audience, it is advisable to take care of the advertising android game promotion. These actions do not have to incur any economic costs. You can send press releases to different media, request reviews for reference in the main blogs or to those who have a good ranking and spread the application through social networks (Google Play takes into account the number of intuits in Google+). Finally, don’t forget the application directories, as they not only affect the ASO in the app stores but also in the search engines.

It is necessary to integrate SEO into your android game promotion. However, it is still at an early stage, so that it can become a more demanding discipline in the future. Therefore, you should always keep up to date with the developments that can arise in SEO.

Advertise about your game:

If you have developed a paid app, it’s always a wise idea to keep a budget for advertising too. Create a landing page for your game and put an advertisement banner on popular Android niche blogs. Though, if the budget is a constraint, you can always go ahead and take the route of free advertising.

This might Interest you as well:

What is your experience with android game promotion? Share your thoughts!

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