Mobile Game Marketing – The Proven Tips & Tweaks for Massive App Success

By Venkatesh C.R8 mins read

With each waking day, competition continues to grow fierce in the mobile gaming arena as new apps hit the store like a torrential downpour in the fall. In this massive sea of options, your app can easily get lost in the crowd, and all the time and energy you put into it may just be in vain. To prevent that from happening, it’s important that you master the right app discovery strategies, and also figure out techniques for ranking high in the app store for mobile games. If all this has been a tough nut to crack for you, stay tuned as we give you the lowdown on how to boost mobile game visibility in search and anywhere else.

The State and Future of Mobile Gaming

Mobile gaming marketing is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. This year (2024), it is predicted to close very strongly at $106.8 billion, which goes to show just how lucrative and profitable mobile gaming can be. But it’s just getting started, with Statista further estimating a growth that will hold steady at a CAGR of 8.51% through until 2031. This may mean that it surpasses a value of $174.32 billion by that time.

As the market volume continues to show great promise for growth, this will naturally mean that there will be more opportunities for businesses to cash in on app store conversion optimization and mobile gaming at large. However, the law of economics also dictates that with this growth, there will also be an increase in competition, and the need to leverage advanced mobile game marketing tips to stand out.

The Subtle Yet Immense Power of Localization

Mobile app localization is a crucial yet often overlooked detail, yet it’s one of the most crucial things to figure out if you’d like to crack how to optimize game app store listing so that you can boost mobile game visibility in search.

Localization here refers to the process by which you can finetune a mobile application to meet the cultural, linguistic, and other very specific needs of your target market based on their habits and preferences. It’s not just about using language translation features but also leveraging other localization features such as:

UX Elements – adapting things like navigation patterns, button placements, and layouts.
Cultural Adaption – This involves configuring an app’s features and visuals (e.g. colors and symbols) to observe your audience’s cultural norms and practices.
Regulatory Adjustments – These are changes that you make in line with local privacy laws and regulations.

According to a One Sky study, you stand to lose up to 13% of users if you don’t localize your app to match the needs of your local audience. This therefore makes it one of the top strategies for ranking high in the App Store for mobile games.

The Role of Socialization & Communities in Success

If you’re looking to buy a new product that you can’t quite figure out yet, you’ll search for reviews online to get a feel of others’ opinions based on their firsthand accounts. It’s also highly likely that you’re bound to trust the word of authoritative figures like celebrities and influencers if they endorse a product.

In much the same way, communities like Reddit, Twitch and so on also play a big role in winning over new users for mobile games. Besides vouching for whether an app is worth the time or not, they also play other important roles.

Critically, such communities provide a place where app users can interact and therefore create user-generated content. This can help users create stronger connections with the app and over time, it can improve both app engagement and retention.

What’s more, this also provides a platform where developers can perform countdown events for new updates and feature releases. By creating anticipation and buzz around these events, you may just be able to increase free game downloads on iPhone and Android as well.

How to go about App Store Optimization

It’s often said that any marketer is only as strong as the effectiveness of his tools, which is why it’s also important that we tell you about the best ASO tools for mobile games that might give you a competitive edge. In particular, we recommend the following tools for app store conversion optimization:

Sensor Tower – you get advanced market intelligence that gives you a sneak peek at your competitors’ successful app marketing strategies
AppTweak – This can give you data-driven consumer insights that can help you understand your target market
AppFollow – With this tool, you can analyze app ratings, sentiments, and user reviews to help you raise your organic user acquisition rates on app stores

Beyond knowing what tools to use, other mobile game marketing tips also center around intelligent strategies. So how do I increase my app discoverability? Well, we’ll summarize it succinctly.

First, you need to conduct keyword research followed by leveraging paid user acquisition strategies like social media ads and app store advertisements as well. It’s very important to also tap into the appeal of influencers, given that 40% of Twitter users often buy a product due to a Tweet from an influencer.

You should also consider tapping into the power of in-app events, with some great examples including:

Live Stream Experiences – These occur in real-time and should preferably be based on new content and features
New Game Mode/Feature Premiers – These are major event updates where you can.
Game Competitions/Challenges – these require the player to attain a particular goal before the event closes

It’s important to remember that in-app events can appear within your product page, and even within search results so it’s an important face of game marketing that can boost your app store rankings. They can also appear under editorial recommendations and curation typically under tags like “Trending”, “Today” or something of the sort.

So with in-app events, you can greatly increase your chances of getting featured on the app store, as editors pay special attention to in-app events and other unique features. Therefore, in-app events may just make your app more discoverable and this can lead you to even more downloads. All in all, in-app events are an important cog in the machine that is successful ASO.

Are You in Need of Mobile Game Marketing Services?

Selecting the most effective mobile game marketing strategy is crucial if you want to stand out in the crowded market. At Dot Com Infoway, We provide a full-service package for game marketing that includes everything from PR and SEO to ASO and advertising to ROI boosts and much more.

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Engagement Activities – The Key to Attracting & Retaining Gamers

Getting a user to download your mobile game is just half the battle, with ensuring that they come back a second, third, and fourth time and so on, making up the rest of the struggle. In fact, the situation is very alarming with the average app losing close to 8 out of 10 users within the first 3 days alone.

Consequently, you need to leverage strategic mobile app strategies that can help you improve engagement, some of which include:

In-game Events – Time-limited contests or seasonal events can greatly appeal to a user’s urge to keep on coming back to check out the latest on going.
Rewards – daily rewards, such as free gifts for maintaining a daily streak, for example, can also help to keep your users hooked and coming back for more.
Leaderboards – This can also help you create a competitive environment, where users seek to outdo each other and therefore continually log in app time.
Push Notifications – Did you know that 90% of push notifications are opened? If you’d like to master how to optimize app store listing, then you need to start by crafting the right push notifications.

Future Trends in Mobile Gaming

The mobile gaming niche continues to be in a state of flux, with these disruptions fueled by advancing technology, changing user preferences, and market forces among others. That said, here are five important mobile gaming trends that are pushing the envelope, and which you can use to crack how to optimize app store listing:

Cloud Gaming – Now, players demand interactive games that allow them to synch up and collaborate with teammates online.
Metaverse Gaming – Compared to traditional mobile games, metaverse games are creating unique appeal due to the ability of gamers to explore games as avatars of themselves.
Play-to-Earn Communities – To further incentivize app downloads, developers are also developing play-to-earn systems where players are rewarded for the time they spend in-app.
Push Notifications – 90% of push notifications are opened, and this proves just why they are an important app engagement strategy.

The Secret to Success

You may have read countless articles filled with mobile game marketing tips that are “guaranteed” to increase app downloads and improve app store ranking. Even so, you may have found that success is still not easy to come by anyway. That’s why we advise partnering with experienced mobile game marketing agencies who have proven formulas, expertise, and creativity that can help you improve user acquisition for mobile games and meet other conversion goals that you may have for your application. If you’re looking for a top ASO game marketing agency to help you toward success, be sure to reach out to Dot Com Infoway today.