What is the Importance of Digital Marketing for the Gaming Industry?

What is the Importance of Digital Marketing for the Gaming Industry?

In today’s digital age, the gaming industry and its stakeholders are growing rapidly. As more and more people participate in gaming activities, games, the subculture of the past, are gaining popularity day by day and thanks to this popularity, the number of game companies is increasing day by day. Especially the increase in the number of independent game developers and the quality of their productions has started to attract the attention of even large-scale game companies. The competitive environment arising from this increase makes it increasingly difficult for the productions of companies in the sector to get ahead of each other.

At this point, digital marketing is a very important marketing tool for all game companies, regardless of their size in the industry. In this article, I will talk about both the importance of digital marketing and the details of the importance of digital marketing for the gaming industry.

Over the years, the gaming industry has grown from a niche hobby to a global industry reaching millions of people worldwide. With the rise of online multiplayer games, live streaming platforms and eSports tournaments, gaming companies have the opportunity to reach and engage with a wide audience. However, as the number of companies competing for attention has increased, it has become difficult to take advantage of this competition. To overcome this challenge, companies have to utilize digital marketing strategies.

Digital Marketing and the Gaming Industry;

Digital marketing encompasses a variety of online strategies aimed at promoting products or services and engaging with target audiences. In the context of gaming companies, digital marketing involves leveraging platforms such as social media, search engines, content marketing and influencer collaborations to effectively reach gamers and eSports enthusiasts. Digital marketing offers numerous benefits to gaming companies, enabling them to reach a wider audience and build brand awareness. The gaming industry is a large and diverse market, with more than 2.5 billion gamers worldwide with different interests, demographics and spending habits. Digital marketing is the best way to market quickly and accurately to such a large community. 

One of the key advantages of digital marketing in the gaming industry is the ability to engage with consumers on a personal level. By leveraging data analytics, gaming companies can gain insights into consumer behavior, preferences and demographics, allowing them to create targeted and personalized marketing campaigns.

Benefits of Digital Marketing;

Targeting the Right Audience; One of the most important advantages of digital marketing is the ability to target specific demographic and psychographic characteristics. Gaming companies can identify their ideal target audience, understand their preferences and tailor their marketing efforts accordingly.

Creating Digital Brand Awareness; The biggest mistake companies make is their desire to move forward with a direct sales-oriented approach and create a quick profitability, but this is a completely wrong perspective. In the digital world, players-users now want to feel close to the person or people who produce the product-game, and even care about seeing themselves as part of the team. In the 1980s, Apple’s founder Steve Jobs’ strategy of first bringing Apple to a core user base and then building a brand-user bond in a layered way is the basis for the ownership of Apple products by its users today. If the user feels part of the company and if the company can position itself correctly and consolidate its place by producing quality work (see Rockstar Games quality), the long-term success of that company will go far beyond those who seek to achieve quick results in the short term. 

Through engaging website content, blog articles and social media profiles, game companies can showcase their expertise, share industry insights and interact with gamers to strengthen their ties with gamers, to name a few examples. 

Connecting with Gamers by Creating Engaging Content; Content creation is a fundamental aspect of digital marketing for gaming companies. By producing high-quality content such as gameplay videos, tutorials, reviews, and behind-the-scenes footage, companies can captivate their audience and foster a sense of community. Engaging content not only engages gamers, but also expands the brand’s reach by encouraging them to share it with their peers.

Attracting Gamers by Creating Hype; Hype marketing may be my personal least favorite use of digital marketing, but it can be said to be one of the biggest digital marketing benefits for digital marketing to deliver fast results. Promotional campaigns, the right influencer marketing, the preparation of professional trailers that will raise expectations, creating the perception that you have never seen anything like this before, and plenty of social media advertising will be enough to create the interest and expectations of the players. 

However, there is one point to be very careful here, and that is to set expectations too high to be met. Players should never be compared or compared to other consumer groups. When players do not get what they expect, they can shatter your game and your brand.

Adapting to Trends; Since digital marketing is a marketing method that can take much faster actions than old-style marketing, content that is suitable for new trends can be created quickly and at much more affordable budgets than old-style media. Since awareness will increase through this trendy content, advertising budgets will automatically decrease, which is of great importance for the profitability of the brand. However, there is a point to be considered here that you should not get caught up in any trend that does not fit your brand and game portfolio. If you apply creative content and marketing methods with the trends that suit you, you will get results.

Providing Quick Solutions to Players; Through social media, companies can quickly provide technical support to players while they are playing the game, during purchase, during installation stages, etc. Since quick solutions will enable players to solve their problems and experience the game quickly, both the game and the company will be welcomed with additional understanding in the eyes of the players. In addition, the user experience and success of the game will increase exponentially as the feedback and problems will be correctly communicated to the developer team and solved in the game.

Achieving Analytics-Based and Measurable Results; Old-style marketing methods gave very unsuccessful results in terms of measurability and campaign management. However, digital marketing is of great importance especially in the marketing of games, which are part of the digital world, due to its instant result observability and increasing the possibility of strategic interventions with instant analysis. Using web analytics tools, companies can monitor website traffic, engagement metrics, conversion rates and other key performance indicators. In addition, thanks to the instant analysis tools of ad panels, they can organize their ads step by step based on data and use their advertising budgets in the right ideals. 

What are the Methods and Strategies Games Can Use for Digital Marketing?

First of all, each of the topics I will talk about in a moment are very deep and branching in themselves. In this content, I will talk about what these topics are and how they can be used in terms of the gaming industry. If you want to learn more in detail, you can contact me.

Social Media Content Production and Marketing; Social media content production is a method used to ensure that your brand can provide and maintain uninterrupted communication with players-users in the most efficient way. The aim of a game company here is both to prevent itself from being forgotten by staying in uninterrupted communication with the players and to present the projects it is working on to the player community. It is an inevitable fact that the right content to be produced here will provide organic support for the formation of a permanent audience in the long term and the establishment of the brand’s bond with the players. When the content created here is supported by the right methods of the advertising tools of the relevant platforms, new people’s attention will be attracted. 

Google Ads; Google Ads is an advertising panel that you can use to easily promote-sell your company, your game, increase your brand awareness, and attract more traffic to your website. We can say that Google Ads is the most frequently used advertising panel especially for the advertising of the mobile gaming industry. For example, if you have a game company, the easiest and most stable way to promote your company with many advertising models is through Google Ads. Google Ads is one of the panels that should be used in marketing, especially since it is an advertising platform that incorporates the power of the Google search engine, the most frequently used search engine, and the power of Youtube, the best video platform owned by Google. In addition, its integration with Google’s analysis panels will make your job very easy in the analysis step. You can use Google Ads in many areas such as attracting followers to your internet site, downloading your game, creating brand awareness, making your content watched.

Live Broadcast Platforms Advertising; In fact, this is an advertising model that is divided into two. You can promote your game or your company by advertising on the platform itself on live broadcast platforms (my recommendation to you would be to promote your game in this advertising), and you can also agree with the publishers within the platform and choose the platform specifically for Influencer marketing. The most important issue to be considered here is the suitability of your game for the platform. In other words, if you have made a mobile game and you are thinking of advertising on a platform like Twitch, frankly, this will not make much sense. If you want to be seen on that platform, you can ask a broadcaster to take the time to play your game during a broadcast. However, when choosing an influencer, don’t forget to look at whether they appeal to the mobile gaming audience.

Youtube Advertising; Although Youtube advertising is actually a type of advertising model directly within Google Ads, the reason why I write separately here is that it is actually divided into two just like live streaming platform publishing. Here, just like live streaming platform publishing, you can use the ad panel of the platform or you can identify the most suitable content producers in it and have them produce content for you, or you can even advertise the content of the content producers that you have content produced, and you can use the content producer as a social proof and make your voice heard to the masses. But here it is very important that the content producer is not problematic with people, so do not forget to move forward with the right content producers.

Banner Advertising; Banner advertising is one of the advertising models within Google Ads, but this time in ad panels such as Meta and Criteo. Banner advertising is actually an advertising model in which your ad appears in the advertising areas of the websites related to your ad in appropriate sizes and with remarkable visuals. In 2024, according to advertising analysis, it is still a useful model, so it is not correct to see it as a primitive method. I seem to hear that you think you cannot reach people who use Ad Block, but you are already reaching those who use it in different ways, remember that it will be in your best interest to target the most basic users here.

Game Websites Ads; Yes, in this ad model, you don’t actually need any ad panel. In this model, you can proceed with two different methods. The first way is to reach directly to the relevant department of the site that has a game concept and you want to advertise, and by making a correct presentation, you can make an agreement with the site and make an advertising work in accordance with their format and structure, or you can start conducting a marketing campaign on websites with a large-scale game concept through those agencies by agreeing with the agencies that such sites can also be affiliated with. The most important point here is to ensure that the website transparently shares the ad analysis with you, and I recommend that you make your own analysis by creating analyzable links.

Social Media Advertising; In fact, social media advertising on the name is the advertising activities applied through social media platforms on the internet. The biggest reason why I separate social media advertising from content advertising is my belief that their strategies should be positioned differently. In social media advertising, it is seen in the user data analysis and advertising analysis that the aim of the product, that is, the game, rather than brand awareness, will give more accurate results. For example, if you have a game and want to download it by attracting attention, social media advertising will be a much more accurate choice for you. But if you want to create a community, it is important to combine your content advertising with your social media advertising. As you will notice, some advertising models are intertwined with each other but serve different purposes. For this reason, it is very important to work with the right people in advertising and marketing.

Playable Ads; Recently, you may have noticed that the game ads that you see in mobile applications are not only based on watching, but also on playing the game. In fact, the aim here is to arouse a player’s curiosity by playing a preview of your game without downloading it. Research, especially in recent years, shows us how important playable ads are and that they are on the rise. Generally, ads here can be produced in accordance with the relevant platform and can be organized as web, mobile and TV compatible. Playable or, more broadly, interactive ads can be defined as an ad format that takes the consumer out of the passive and spectator position, brings them into direct interaction with the brand and product, and thus can provide a brand experience at the first contact. In this sense, playable ads, which were basically born as a “demo game” format that allows mobile game companies to promote their games without downloading their applications, have rapidly become popular in the world of brands. These ads can best attract the attention of Generation Z, especially those who avoid ads and try to block them.

Search Engine and App Store Optimizations (SEO-ASO); SEO and ASO are actually one of the key technical issues of reducing the cost of advertising that will come out of your pocket at the end of the day, increasing your availability and increasing your brand awareness with your sales volume. While SEO (search engine optimization) ensures that your game’s website ranks higher in search engines and increases its traffic, ASO (app store optimization) ensures that your game appears higher in stores and reaches more awareness and downloads. Organic growth will accelerate exponentially, especially if the resources that are optimized correctly are supported with advertisements in accordance with the platforms. In other words, when you advertise an SEO-compliant site or an ASO-compliant application with Google Ads, you can see that it offers much better performing ads at a much lower price than sites or applications that do not meet these standards. 

Remarketing; Remarketing refers to advertising campaigns that are organized to attract the attention of target audiences consisting of people who have previously interacted with your company or games and will only be presented in front of them. For example, advertising efforts to attract the attention of a person who visits the download page or social media accounts of your company or game can be a very good example of this.

Influencer Marketing; Influencer marketing is a marketing method that allows you to market your game-product by penetrating directly into the primitive brain of users through the principle of social proof, which is realized at micro and macro levels with successful content producers who have an audience compatible with your product-game. The main purpose of this method, as I just mentioned, is to get people to contact or buy the game-product promoted due to their trust in the recommendations of people they trust and look up to. The most important point of this method is choosing the right creator.  If you do not work with the right creators, the investment to be made here will be completely wasted. In order to measure the analysis of this study, it is usually good to work with influencer agencies, but if you contact the creator directly yourself, you should remember that you must create a UTM link that can be followed.

What are the Analytics Methods Games Can Use for Digital Marketing?

Since the analysis methods I will talk about below are almost a training subject, just like the advertising models I just explained to you, I will try to explain what they are and what they will do for you.

Analysis Tools of Ad Panels; The analysis tools of ad panels are the panels that are included in each ad panel and allow you to analyze the performance of your ads with many parameters. For example, how many people clicked on your ad, which demographic characteristics people clicked on, which keyword reached your ad, how much they are interested in your ad or how much time they spend with your ad, and you can control the costs per ad show / click. 

The data from these panels will both enable you to optimize your ads correctly and give you ideas when creating audience and content for your new ad content. And also for remarketing, the data here is worth gold.

Google Analytics; Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool used to track website traffic. Also known as GA for short, this powerful service provides highly detailed reports that allow you to understand your site’s performance and find the best ways to drive traffic to your site. 

In addition to traffic-oriented data such as the number of visitors and bounce rates, also known as bounce rates, Google Analytics provides detailed records on the demographics of your audience, including location, age and interests. 

Don’t forget that you will also have very serious UX data through this panel. This data will provide you with clear data about your community, both for your next games and for your existing games, as well as through the users who visit your site.

Search Console; Google Search Console offers site owners many different tools to monitor the performance of their website. Using this tool, you can easily analyze how your site is performing in Google searches. 

More importantly, it is also possible to access important data on many topics such as which searches your website stands out in, backlinks, site traffic, etc. Apart from that, your website may be giving certain errors in Google searches. With Search Console, you can detect these errors and develop solutions to your problems.

A/B Tests; A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of a web page or application against each other to determine which one performs better. Both versions of an advertisement can be organized with different strategies and different content and then presented to the same audience and the reactions of the audience can be measured to measure how to advertise to that audience. You can even present two different audiences with different mechanics of the same level related to your game and measure which mechanic attracts more attention. A/B tests are a type of analysis that burns a little money, but if the data collected is well evaluated, golden results are obtained. 

Cohort Analysis; Cohort analysis is a powerful tool for understanding how different groups of users behave and interact with your game over time. It can help you identify key factors that influence user retention, such as game design, monetization, marketing and user feedback. It is very important to get the analysis right in this area, so I strongly recommend working with an expert.

Video

If you want to listen to my explanations on this subject and reinforce this subject by examining examples, I recommend you to watch my Youtube video, which I prepared in Turkish but also has English subtitles. 

Closing

You can contact me via my e-mail address and the contact section of my website and send me your questions about the Game Design Document. You can also browse my consultancy page to get consultancy from me on this subject. 

In this article, I tried to answer the question of What is the Importance of Digital Marketing for the Game Industry? See you in my next articles.