Registering an impressive 13.3% increase in revenue from 2019, mobile games are slated to earn $77.2 billion in 2020. 2.6 billion out of 2.7 billion gamers in 2020 will play their games on a mobile phone. Now consoles, which remained the predominant device on which users played games on, have taken a major backseat. Mobile gaming apps are ruling the roost with revenues for many game apps surging past the billion-dollar mark each year quite easily.
If you are currently running a mobile game app development company, you will definitely be looking forward to carving a lucrative piece of this pie for yourself too. For this, first, you need a killer game that can get people addicted and a monetization model through which can earn revenue fast. But how exactly will users get to know about this game app being launched or its presence in the app stores is a major challenge?
Modern-day game developers are now marketing their new game apps through an entirely different but profitable route, one which brings them attention and conversions almost instantaneously.
This is being done through leveraging YouTube gaming Influencers.
These gaming influencers command a massive and more importantly, loyal fan base online on YouTube. Just look at how PewDiePie ruled the roost as YouTube’s biggest subscribed channel for years just by promoting an interesting style of gameplay and individualistic humor.
PewDiePie isn’t alone and neither is game app marketing being done through influencers just because they are popular. Influencer marketing through YouTube is bringing real-time results for game app developers across the world. Let’s look at some of the more successful examples of such feats in recent times to give you a fair idea of how great this niche marketing style is for gaming apps.
Far Cry 5 Promoted By H20Delirious:
H20Delirious now boasts of over 12.5 million subscribers on its YouTube channel. The format followed by this YouTube consists mostly of episode series exploring different aspects of upcoming games. Combined with some really cool animations and videos of exciting in-person gameplay, this channel consistently garners views in millions on its videos.
Seeing this, Ubisoft, the developer behind Far Cry 5 enlisted H20Delirious to promote their game. The end result? A spectacularly successful campaign that resulted in above-average views on each such promoted video. One of these videos even got more than 1.9 million views.
VainGlory Promoted By PewDie Organically:
PewDiePie is the most popular individual YouTuber in today’s world and his massive audience has been leveraged by many brands trying to bring the attention of his massive subscriber base to their new game.
PewDiePie’s best ability is to bestow uniqueness in each sponsored video that allows his audience to connect with the game rather than seeing it as a mere promotion.
Vainglory by Super Evil MegaCorp is among those as they enlisted him to promote their new game.
PewDiePie came up with a new gameplay storyline for this one as he asked his top fans to come and play the game with him. The video that runs well in 11 minutes has gained more than 2.2 million views.
BarBarQ Promoted By FGTeeV
A popular multiplayer game BarBarQ took FGTeeV, a top gaming YouTube channel, on board to promote their game through the launch.
However, this time around, the promotion style was a bit different. FGTeeV did show how the game worked, its best features, how users can learn it, and from where they can get the game, but the channel also explicitly mentioned that the game development company helped it donate money to charity through this promotional partnership. A brilliant masterstroke, the movie as well as the engaging video helped them get more than 2.3 million views.
YouTube Influencer Marketing Lessons For Game App Developers:
The aforementioned collaborations are just some of the countless instances where game app developers got YouTube influencers on board in either their launch phase or post-launch phase to promote their games.
However, just enlisting the YouTuber isn’t enough as a successful campaign requires you to understand a lot of critical factors and ensure that they are part of your campaign in order to increase your chances of gaining success.
Let’s go through some of these major lessons:
Limit Your Search To Those Who Match Your Game’s Genre:
Not every YouTube gaming influencer will be perfect to launch both, a game app for live-action duels and a mobile puzzle game app. Targeting the wrong influencer who has an entirely different niche can cause your campaign get fizzle out as you might not be reaching the right audience through it.
Limit your search within your genre and try to make a list of influencers who lie within it.
Pay Based On The Campaign’s Performance:
Your main aim of doing this in the first place is to power conversions for your game app and if a YouTuber is not up to the task, then they shouldn’t be paid a great amount. Paying upfront is the single biggest mistake you can make in this regard, instead, try to push for performance-based payments where the payments increase only when conversions do.
Don’t Bully YouTube Into Following Your Script:
Those YouTubers who have garnered millions of followers know what their audiences connect the most with, so interfering in their campaign will make your results go south. Give these YouTubers enough creative freedom with just some brief points to ensure that your campaign is off to a great start.
Wrapping Up:
If you want to make your game app a success in today’s world, then striking up a partnership with a YouTube gaming influencer remains an ideal platform to achieve this goal. Many brands have already done it successfully and if you follow the right template, there is no reason you can’t emulate their enormous success this time around.
