A Comprehensive Guide to Unlocking Successful Mobile Game User Acquisition Strategies

Introduction

Any app developer aims to get maximum downloads on their applications. Since a developer puts in all the work required to make their app perfect, it’s completely understandable that you would want the application to be the most useful.  

The more users you have, the more successful your application will be. While user-friendliness is a major element of successful app development, it alone is not enough to ensure a good response from the audience. In cases like these, you need a mobile user acquisition strategy.  

However, the user acquisition KPIs can be challenging to understand, especially if you are new to mobile game app development.

Mobile app user acquisition is becoming extremely competitive because of so many mobile games launched. By the year 2027, the growth of the mobile game industry will expectedly increase 7.36%. Factors like increased user interest, higher market demand, better technology, and others contribute to the high market demand. 

With the right user acquisition strategy, getting the right results from these strategies shouldn’t be a problem. For instance, some risks and experimenting are involved, but you can always try them to find the best strategies that work for you. Let’s quickly brush some basics before we move on to further detail:

What is User Acquisition?

User acquisition refers to attracting new users to your applications. It is the process of developing user interest in the application for more downloads. The right campaigns for products can make a significant difference in the results achieved. However, the kind of strategy suitable varies based on the following factors: 

• Users you want to attract
• Nature of your app
• Actions required

If you’re not sure how to develop a UA strategy for your mobile game or understand the user acquisition funnel—we have you covered. However, there are some challenges, like marketing your USP (unique selling points), learning about fraud prevention, and more.

Why User Acquisition Matters?

Learning about the trends and changes in user behavior, users can increasingly install an application, create a larger community for the app developers, and increase the game’s revenue and engagement. 

The strategies also help the developers understand the user needs and are the quickest way to increase the overall return on investment (ROI). This eliminates any guesswork and gives you information that can be confidently included in your overall strategy for optimal results.

In this article, we will discuss choosing the right mobile acquisition for acquiring app users for your app and get a better response this year.

Unlocking Successful Mobile Game User Acquisition Strategies

The right user acquisition strategies can make a formidable difference in the overall experience of an app developer. These professionals must know these strategies because just having a good app isn’t sufficient. 

By acquiring more users, you can get better profits and create a reputation for your application. Here are some of the most commonly used strategies utilized in user acquisition strategies you should keep in mind.

1. Blend Paid and Organic User Acquisition

Organic and paid UA strategies are both great options for better user response. They are a quick way to increase your mobile app’s popularity and revenue. 

In most cases, paid user acquisition strategies are a better option to begin your strategies with. As the brand and the mobile application become more popular, you can move towards organic search. 

Wondering why?

An application with a decent number of downloads from its release will likely succeed in the market in the long run. Apps with more downloads, despite being new, rank higher on the search results, allowing more people to find you—increasing downloads.

Most experts recommend this strategy because it’s a viable option to kick things off. However, paying for ads isn’t the only thing you have to worry about. As you go for a paid strategy, the ad will land users on their app-downloading platforms (App Store or Google Play Store). Therefore, listing your products properly matters even in this case.

By blending the paid and organic UA strategies, you can maximize the effectiveness of your strategy. It’s best to use both approaches to your benefit the next time you create a user acquisition strategy for a mobile application. 

The more methods and channels you utilize in your strategies, the more revenue you generate.

2. App Store Optimization (ASO)

One of the most common approaches you will see while developing a mobile game user acquisition strategy is ASO. The method is a cost-effective and tested method of attracting more mobile app users to the platform. ASO focuses on improving and optimizing the app store entry for a better ranking. 

You can think of it as a mobile version of an SEO strategy. Like SEO, it also works on indexation, communication creation, and other options.

With the right app store optimization approach, you can attract high-value users while minimizing campaign costs. If you’re planning to work on the app store optimization strategy, we recommend some of the following options:

• Keyword optimize app’s name and the description
• Add the relevant screenshots and user experience
• Select the most appropriate primary and secondary app categories
• Localize content

The ASO is a consistently changing process in which developers must consistently update their app entries for higher ROI. It can include changes to the app description for higher leverage. For instance, many mobile game app developers create games based on holiday seasons during that period.

3. Know the Game’s Target Audience

Mobile game app development is slightly different than other applications for mobiles. It requires a higher marketing effort and an understanding of the targeted audiences based on your game themes. Tagging these users only as “gamers” is not wrong, but it is not sufficient.

If we look at the user trends in the past, most mobile gamers were male. However, this has recently changed as gamers are from different backgrounds. Statistics reveal that the 55%of mobile gamers are women. 

Moreover, the average gamer is about 34 years of age, but some games even have a 50+ customer base. It’s safe to say there’s a diverse audience to target and a higher earning potential if managed carefully. Statista shows that there are over 2.2 billion gamers globally.

As a customer acquisition professional, figuring out the professionals that would like these games the most and identifying the methods to appeal to them is your responsibility. Simply put, you’ll have to segment your audience.

One of the most effective ways to initiate customer targeting is to learn what your competitors are doing. Learning about industry trends is a reliable way to ensure you get a good idea for finding the right games.

For example, game enthusiasts that develop a story game must first find the user base. The base for these games is mostly women, allowing you to target them accordingly. While segmenting the audience may seem like a lot of work—use the following factors as an indicator:

• Location
• Language
• Gender
• Devices
• Age range

Once you understand the user acquisition KPIs, it will be easier to understand consumer behavior. We also recommend understanding the user motivation to address them better.

4. Add Social Media Platforms to Success Gamer Acquisition

Social media is a viable option for developing UA channels for mobile applications. SMM (social media marketing) strategies are an affordable and effective approach in this regard. 

Facebook is considered one of the most viable options for intriguing individuals from specific locations. Its huge user base makes it an ideal option for consumer targeting. 

App developers have the option to gain quality users via Facebook. With an automated process for mobile app targeting, UA teams can optimize their audiences in a few different methods:

• Value Optimization Campaigns

 Value Optimization (VO) campaigns are best for reaching certain users. The measure comes from the time spent on these applications in VO campaigns and utilizes artificial intelligence to replace or remove ad dollars wasted.

• App Event Optimization Campaigns

An App Event Optimization (AEO) is a campaign that targets users likelier to perform a certain task. For example, it can be finishing a level or completing the registration on the game platform. AI-based optimization for these audiences ensures that a larger audience converts to the mobile application. 

With these two different approaches to advertising, Facebook is a viable option for conversions and user acquisition. However, the platform may be a bit expensive for ad inventory leading to increased cost per install.

However, it’s necessary to maintain a balanced approach because hyper-focusing on audiences may lead to missing out on opportunities. 

The best part about these social media platforms is their diversification potential. For instance, UA professionals can go for the following in their strategies:

• Twitter
• TikTok 
• Snapchat

You can target customers who will likely download your applications with these platforms. One of the biggest benefits of these platforms is that most users on them are reliable, with lesser fraudulent possibilities.

These paid promotions are a great option for businesses that have deployed paid ads and want to maximize their organic reach. A properly set up UA channel for applications and games can save the developer’s ad spending globally. 

5. Utilize the Visual appeal via Video Ads

Optimizing the user experience before releasing the game is a staple for most individuals. While this technique is slightly more expensive compared to the other modes, such as:

• Interstitial ads
• Banner
• Others.

You can showcase the in-game experience using video ads before the consumer purchases it. If your game is good, it should be enough to attract users for purchase. However, it extends slightly further as showcasing the game experience, and message effectively matters.

Game developers have a short span to intrigue their audiences for conversion, and doing it successfully can be challenging. Most experts recommend that game developers have over 2 seconds before a customer considers watching or skipping the video. 

Therefore, showing your game app in the best light makes a major difference. Therefore, putting this much effort into the game videos is crucial to the mobile game user acquisition strategy.

6. Deploy Google in your UA strategies

If you’re looking for user acquisition, it will never be complete without including Google. Google is currently offering various apps and platforms that can help acquire more mobile gamers. 

• Google Search

 Implementing the leading SEO practices as well as AdWords campaign creation are both viable methods to maximize the reach and ROI of your mobile apps. You can target a huge chunk of the target market by optimizing the app content for Google Search.

• Google Play

Google Play is the go-to option for mobile app developers as it has over 2.87 apps, significantly more than what Apple App Store offers. Google Play is a viable option to maximize organic search and helps create Universal App Campaigns (UAC). 

• YouTube

The audience base on YouTube has reached over 1 billion hours of videos daily. The platform has acquired a huge chunk of the audience’s screen time. Utilizing YouTube ads improves brand awareness (leading to better organic searches). The ads on YouTube work much like TV ads and are an effective way to maximize your user base.

• Google Display Network

 With Google Display Network, app developers can display their content to over 90% of internet users globally. If you can create a compelling ad linking to the product page, driving the right traffic should no longer be a problem.

• Google Discover Ads

 A Google Discovery ad has over 800 million users on average, which is a goldmine for UA professionals. The best part is that it provides complete control over the viewership, allowing developers to target their desired audiences.

Bottom Line

Unlocking a successful mobile game user acquisition strategy may seem like a lot of work, but that’s not true if you handle things smartly. Most professionals working in the industry are deploying various methods like Google optimization, ASO, SMM, and more to acquire more users. By amalgamating all these platforms for your strategy—reaching your target audience should be simpler. 

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