作者：Grace Kuo

根据过去5年多的游戏行业经历，我看到了游戏营销方面的巨大变化。最显著的一个变化就是从传统主机营销转向以移动为中心的营销——这也我持续学习的一个领域。移动营销的一个有趣之处在于它会根据营销对象和技术需求而不断演变和发展。这里并不存在一劳永逸的营销方法，许多当前的做法也来源于不断的测试。我通过在GREE的工作经历，学习到了包括以下关键经验的多种基本方法，它们适用于所有类型和规模的开发者。

苹果App Store和Google Play中的应用数量已经超过200万款，你该如何为自己的手机游戏优化营销策略？在GREE，我们通常采用5个步骤来执行游戏发布，每个步骤关注的是一个最大化游戏曝光度的不同方面。在此我将探讨开发者如何调整这种5步骤方法令其适用于自己的需求和资源，以便大小开发者都能够从中获得一些如何成功推广游戏的建议。

Mobile-Marketing(from viralblog.com)

步骤1：不断地调查研究。营销并非始于游戏出击市场之时，它早在游戏开发之前就已经开始。我个会与产品团队密切合作，确定每款游戏的两个关键环节：主题和美术风格。我们通过执行用户调查研究竞争对手的产品情况，这样可以更好的确定目标市场的兴趣所在。我们清楚正确的主题和美术风格可能会扩大潜在玩家规模，并极大影响转化率。所以找到合适的风格能够以较低的成本转化更多用户。

如果你的开发团队较小，就可以使用一些低成本工具来执行调查，以便衡量目标市场是否有意下载特定主题的游戏（游戏邦注：例如恐怖、奇幻、犯罪、战争等主题）。其结果会引导你走向正确的选择。当游戏主题确定之后，就要将自己的发现运用于美术风格并发挥创意！尝试以不同风格创造相同的角色/场景，并将其投入测试，查看玩家喜欢哪种设计。这种试错法可以让你预知一款游戏转化用户和市场接受度等方面的表现情况。

步骤2：与产品合作。在你为主题和美术风格定调之后，就要与开发团队展开关于一款可营销游戏必备核心元素的开发工作——这包括图标、名称，应用描述和截图。这是我们在GREE这一过程中的一个重要环节。

理解游戏的关键价值主张是开发一款富有营销可行性游戏的必然要求。我们通过焦点小组和调查观察终端用户行为，并从中得知以下因素可能影响潜在玩家的下载意向：

1.游戏评价/玩家评分

2.截图

3.应用描述

4.图标

图标：

应用图标对游戏曝光度来说极为重要，也是手机游戏建立品牌的一个重要环节。我们曾发现仅更改图标设计就提升了将近2倍的用户转化率这种情况。

我们在GREE公司内部就会创造了大量的图标，但也有许多创意机构会提供开发图标的服务。绘制出图标后，就要展开网络/移动调查、条幅广告和用户调查，或者使用A/B测试平台进行测试，以便确定玩家更喜欢哪种游戏风格。一开始可以推出20个图标（不包括其中的变体版本），并将其削减到5-10个左右。确保每次beta发布之前都要有足够可靠的图标集合，这样如果你的营销参数不能达标，就可以轻松将其替换。如果20个图标成本过高或在耗费时间，那就先测试两个看看哪一者更可行。

截图：

截图对手机游戏的整体营销成功来说也极为重要，因为它可以让玩家产生对游戏玩法的联想。最好是精心选择能够令你的游戏区别于其他竞争对手的独特画面。在GREE，我们通常会创造 3-5个载图概念，并在beta阶段测试，以便查看目标用户对哪个截图更能产生共鸣。

步骤3：测试，测试再测试。当游戏进入beta测试后，就应该测试它在转化玩家方面的表现了。你应该在拥有与美国市场类似的用户这种地区展开beta测试，这样得到的结果才更能反映出你向全球发布游戏后的情况。

要紧密监测你的广告KPI，确保点击率和转化率不逊于竞争对手的水平。应该要求你所采用的广告网络提供相关基准数据。

我们一直推荐向所有平台发布和测试游戏，但是，你也应该知道Google Play会允许开发者快速更改营销资产（包括名称、图标、截图、应用描述），而苹果App Store除了应用描述之外，更改其他任何内容都必须向其提交申请。

通常情况下，你需要6周时间才能看出哪些资产的结合能够最大化地促进玩家粘性。要查看你的广告转化率以监测每项资产的表现情况。如果你的广告投入、网络和条幅广告保持不变，任何转化率增长都可以看出新资产的表现情况。关键在于确保你增加了oCVR（点击率*转化率），这样你就可以用更低价购买安装量。可以去询问广告网络该类作品的基准参数是多少，这样你就可以衡量自己App Store载入页面的表现情况了。

步骤4：发布！当你完成所有测试后，就可以准备游戏的全球发布了，在App Store/Google Play中植入表现最佳的图标、截图以及应用描述。

步骤5：维护。这个步骤可能被开发者所忽略，但它却是最重要的环节之一！即便游戏已经发布，我们仍然要持续优化创意，以确保不断引进高质量的玩家。这包括更新截图，以及发布新功能时及时更正应用商店中的描述。如果遇上假期，你还要考虑更改图标和截图，植入对应节假日的元素。（在GREE我们就曾发现这样做可以提高转化率）。翻新创意很重要，这样你才能通过反映游戏的最佳元素而不断吸引高质量和高投入的玩家。

手机游戏营销的一大妙处在于你总能通过分析工具和同用户获取团队密切合作来追踪资产的表现情况。

作为营销人员，你可以采取多种行动确保发布成功。无论你的团队规模或预算大小，都可以利用移动营销快速制定适合自己的广告活动。营销和手机游戏行业会不断变化，所以很有必要把握好传统和非传统营销技巧之间的平衡。这里并不存在唯一的正确方法，而这也正是一个有趣的挑战。我期待探索游戏营销方面的新领域，并看好我们行业在2014年的发展情况。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Marketing 101: Everything you need to know about marketing your mobile game

by Grace Kuo

Having been in the gaming industry for over five years, I have seen tremendous changes within games marketing. The most notable change has been the shift from traditional console marketing to mobile-centric marketing – an area I am constantly learning from. What makes mobile marketing so interesting is that it continues to evolve and grow based on the market player and technological demands. There is no one-size-fits all approach to achieving an effective mobile marketing campaign and many current practices are based on constant testing. Through my experience at GREE, I’ve learned various foundational approaches including the key learnings below, which can apply to developers of all shapes and sizes, regardless of budget or scale.

With over 2 million apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, how should you optimize marketing for your mobile game? At GREE, we take a 5 step approach to our game launches, each focusing on a different way to maximize visibility in the mobile storefront. Here I will explore ways in which developers can tailor this 5 step approach to their own needs and resources, so that all developers big or small can take away a few tips on how to successfully promote a game in today’s crowded market.

Phase 1: Research, research, research. Marketing doesn’t start when a game hits the market, it starts before the game is even in development. We work closely with the product team to help determine two key pieces of every game: theme and art style. By researching competitors conducting user surveys, we are better able to identify what the target market is interested in playing. We’ve learned that the right theme and art style can really expand the audience pool of potential interested players and dramatically change conversion rates (CVR).  Finding the right style converts more users at a cheaper cost.

If you have a smaller development team you can create surveys using low-cost tools to gauge your target market’s intent and interest in downloading a game based on specific game themes (for example: horror, fantasy, crime, war). The results will guide you on what direction to take your game. Once the theme of the game is determined, you should apply your findings to your art style and get creative! Try creating the same character/environment in different styles, and put them to the test to see which designs your players prefer. This trial and error can help you predict how well a title will convert and be received in the market.

Phase 2: Partner with Product: After you’ve determined the theme and art style, it’s a close collaboration with the PMs to develop the core elements required for a marketable game – icons, titles, app descriptions and screenshots. This is what we do at GREE and is a crucial step in the process.

Understanding the key value propositions of the game is essential to developing compelling marketing collateral for our games. Through focus groups and surveys we’ve conducted on end user behavior, we’ve learned that the following factors affect a potential player’s intent to download:

1. Game Reviews/Player Ratings

2. Screenshots

3. App Descriptions

4. Icons

Icons:

App icons are very important to a game’s discoverability and a big part of the branding of a mobile game. We’ve seen CVR improve nearly 2x with changes to the icon design alone.

At GREE, we create the majority of our icons in-house, but there are many creative agencies that offer icon development. Once the icons are drawn, test them in online/mobile surveys, banners, and polls, or utilize A/B testing platforms to determine which style players prefer for your type of game. Start with 20 icons (not including variations) and whittle your choices down to 5-10. Be sure to have a collection of solid icons to use before each beta launch, so that if your marketing metrics aren’t at benchmark, you can easily swap them out.  If 20 icons is too costly or time-consuming, start by testing out just a couple and see what sticks.

Screenshots:

Screenshots are also extremely important to the overall success of marketing a mobile game since they give the players an idea of what the gameplay is like. It’s important to pick the in-game shots that show compelling and unique content that distinguishes yourself from the competition. For GREE, we create 3-5 concepts for screenshots and test during beta to find what resonates most with our target consumers.

Phase 3: Test, test, test. Once the game is in beta, this is your opportunity to test your assets to see how well they convert players. Beta should be open to countries with a similar audience makeup to the US, so that results are indicative of what to expect when you release your game globally.

Closely monitor your ad campaign KPIs and make sure your click through rates (CTR) and CVR are up to par against your competitive set. Benchmark data should be provided by the ad networks that are running your campaign.

We always recommend launching and testing on all platforms, however, you should know that Google Play allows you to change out marketing assets (titles, icons, screenshots, app description) quickly, whereas a submission is required for all changes (other than the app description) on the Apple App Store.

It usually takes 6 weeks to figure out the combination of assets that will drive the most engagement for players. Monitor the performance of each asset by looking at your ad campaign conversion rates.  If you’re keeping your ad spend, networks, and banners constant, any increase in CVR can be indicative of the how well the new assets are performing. The key is to make sure you are increasing oCVR (CTR x CVR) so that you can buy installs at a lower cost. Ask the networks what the benchmark is for that type of title, so that you can gauge how well your App Store landing page is performing.

Phrase 4: Launch!  Once you’ve completed all your testing and the game is ready for global launch, place the best performing icon, screenshots, and app description in the App Store/Google Play Store and hit SUBMIT (then pop the bubbly)!

Phase 5: Sustain: This step might be ignored by developers but is actually one of the most important! Even after a game has launched, we still continue to optimize our creatives to make sure we are constantly bringing in quality players. This can include anything from updating your screenshots to revising your store description if a new feature releases in your game. If there is a holiday, you consider changing your icons and screenshots to include elements from that event. (At GREE, we’ve seen CVR increases in doing so.) It’s important to refresh your creatives so that you’re constantly attracting quality and engaged players by reflecting the best elements from your game.

The great thing about mobile marketing is that you can always track the performance of assets through analytic tools and working closely with your User Acquisition team.

There are many things you can do as a marketer to ensure your launch is successful. Regardless of your size, scale, or budget – the beauty of mobile marketing is that you can quickly and completely tailor your campaigns to make sure they are worthwhile. Marketing and the mobile gaming industry changes constantly so it is important to have a good balance of both traditional and non-traditional marketing techniques. There is not one correct method and that’s what makes it an interesting challenge. I’m looking forward to seeing what new areas we can explore to market our games and excited to see what 2014 holds for our industry!（source：gamasutra）