3 Step Guide to Boost Your Online Game Player Base via Influencers in Stay-at-home Period

Emin Valiyev

The coronavirus has hammered a lot of businesses, but it has lit a fire under others, including the online game industry. Its sales are soaring, but they could be even better. If you’re a game developer or publisher, one way for you to ramp up sales even further would be to use online influencers in your marketing.

This is particularly true for small companies with limited budgets. Influencers can take big online game makers’ sales to the next level and help start-ups and indie games gain a foothold in the industry at a modest cost.

Before we discuss how to use influencers to increase high-quality traffic to your game, and achieve other goals you have, let’s look at what self-quarantining during the virus has already been doing for the industry.

To start with, mobile game downloads jumped 39 percent globally in February as cities, states and countries began ordering people to stay at home to avoid getting coronavirus. In the United States, which has the world’s highest percentage of online game users — 72 percent of all mobile phone customers — online game playing spurted 75 percent at peak hours. Meanwhile, the gaming platform Steam saw a record 23 million users logging on. Turns out, all of the video gaming has actually been deemed a healthy way to stay connected to others during this period.

As good as these achievements were, online game makers and retailers could grab even more business by persuading current users to do more gaming and non-gamers to try their hand at it. And a key way to pull this off would be partnering with influencers.

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Most influencers would be glad to help because online game marketing would give them another source of income. Some would be especially eager because they have lost income from industries like travel that have been so hit hard that they decided to reduce their ties with influencers. So, what opportunities can influencers provide online game businesses, and how would you go about creating a partnership with influencers?

Here are some 3 Steps based on some of Keepface’s successful influencer campaigns with gaming companies:

#1 Target untapped-niche segments

With millions of people stuck at home, now is a great time to try to convince non-gamers to give it a go.

After you decide on traffic goals, choose the right social media platform for your campaign. YouTube and Twitch are the most popular for gamers, but depending on your strategy and the audience you want to reach, you might want to try something else — like Instagram, Twitter, or Tik-Tok.

There are a lot of micro-influencers out there. You need to identify those that are the best fit for you.

Start with vetting them on social media. Identify those who have high audience engagement levels and the ability to persuade their followers. Target untapped niche segments like intellectual youngsters, working women, or “experienced” fathers. ?

This means you need to find influencers who can appeal to different audiences.

Remember: A potential influencer’s gaming experience is the last thing you need to worry about. ?

#2 Launch an initial campaign

The next step is to make a trial campaign with a pool of selected influencers. Start with streamlined campaigns requiring minimal outlays. This can be as simple as putting a video link in an influencer’s story. Also, send your proposal to a lot more influencers than you need so you will be assured of a good response. For example, if you need 10 influencers for a campaign, pitch to 200. ?

A good strategy for pitching to a lot of influencers at the same time is to join Facebook groups that many are members of and float your proposals there. You will be surprised at how many micro-influencers will bite. Connect with them and you will suddenly enhance your influencers pool.

In addition, many automation tools can help you reach out to influencers. One is ours — Keepface. Automated tools not only help you select the right influencers but also help you make tailored partnership pitches to them.

Your pitch should consist of a concise but inspiring note that includes a description of your game, feedback from your clients, and an expression of how eager you are to work with influencers. Mention that you would like to do a trial campaign and, if the results are good, then begin a long-term collaboration.

Give them the content you want to be posted and ask them to do something simple in the first campaign, reward those whose posts performed well.

#3 Measure and optimize your success

Make sure you have measuring tools ready that can determine whether your campaign is succeeding. If you’re achieving the targets and milestones you set, you will likely want to stick with your campaign content and influencer. If not, change either, or both. The main milestone for any game marketeer is the cost per install (CPI), which you will need to measure with each influencer. CPI is what you pay each time when a user installs your game.

Give different download links to each influencer and compare the number of viewers, traffic, and the number of downloads that each generates. Use Adjust to gauge the performance of traffic coming from each influencer.

Also, give instant feedback to influencers who are doing a great job. And start a second campaign immediately with your best-performing influencers. Try different types of content delivery formats — like live streaming, sharing, tagging friends, and calling for group games.

Limit the time you devote to researching a campaign’s results. Start with one or two measurements, and add or subtract barometers as you need. Your goal should be to optimize campaigns one at a time, with particular focus on those that generate a higher return on investment.

If you are short on time and resources but still want to try influencer marketing, consider getting pre-built influencer campaign modules that you can launch immediately.