Marketing reports and market data
1,537 documents·91 writers·5,954 charts and tables
Documents
GameMakers44 min
How to Prepare for the Future of Mobile Marketing! | UA Coffee Talk
The mobile marketing landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation as machine learning and automation consolidate the technical aspects of ad management.
- The role of the media buyer is shifting from manual campaign trafficking to strategic oversight as machine learning and automation from platforms like Google and Facebook increasingly handle bid and budget optimization.
- Success in mobile marketing now requires a transition toward creative strategy, product integration, and high-level storytelling rather than reliance on granular, device-level tracking.
- Privacy-driven changes and the erosion of traditional tracking necessitate a convergence of performance and brand marketing to maintain growth.
GameMakersMay 2020
GameMakers39 min
User Acquisition Under Crisis | UA Coffee Talk
Effective user acquisition during periods of economic volatility and environmental crisis requires a fundamental shift from long-term historical modeling toward a conservative, short-term focus on immediate performance metrics.
- Shift user acquisition strategy from long-term historical modeling to a conservative, short-term focus on immediate performance metrics like day-three or day-seven return on ad spend (ROAS).
- Avoid reactive, across-the-board budget cuts by segmenting performance data by geography, platform, and specific game design to identify pockets of sustainable growth.
- Maintain a proactive, competitive spending mentality during economic volatility to capture market share while competitors retreat, rather than defaulting to purely defensive budget reductions.
GameMakersMay 2020
Game Developers Conference62 min
Indie Game Marketing Tips With Failbetter's Hannah Flynn - GDC Podcast Ep. 5
Marketing in the independent game industry functions as a foundational development pillar rather than a secondary promotional task.
- Integrate marketing as a foundational development pillar from the earliest stages of production rather than treating it as a secondary promotional task.
- Prioritize sustainable, long-term growth through data-driven insights and niche audience targeting instead of relying on the volatile pursuit of viral hits.
- Diversify revenue models by combining subscription-based services with premium narrative-driven titles to mitigate financial risk and stabilize studio income.
Game Developers ConferenceMay 2020
Thomas Brush15 min
I just clicked "LAUNCH" for my game on Steam...
The primary objective of this analysis is to outline an effective, self-directed marketing strategy for independent game developers launching on the Steam platform.
- Reaching a threshold of 20,000 to 25,000 wishlists is the primary benchmark for achieving the high-velocity sales necessary to trigger the Steam algorithm.
- Developers must take full ownership of their marketing strategy to create a sustained 'tidal wave' of interest, regardless of whether they have publisher support.
- A successful pre-launch outreach campaign involves distributing press kits and keys to a curated list of journalists and creators, targeting a 10% response rate.
Thomas BrushMay 2020
PocketGamer.biz70 min
Prepare to Pitch - PocketGamer.biz RoundTable
The current indie game market is defined by intense competition and a low barrier to entry, necessitating that developers master the art of pitching to secure essential resources.
- A successful pitch must clearly articulate a game's unique selling point, genre, target platform, and monetization strategy while providing a playable build or high-quality gameplay footage.
- Developers should prioritize identifying publishers whose specific portfolios and business goals align with their project to bridge the gap between creative production and user acquisition.
- The primary objective of a pitch is to demonstrate a clear value proposition rather than simply requesting capital, as publishers provide essential risk mitigation, marketing expertise, and funding.
PocketGamer.bizMay 2020
Game Dev Unchained3 min
Presenter Announcement | GduX.me 2020
The Game Dev Unchained Expo (GduX.me) serves as a free, virtual conference designed to democratize access to industry knowledge for developers worldwide.
- The Game Dev Unchained Expo (GduX.me) is a free, virtual conference scheduled for June 1st–3rd, 2020, designed to provide global access to industry knowledge without financial or geographic barriers.
- The event features over 12 presenters who provide technical breakdowns and case studies on industry realities, focusing on both professional successes and personal hardships.
- Educational sessions cover critical business and legal topics, including long-term career sustainability, marketing strategies, intellectual property protection, and the legal implications of user-generated content.
Game Dev UnchainedMay 2020
Game Developers Conference25 min
Aesthetic Driven Development: Choosing Your Art Before Making a Game
Aesthetic-driven development prioritizes the creation of visual assets and audience validation before formalizing gameplay mechanics.
- Aesthetic-driven development uses visual assets as primary market research to validate audience interest before committing to full-scale gameplay production.
- A two-person Latvian studio successfully validated their game's art style through a 40-day visual testing phase, resulting in 10,000 copies sold within seven months of early access.
- Developers can gauge market appeal by posting daily visual concepts on social media, using metrics like likes and shares to filter ideas based on audience engagement.
Game Developers ConferenceMay 2020
GameMakers75 min
Ad Creatives Framework: Optimization Deep Dive (Matej Lancaric SuperScale)
Ad creatives serve as the primary engine for profitable user acquisition in the mobile gaming industry, functioning as the most effective lever for reducing cost-per-install.
- Ad creatives are the primary lever for user acquisition efficiency, with optimization capable of reducing cost-per-install from four dollars to fifty cents.
- A balanced creative budget should allocate 70 percent to video content, with the remaining budget split between static images, carousels, and playable ads to combat creative fatigue.
- To ensure a continuous pipeline of high-performing assets, 10 to 15 percent of the total creative budget must be reserved for testing experimental concepts.
GameMakersMay 2020
Game Developers Conference58 min
Empathizing with Steam: How People Shop for Your Game
Steam shoppers navigate the platform through a highly disciplined, eight-step discovery process that prioritizes rapid genre identification over narrative immersion.
- Steam shoppers prioritize gameplay over cinematics; they quickly skip trailers with slow intros or non-gameplay footage to identify the game's core verbs and mechanics.
- Users perform a 'hover' action on capsule images to cycle through four images, tags, and review counts to decide whether to click, making the capsule image the most critical element for initial discovery.
- Shoppers treat wishlists as transient lists they often forget, so developers should refresh their store page with new announcements, patches, or seasonal themes before a sale to signal that the game is active and supported.
Game Developers ConferenceApr 2020
Game Developers Conference52 min
What to Write So People Buy: Selling Your Game Without Feeling Sleazy
Marketing serves as a vital, non-coercive bridge connecting developers with their ideal players rather than a manipulative tactic.
- Email marketing is the most effective conversion tool, with a nine-day automated campaign achieving click-through rates double those of major social media platforms.
- Developers should prioritize building email lists over social media discovery, as direct communication channels significantly outperform Twitter and Discord for conversion efficiency.
- Marketing should be structured as a funnel—awareness, interest, desire, and action—to guide potential players toward a purchase without relying on coercive tactics.
Game Developers ConferenceMar 2020
PocketGamer.biz7 min
PGC 2020 Sessions @ PGC LONDON - Chris Kempt
Successful game development relies on a disciplined approach to creative management and team dynamics, rooted in two decades of experience overseeing approximately 100 web and mobile projects.
- Prioritize hiring T-shaped individuals who possess both broad cross-functional capabilities and deep specialized expertise to maximize team flexibility and communication.
- Avoid the pitfalls of over-documentation and design-by-committee to prevent rigid feature sets from stifling the core creative goals of a project.
- Implement a 'measure twice, cut once' philosophy by investing in thorough initial planning and clear ownership to avoid the high costs of rectifying mistakes later in the development cycle.
PocketGamer.bizMar 2020
PocketGamer.biz21 min
Superstar Session: Ready to Scale? What to Focus on Before Pushing the Button
Scaling a game development business requires a disciplined, analytical approach to user acquisition (UA) and capital management.
- Scaling success depends on identifying the point where marginal revenue equals marginal cost and operating just before that intersection to maximize profitability.
- Developers must transition from rigid budget-based planning to a dynamic model where finance and user acquisition teams are integrated for rapid, data-driven scaling or contraction.
- The core objective is to treat a game as a repeatable 'money-printing machine' where capital invested in user acquisition yields a predictable, positive return.
PocketGamer.bizMar 2020