APP Promotion | Ranking ads, TV show introductions, Youtube introductions, mobile game promotions, which one is more effective?

Previously, we have introduced the promotion of mobile games in Japan. In addition to TV ads and LINE, there are also chart-topping ads, TV program introductions, Youtuber introductions, and Facebook and Twitter dissemination. Although these methods are not as effective as TV ads and LINE, they are relatively low-cost and easy to operate, and are also the most commonly used methods by independent game developers. This article will use examples to illustrate and compare the download effects brought about by chart-topping ads, TV program introductions, and Youtuber introductions for your reference.

The effectiveness of chart-topping advertising is declining

Among advertising revenue models, ranking ads should be the best in terms of cost-effectiveness, so many iOS versions of applications will choose this advertising method. However, due to recent changes in the App Store ranking algorithm, the number of advertisements required to improve rankings has increased, and other indicators such as coefficients and download numbers have also changed. There are many cases where an app has been on the list for a while but quickly fell off the list. For example, a Japanese game company once developed 35 games and used ranking-topping advertising to promote 18 of them. Among the 18 promoted games, 77% (14 games) of them saw their rankings rise, resulting in more than 100,000 downloads.

However, if we only look at the advertising results of games released in the past year, of the 11 games that use in-app paid ads, only 54% (6 games) have more than 100,000 downloads.

Although the quality of the game itself is also a factor, other Japanese developers have also felt that the effectiveness of chart-topping advertising is declining.

As the effectiveness of chart-topping ads is declining, people have turned their attention to video and TV promotions. However, TV ads are too expensive and difficult to verify their effectiveness. So for various reasons, developers generally do not give TV ads their top priority.

A Japanese game company once used one of its game "返信ください" (Please reply to the message) to try three methods: chart-topping advertising, TV program introductions, and Youtuber introductions, and recorded the effects of the three methods.

This is an email-based dating game with a total download count of over 2 million (1.2 million on iOS, 800,000 on Android, and it has run two chart-topping advertising campaigns in the past). The chart-topping advertising campaign in March 2015 brought in 33,000 downloads.

The following chart shows the changes in game rankings after promotion in three ways. On March 22, we used chart-topping advertising to promote the game. The next day, the game’s sub-ranking rose sharply, but it began to decline from that day on, and fell to its pre-promotion ranking two weeks later. Then the second round was a TV program introduction, which also resulted in a sharp rise in the ranking. However, compared to the effect of chart-topping advertising promotion, the ranking could only be maintained for about 3 days, and began to decline rapidly from the 4th day. Using Youtuber introduction after a week will not bring as good results as the previous two methods, but there will be a small increase on the second day of promotion, and the effect will also last for about 3 days.

The number of natural DLs, game DAU, and game ranking changes brought by the three promotion methods within a week

From the above chart, we can see that although the TV program introduction and Youtuber promotion were implemented 2 weeks after the ranking advertising promotion, they still brought a new round of growth. Therefore, it can be judged that the user groups brought by the latter two promotion methods are different from the first user group, and users who download games through TV program introductions should rarely look at the rankings.

In addition, judging from the trends on the 2nd and 3rd days after the promotion through the TV program introduction, although the ranking dropped from 51st to 72nd, the difference is not large, but the number of downloads decreased by three quarters, so it can be inferred that the increase in rankings through TV program introductions and Youtuber promotion has very little impact on the number of game downloads.

Based on the above, it can be inferred that the new users brought by TV program introductions and Youtuber promotions are likely to be downloads brought about by users recommending their friends in real life.

Comparison of new downloads and DAU revenue

By comparing the revenues of the three promotion methods, it can be seen that users who download through ranking ads earn higher revenues. Since TV program introductions and Youtuber promotions have very little impact on downloads after ranking up, we can infer that the number of users who download through ranking ads is equal to the number of users who download through rankings.

In addition, among these three types of users, users who download games through TV programs and Youtubers are similar. The psychology of these users is also different from that of users brought by chart-topping ads. The following inferences can be made:

1. Ranking-top ads: Users have clear goals or download interesting games directly after seeing them on the rankings. These users are proactive users.

2. TV program introduction and Youtuber introduction: Users who accidentally see the game introduced in a TV program (video) and find it interesting download it to try. This type of user is a passive user.

Summarize

Among the three promotion methods, TV program introductions bring the largest number of downloads; the DAU of users brought by TV program introductions and Youtuber introductions drops relatively slowly; and ranking ads have the highest DAU revenue.

In general, these three are not mainstream promotion methods in Japan, and are more suitable for games on the free list. They are recommended for use as auxiliary promotions.