How to source the most profitable gaming apps
Great apps are the key to success for any gaming affiliate. While your creatives and targeting obviously have a major impact on campaign success, the bottom line will be the app you choose. The better the app is made, the cheaper and easier it will be for you to attract new players and retain existing ones. Here’s how to find the perfect app for your traffic.
What makes a great app?
Design
When it comes to apps, the devil really is in the detail. The design should look autentic and mirror that of other top gaming sites. Think big wins, jackpot prizes and all the other bells and whistles that make gaming fun. Ensuring your app has all the hallmarks of a gaming app will help you get cheaper and more targeted installations because noone will have any misconceptions about the service you are offering.
Size
When it comes to building a smooth flow, time is of the essence. Therefore, you should pay close attention to the size of the app you use. Your app should be no bigger than about 5-20 megabytes. Otherwise, in GEOs, where mobile Internet is expensive, you run the risk of wasting money.
One way to navigate the problem of loading and downloading times is to only target people who are using a wifi connection. However, this will greatly reduce your target audience and make traffic more expensive. Remember, the more targeted your campaigns on Facebook, the more expensive your traffic will be.
User Experience
It’s important that people like your app if you want to get more people to use it. Therefore, be sure to monitor the ratings and comments. Top comments need to be positive and the rating should always stay above 4 stars.
When it comes to checking user experience in different GEOs then you should change your device’s country and language. If your language and device are set to German then you will see the ratings and comments left by German users in the playstore. This is really important to check if you are running your app to different GEOs and will be the only way to optimise effectively.
Number of Installs
The number of installations of your app is another important metric to check. People trust apps that other people using, so you’ll want to aim high, but not too high. Up to about 5,000 is a good number.
If your app gets installed 10-20 thousand times there will be a lot of traffic pouring into it, generating more competition and ultimately higher traffic costs.
If an application has more than 50k installs, then it can be classified as squeezed and it is better not to work with it.
If you can’t find an app that has fewer than five thousand installs, then look at which GEO is getting the most users. You can use a spy-tool for this or ask your app provider.
You should not target the most popular GEOs as doing so will put you in competition in the auction and increase your CPM.
When choosing an app, it’s essentially a Goldilocks formula. You need one that has just the right amount of traffic and install history. Too little, and Facebook’s algorithm will not yet have figured out it’s target audience. Too much and the target audience will be saturated. Both of these will lead to higher costs and lower returns. The ideal amount is over 100 but under 5000.
The first 50-100 installs will be expensive,as Facebook will test a wide variety of audiences to find the most profitable target groups. Once you have at least 50-100 installs on the app, the traffic will start becoming cheaper, as Facebook will have a good idea of where to show ads to get the minimum cost per install.
Push Notifications
Any app you use should have push notifications set up. When you’ve installed an app, you’ve probably been asked to turn on notifications to receive various alerts. For example, when someone starts following you on Instagram.
You can use push notifications to motivate users to make deposits, try new games and generally be more active.
Your push notifications should always link to something real, so use them wisely. Maybe you have a special offer on or the chance to play for free. These are great ways to get users excited. If you push notifications are too generic or misleading, then users may choose to opt out of them or simply ignore them in the future.
Getting Creative - How to Generate Profitable Gaming Campaigns
There’s a lot of competition in the gaming market, so you’ll have to create ads that grab people’s attention in an already busy marketplace.
You should check spy tools regularly to see what creatives are working well. However, you shouldn’t be tempted to steal other people’s ideas. If you see that something is working, then the chances are that there is a lot of money pouring into it. As a result, you’ll land yourself in a more competitive market and your costs will go up.
The best way to use spy tools is for inspiration about what angles are working. If you see that a certain angle is running well, then try to figure out why and then generate your own creatives that hit the spot even harder.
If things aren’t working, then try to figure out why. A lot of affiliates immediately assume that the offer they are running is bad, instead of trying to dissect their funnel to see exactly where they are having issues. If you are using a third-party tracker like Voluum, then it’s easy to see where in your funnel people are getting stuck. Once you can pinpoint this, then you can begin to make changes.
Facebook Optimisation
When it comes to Facebook, you want a high CTR and low CPM. This will suggest that the quality of your ads are good and Facebook will show them to more people for less money.
If these metrics are good, but you aren’t getting conversions, then the problem could be with the app you are using or the offer. Work your way through the funnel and optimaise each element. Once you have a working funnel, then you can focus on pushing Facebook to get traffic flowing through your funnel.
Targeting tips when running gaming offers on Facebook
You should always tes tcampigns on broad first when running Facebook campaigns, as you never know if you will hit a niche audience with your ads. However, when it comes to gaming, there are some evergreen audiences that work better than others.
Audience
Generally speaking, you should always choose a male audience of 25-50. However, if you’re targeting wealthy countries like the Netherlands, Germany or Austria, you can cheat a bit and widen the age range to a minimum of 23. This will make your traffic cheaper and the quality will not suffer due to the fact that in rich countries even young people have money to spend regularly on casino games.
Operating System
When is comes to targeting different operating systems, it’s recommended that Android version 8 be the minimum upgrade you target. However, if you are setting an age of 23+, it is better to put version nine of android as the minimum. This will set you up for an audience with modern devices who have funds.
If there is money for a modern phone, then there’s money for gaming.
Placements
With regards to placements, run on automatic placements first and then if you have the chance to scale later then you can dig into the data and see where most of your ads are picking up conversions. However, Facebook is pretty good at filtering placements and it can make the traffic cheaper if you leave it on automatic. The best time to use manual is if you are generating creatives specifically for a certain placement.
Creative Upload
Make sure that you have the Facebook page for your offer as the initiator of the ad so that your ads are shown from the Facebook page and not from the app page. This should be done to protect your app. If a lot of people see your ads and decide to complain, moderators will check both the creative and the initiator of the ad. If there are a lot of complaints about an app, it will be flagged by Facebook, and will no longer be allowed to advertise on FB. It’s much better to lose a Facebook page than an app.
The Bottom Line
Advertising gaming on social media is not easy but it is definitely possible and can generate massive ROIs. You’ll have to optimise your funnel from start to finish and ensure you play by the rules of your chosen platform.
If you would like to try sending gaming traffic from social media to an app, then join Converting Team today and speak to one of our affiliate managers. They have everything you need to get started and creat compliant and profitable gaming campaigns.