If you’re looking to promote your mobile game, there’s not many better ways than through ads.
Data from Statista shows that total spend on mobile app install ads is growing at a rapid pace, with worldwide spend in 2022 set to come in at just under $120 billion.
But what type of ads are best for advertising a mobile game? Which platform should I run the ads on? Is there one platform that works best?
Let’s take a look.
Quick Links
- What is an app install ad?
- What types of app install ads are there?
- How to plan your mobile game ads
- Frequently asked questions
What is an app install ad?
An app install ad is a type of advert that allows a user to install an app directly from the ad.
These ads will often contain a CTA (call to action) button that, when clicked, will take the user straight to the app store page of the app, ready to be installed.
You can see in the image above how an app install ad looks on Google Search. This is just one type of app install ad, and they are available on lots of different platforms, each being slightly different from one another.
Most app install ads are also mobile ads, as the vast majority of apps are downloaded on a mobile/smartphone.
What types of app install ads are there?
As mentioned above, many different platforms offer their own version of an app install ad. Let’s look at a few of the bigger players and what they offer.
Google – Mobile app install ads
Let’s start with Google. Google actually have a variety of options to choose from when it comes to mobile app install ads, because you can do it through Google Search, GDN (Google Display Network), the Google Play Store, or through YouTube. Note: You can find a full list here.
This is great for you as an advertiser, as it means you can choose the platform that’s best for you and your advertising objectives.
Google Search
We saw in the image above how an app install ad looks when done through Google Search.
These ads can include the app icon of your mobile game, a brief description of what the game is about, and it’s app store rating.
If you’d rather design an image to promote your game, there are versions of this ad that can do that too, but it would need to be done through the GDN (Google Display Network).
GDN (Google Display Network)
The GDN is an ad network through which you can advertise your mobile game on millions of different websites and apps.
People connect their websites and apps to GDN, which then allows Google to serve your ads into ad slots on these websites and/or apps whenever a user you’re looking to target loads it up.
Through the GDN, you can advertise your mobile game using either interstitial ads or banner ads.
Interstitial ads are full screen ads that show on a user’s device when they move between screens/pages within an app, like can be seen below.
Banner ads on the other hand appear as a small banner (hence the name!) along the top or bottom of an app or website.
While both are great options, there are advantages to using each.
Interstitial mobile game ads tend to be more effective, as you have a lot of space within the ad to convince a user to download your game. The downside however is that they are expensive compared to banner ads.
Banner ads are cheaper than interstitial ads, and there is a lot more inventory available for this ad size, which means you have more opportunities to get your mobile game ad in front of users.
The drawback though is that you don’t have as much space to play with within the ad, so performance (things like Click-through rate, cost per install etc… tend to be worse than interstitial ads.
Google Play Store
Google Play Store ads are great for promoting your mobile game, because users are seeing the ad while they’re browsing the Play Store, indicating they are already in the mood to download an app or two.
With these app install ads, you can include your app icon, the name of your mobile game, the developer name, your mobile game’s app store rating, and then any custom text you fell will help to convert users and get them installing your game.
YouTube
App install ads on YouTube can be highly effective when done well.
To promote your mobile game on YouTube, you can include a video (it must be a video that is already hosted on YouTube), custom text to persuade the user to download your game, your app icon, and your game’s rating on the app store.
Facebook/Meta – Mobile app ads
Aside from Google, Facebook have a great option for advertising mobile apps through their mobile app ads.
These app install ads allow you to add an image or video creative, descriptive text about your mobile game, and your game’s rating on the app store.
Instagram – App install ads
Similarly to Facebook, Meta has also implemented app install ads into Instagram.
People will see your ad as they’re scrolling through their feed, which is a pretty valuable place for your mobile game ad to be!
Twitter – App install campaigns
Last on this list, we have Twitter. With Twitter’s App Installs campaigns, you can insert an ad for your mobile game right into your target audience’s Twitter feed.
How to plan your mobile game ads
No mobile game advertising campaign is going to work without a plan. If you follow these four steps, you’ll be advertising your mobile game successfully in no time:
1. Determine your budget
First things first, you need to have an idea of how much you’re going to spend to promote your game.
Here, you’ll look at things such as what kind of people you’re going to target (your target audience), how many people you’re going to try and reach, and what CPI (cost per install) you’re going to aim for.
2. Choose a platform
The platform you use will depend upon your target audience, and where they are most likely to be.
There’s no point running your mobile game ad on Twitter if none of your target audience are likely to be Twitter users!
3. Design and build your creative assets
Your creative assets are the conduit through which you will be convincing potential users to download your mobile game.
You’ll want to think about things like the overall style you want the ads to be, what your brand colours are, and what format you’d like your ad to be in (i.e. video? display? rich media?).
The format will depend on which platform you run your ads on, as each platform will have different specifications for their app install ads.
4. Launch, analyze, and reiterate
Launch your ad, analyze your results and see how things are going. Is your CPI where you expected it to be? If not, why? Are users not resonating with your creatives?
Is a certain format or ad size performing best? Assign more budget to that ad!
Is a certain geography performing well? Can you assign more budget there?
Is a certain day of the week or time of day doing better? Can more budget be assigned there?
Analyze, analyze, analyze!
Frequently asked questions
How do mobile games advertise?
Mobile games advertise mostly using app install ads, such as the ones we’ve talked about in this article. However, there are other methods of advertising you can use which can also be highly effective, such as rich media ads. You can find out more about what rich media ads are in this article here.
How do I get my mobile game noticed?
It can be fustrating when people say that great mobile games will get noticed automatically, but many people will tell you this is hardley ever the case.
That’s why mobile game advertising can be an effective way to start driving traffic to your game, get people downloading it, and then let word of mouth and good reviews do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
Just make sure you’re not creating terrible mobile game ads like these!