Web game as part of marketing

Marketing your game - there are lots of articles on the internet saying what to do and how, however, they often miss the opportunity of the web based gaming websites for game marketing purposes. That's why I decided to write this quick extension for the game marketing related articles you have probably read.

At the start I must mention one important thing - marketing may only work if you have a really cool game everyone shares and talk about (you probably do not), or you do the marketing smartly and think about the marketing strategy and the whole marketing mix (you can do). The basic thing you need is to understand the type of players you want to target at. I am writing it at the start, to force you to think whether the web is interesting for you and your game while reading characteristics of the web market and what it can bring you. Alright, let's start…

Web based gaming website? What is it?

Yeah, you got it, I really mean the flash games websites. Despite all the predictions about death of the market, they are still here and still huge. Only instead of the flash games they offer native games made in HTML with a use of WebGL. Right the technology which your game engine maybe offers between build options.

Why should I be interested in having my game there?

These gaming websites may be an effective way for spreading the brand of your game and free users acquisition. It's possible especially due to following characteristics of the browser games market:

Gaming websites publish and offer games to their users for free or in exchange for a revenue share. In both cases, you do not pay until it brings you something back
Simple playability without barriers - Playing on the web does not require installation of a game nor any other software. This simple idea of just “click and play” is an assumption for a high conversion rate.
Gaming websites allow links to versions of a game on other platforms. Moreover, they often link at these game pages on other platforms from their websites. This is very valuable due to the fact that it is visible for users who already clicked at your game on the gaming website and probably even played it. If they like it, they may decide to download the game into their mobile for offline and long-term playing.
Web is another platform, with a different user base compared to android, ios or forums and social sites where you probably market your game. So the web may increase the reach of potential and relevant players for your game.
Monetization - Publishing on the web does not mean offering your game for free. Web games are being monetized similar to mobile games - through ingame ads and ingame purchases.
Promotion from the side of gaming websites - Due to lower number of daily new games, gaming websites usually do not use any recommendation algorithm for new games section, thus newly released games are visible for all their visitors and have a chance to get high traffic within the first few days. If results going from this traffic are good, the game is further promoted on the websites.
Feedback, work with community - You can use the web also for testing various ideas and working with the community. Analytics in web based games is standard, however, for example GameArter service provides an option to write development log, create polls, discuss in comments, receive report feedback, get followers and so on.

How many users can I acquire through a gaming website?

It mostly depends on the game. Gaming websites with web games have monthly traffic in hundreds of millions. To reach them, you need 2 things:

Get your game on many websites (fortunately you can use a game distribution service for it and control the game on all websites from one place)
Have interesting game and games related material (thumbnails etc)

How much can I earn from the browser version of my game?

This is another very general question, so here's also general answer:

Monetization through ingame ads - CPMs (Cost Per Thousand views on an ad) vary in countries, also every ad provider performs differently. We at GameArter provide current data as well as historical data for every country publicly for all developers and partners within the system. Feel free to sign up as a partner or developer on GameArter to get data based on which you can be able to calculate potential revenue from web based in-game ads.
Next monetization way are in-game purchases. This is something which works in a really low number of games on the web, especially due to the format of web games and users' expectation of web games - the way they play them. This is also why we did a special type of ingame purchases throughout a shared currency for games connected in GameArter.

All sound great, what is the best way to start?

Firstly verify that your game is suitable for web (option to make a build for web + filesize lower < 100mb, ideally < 50mb). If you meet it, then it is an option of choice in what way you want to publish on the web. Personally I prefer simplicity, that's why I created and use the GameArter solution that brings me all I need for effective, secure and professional release, distribution, monetization and management of my games on the web.

Hope this article helped you at least a bit. Have a nice day!