Hey! I’ve been developing a game for 1 year and a half now and I think is time to officially publish it. I got a lot of feedback on it so it is pretty polished and ready to be released. The game is here (so you know what type of game is it; you will probably need another player to test PvP mechanics in case you want to).
The thing is, everything is ready: scripting, building, modeling, UI, GFX (thumnbails, skyscraper ad).
And I have a 20k budget, but I’m not sure yet how should I split it up.
I thought about using 2 different methods:
Spend 1k - 2k a day through 10 - 20 days on skyscraper ads and if the game gets popular then I’d also start to spend on sponsor (since no one will click on a sponsored game with 0 players). If I do this then I’d use 2 different skyscraper ads (this should avoid ad fatigue).
Spend 4 - 6k a day through a weekend (Friday - Sunday) and if the games gets popular by Friday/Saturday then I’d also start to spend on sponsor. If I do this then I’d only use 1 skyscraper ad (link to the skyscraper ad) since there is not that much time for ad fatigue to start.
Ads will be: +13, any gender and PC only of course.
Sponsoring will be: +13, any gender and PC + Mobile + Tablet.
Knowing what sort of game HOLDFAST! is and checking the skyscraper ad out, what do you suggest me to do? Should I change anything on my methods? 20k isn’t enough? What rates (CTR, CPC, CPP) should I expect? Maybe another method that I didn’t include in this topic? I’d really appreciate if you have any source, experience or way to back your reply (since I found a lot of different replies with absouletly different responses to the same answer).
Thank you for reading!
EDIT: forgot to say that these advertising/sponsoring will start approximately at 19:00-21:00 (GMT-3 time zone), since a lot of people is already out of school in the Occident (North America, South America, Europe) at that time (or coming out of school). Also, of course, I’ll make a skyscraper ad test first, spending 1k, using this great guide to make sure the skyscraper ad(s) is actually good and won’t fail.
Are you sure you’re ready for advertisements? Upon joining the game, I noticed that the crossbows don’t work. The game also just feels empty, like there’s something missing(though, of course, that’s probably because it’s aimed for multiplayer)
1)1% click rate is average I’ve heard; anything below is bad.
2)you should try to spend a big amount on sponsoring, but enough to sustain a long time. It’s far better to spend 1K on 10 days than 10K in one.
3)try and lower the saturation of the skyscrapper ad, as it looks like one of those “deep fried” memes.
4) I’d say any amount above 500 robux is good for ads. If you can’t balance income and expenses after getting a few active players, then there’s obviously just an issue with the game itself or its audience.
Crossbows were broken because (a couple hours ago) I replaced a local script line in the whole game and it messed up crossbows, which is already fixed! I also think you feel that emptiness for that exact reason: the game is aimed for multiplayer (it’s like playing Phantom Forces, Arsenal or Da Hood completely alone).
I’ve heard the same about CTR, and also heard that 2% is good.
I thought the same, since people would see the game multiple times, BUT it would also be more “shocking” if I do it in a weekend (20k in 3 days, also weekend is when advertises are more effective). Also, people might get bored of the game if I spread the budget in a lot of days, BUT I’d probably reach Roblox algorithm. It’s a hard pick, and that’s why I’m actually looking for valid reasons to make this choice.
I actually got the skyscraper ad saturation increased since it looked pretty “dead”, but I’ll try lower it a bit.
I thought about 3 options: 1k for 20 days, 1.5k for 15 days or 2k for 10 days (I think I’ll do 1.5k for 15 days). Do you think the ads (+13, any gender and PC only) and (+13, any gender and PC + Mobile + Tablet) audience is wrong?
Do you have any statistics or anything I can check out?
Whilst I don’t really have much of a big resource, I do have this tiny little experiment done by some guy Thoughts On This 100 Robux Sponsor Comparison (Discussion, share your experiences). Nothing big is proven, but it shows that a single day quite easily can double impressions even if the budget difference is miniature from the other ad. Though you could take this as confirmation that a weekend sponsor/ad campaign is best.
Yes, also checked that topic out a couple hours ago. It looks exactly what I should, but everything points out that guy was very lucky. 130 Robux and 600k impression? 24 visits? Sounds like a lot for me.
Anwyay, I think I’ll do a weekend campaign, but still would like to hear other opinions since these are my 1.5 year savings (both the game and the Robux) and I don’t want to waste them.
My personal plan for my upcoming city game is 10K Robux on the first special day, while having a few Youtubers and discord featuring it for the day, which will cost around 13K. Then, spend around 500 robux every day for 1 or 2 weeks to make sure your game won’t “disappear”. Then it’s likely that my game will reach another stage according to the roblox algorithim
Sponsorships provides a more stable startup. Advertisements are better once you already have a small amount of player base, which is at least around 1000 weekly players.
Your game is a bit like ZO, right?
I can’t give you too much suggestions, but remember to make sure the player’s avatar is loaded correctly, for example their size, Rthro, jackets…
I think it would be the opposite: I should use advertise to get people, and then do sponsoring once my game already has a playerbase (since no one will click on a sponsored game with 0 players active; on skyscraper ads you can only see the ad, not the playercount).
Alos, about the ZO question: yes? I got inspired by Mordhau and The Streets, so we can say that my game is more similar to Combat Warriors/Mortem Metallum, Criminality or Life Sentence. But combat system is pretty similar to ZO.
Do you know how that game became popular? What method worked for you?
Before you spend your robux on any kind of advertisements you should think of building your community.
20k may seem like a lot but honestly, only if you spent all of this on a 24h ad then possibly you’d be able to reach about 20 concurrent players, and only if your game is actually enjoyable.
It may be disappointing but your game is going to die after the ad time unless it’s noticed by the algorithm.
It’s not probable though - thousands of games are published every single day and you’d have to be extremely lucky to get noticed.
That’s why it’s necessary to have a decent community already, before publishing the game if you take what you do seriously.
Ads and sponsors are too random and uncertain to be considered a reliable way of building the playerbase.
I thought about talking to some Roblox tiktokers/youtubers to make a video about my game (this would lead them to the game, and maybe to the Discord server). Also thought about starting to make videos on Twitter and Reddit, showing some mechanics and the map.
Do you have any other advices? Or any other way to contact those youtubers/tiktokers? Maybe some experience you had about game advertising/sponsoring or making a community?
That’s the tricky and the great part.
They won’t play a game with 0 players, that’s why you’ll need to get some players before you sponsor it. How?
I have a communist roblox role play group, they’re all bored and they know me pretty well, so I can probably get them to be my first player base. And I’ll also announce on discords and YouTube channels (I paid them) to prepare everyone for the launch, so it’s unlikely that the launch will have 0 players
Of course, I would also contact popular ones if I can, but it’s not free. In my personal opinion small active YouTubers and medium sized social discords are the best. Sorry I hate tik tok everyone who watches it are all so dumb
One thing I have to say: I ran test ads and a test sponsor recently, and my game has 0 players. The sponsor, (all ages and genders, on phone and tablet), performed almost equal to a skyscraper ad and box ad combined for the same 200 robux bid I placed on all of them.
Basically, you still get clicks on sponsors even without players, however my game is a single player game so that may affect it.
If it is a single player game then is easier to get clicks or mantain players, I can’t do that since my game is multiplayer (so you must interact with at least one more player). I think growing a community can solve this.