Why Game Marketing is So Hard

Many developers and publishers struggle with marketing their games, so don't feel bad if you’re one of them. As anyone who’s worked in games marketing (or any marketing, for that matter) will tell you, marketing is deceptively difficult. In fact, it can be the most challenging step in the game development process.

Writing, designing, coding, and testing a game is hard enough to begin with, but convincing people to play it is an entirely different beast. With fierce competition, rising costs, and more bases to cover than ever, marketing a game can feel like an episode of Mad Men.

Though every case is different, there are a few key reasons why games marketing can feel so overwhelming. In this article, we’ll break down what makes this discipline so complicated and how you can get better at it.

Here are the top 6 reasons why marketing a game is so hard (and how to make it easier):

1. It’s complicated.

"Marketing” encapsulates more than you may think.

Whenever you see a game’s website, social media handles, beta emails, community managers, player feedback polls, influencer features, press interviews (RIP GameInformer), website ads, YouTube ads, TV commercials, convention booths, Game Awards trailers, swag, placement at a digital or physical store, merch partnerships, etc...

... That’s all “marketing.” Everything from campaign ideation and creation to press, reporting, research, and even legality is under the jurisdiction of Marketing.

Similar to how video games have Super-Genres and Sub-Genres, marketing can have as many as 20 different disciplines, depending on who you ask. Here are some high-level examples from a marketing nerd.

Traditional Marketing:

• Outbound
• Print
• Broadcast
• Product
• Partner Marketing
• Public Relations (PR)
• Word of Mouth
• Stealth Marketing
• Brand Marketing
• Cause Marketing
• Experiential Marketing
• Event Marketing

Digital Marketing:

• Content Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Inbound Marketing
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Social Media
• Email
• Mobile
• Digital Advertising (CPM, PPC, CPV, etc.)

Additional Disciplines:

• B2B (business to business) Marketing
• B2C (business to consumer) Marketing
• Marketing Analytics

As you can see, it's complicated. Whenever you think of marketing, remember that it’s a discipline in its own right that requires years of experience and expertise to master. If your team doesn’t have the manpower or know-how, consider consulting a publishing services company or contracting your marketing work out to a trusted vendor. Make sure to look for partners that have proven experience specifically in the games industry. Case studies and positive customer testimonials can help you differentiate experienced vendors from inexperienced ones.

2. It’s expensive.

It’s estimated that anywhere between 50% and 70% of a game’s budget is spent on marketing costs, which can be well over $1 billion for AAA games.

For some perspective, in 2023, Esquire discussed Summer Games Fest, where a one-minute trailer costs $250,000 with the potential of about 118M viewers, according to Statista. Comparatively, OTT (Over-the-Top) Marketing, which delivers ads over streaming services like Hulu and Netflix, works on a CPM (Cost-Per-Mille, also called Cost-Per Thousand) model. At $25 CPM, the same $250,000 budget would garner about 10M impressions. Social media ads, like TikTok, start at $10 CPM. A homepage takeover for a couple days on a site like IGN or Gamespot can cost just as much, if not more.

Event marketing can easily start at $250K per show between booth space, sponsorship, shipping, travel, personnel, and swag. For an interesting breakdown, check out this article from GameIndustry.biz from 2017. A 200 sqft., fully upgraded booth at E3 with a few staff would cost you $45K. That's about the size of a bedroom with one king bed, a dresser, and a meager amount of space to squeeze around it. That same year, Sony had a booth at E3 that was 30,000 square feet.

We haven’t even touched on the cost of personnel, trailer/ad creation, localization, travel, or live content production. Needless to say, it’s easy to imagine how these costs add up — and quickly.

Prices also fluctuate with the season. This post is in calendar Q4, one of the most expensive times of the year due to holiday spending and an uptick in releases. Q3 mainly consists of big games events leading up to the holidays. Q2 tends to be prep time and announcements, while Q1 — specifically Late February and March — is the second largest release window in gaming, as most game companies end their fiscal year in March and need positive revenue against the title.

This is a tough point to “get better at,” but you can get better at understanding the ebbs and flows of the market, anticipating costs, and allocating an appropriate budget. We know that not all studios can afford a billion-dollar marketing tab, but being realistic about costs and making do with what you have is crucial. If you have a lower budget, focus on organic strategies and learn how to work your audience in more creative ways. Check out our guide to marketing for indie games.

3. You have to find the right audience.

When asked who their target audience is, it’s common for studios to say “everyone!” However, we know from experience that target marketing is more effective than mass marketing, which dilutes the core message to appeal to a larger number of people. The reality is that you need to know who you’re talking to — and who you’re not talking to — in order to connect with your audience.

This practice is called Personas and Targeting, and you’ll refer back to it quite a bit. It takes a lot of research and critical thinking to nail down; however, the more info you need, the more expensive research is. Doing market research while the game is still in its early stages can be a hefty lift, so it's crucial to define your ideal customer first. Think about where your ideal player lives (literally and figuratively), what they like and don’t like, what brings them joy or makes them throw controllers in frustration, what their income and education look like, etc.

Start with the pitch of your game and what inspired you. Did you like the latest One Piece manga arc? Well, maybe people who read One Piece and like dungeon crawlers will also enjoy your game. You’ll never get it 100% right, but you can certainly get close.

Then, you can ask more targeted questions and conduct standard market research. If you’re building a franchise, great! You already have a starting point for your audience, but it’s important to remember to factor in Franchise Attrition. In any case, you’ll be doing things like reviewing industry reports, checking sales data of previous games, speaking with Vendor Managers, conducting your own focus groups, and more.

Of course, there’s no shame in relying on an experienced partner to do this part for you. One of our marketing experts, Lex Parisi, shares her insights.

“It’s important that after you pin down a target audience, you confirm your suspicions. Once you define a user group you think will like your game, you’ll want to conduct interest checks. Here at Lionbridge Games, we do this by bringing a handful of people to playtest in a lab or gathering a few hundred thousand to play a small demo of your game online. Both of these methods give you immediate feedback to help validate your ideas and kickstart full-fledged campaigns. Be a data nerd.”

If there’s anything you take away from this section, it’s 1. your ideal audience is not everyone, and 2. research, research, research!

4. You have to find not only your “how” but your “why.”

Let’s face it: getting people to do things is hard. Getting people to buy things is dually so. Not only do you need compelling reasons to garner your audience’s interest, but you also have to maneuver carefully to avoid turning potential customers off.

You know why your game is great. You know why you’d play it. But how do you articulate that to people who haven’t experienced it yet? How do you capture your story without spoiling its twists and turns? How do you get through your "hear me out” moment without sounding crazy?

Your “why” is a balance of what makes you unique and the zeitgeist of the time of release. This can be challenging since most marketing campaigns are designed at least a year in advance, but you have to learn to adapt your core message to what’s going on around you.

Take Animal Crossing: New Horizons, for example. Its formula isn’t radically different from its series predecessors, but it pitched itself in a brilliant way to become a worldwide phenomenon. During a period of uncertainty, loneliness, and being cooped up inside, Animal Crossing gave us a delightfully predictable game where we could connect with friends, enjoy the outdoors, and create the indoors of our dreams.

In addition to solidifying your why, you have to decide how you’ll present it. What will you market? What will you say? How much will it cost?

This is where product marketing comes in. It involves working directly with the development, creative, and production teams to ensure their vision is sustained, validate your market research, and help define what is available to a customer. Will there be a Pre-Order bonus? What about a Special Edition? And if so, what goes into it? What are the Beta dates? What’s the consumer price?

Again, real-world testing, such as Willingness-to-Pay testing, Price Elasticity testing, and messaging testing, helps validate assumptions and ensure you're touting the highlights of your game correctly.

Test. Learn. Optimize. Repeat.

5. You have to be in the right place...

Remember how we said you’d reference your personas a lot? Well, here’s why. You’ve decided who you’ll talk to, what you’ll say, and how you’ll say it... but how do you reach them? If you know your audience well enough, you can figure out where they “live.”

This sounds easy enough, but once you start thinking about how the average person spends their time, you realize just how many touchpoints they encounter daily. There’s social media, broadcast media, print media, web surfing, in-person retail, live entertainment, dining — anything and everything you think of can be a touchpoint.

These touchpoints go hand in hand with the messaging matrix to decide what you’ll say, to whom, and where. Each has a unique feel that warrants different types of content and tones of voice.

Conventions and conferences are more experience-based, while retail touchpoints involve products like plushies and figurines, apparel, and hardware. Press opportunities are more formal, while social media channels are a great place for goofy videos, memes, and quick updates. But even different social channels differ in the types of content that thrive on them. Twitter is good for short-form content and memes, but YouTube is ideal for highly visual content like interviews or video advertisements. Experiential marketing can take creativity even further by transforming these touchpoints into limited-time pop-up cafes, drone shows, and even themed trains.

That’s a lot. Add to that global expansion, and you’re making all assets x5. However, keep in mind that each of those examples is a different discipline with a different budget and different personnel. A truly robust omnichannel marketing strategy needs a truly robust omnichannel team, whether in-house or contracted out. What’s important is that you focus on meeting your audience where they already are.

Instead of yelling aimlessly into the void and hoping your voice reaches the right people, be precise. Find out what apps they use, what sites they visit, what stores they frequent, and how they spend their time. This will help you conserve marketing resources, use your budget effectively, and craft a more compelling message.

6. At the right time.

When’s the best time to market your game? Pre-launch? At launch? Post-launch? This probably won’t shock you, but the answer is all three. You want to market your game during its entire lifecycle. While that sounds pretty straightforward, it can get complicated. Fast.

The pre-launch stage is a critical period for generating interest and driving pre-orders. Not only will pre-orders help sell your game into retailers, but they’ll also help secure Co-Op Funding. If you spend a certain amount marketing in-store with a particular retailer, they will match that spending, as it’s a mutually beneficial opportunity. One pre-order is equal to 3-5 units sold in stores.

Interest and pre-orders will spike with announcements, trailers at major events, incentives, and about 36 hours before launch. Finding the right moments to get people excited is crucial. Pay attention to what’s going on in your sphere and capitalize on the opportunities that make sense for your game.

At launch, your goal is to maintain the hype you created pre-launch and smoothly transition into post-launch activities. After the first 24-48 hours, you’ll have to start keeping a pulse on reviews and audience engagement. Your marketing strategy will transition from driving interest to producing content, providing customer support, and potentially creating DLC (which repeats this cycle with an attrition rate). You’ll also want to factor in Sales such as the Steam Summer Sale and Amazon Prime Day into the lifecycle and return of your game.

It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers here, but don’t underestimate the impact of customer service and community management. Poor player support can sour your player base and impact future sales of not just this game but all your games going forward.

When it comes to timing, most AAA games (and even some AA games) make the majority of their revenue within the first 24 hours of launch. What this means is that the majority of marketing impact is well in advance of launch. While staying on top of your game throughout its lifecycle is essential, you should be planning your moves before it's even announced.

In conclusion, marketing is hard, and you’re right to think so. But don’t let your frustrations deter you from learning more. Marketing is a crucial part of the game production process, and there are plenty of experts and educational resources out there to help you take your games global.

Need help marketing your next title? Connect with a marketing expert to learn how we can set your game up for success.