How to promote your roblox game

Jjwood1600 has been on Roblox since 2013, and has created two different games: “Game Dev Life” and “Escape”. He now is the lead developer of DoubleJgames.

On this week’s edition of the “From the Devs” series, we’ll be chatting with jjwood1600 to learn about how he leveraged different marketing tactics to promote his games! We asked jjwood1600 a few questions, read on to learn what promotional tactics have worked for him!

How, if at all, did you leverage marketing tactics to increase awareness of your game? Which, if any of these tactics, were effective?

The first way I increased awareness of my game was through the use of Twitter. I posted tweets throughout the development of the game, which really built up hype and also motivated me when working on it! I would highly recommend doing this and using #RobloxDev on Twitter. I found that the tweets that did best had either an image or a gif, but even a short update tweet can help increase awareness of the game. It’s also a good idea to come up with a unique hashtag for your game if you can!

Another useful marketing tactic was the use of YouTube. There are a number of Roblox YouTubers who are always looking to play new games. I contacted a few before I released my game and they had videos out pretty much the next day! These videos made a huge difference, and I noticed a difference in player count overnight since the first video of my game was released(especially with it being paid access); players wanted to check it out before buying. It is also important to note that there must be enough content for YouTubers to create a series, as they usually provided a more loyal player base than those who did one-off specials.

My game, which is a game development simulation game, allows you to purchase computers for employees to use. I contacted YouTubers and produced their very own laptop ‘skins’ with their logo on. Fans could use a code to redeem the skin, and this drove a lot of traffic to my game. I would highly recommend this form of marketing as it was definitely the most effective for me (plus, it’s a lot of fun watching people enjoy playing your game!)!

I don’t tend to change my game icons or thumbnails at a certain time; however, I usually update them for a large update or event. This informs players there is a big change in the game, and also means that you have a standard, recognised game icon the rest of the time, which helps with your games’ brand recognition.

What data points (if any) did you use to indicate the effectiveness of marketing your game?

The first place I check is developer stats; here you can clearly see player count and revenue and can almost immediately tell if your marketing is a success. I found the visit count was a good way to see the effectiveness of marketing. For example, I released a large update to my game and posted a tweet which made a lot of fans aware of the update who then went to try it out. This was the visit count:

The arrow shows where I released the update and posted the tweet. As you can see, it made a huge difference!

I also use GameAnalytics to track other information such as Retention, or the percentage of new players vs returning players. This is really useful because, for example, after running an ad, you can see how many new players actually played the game or whether it just attracted old, returning players. The retention also shows whether or not the recent update kept new players playing.

Do you have any tips or tricks to share with other developers on advertising their game or bidding on an ad?

When it comes to bidding on an ad, I personally recommend advertising mid-week. There are usually a lot less ads being run which increases the chance of your ad being shown! Another tip would be to advertise just before a holiday and combine this with an event. I made a Christmas event for my game and player counts increased massively. If you advertise just before a holiday or event, you will hopefully reach and maintain higher player counts for a lower bidding price, rather than having to bid more during holidays and compete with a lot of other ads. Another factor to consider is that Holiday seasons, although more expensive, tend to offer better revenue — especially near Christmas.

That’s it for this week’s “From the Devs” interview- thank you jjwood1600! We’ll be back next week with another edition of “From the Devs”. In the meantime, be sure to check out jjwood1600’s Roblox profile, or follow him on Twitter!