What are Best Practices for Marketing Hyper Casual Mobile Games?

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Matej Lančarič

UA Mobile Growth Extraordinaire ·

Helping you stay 2.5 steps ahead of the games industry. Don't be too serious, except about UA.
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The best practices for marketing hyper-casual mobile games include focusing on campaign structure, broad targeting for better reach, utilizing hyper casual creatives, budget scaling, monetization with rewarded or interstitial ads, using referral marketing, sending push notifications, contextual advertising, cross-promotions and influencer collaborations.

Details of best practices for marketing hyper casual mobile games are as followed:

Campaign Structure

The following should be the campaign structure of hyper casual games marketing:

Broad – These ad sets generally target entire countries or regions, and are typically split into female only and male only ad sets due to LTV spread by gender

Precise Interest – Target direct competitor apps and similar apps within the genre. Aim to layer on many interests (5-10) to reach a relatively broad audience

LAL – Utilize a seed audience of high valued users (high % of Ad Click or Ad Impressions, highly engaged users, highly retained users, etc..)

Placements – Serve all placements using placement optimization to maximize your delivery efficiency

Ads – Upload ads to serve all available placements

Most commonly, campaigns are structured by country or region, and by expected LTV.

Within each campaign we use multiple ad sets with varying targeting and optimization methods to drive the most value throughout the gaming lifecycle. Large investments generally go to Broad and Precise Interest Targeting at launch when low CPI and high volume is the main objective, and as we move into later phases of the gaming lifecycle (beginning week 2-4), we occasionally observe investments through LAL rising significantly.

Broad Targeting for Better Reach

Broad targeting is an advertising strategy where ads are set to reach a wide audience without many specific filters for demographics, interests, or behaviors.

But, I’ve tested multiple targeting structures from interests to lookalikes, but eventually broad targeting for specific GEO outperformed everything else. Hypothesis was that lookalikes or interests will have higher CPI, but also higher LTV. But it wasnt true at all. LTV was the same with the CPI higher, so almost zero margins.

So again, I am writing it down because it was heavily tested by me and my clients, but when it comes down to best performing targeting – its always broad targeting without any interests or lookalikes.

EXAMPLE:

1 CAMPAIGN – (GEO = US)
: ADSET no.1 – 13+ MALE ($250 – 500/daily)
___ 4-6 ads
: ADSET no.2 – 13+ FEMALE ($250 – 500/daily)
___ 4-6 ads

What are the Best Practices for Setting Up Campaign Tiers Based on eCPM’s?

The Best practices for setting up campaign tiers based on eCPM’s are as followed:

Identify the top countries from your worldwide campaign based on your eCPM’s (excluding core markets you’ve already separated out), and create Tier 1
Create a second tier for countries 16-30, and remove all tiered countries from the worldwide campaign
Create separate multi-country lookalikes based on each tier
Track performance daily and adjust budgets accordingly based on LTV

Hyper Casual Creatives

Hyper Casual creatives tends to be:

Simple and straightforward
Makes audience think, but not too much
Competitive
Immersive
Thumb stopping
Short and fast paced
Showcases gameplay
Visible level finish line

Budget Scaling

Budget scaling can be done in following ways:

duplicate ad sets, leave best performing ads in, add new ones and run with higher budget. (pause the old ad sets)
or increasing budget by 20% day by day

Effortless Monetization with Rewarded or Interstitial

Effortless monetization refers to generating revenue seamlessly within a mobile game, often by integrating non-intrusive ads or in-app purchases that don’t disrupt gameplay. For hyper casual mobile games, this typically involves displaying short video ads, rewarded ads, or interstitials at natural breakpoints, allowing developers to earn from ad impressions or player engagement without compromising the quick, addictive nature of the game, thus maintaining user retention while maximizing monetization.

Referral Marketing

Referral marketing is a strategy where existing users are incentivized to invite new users to a product, app, or game. In hyper casual mobile games, referral marketing works by encouraging players to share the game with friends, often through in-game rewards or bonuses, creating a viral loop that drives organic growth and helps reach a larger audience without high ad spend. This approach leverages the simplicity and addictive nature of hyper casual games, making it easy for players to quickly recommend and share with their social circles, boosting downloads and active user numbers.

Contextual Advertising

Contextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising where ads are displayed based on the content a user is currently viewing, ensuring relevance without needing personal data. For hyper casual mobile games, this method works effectively by placing ads for similar or related games within the app environment or on similar casual gaming platforms, increasing the likelihood of engagement as users are already in a gaming mindset and may be interested in exploring similar, easy-to-play titles.

Cross-Promotion

Cross-promotion is a marketing strategy where two or more products promote each other to reach a wider audience. For hyper casual mobile games, cross-promotion works by advertising one game within another game from the same developer or publisher, allowing users who enjoy similar gameplay to discover new titles easily. This strategy leverages existing user interest and familiarity with the developer’s style, increasing the chances of higher installs and engagement across multiple games within the developer’s portfolio.

Influencer Collaborations

Influencer collaborations involve partnering with social media personalities to promote a product or service to their audience. For hyper casual mobile games, influencers showcase gameplay in short, engaging videos or livestreams, helping to boost visibility and drive downloads by leveraging their followers’ trust and interest in easily accessible, quick-play games.

Instant Gameplay

Instant gameplay allows users to try a mobile game instantly, without needing to download it, offering a seamless and quick experience. This feature is particularly effective for hypercasual mobile games, as it removes barriers to entry, letting players engage with simple, quick-play games immediately. By giving potential users a taste of the gameplay right away, instant gameplay increases the likelihood of player retention and can drive higher conversion rates for game installs among users seeking light, engaging content.

App Store Optimization (ASO)

App Store Optimization (ASO) is the process of improving an app’s visibility and ranking in app store search results to drive more downloads. For hyper casual mobile games, ASO works by focusing on keywords, appealing visuals, and enticing descriptions that grab attention quickly, as these games rely on high download volumes and rapid engagement. By optimizing for frequently searched terms and highlighting easy-to-understand gameplay in the app icon, screenshots, and video previews, ASO helps hyper casual games attract a larger audience and achieve higher rankings in app stores.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the process of promoting products or services on social platforms to engage audiences and drive brand awareness. For hyper casual mobile games, it works by creating eye-catching, quick-to-grasp content—often through video ads or gameplay snippets—that appeals to a broad audience, encouraging downloads by showcasing easy-to-play, addictive gameplay. Social media ads, especially on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, allow hyper casual game developers to reach a vast user base quickly, testing and scaling campaigns based on real-time engagement and conversion data.

Soft Launch

A soft launch is a strategy where a game is released in a limited market or to a small audience to test its performance, gather user feedback, and refine it before a full-scale launch. For hyper casual mobile games, this approach allows developers to gauge user engagement, identify technical issues, and optimize gameplay mechanics based on real player data, ensuring that the game appeals to a broader audience and performs well globally once fully launched.

Game Localization

Game localization is the process of adapting a game’s language, visuals, cultural references, and user experience to fit the preferences of different regions and audiences. For hyper casual mobile games, localization works by translating simple in-game text, adjusting culturally sensitive visuals, and tailoring gameplay elements to suit diverse player habits, making the game more accessible and appealing globally without altering the core mechanics that make it easy to play.

How Can You Effectively Use Creative Assets to Market Hyper-Casual Mobile Games?

To Effectively Use Creative Assets to Market Hyper-Casual Mobile Games following are the steps:

Focus on building a large range of creative assets, so that you can update when performance declines or CPI skyrockets
Broad audiences need more creative than smaller audiences. Aim to have >5 ads per adsets when targeting broad audiences
Testing the response rate of your ads is almost as important as developing the game! The market decides which hyper casual games will succeed.

How to Save Millions With Marketability Testing of Hyper Casual Games?

Marketability testing is an essential step for developers looking to save costs and maximize the success of hyper-casual mobile games. By conducting Market research to understand the competitive landscape, developers can identify trends, consumer preferences, and potential gaps in the market. This initial step ensures a focused approach, saving resources that would otherwise be spent on poorly-targeted campaigns. Determining the target audience is a critical outcome of market research as it helps refine the game’s design and advertising strategy. Incorporating concept testing during early development further reduces risks by validating ideas through surveys or ad performance. Marketability testing for hyper casual games ensures that only games with high engagement potential progress, minimizing financial waste and increasing the likelihood of success.

Once the target audience is defined, developers can use free tools like Google Trends and Meta Audience Insights to sharpen their strategy. Defining your target audience with free tools becomes particularly relevant here, as understanding the audience’s preferences informs every step of the testing process. Following Concept testing, developers can implement methods such as CTR testing and CPI tests to measure ad click-through rates and cost-per-install efficiency, respectively. Even when the game is in a conceptual stage, mockups or concept testing test store page specs can generate valuable data. Using concept testing marketing ad specs, developers can simulate campaigns to gather insights, making it possible to test CPI without a fully developed product. These approaches ultimately optimize resources and build a solid foundation for scaling.