Ad Campaigns

[kaen]

UPDATE: Here's a link to the analytics, for those of you playing along at home.

As you may or may not know, I recently started working as a contract software developer. I was able to build a little portfolio and start working from home, doing what I love. This was indisputably a result of my work on bitfighter, as it gave me a free canvas to build a small body of work, which constituted my entire portfolio up until a month ago. Even now, it remains a substantial portion, and I get leads almost daily interested in experience I gained from bitfighter. I believe I have profited from bitfighter more than any other player or developer, and that I have a responsibility to give back to the community which has given me this opportunity.

I have decided to put some money where my mouth is and begin a series of small ad campaigns aimed at getting some new players.

I'm going to start with Facebook Ads, simply because I have a client who uses them, and it's like turning the valve on a fire hose when they run. I'll be moving on to twitter and google and other vectors as we get a feel for what does and does not work. I'll be spending about $5 a day to start with.

I'm looking for the genius insights of the community while I do this. For the facebook ads, we need a 110x80 image and some good copy writing (limit 90 characters). Please post your suggestions as replies to this thread. Each week, I'll post the analytics data I receive so that we can go over it as a community and pick a direction to move.

[watusimoto]

If this works, I'm willing to contribute as well. What has stopped discussion of ad campaigns in the past has never been money, but lack of follow-through.

I am personally skeptical that this will work (which is why I have never taken the lead to make this happen), but I do think it will be very interesting experiment. We have a very steady baseline against which to measure.

And if it does work...

PS Are those horizontal or vertical dimensions? I would probably know if I ever used Facebook... but I don't

[watusimoto]

So one idea for the image might be some pics of the various projectiles you can shoot, with the copy "Gentlemen, choose your weapons! Bitfighter: Free to play, never pay."

Dude, that's awesome! :D

I'm not sure how you're going to get ads on Facebook though, would it mean like.. a facebook group or... Flash player ads or better yet, those ads you see on the side of FB and stuff?

[kaen]

It will be those little ads on the side. Right now I'm planning to target 13-25 year olds with interests in assorted types of online PC gaming.

[watusimoto]

So 110 tall by 80 wide... and the text goes below?

[kaen]

Here's roughly what it looks like (this one was auto-generated by facebook)

Should you include free or open-source? But looks good!

[Skybax]

Guys, check out what this guy's doing on Kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/he ... =discovery
I found this and I feel it relates to this post somewhat. This guy makes only free games and yet he's got $23,595 pledged towards his game development. I plan on pledging $50 if I can get my card to work.
And I would totally pledge that much if Bitfighter offered some Bitfighter-themed merchandise as rewards.

[Santiago ZAP]

Looks really good!

Should you include free or open-source? But looks good!

This could attract coders/future devs?

Should you include free or open-source? But looks good!

Probably free, I don't think most Facebookers know what open source is.

[bobdaduck]

Coding, community, and creativity are arguably the biggest parts of our game. They should be emphasized.

[Quartz]

Thanks a lot kaen. You da man!

wat, that tagline is a good one.

Coding, community, and creativity are arguably the biggest parts of our game. They should be emphasized.

Agreed.

What attracted me to the game wasn't the retro space ships. I know that has attracted some, of course. What attracted me was the community and creativity.

Skybax: Let's not bite off more than we can chew at the moment.

[Skybax]

Skybax: Let's not bite off more than we can chew at the moment.

I know I know, I'm just saying. The Kickstarter idea has been brought up before and the response was always "How do we get funding for a free game?" Well there's the answer lol

I'm supportive of the idea and will like Bitfigher's ad's if facebook allows that. Does it?
Nevertheless I have some worry of whether or not Bitfighter would even pass the Arcade test which one blogger emphasized.

The arcade test is taking your game to the public. PONG did this in a local bar, and Atari thus went with that instead of Space War. Nintendo did this with the NES and Wii. Stick it in people's hands.


edit: uhh but yeah keep on! Make the facebook page a bit more active?

[watusimoto]

How do we get funding for a free game?

We don't ahve a funding problem -- there is nothing that we want to do that we can't because of lack of funds.

[kaen]

Results for the first day of ads:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

The long and short, for $1.16, 4,200+ people saw the ad and 3 people clicked on it. I definitely need help to write some better copy and create a more provocative image. Here's what the current version looks like:



I am definitely interested in constructive criticism.

"Play Bitfighter. Please. We're Desperate. Please Stay. We have pizza..."

[kaen]

We have pizza..."

Whoa, man. I'm not trying to get pinned for false advertising.

[Quartz]

Lmao, just for one day, try "Asteroids on Steroids" and see what happens.

(Probably nothing...)

On a serious note, I very much like bobdaduck's idea: coding, community, and creativity.

Honestly if I wanted da best gameplay evaaaaar I wouldn't be playing Bitfighter. I play Bitfighter for da best level editor evaaaaar.

[kaen]

Lmao, just for one day, try "Asteroids on Steroids" and see what happens.

Done. I'll check in again tomorrow. I'm open to all ideas, we'll just throw them against the wall and see what sticks.

to bad youtube only accepts huge multi billion dollar company commercials.

one problem that I see is that many users on chrome use ad block.

also why jsut such a small range of aged ppl why not everyone ^_^.

[Quartz]

Lmao, just for one day, try "Asteroids on Steroids" and see what happens.

Done. I'll check in again tomorrow. I'm open to all ideas, we'll just throw them against the wall and see what sticks.

Sounds excellent! Thanks for all your hard work kaen. =)

hmm maybe if we could get 20 ppl doing 5$ ads we could get alot of Bf players :0

[watusimoto]

What's the lastest stats on the "Asteroids on Steroids" ad?

[kaen]

I just updated the google doc. The "asteroids on steroids" copy has been doing about 10-20% better on all of the metrics over the last couple days compared to "fast, fun, frenetic". Good thinking, Quartz!

Overall, for about $21 of spend so far, 29,000 people have seen the ads, and 71 people have visited the site. 2 out of every 1,000 people who have seen the ads end up clicking on them at some point. (This is from the FB console, which is ahead of the CSV reports by about a day).

On a side note, the people in the target group have seen the ads 2-3 times already, so we've saturated them with the current image/copy. So, now we really need some new artwork and more copy ideas. Go nuts, guys. I'll try anything.

im guessing next update will get a single player version of bitfighter up and running. pure shmup goodness.
shmup = shoot them up

try a ship shooting
ships pointed to the right
left to right banner
explosion blue ship phasers enemy ship with blue flag


dont emphasize level editor or creativity. thats not the game, thats development. (i would still emphasize open source)

[watusimoto]

This was not as cool as it looked in my mind

http://imgur.com/r93ASUE

Text:

Lost in Space? Bitfighter: It's Asteroids on Steroids. Free to play, never pay! Get it today!


Use this, or not. I'll keep working.