How do you guys advertise your game?

Do you use GoogleAds?
What do you think about Games-Advertising-Online?
Are referral-links useful?

i dont use any kind of advert at this time - may game is not finished, though.

but i plan a "campain" mostly on mouth-propaganda.

I dont have such a big budget (hey! im a poor poor student! ;) ), so i will mostly use the "cheap" ad-solutions.

- Promote the game in Forums and Newspages (GN etc.)

- Introduce some kind of "reflink" (but not this "make as many people click there"). I thougt about some kind of reward if the referred player is active for a specific amount of time (i.e. 2-3 weeks), so people get rewarded for adverting my game.

But this all is "just planned". First i got to finish my game. ;) 

You should check MEGADUEL for the ref-link thing.
Cristian3d did an awesome job.

We are not advertising Weewar - 0 budget for marketing. We have geared our whole communication to a certain crowd, though.  And that crowd is not necessarily gamers or gaming. We also support our own community in spreading the word and we are closely following anything that is published about Weewar and often follow up, seeking ways to cooperate with others.

We feel that in order to make a difference with advertising on the internet you need to have a huge budget. Anything less and you might as well not do it at all.  You time and effort can be much better spent.

I list on GN, TWG and the other gaming "top 100 type sites", just because it's so easy and it does produce some traffic even if you aren't #1 (I think I'm number...200-something?)

And I offer a small turn bonus for people to vote on TWG, and a small referall bonus for new players referred.  I only have about 250 active accounts but since I don't have the server setup to handle too much more than that it hasn't been a problem so far.

Well we have huge investor behind are back now so adds are no problems. Soon we will make huge campain etc. 

When i was working for popcode ( thecrims) we were using SMS campains, it was working better then we planed. 

does anyone know some large gamer communities where I can post some stuff on the forum? I already active at tribalwars and travian.

For the start, I SEOed my site and got some extra players to the game.

This is a breakdown where I advertise

Results
* ApexGamingAds
- bonus 20% first deposit
- clickfraud 1% (acceptable)
- impressions low
- singup conversion rate: High
Note: One month RON campaigns cost is close to $100
* AdToll
- bonus None
- clickfraud 0%
- impressions Very High
- singup conversion rate: medium
Note: RON ad campaign , $50 ,category online communities and gaming lasts 1 month with millions of impressions. Dedicated site advertising eg on CE starts from 20 cent per week.
* ReachAds
- bonus None
- clickfraud 2%
- impressions [blow[/b]
- singup conversion rate: low
Note: very basic adsite, same engine as advertiseyourgame which explains the clickfraud. Low budget $25/month for a ad campaign.
* AdvertiseYourGame (AYG)
- bonus 20% first deposit
- clickfraud +5%
- impressions low
- singup conversion rate: medium
Note: after contacting the owner about the clickfraud, got a nasty mail back with forged logs so I asked a full refund through paypal.
* Ad2games
- bonus 25 euro (around $35) no deposit required
- clickfraud 0%
- impressions high
- singup conversion rate: high
Note: high budget needed to use them 75 euro deposit is gone in a few hours.
* Game-Advertsing-Online 

- bonus None
- clickfraud 0%
- impressions high
- singup conversion rate: high
Note: extreme high budget needed, euro 250 deposit vanished within 3 hours, same engine as apexgamingads
* pbbgads
- bonus None
- clickfraud 0%
- impressions low
- singup conversion rate: low
Note: You have to ad how many clicks/day else the ad will not be published even after selecting it as campaign
* advertbox
- bonus 10k Free Impressions
- clickfraud - didn't check yet -
- impressions medium
- singup conversion rate: low
Note: Cheaper to buy advertising through their rate card at AdToll than on their site $9/12 weeks
No compiled stats yet for
* cpmstar
min campaign deposit $1000 lasts 5 days possible for lower

*adgames

min campaign cost $100

Now I had a discussion with the owner of AYG as I posted it also on one of my forums topic can be seen on one of my forums but I'm not sure if it's allowed to post a link offsite. So PM me if you want the link.

Main issue was about clickfraud and next to that some nasty moves from the owners side as he has also a browsrbased game and well voting site. NO voting for his game at the voting site yet always nr1, at the ad network he owns. His game seems to get the majority of impressions.

I didn't try Google Adwords out yet as I had poor results advertising a different site (non game) which started to cost a bit to much for the results obtained.

md

Great info, I was doing the same tests to find the best advertiser for my site. I have no trouble with AYG, works fine for me, alot of signups (20-30%). Currently trying adtoll and waiting if apex accepts me.

They are ok but as advertiser I hate clickfraud hence why I don't like them.

Lets say each month $20 clickfraud, on a yearly base that's $120 paid to much.

Take into account the time to gather the logs from the server, and having them disected. lets say 1h/month at $150.

So we come on a global cost of $1,620.

Signup/conversion rate is also flawed kinda as you need to check how many stay active after 7 days and how many became a premium player within 30 days. And how many created multi accounts.... if you don't have the correct tools (IP based ones is the worse tool there is) it's a time intesive part for game staff to go multi hunting. While game staff imo should be customer support instead of multi hunters.

md

I agree on clickfraud being bad, but I don't really care about it as long as the overall costs per registration are low

Isn't that the most important figure really?

As a representative of AdvertiseYourGame.com I feel obligated to post the following. This will be my only post as we have no desire to stoop to mdshare's level and engage in his typical trolling.
There is no click fraud on our network. Any and all reports of such click fraud on our publishers is investigated.  Such activities serve no purpose but to destroy an advertising network and are the actions of the foolish.  No logs were faked and mdshare was emailed the Accurate records of all 1067 clicks he received and the 3 clicks which were mis-billed were acknowledged (.02% not 5%).  In addition, due to his dissatisfaction, fictitious or otherwise, we did not hesitate to issue him a full refund.
In addition he claims we issued a nasty email. Hardly.  Below is that email for reference.  And for the record, this was not the first time we've researched and responded to his claims.
"We at AdvertiseYourGame.com run a clean operation.  Attached is the log of the 1067 clicks for which you were charged.  You will note from our logs, which are real and 100% accurate, that only 3 clicks or .3% (9 cents) of your clicks were invalid per the 24 hours.  One of which was already credited to you.  While we continue to hunt down this very tiny abnormality, we do not have time to research your complaints every other week.  If you wish to continue witch hunting, I suggest you do so with another network.  I am sure there are plenty of much smaller ad networks that would love to have your $20 in revenue but we simply do not have the time for such antics.  Thank you and have a good day."
You are free to judge for yourselves, but our company will not just sit back and let such lies be spread without a response.  If former-American, MdShare, were not hiding from the law over in Europe, we would have him in court immediately for his libel comments.  Conversion ratios, publisher traffic, and click-through IPs are monitored and analyzed regularly to ensure the best performance for all sites, advertiser and publisher, on our network. There are a very large number of advertisers and publishers who are happy with our network and use us regularly.

Thank you for reading and have a great week.

i like to use advertiseyourgame and reachads. they both seem to bring in players .  and thats the most important.  id like to say thanks to mdshare for posting more ad campaign places hopefully i can hit my goal of 10k

www.alpha.battlestar-warz.com

I love Game-Advertsing-Online! :)

I've already spend +- $400 @ GAO :)

Original from G-Projects

I love Game-Advertsing-Online! :)

I've already spend +- $400 @ GAO :)

I tried to register as advertiser and publisher ( thought of reinvesting my possible incomes as a publisher in new adds ). I received an email telling me that I didn't have enough traffic to be a publisher...

I guess I will hve to generate more traffic from other sources and wait to be medium-sized.... Does anybody know how do they evaluate your traffic? Alexa? PageRank?

Original from PaulSimon

Original from G-Projects

I love Game-Advertsing-Online! :)

I've already spend +- $400 @ GAO :)

I tried to register as advertiser and publisher ( thought of reinvesting my possible incomes as a publisher in new adds ). I received an email telling me that I didn't have enough traffic to be a publisher...

I guess I will hve to generate more traffic from other sources and wait to be medium-sized.... Does anybody know how do they evaluate your traffic? Alexa? PageRank?

Don't know it, i'm only a advertiser there.
You need at least 10K visitors a day to get in as a publisher there.

Original from G-Projects

Don't know it, i'm only a advertiser there.
You need at least 10K visitors a day to get in as a publisher there.

10K per day!!?!?!

Wellllll.... I guess I'll have to wait a few months!!!

Original from PaulSimon

Original from G-Projects

Don't know it, i'm only a advertiser there.
You need at least 10K visitors a day to get in as a publisher there.

10K per day!!?!?!

Wellllll.... I guess I'll have to wait a few months!!!

Jeps, unique visitors by the way :p
hehehe

I'm still looking around for cheap advertising sites, anyone know any good CPM or low CPC (0.01-0.03) advertising sites?

Original from G-Projects

Original from PaulSimon

Original from G-Projects

Don't know it, i'm only a advertiser there.
You need at least 10K visitors a day to get in as a publisher there.

10K per day!!?!?!

Wellllll.... I guess I'll have to wait a few months!!!

Jeps, unique visitors by the way :p
hehehe

.... insted of waiting a few weeks I may have to wait a few... DECADES!!!!

Original from PaulSimon

Original from G-Projects

Original from PaulSimon

Original from G-Projects

Don't know it, i'm only a advertiser there.
You need at least 10K visitors a day to get in as a publisher there.

10K per day!!?!?!

Wellllll.... I guess I'll have to wait a few months!!!

Jeps, unique visitors by the way :p
hehehe

.... insted of waiting a few weeks I may have to wait a few... DECADES!!!!

Hahaha!

I highly recommend you to target illegal download sites (streaming sites, direct download sites etc.) and magazines for marketing. I've just consulted a German browser game on this and I managed to raise the amount of daily registrations from 150 to 1k.

Original from docjay

I highly recommend you to target illegal download sites (streaming sites, direct download sites etc.) and magazines for marketing. I've just consulted a German browser game on this and I managed to raise the amount of daily registrations from 150 to 1k.

 

 Interesting approach, which sites (use PM to be sure ) and why are these sites better than the "usual" sites?

Original from docjay

I highly recommend you to target illegal download sites (streaming sites, direct download sites etc.) and magazines for marketing. I've just consulted a German browser game on this and I managed to raise the amount of daily registrations from 150 to 1k.

What advertisement-provider do you use?

Would also like to know the names of the companies :)

I usually contact the site admins directly which will again have a positive effect on the prices.
The beauty of illegal download sites is that the traffic is really cheap, because the ad spaces cannot be market to bigger networks, but all the users are familiar with the internet and the use of websites.

Original from docjay

I usually contact the site admins directly which will again have a positive effect on the prices.
The beauty of illegal download sites is that the traffic is really cheap, because the ad spaces cannot be market to bigger networks, but all the users are familiar with the internet and the use of websites.

Thanks!
I'm going to contact The Pirate Bay

So already got some good deals or new advertising portals?

Original from BasTijs

So already got some good deals or new advertising portals?

I havent got a reaction yet from the PirateBay, some other site that does the advertising for Mininova and another torrent-portal did, but i never got a second reaction back.

I'm going to advertise next month, for real.. January and February where test-months.

Original from G-Projects

I havent got a reaction yet from the PirateBay, some other site that does the advertising for Mininova and another torrent-portal did, but i never got a second reaction back.

I'm going to advertise next month, for real.. January and February where test-months.

Lots of luck on that!

Please keep us posted on how this is going for you

Original from docjay

Please keep us posted on how this is going for you

Bad news, the banners arent ready yet so the campaigns are delayed.

This week I will get them all, so then I can start .
One of the (concept) banners; http://www.bulletstar.net/images/banners/300250.html

Great work! I am really amazed by the concept banner. It is exactly reflecting the new style game but in the same time showing the user what's possible to do while playing.

You might wanna add some texts to already start challenging the people through the advertisement.

Personnally i have tried game-advertising-online as advertiser, the conversion rate is not too bad with about 170 registered for 100$ (about 81 euros).

I can also recommend you banizi.com, it is a french banner exchange network, dedicated to online game sites.

If some of you would like to make banner exchanges with me, it also can be a good manner to help each other.

Original from playnitude

Personnally i have tried game-advertising-online as advertiser, the conversion rate is not too bad with about 170 registered for 100$ (about 81 euros).

I can also recommend you banizi.com, it is a french banner exchange network, dedicated to online game sites.

If some of you would like to make banner exchanges with me, it also can be a good manner to help each other.

I've tried GAO with +- $2000, if you want member FAST, select the whole network..

And yes, users will register fast hehe.
Do you have the sign-up link of banizi? i can't find it

Precisely, i have not selected all the network to have a better conversion rate, i began with the all network and then selected the bests websites for my advertisement, according to the conversion rate.

For Banizi, it seems you can only register on invitation, so send-me an e-mail address by private message and i will send you an invitation.

After the reception of my invitaion, you will just have to go here http://www.banizi.com/accueil/inscription.aspx?beta=12 and to use the same e-mail address for your registration.

Original from PaulSimon

Original from G-Projects

Don't know it, i'm only a advertiser there.
You need at least 10K visitors a day to get in as a publisher there.

10K per day!!?!?!

Wellllll.... I guess I'll have to wait a few months!!!

I'm now a publisher there

I just heared that megaclick.com is also a very good place to use for English traffic. The current CPR of a friend of mine is around $0,7 per reg. That should be worth giving it a try 

Original from docjay

I just heared that megaclick.com is also a very good place to use for English traffic. The current CPR of a friend of mine is around $0,7 per reg. That should be worth giving it a try 

Thanks!

Original from G-Projects

Original from docjay

I just heared that megaclick.com is also a very good place to use for English traffic. The current CPR of a friend of mine is around $0,7 per reg. That should be worth giving it a try 

Thanks!

You're welcome  Always happy to spread the good news

70 cents per reg? I already find GAO too expensive..around 30-40 cents per reg (10CPC and around 30% signup), but still acceptable if you want some new players fast. Getting around 10-15 cent(3 CPC, 20% signup) CPA with AYG.

Just to let you know: Travian Games pays around 3-4 CPL...

The thing is, the higher your investment into traffic, the higher the quality of the users will usually be and the more these guys will end up spending on your game.

We are working a lot with SEO to get our browser game out on Google. If you know someone who works with this it can really be worth it! Cheers!