The new Ixolla tool automates work with streamers and video bloggers. How to work with him is in our material.
It is generally believed that on traditional sites like Steam, algorithms work to promote AAA titles. This makes it harder for independent games to find their audience. Therefore, it is not surprising that experienced developers are increasingly hearing calls to reconsider their marketing strategy. For example, the authors of Enter the Gungeon, which has become commercially successful thanks to streamers, advise indie game developers to further promote games through influencers, not relying only on store algorithms.
The market has also managed to respond to the interest of game studios in cooperation with streamers and bloggers, so several tools have appeared for the convenience of both sides. One of them is the Ixolla Partner Network. The network allows developers to advertise games from influencers using the revenue share model. The advantage of such a model is that the studio can start promoting at any time, even without a minimum budget.
Grocery marketer of the Partner Network
Ixolla allows you to create affiliate programs and work with an ever-growing international base of 4,000 influencers and 50 affiliated networks. We tell you more about how to get started with the service and interest influencers in promoting your game.
Getting started
Filling out the game profile is one of the mandatory steps to start working with the “Partner Network” and creating a program for influencers. The developer needs to:
- Specify the name of the game, its genre.
- Add a description and a logo that will be displayed on the page with the details of the program for influencers. If the game is already on Steam, the information about the game that is necessary to fill in can be automatically uploaded in a couple of clicks.
- Add a game landing page to which tracking links will lead.
- Select the minimum number of subscribers for platforms (YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, etc.) and the percentage of sales that the influencer will receive from each attributed purchase of the game.
To make your program interesting to the influencer and look good against the background of other offers, it is worth setting revenue share at least 30%.
Grocery marketer of the Partner Network
The main thing is to interest the influencer
After passing moderation, the program will appear in the personal account of influencers. When it starts, the offer to work with the game will be automatically sent out in the form of email notifications to all influencers who are registered in the “Partner Network”.
A developer can create an affiliate network on his domain (white label) and invite familiar influencers there — so they will only see his affiliate programs. This is convenient if the developer has a well-formed community of influencers and several games for which they regularly create content.
Working in the “Partner Network”, the developer can set any minimum number of subscribers required by content creators to participate in the program. It all depends on the marketing strategy: you can promote the game with the help of large content creators with a million audience to get maximum coverage and publicity around the world, or from micro-influencers with a small but loyal subscriber base to get loyal players.
If you are releasing an indie game, then micro-influencers — bloggers and streamers with a subscriber base of 1000 to 100,000 people will suit you. Research shows that micro-influencers have a more loyal and loyal audience that trusts advertising integrations more than the audience of large bloggers.
Grocery marketer of the Partner Network
Every week, influencers receive a personalized digest with the most interesting new offers for cooperation. If you are interested in the game and the proposed percentage of sales, influencers will start working with the program in the “Partner Network”. They will automatically receive the materials necessary for promotion — access keys, promo codes and tracking links for posting along with the content they created. In programs with revenue share, the influencer himself is interested in creating high-quality selling content for a game that interests him, because an affiliate program can become his main source of income or a pleasant bonus.
Viewing results
The “Partner Network” allows developers to monitor the results of running programs in real time, and also shows the most effective influencers that brought the developer the most sales. Thanks to several ways of identifying traffic sources, the tool helps the developer to accurately track each conversion using cookies, promo codes and fingerprinting. Content creators will receive their percentage only when subscribers buy the game.
Like all processes in the “Partner Network”, payments to influencers are automated, so there is no need to worry about payment deadlines, interest calculation and other formalities. In addition, Ixolla takes care of all legal and tax issues so that developers can focus on improving the game and finding new channels to attract an audience.
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By connecting the “Partner Network”, the developer gets at the disposal of other tools and services of “Ixolla” for publishing the game — “Website Builder”, “Authorization” and “Launcher”. With their help, you can release and promote games directly without intermediaries.