Why you should use TikTok to market your game

Did you know that 1 in 5 TikTok users have downloaded or purchased a game because of the platform? TikTok is a huge asset in the modern marketing tool box – here's a few reasons why!

At Project N, we have decades of experience in marketing video games, and we’ve seen all manner of effective methods, strategies, channels and tools. But recently we’ve witnessed increasing interest around TikTok.

What’s all the fuss about?

Firstly, it’s fair to say that TikTok is brilliant for discoverability, not just for games, but for everything; products, streamers, and personal brands. No matter what it may be, TikTok can help you to get eyes on the things that matter to you. With over 2 billion downloads, the platform has a huge audience.

More specifically to gaming, however, a recent report published by TikTok revealed some significant stats and invaluable insights around gaming and game discoverability.

For example:

“68% of gamers have discovered a gaming product or service from TikTok”

“The TikTok community is 1.9x more likely to have purchased an in-game item or feature”

“65% of TikTok users have made an in-game purchase within the last 3-6 months”

“43% of gamers have purchased or installed a new game after seeing it on TikTok”

Clearly TikTok is a powerful tool to harness, and one that can be exceptionally effective in the marketing of games and in particular mobile games!

How to get started with TikTok

We have taken a deeper dive into this previously (read our getting started guide here), but here are just a few handy tips to keep in mind when getting started with TikTok.

Our advice with anything when starting out is to do your research. Gaming is a pretty broad term on the platform, so it’s crucial to take your time and consider what makes your game or studio unique. What gap does it fill? What makes you stand out?

Once you have the answer to this question, you can start to explore the platform for similar content to learn from. Focus on what works and what doesn’t seem to work, how other accounts talk, what hooks they use, how they approach their edits, and what sounds are they using. Once you have collated all this information, you can start to bake this into your content strategy.

Speaking about what works, we’ve highlighted examples of two gaming companies at completely different ends of the spectrum, both finding success on TikTok.

Starting at the top we have mobile gaming giant King. King captured hype around an ‘All Stars Tournament’ on its little-known game Candy Crush Saga. King ran premium ads on the platform with the hashtag #CandyCrushAllStars to inspire UGC whilst bigging-up the event.

The campaign delivered some truly inspiring results, with over 3.7 billion views, the participation of 31 gaming content creators, a total of 1.9 million videos created under the hashtag, and 12k installs of Candy Crush Saga, so it’s safe to say that they smashed it!

A slightly smaller, but no less mighty, example is Landfall Games. The small Swedish indie studio behind TABS (or Totally Accurate Battle Simulator) have built an incredibly active community of 1 million followers on the platform. Posting a mixture of highly viewed authentic content, showcasing both their games and life at the studio in equal measure, Landfall Games have truly connected with their community and have continued to build awareness around their brand.

Build content on TikTok that works

So what exactly makes TikTok tik? How do you find success on TikTok? It’s important to point out that TikTok is not as polished as other platforms. As mentioned already with Landfall Games, content that is authentic and truly represents your brand, game, and the people behind the scenes resonates better with audiences. A high-value production video can be equally as effective as something less expensive, as long as it correctly communicates your brand’s ToV (we can help you with this – hit us up!).

As with all social media, there is no golden playbook for creating virality – however, we have picked up five key aspects to consider when creating content on TikTok. These are: CTAs, The Hook, Involvement, The Edit, and Sound.

CTAs (Call to actions)

From text on the video, sounds, the caption, and the video itself, there are many ways to inspire action. Be it community engagement to something more direct, be sure to utilise an effective CTA in your video, and don’t be afraid to use more than one means to get it.

The Hook

Where possible, make sure to front load your content and start with a bang, with quick cuts or specific sounds. Remember that with short form video content, it’s vital to catch the audience’s attention instantly, stop the scroll, and raise the view-through rate. Powerful hooks in content could include:

5 things you need to know about X

You’ve been doing x wrong

Here’s why x helps you

Involvement

When creating your content ask yourself: how will this involve my audience? The content on TikTok that does well is the content that creates relatability and gets people involved.

Being an amazing factory for UGC and community involvement, try to create content that asks your audience to engage – maybe even open your videos for stitches or create a community challenge like King did.

The Edit

This is where the fun begins! TikToks are truly made in the final stages. Think back to your research around what works, and be sure to adopt a consistent edit style so that your community finds familiarity in your content – this will also aid discoverability.

Sound

If TikTok is a vehicle, then sound is most definitely the wheels. Sound is vital in TikTok creation, and ultimately drives the FYP (for your page – where you want to end up) with all manner of challenges, trends, and hashtags spawning and relating back to music and sound.

Take for example Kate Bush’s Running up that Hill resurgence – the banger has a whopping 2.8 million videos which feature the cutdown version and a whole heap of different trends. So find what’s trending at the time, and if you can, be sure to utilise it!

While there are some best practices, ultimately TikTok is the perfect playground for trial and error. The content does not have to be perfect, and there’s room to try a few different styles and ideas. However, there are three Es which TikToks (and in fact any content) should aim to be at least one of: Educational, Emotional, and Entertaining. By ensuring you tick at least one of these boxes, you can be sure you’ve done something right!

Conclusion

So in summary, TikTok is a massive platform that can be hugely beneficial for marketing your game, and has huge potential for virality and discoverability if done correctly.

We hope that our guide helps, and we would love to hear about any interesting TikTok related projects you have lined up. So for any support with TikTok or wider social media strategy, why not book in a chat with an expert video game marketing agency – perhaps one like us? Kickoff the latest TikTok viral sensation and book a chat here.