How to Make Your Game’s Marketing Measurable

In the fast-paced and competitive gaming industry, the success of your game hinges not just on its quality but also on how effectively you market it. Data-driven marketing, which relies on measurable results, can be the difference between success and failure. But how do you ensure that your marketing efforts are measurable? This comprehensive guide will walk you through the tools and strategies that can help you precisely measure your game’s marketing efforts and make informed decisions.

Our Podcast Episode

Listen to and watch our video podcast episode related to this topic (German language only):

Why is Measurable Marketing Important?

Imagine steering a ship without navigational instruments — you’d never know if you were on the right course until it’s too late. The same applies to marketing: without the right tools to measure your campaigns, you can’t be sure if you’re using your resources effectively. By making your game’s marketing measurable, you can verify whether you’re investing your budget and time into the right channels and ads, ultimately maximizing your Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS).

The 5-Step Formula for Measurable Marketing

To ensure your marketing is quantifiable, you require the appropriate resources and a well-defined strategy. In the following, you’ll find our 5-step formula for measurable marketing to assist you in gauging and perfecting your advertising endeavours:

1. Creating a Measurable Website or Landing Page

Your website or landing page is the heart of your marketing strategy. It must not only be visually appealing, but also capable of providing the data you need to analyze visitor behavior.

Steps to Create a Measurable Website:

• Implement SEO Basics: Good search engine ranking is crucial for visibility. Verify your domain in Google Search Console, implement meta texts for search results, and ensure a crawler-friendly URL structure.
• Define Clear Conversion Goals: Every page on your site should have a clear, defined conversion goal — whether it’s a click on the „Buy“ button, a newsletter signup, or a registration. Every call-to-action on the page should lead the user to that conversion goal.
• Implement MarTech Tools: Tools like Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager are essential for tracking visitor behaviour and gaining valuable insights. The previously set conversion goals should be measured by these tools. This can be achieved by setting up so-called click-tags or click-events, which need to be activated on every action that should be measured on your page.
• Implement Cookie-Consent Management: A cookie consent management system is vital for correctly capturing visitor data and adhering to legal requirements. This is crucial in order to use analytics tools in accordance with data protection laws, most notably the GDPR and CCPA.
• Define and Test Conversion Events: Test your installation and make sure that all click-events and tags fire on all relevant conversion actions to ensure everything works as expected.

Why WordPress?

WordPress provides a versatile and user-friendly platform for building websites and landing pages. It enables seamless integration of MarTech tools and offers a wide range of plugins to enhance your website’s capabilities.

Recommended Plugins for an Optimized WordPress Landing Page:

• Yoast SEO: Optimizes your site’s SEO performance by providing an XML-Sitemap, the possibility to add Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions and many more best practices for On-Page SEO.
• GTM4WP (Google Tag Manager for WordPress): Simplifies the integration of Google Tag Manager without touching the source code of your website, while providing many additional options to enhance the GTM functionality even more.
• CCM19 Integration: Supports the implementation of CCM19, a GDPR-compliant cookie consent management system without the need of additional code changes.
• Site Kit by Google: An easy alternative to connect your website with Google Analytics, Search Console, and other Google services.

Important Note: We are not in any way affiliated with the plugin developers above, and we earn no commission for these recommendations. These suggestions are solely based on our own experiences.

2. A (Cookie) Consent Manager – Your Privacy Protection Shield

Data privacy is not just a legal obligation but also a matter of trust. A cookie consent management platform (CMP) like CCM19 helps you collect visitor data in a legally compliant manner while earning the trust of your users.

Advantages of CCM19:

• High Data Security: CCM19 is hosted in Germany and offers optional self-hosting, making this consent management tool a good choice for both security and data protection compliance.
• Blocking Features: CCM19 – unlike many competitors – can block the execution of tracking scripts until the user has given consent.
• Easy Integration: CCM19 offers a variety of preconfigured integrations and can be set up with minimal effort.

3. Google Tag Manager – The “Thermometer” for Your Website Interactions

Google Tag Manager is a powerful tool that helps you measure user behavior on your website without needing direct access to the source code.

Tasks and Principles of Google Tag Manager:

• Provide a Data Layer: The Tag Manager collects all relevant usage data and provides it in the form of a data layer that can be used by analytics tools such as Google Analytics.
• Embed Scripts: Allows you to easily embed and manage tracking scripts through an easy-to-use web interface, without having to touch a line of your website’s source code.
• Integrate Google Consent Mode: The integration of Google Consent Mode – especially in conjunction with the IAB TCF v2 framework allows for standardised collection of user consent preferences and ensures that Google Analytics respects those preferences. With proper implementation and configuration, you can ensure that your website is compliant with privacy regulations while still gaining valuable analytics insights. Consent mode customises Google Analytics tags based on the consent string generated by the Consent Management Platform. This ensures that only the permitted categories of data are collected based on user consent.
• Configure Conversion Events: You can define and measure specific user interactions on your website, such as when a user clicks on certain buttons, signs up for a newsletter, creates a new account, or navigates to your games‘ Steam page.

4. Google Analytics – The Command Center for Your Marketing

Google Analytics is at the heart of your data-driven marketing. It provides comprehensive insight into user behaviour on your website and/or landing page, and helps you analyse the performance of your campaigns by attributing your user data to information such as the source and medium from which they came. It can provide answers to common questions such as „Which social media platform generates the most newsletter sign-ups?“ or „Do paid social media ads perform better than paid search when it comes to Steam wishlists?“, helping you identify what works best and what doesn’t.

Tasks and Principles of Google Analytics:

• Track User Interactions: Monitor clicks, scrolls, downloads and other user interactions or behaviours, such as conversion events, exit rate or time spent on your website.
• Analyze Traffic Sources: Discover where your visitors are coming from and how different traffic channels compare – whether organic search, paid advertising or social media.
• Conversion Tracking: Track how many visitors complete the desired actions like newsletter sign ups, clicks on your Steam page, or sales on your website, just to name a few examples.
• Campaign Tracking: Analyse the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns by attributing traffic with campaign-specific information so you can accurately measure which ads are most effective and efficient, and which ads may not be working as well as you would like.

5. Google Looker Studio – Your Marketing Radar

Google Looker Studio is a powerful data visualization tool that helps you transform complex data into easy-to-understand and interactive dashboards.

Tasks and Principles of Google Looker Studio:

• Create Interactive Dashboards: Visualize your data in a way that’s easy for you and your team to understand.
• Data Integration: Connect data from various sources like Google Analytics, Google Ads, and others.
• Self-Service BI: Allows you to create custom reports even without deep technical knowledge.

Campaign Tracking with UTM Links

UTM links are a valuable resource for tracking the success of your marketing efforts across various platforms. They allow you to accurately monitor where your website visitors are coming from and assess how effective your campaigns are.

Did you know?

UTM parameters aren’t limited to Google Analytics; they can also be utilized for links directing to your Steam page through UTM Analytics in Steamworks.

Advantages of UTM Links:

• Cross-Platform Tracking: UTM links work with both Google Analytics and Steam Analytics.
• Easy Implementation: UTM parameters can be easily generated via online tools or Excel formulas.
• Detailed Analysis: Track which campaigns generate the most traffic and conversions.

Conclusion

Data analytics plays a crucial role in achieving success in today’s gaming industry. By leveraging effective tools and strategies, marketers can ensure their promotional campaigns are both precise and impactful. Embracing measurable marketing tactics ultimately enhances the chances of their game receiving the recognition and triumph it merits.

Watch our Terovania Talk from GermanDevDays 2024

Our founder, Christian Schaal, presented the topic “Data-Driven Marketing: Making Your Game’s Marketing Measurable” at the GermanDevDays 2024 in an exclusive TerovaniaTalk. In his presentation, Christian shares valuable insights and practical tips on how to optimize your marketing strategies using modern MarTech tools and make your ROI measurable. Watch the full recording of the talk here below (available in German language only)!

Ready to Make Your Game’s Marketing Measurable?

At Terovania Solutions, we specialize in helping game publishers harness the power of data-driven marketing. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to optimize your existing strategies, our team is here to support you every step of the way.

Want to learn more about how we can help you make your marketing efforts truly measurable? Get in touch with us today and schedule a complimentary consultation call, and let’s discuss how we can elevate your game’s success together.