Just now, jbarrios said:

What's the use of making a game if no one plays it?  Any tips on marketing for cheap or free?

Are there any examples of companies who have marketed with a low budget?

If you're making a game for commercial purposes this is a lot different than someone chipping away at their own game as a hobby. A lot of people doing this as a hobby would love to have other people play their game, but the the development of a commercial game and hobbyist project are going to be fairly different in terms of quality, and market value (people that are actually looking to play such as game, and willing to pay for it). Any hobby game I work on is strictly for my own enjoyment, and if other people want to share in that experience then that's a bonus. If I'm working on a commercial project the number one goal is creating something that has value and will be marketable to begin with. I'll need to make sure the game is going to create an enjoyable experience for my target audience and tailor the game design to match that audience's needs.

Marketing in general can be hit or miss and that's with paid campaigns. "Free" or "Cheaper" marketing is essentially the same as throwing a needle in a hay sack and hoping someone finds it. I've worked on projects that spent thousands and thousands of dollars on marketing campaigns, some turn out well and net a return, others flop and were stuck with a loss. A lot of times you gotta test the waters and see what works and what doesn't. This of course will cost you more... Otherwise you can hire a professional agency but this is going to run you in the tens of thousands. One of my old business partners did marketing as a full time job for the projects we did, and the budget wasn't small.

You'll want to evaluate if your game is worth marketing to begin with, and if you're going to be able to make a return. If you're just looking at getting your game out there but have no intention in generating profits you can look at things like Social Media, Blogs, Indie Game sites, even posting your game here under Projects and writing a blog.

3 hours ago, jbarrios said:

Thanks for the insight Rutin!
 

Can you expound on this a bit more?   What do you mean by "test the waters"?

Testing the waters just refers to trying different strategies before committing a lot of marketing dollars to a particular campaign. It takes time and money to collect enough data to know if a campaign is worth investing into. Some advertising campaigns do better than others, and it can depend on your target audience, the content within the ad itself, where it is displayed, what day, time, (demographics), and the actual product itself, ect... It's not uncommon to do a lot of tweaking and running different variations to see which generates the desired result.

There are no guarantees in marketing, you're essentially making an analysis and seeing how things play out. Going in blind is a sure way to burn through cash very quickly though...

My old business partner devoted majority of his time doing just that, and I can assure you this isn't going to happen without a good sized budget, and a lot of time.

Many ones advise move to "organic traffic" even for casual games, not to hope for bought traffic, It sounds so funny - I wonder how aged women sit there somewhere at internets and discuss - hey you saw that new match3? oh hunny, have a look at that new great Ispy game, lets reccomend it together on facebook!

I'm not pro in promotion, but I don't know other proven ways for new small games on this mobile markets to be at least somehow good sold but only with commercial installs and most important how you move forwards after "payed clickers" leave you, how you turn bought traffic into organic, how you hold players, or you just dream to add partner ads program after reaching some thousands of installs.

On 2/6/2019 at 6:28 PM, jbarrios said:

Any tips on marketing for cheap or free?

You should look around here on the Business forum. Lots of threads about marketing here.