So that FaceBook ad SotA is running

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Derium, Feb 12, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Derium

    Derium Avatar

    Messages:
    504
    Likes Received:
    1,265
    Trophy Points:
    63
    [​IMG]

    I just came across this while scrolling. Please consider this constructive feedback!

    I'm not a social media expert, I make my living on YouTube instead. But the ideas here are sorta the same, think thumbnails on videos.

    This ad is missing so much clickability. All it has going for it is Richard's name, but it's thrown out at the end. People scroll past ads, you NEED to catch them with snappy text and a perfect image.

    Steal the attention of their eyes with the image, then get right to the crux in the heading. Additional info can go at the bottom. I'd focus on ambiguity at the bottom, make them WANT to click to find out more.

    "Shroud of the Avatar" does not need to be there FIVE times. Your most important real estate for words are being thrown away with one of those five times.

    To be honest, the picture looks like it's a mobile/FaceBook game. So people looking for that will click off once they see the site. People looking for an RPG will scroll past it.


    IMHO, if you like the design of it, I'd suggest some small changes:

    Top text: "RPG adventures from a classic era for you and friends await you"
    (first word is 99% of the importance and this leaves a bit of mystery as to what this is, once you hook RPG fans)

    Image should probably be a cleaned up picture of a small party fighting a dungeon boss, attempting to capture it during character animations, so it looks like each player has an important role to play

    If you like the image you have, there's too much dead space on it. I'd slap your reviews you have on your website onto it with "$12,000,000+ community funded game". But I'd keep it not eye popping, just there for it to look more important and assure people it's not a dead game. NO ONE wants to try a brand new dead game, so let people know it's alive!

    Bottom Text: "Craft, fight and own castles in this sandbox multi-player RPG by Richard Garriott"


    I tried to keep it based around your current ad, I didn't want to change it up too much.

    Remember, image grabs attention, interest ambiguity is what gets the clicks. Any video of mine that has over 1 million views uses exactly that. Interest in the thumbnail, interest ambiguity in the title. People click, enjoy and then subscribe. I get to feed my family and do this for a living. However, I see people do the same thing as me on youtube, even 10x better videos than me, but they get no views, why? Their thumbnails and titles suck.

    Sorry for the wall of text, it's seriously hard to explain this in a "tl;dr" version. There's endless psychology that goes into this sort of thing that needs long winded explanations.

    If anyone has any questions, or better ideas, PLEASE post them! Let's make this game a success.
     
  2. Kara Brae

    Kara Brae Avatar

    Messages:
    3,872
    Likes Received:
    12,189
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    Bavaria
    I haven't yet seen the ad, but I like your feedback except for the text you suggest:

    Craft, fight and own castles in this sandbox multi-player RPG by Richard Garriott

    I don't think it is a good idea to let people think they can aspire to own castles if they buy the game for $40.
     
  3. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

    Messages:
    15,678
    Likes Received:
    24,293
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    They can in offline mode.
     
  4. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    The huge marketing campaign is here!
     
  5. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

    Messages:
    15,678
    Likes Received:
    24,293
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    No, it's not. That's just a test ad.
     
  6. Kara Brae

    Kara Brae Avatar

    Messages:
    3,872
    Likes Received:
    12,189
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    Bavaria
    But the context refers to multi-player.
     
    Roycestein Kaelstrom and Barugon like this.
  7. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

    Messages:
    15,678
    Likes Received:
    24,293
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Yeah, I know. :(
     
    Roycestein Kaelstrom likes this.
  8. Derium

    Derium Avatar

    Messages:
    504
    Likes Received:
    1,265
    Trophy Points:
    63
    It's a cheap tactic, but ads do that all the time. Think of any weight loss ad you have EVER seen, it's always talking about "I lost 17,000 pounds in three days!". While YES you could lose that much, 99.99% of people will not.

    It's pretty much clickbait that's technically true, since it is possible.

    But to tone it down, just swap that out with "own a home". I just wanted to toss something in there that not many games can claim at all.
     
  9. Elwyn

    Elwyn Avatar

    Messages:
    3,617
    Likes Received:
    4,783
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    That image is relatively boring, and probably needs a big font version of some of the plain text. Maybe they were thinking about using it with more than one language of copy text, in which case it might be better to simply burn text into another image for some of the other main languages currently supported, when making localized ads.

    Got to agree that the PLAY NOW and nothing else makes it look like a mobile/web game. It's the second largest (and only other!) text in the image after the game title. This might not have been true five years ago, but that's how it feels now. Too much text in the image would be bad, but I think this is too little. But I think it might be fine as a first wave of advertising, with more interesting images to follow in later weeks... you know, when Release happens. Get the name out there now, then expand later.

    Hmm, does Portalarium have a logo? If they do, they must not be using it much, because I can't remember what it is. (I'll make a note to look at that Ultimate Collector poster the next time I'm there.) It may be time to start a little bit of branding. After all, the Origin logo was on all of the Ultima series stuff from the start of Origin publishing, at least until EA.
     
    Roycestein Kaelstrom and Derium like this.
  10. Cypher Black

    Cypher Black Avatar

    Messages:
    504
    Likes Received:
    1,084
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Canada
    How about "Richard Garriot presents..."
     
  11. redfish

    redfish Avatar

    Messages:
    11,366
    Likes Received:
    27,673
    Trophy Points:
    165
    I'd like to point out again that personally i find the white-on-black version of the cover art much more impressive and it would attract me more... Its simple, bold and creates a strong sense of mystery that draws you in.
     
    Verit, Derium and Vaentorian like this.
  12. Korim Rackham

    Korim Rackham Avatar

    Messages:
    733
    Likes Received:
    1,569
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    PIsmo Beach, CA
    Fantastic to see a forum full of marketing gurus here, i bet this ad campaign is going to really take off in a few weeks! Cant wait to see and follow it!
     
    Roycestein Kaelstrom likes this.
  13. Lesni

    Lesni Avatar

    Messages:
    971
    Likes Received:
    2,153
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Novia
    @Shade Baneborn

    :D
     
    Roycestein Kaelstrom likes this.
  14. kaeshiva

    kaeshiva Avatar

    Messages:
    3,054
    Likes Received:
    11,752
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Female
    I saw one of these crop up briefly and thought, "Oh, they're advertising now, neat."
    But I have to agree with some of the op's feedback here, the big PLAY NOW button reaaaaally makes me think its a FB game or some other browser type thing - you know the ones, there's a million of them, you click play and then proceed to 'autopathquest' for a few minutes or, as long as you can stand it. If I didn't already know what Sota is, I'd probably ignore anything presented like this. Its not really true either, its not PLAY NOW, its ....come try the free trial now, or come buy this game and wait for a rather lengthy client download. While these things are not bad things, the play now is really misleading and makes you think its one of those instant gratification browser same-ish games.

    Even though I know its a technicality, I think you really need the word MMO in there, and I think some sort of subtle hint that its a 'download to play' game would catch the interest of people looking for that sort of thing.

    I'm not really a fan of the 'are you worthy to xx' thing ...again, reminiscent of all the clickbait browser games out there and a lot of people's brains just filter that stuff out nowadays. I think its more important to be clear about what sort of game it is than to add enticing flavortext
     
  15. Fei Akhart

    Fei Akhart Avatar

    Messages:
    213
    Likes Received:
    674
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Location:
    Norstead
    I think that we need a better CTA (Call to action) in this ad. Not "Learn More" but "Play now".

    The final description needs improvements too. Maybe make it clearer about what the game is and using complete phrases, one that does not exceeds the character limit.

    I agree with that... this doesn't help in "brand awareness" in this case. In short more information about the game like the points that @Derium cited before.

    Maybe other facebook ad formats can help too, like carousel or canvas, with more in-game images.
     
    Roycestein Kaelstrom and Derium like this.
  16. redfish

    redfish Avatar

    Messages:
    11,366
    Likes Received:
    27,673
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Consider it a focus group ;)
     
  17. Sir_Hemlock

    Sir_Hemlock Avatar

    Messages:
    1,194
    Likes Received:
    2,292
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    "I can't believe it's not Ultima"
     
  18. Berek

    Berek Portalarian Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,957
    Likes Received:
    12,761
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Thanks all for the feedback on this first round of ads!
     
  19. Lained

    Lained Avatar

    Messages:
    2,786
    Likes Received:
    4,772
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Location:
    Yeovil, England
    I'd go with lowercase for the URL even though it doesn't seem to work.
     
  20. Echondas

    Echondas Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

    Messages:
    3,783
    Likes Received:
    4,001
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    NY
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.