Promoted Tweet Strategy for Tabletop Games


The old saying goes: You're always wasting half your marketing budget, you just never can tell which half. I examined my in-depth analytics about my 2014 sales so I could launch a reasonably geo-targeted twitter campaign promoting the right games in my catalog.

For example, despite large populations, I wasn't selling much in Texas or Florida. Those are territories I can aim for at a later date, after more firmly establishing an audience in strongly burgeoning markets like California, Washington state, and right here in North Carolina. I also set my campaign to run in Japan, since I've heard some buzz about my games there. I launched my first campaign with a very softly worded opener:


The results of that first week were about 25,000 impressions, with 14,000 from Japan alone. Looking at my 2014 sales, profits, and potential for growth, I followed that up with seven days later with this promo for Kigi, which is the first of my games to receive interest from Japanese publishers.


It was then I realized the really firm constraints that come with promoted tweets for tabletop games. I couldn't communicate how the game plays while at the same time expressing the feeling of playing the game. So I decided to reply to that promoted tweet with a simple explanation supported by several photos.


Twitter thankfully keeps replies threaded with their "parent" tweet. So, while viewers wouldn't see that reply in the promo, if they were interested they could expand the conversation and see those photos right away, all without leaving Twitter itself.

With more time and budget, I can easily see the promoted tweets having embedded video tutorials for the game. This is still only the first week of the campaign and firm numbers are a little premature. I'll share the results as they come!

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