The Game Needed 100,000 Sign-Ups Before It Shipped
The developer wanted 100,000 people signed up before there was a game to play. The title was a puzzle and role-playing game (RPG) hybrid, and the window was three months. Sign-ups on their own would not do it. They had to come cheaply, arrive with a community attached, and leave the game visible on both Google Play and the App Store by launch day.
Three Months, Three Phases, One Number to Hit
The marketing team ran the three months as three distinct phases, combining influencer outreach, targeted paid campaigns, and community initiatives. Each phase was allowed to change what the next one did.
Phase 1 (Month 1).
- Teaser trailer and landing page: released a short teaser highlighting the puzzle and RPG mechanics and set up a landing page that asked plainly for the pre-registration.
- Influencer outreach: partnered with mid-tier gaming influencers on YouTube and Twitch to showcase concept art and tease gameplay.
- Email marketing and community building: announced bonus in-game currency for pre-registrants and launched a private Discord server for early adopters.
- Organic social push: revealed character designs, lore snippets, and dev insights on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram to drive initial buzz.
End of Month 1: 25,000 pre-registrations at a $2.50 cost per registration (CPR), higher than target, which prompted refined targeting and ad creative testing.
A first month over target is the best month to find that out. Two months were still left to act on the answer. If your own pre-launch comes in expensive early, treat it as information with a shelf life, because it stops being useful the week the game ships.
Phase 2 (Month 2).
- Targeted paid user acquisition: ran short-form ads on Meta, TikTok, and Google’s Universal App Campaigns (UAC), using lookalike audiences and past user data.
- Cross-promotion: traded banner placements with partner studios for mutual exposure.
- Influencer live streams and beta access: provided select influencers with beta builds, prompting live streams and first-look content.
- App store optimization (ASO) and localization: optimized store listings (screenshots, descriptions, keywords) and localized the landing page in multiple languages.
End of Month 2: 65,000 pre-registrations at a $1.80 CPR (a significant cost improvement thanks to better targeting).
Phase 3 (Month 3).
- Countdown campaign and retargeting: created a 10-day countdown on social media and ran retargeting ads for previous landing-page visitors.
- Press outreach and media coverage: sent press kits to gaming outlets and tech blogs, securing coverage with links to the pre-registration page.
- Community events and contests: hosted daily quizzes and puzzle challenges on Discord, awarding exclusive digital items.
- User-generated content: encouraged fans to submit artwork, memes, and videos; top submissions were shared on official channels.
End of Month 3: 120,000 pre-registrations (20% above goal) at a $1.50 CPR, with a Discord community of 10,000 members.
120,000 Sign-Ups, and 60,000 Installs on Day One
- Surpassed the 100,000 target with a final count of 120,000 pre-registrations.
- Maintained a $1.50 cost per registration, well below the $2 goal.
- Garnered 60,000 installs on launch day, driven by enthusiastic pre-registrants, influencer coverage, and press mentions.
“They not only met our ambitious pre-registration target, they exceeded our expectations. The entire strategy, working with influencers, targeted ads, and community-building, was essential to our launch success.”
Lead Producer, Puzzle-RPG Mobile Game
What the Three Months Before Launch Are Actually For
Careful planning, steady optimization, and a community people wanted to be part of took this campaign past its target. Early ASO work, influencer partnerships, and a well-run Discord built the kind of interest you cannot buy on the morning of a launch, and it showed up as 60,000 installs on launch day. If you have a launch date in the diary, most of that day-one number is decided in the three months before it, and the cost of each sign-up is still moving right up until you stop testing.