You may know TikTok as the haven for dance challenges, lip sync videos, funny memes, or the latest viral trends. But did you know that TikTok is also one of the best places to market your video games?

The numbers don’t lie. In 2022 alone, TikTok's gaming content amassed an impressive 3 trillion views, with 50% of TikTok users watching gaming videos on the app.

In this article, we’ll break down how to successfully utilize TikTok to market your games – from finding the best content format for your brand to applying the best practices to create the most engaging content possible.

Let’s dive into it.

Why Use TikTok For Game Marketing?

TikTok has been showing outstanding results for game marketing, and publishers who recognize this are leveraging the platform to their advantage.

European mobile game studio Lessmore used TikTok as its exclusive launch partner for the game "We Are Warriors," driving 814,000 paid installs and 300,000 organic installs. Niantic partnered with TikTok to reach and convert new audiences for Peridot, its all-new AR real-world mobile pet game. The game's hashtags (#peridot and #playperidot) generated over 214 million views within the first 8 weeks of launch, resulting in a 30% lift in ad recall and a 24% lift in awareness. There are also examples of very successful TikTok campaigns run by small indie studios, generating 1,000-2,000 wishlists from a single video. 

But before we discuss further, let’s take a look at why TikTok is a great platform for gaming publishers:

Massive Reach: TikTok had a total of 2.05 billion users in 2024, with 121.5 million users in the US alone. If you want to boost your game’s visibility globally, TikTok is the best choice. 

Engaged Audience: If you're looking for an audience that is actively engaged and invested in playing games, TikTok is the place to be. According to TikTok, 41% of their users downloaded a game after seeing gaming content on the app, and 36% made a purchase to play. In addition, gamers who engage with TikTok content tend to show higher loyalty to gaming publishers, particularly when TikTok is an integral part of their gaming journey. 

Strong Spending Behavior: TikTok gamers are known for their willingness to spend on the latest features and updates. In fact, 64% of TikTok gamers are inclined to pay more to access the best and newest features. Engaging with gamers early during the pre-release phase on TikTok can lead to a significant 1.8x increase in spending compared to those without TikTok involvement. 

Potential to Go Viral: Videos on TikTok can go viral regardless of your follower count, leveling the playing field. Small indie studios can achieve successful marketing campaigns similar to top publishers if they play their cards right. 

Creative Flexibility: TikTok encourages marketers to explore creative ideas beyond traditional marketing methods. While TikTok is not straightforward for gameplay-centric content which often relies on videos, screenshots, or text descriptions, it rewards creativity. This allows game publishers to create campaigns that are more suited to the concept and style of their games, offering an advantage over more straightforward platforms.

How To Use TikTok To Market Your Game

Here are several ways gaming brands can engage with the TikTok audience:

1. Owned TikTok Channel

Creating and maintaining an active TikTok channel allows you to share regular content, engage directly with your audience, and build a community around your game. Here’s how game developers can leverage their owned TikTok channels effectively:

• Share Regular Content: Consistently posting videos keeps your game at the forefront of your audience’s mind. Share a variety of content types, such as gameplay snippets, updates, behind-the-scenes footage, and teaser trailers for upcoming features or expansions. Regular content keeps your audience engaged and eagerly anticipating your next post.
• Engage Directly with Your Audience: Use your TikTok channel to interact with your followers. Respond to comments, create videos addressing frequently asked questions, and participate in trends and challenges. 
• Build a Community: TikTok audiences appreciate personal, authentic content from normal, everyday people. Showcase the human side of your development team by sharing stories, introducing team members, and highlighting the creative process behind your game. 

In the following sections, we'll share TikTok content strategies and best practices to help maximize engagement on publishers' owned channels.

2. TikTok Ads

TikTok ads operate on a "pay-per-install" system, ensuring cost-efficiency as you only pay when someone downloads your game. With an average cost of just $1.00 per click, TikTok ads are much cheaper than other advertising options. Here are some of the best formats for video game marketing:

• TikTok Playable Ads: These special ads allow users to try out a game before deciding to download it. TikTok Playable Ads are five times more effective at driving downloads compared to regular mobile ads, making them a powerful tool for increasing game installations. 
• TikTok Spark Ads: Spark Ads help game advertisers reach a wider audience by promoting their organic TikTok content as ads. By using Spark Ads, you can amplify the reach of your best-performing content, making it easier to engage with potential players and drive more downloads.
• TikTok Pulse: Pulse Ads allows brands to reach users who are already interested in gaming content. Placed next to the top 4% of trending gaming content on the For You Page, TikTok Pulse ads are highly visible and engaging, ensuring they are seen by users who are more likely to be interested in what your brand has to offer.

3. User-Generated Content

TikTok Creative Challenge (TTCC) and TikTok Creative Exchange (TTCX) help brands scale creator-generated ad creatives with the support of creators.

• TTCX: This platform helps brands find creative service providers to create video ads tailored to their brand and business goals. Brands can pitch a campaign brief to creators, who can then respond and arrange sponsored content deals, supported by platform tools to ensure quality ads.
• TTCC: Brands create a challenge brief inviting video submissions from creators and receive up to 30 ad creatives within 10 days, which are then approved to run as ads on the TikTok "For You" feed.

4. Influencer Collaborations

Influencer marketing works wonders in the gaming industry. Collaborate with creators and gaming influencers who play games similar to yours for the best results. You can also look for influencers who are adjacent to your game’s concept and whose followers have similar interests. For instance, if you have a dress-up game, partnering with fashion influencers could be highly effective. Comedy influencers are also a great option, as humor tends to perform well on TikTok.

Example: The Battle Cats is a popular mobile tower defense game with a unique and quirky art style. The Battle Cats is a great fit for TikTok marketing due to its distinctive visual style and engaging gameplay, which can easily capture the attention of TikTok's young and visually-driven audience. The Battle Cats partnered with popular TikTok influencer snackteam to produce a comedy video featuring the game:

5. TikTok Creative Marketplace (TTCM)

TikTok Creative Marketplace is the official platform for brand and creator collaborations on TikTok, allowing brands and agencies to connect with over 800,000 qualified creators across the globe. TikTok recognizes the growing popularity of gaming content and has introduced TTCM Gaming Anchor, focusing on matching gaming brands with creators specializing in gaming content. Creators can add links to their posts that direct users to an in-app landing page where they can download the app.

By utilizing these strategies, gaming brands can effectively engage with their target audience, increase game downloads, and achieve their marketing goals on TikTok.

Understanding TikTok’s Algorithm

The TikTok algorithm is central to the platform’s success, tailoring user experiences based on past interactions to provide a personalized content feed for every user. The algorithm decides which videos a user might like based on their interests and displays them on the For You Page (FYP). For example, a user who frequently watches strategy game content will see more similar videos, while someone focused on Minecraft or Roblox will get different recommendations.

The TikTok algorithm uses a combination of factors to recommend videos tailored to each user. Key elements include engagement metrics like video likes, shares, comments, completed views, and favorited videos. These metrics help TikTok understand which types of videos users enjoy and share, allowing it to recommend similar content. The algorithm also favors content from creators users regularly engage with, and actions such as finishing a video or favoriting it indicate strong interest, prompting TikTok to show more of that type of content.

Beyond engagement metrics, TikTok also considers user interactions like accounts followed and content created, video information such as captions, hashtags, and sounds, and device and account settings, including country, language, device type, and category selection. However, these factors hold less weight compared to engagement and interactions.

Given these ranking factors, it’s clear that the key to mastering TikTok's algorithm lies in maximizing user engagement. Let's dive into some creative strategies to boost your engagement on TikTok and make your content stand out.

Best Practices for Maximizing TikTok Engagement

Whether you're a game developer or publisher, leveraging the right strategies can significantly boost your visibility and interaction on the platform. Here are some best practices to help you maximize engagement and make your TikTok presence stand out.

Ensure Your Game Fits TikTok

Not every game is a good fit for TikTok. The platform predominantly appeals to Gen Z, although its demographic reach is expanding. It prioritizes quick, engaging, and visually compelling content. Therefore, games targeting young people, especially those with anime aesthetics or stunning graphics, have a higher likelihood of success on TikTok.

Grab Attention Instantly

You have about three seconds to grab your viewers' attention on TikTok, so you need to get straight to the point. With the ease of scrolling, many users will move on unless something instantly grabs their interest. Always assume your audience knows nothing about you or your game. Craft your videos to be as concise as possible to boost watch time and completed views. TikTok algorithms favor videos with high engagement and looped views, so design your video to end with a smooth, satisfying loop to encourage viewers to watch it again.

Include a Strong CTA and a Link in Your Bio

Always include a strong call-to-action (CTA) in your videos. Direct viewers to learn more about your game or download it. Additionally, ensure your TikTok profile has a link to your game or website in the bio. This makes it easy for interested viewers to find more information and take the next step.

Use Trending Music

Music plays a significant role on TikTok, not just because of the song itself, but because the algorithm detects trending songs and boosts your video, even when you mute the song in the editor. Using trending tracks can increase your video’s visibility as users often discover new content through popular sounds. Choose music that complements your game’s theme and appeals to your target audience.

Establish Your Game’s Brand

Consistency in branding is crucial, especially for indie game studios looking to stand out. Think of iconic gaming brands like EA, Nintendo, and Blizzard; their strong branding makes their games instantly recognizable. Start with a great logo design that fits your brand identity and use consistent color palette, styles, and messaging across all your materials. By establishing a strong brand, your TikTok videos will be more cohesive and recognizable, making your game memorable to your audience.

Cross-Post to Other Social Media Platforms

When you post on TikTok, make sure to also share your content on YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels to reach broader audiences. However, avoid reposting directly from TikTok to these platforms. Instead, use a separate app to create your videos and then upload them to maintain high video quality. YouTube discourages direct reposting by disqualifying you from the shorts fund, and it's rumored that the TikTok watermark can hurt your viewership on Instagram.

Don’t be afraid to experiment

78% of TikTok users worldwide agree that it’s okay for brands to experiment with new ways of creating content. You can’t really predict what will go viral on TikTok, so experimenting with your content and trying out new concepts is the best way to get a hit. By experimenting with different types of content, you can discover what resonates best with your audience and potentially create viral hits that drive engagement and downloads.

Make Custom TikTok Videos

Finally, avoid simply reposting your game trailer. Instead, create custom TikTok videos that fit the platform’s style. This could include gameplay snippets, behind-the-scenes content, challenges, or trends. Tailoring your content specifically for TikTok will make it more engaging and likely to be shared. Next, we will share some content ideas for your TikTok game marketing.

Content Ideas for video game marketing on TikTok

Creating engaging content is key to a successful TikTok marketing strategy for your game. Below are some effective content ideas that can help you capture the attention of your audience and drive engagement on TikTok.

• Sneak Peeks and Behind the Scenes

Sharing an “insider” view with your followers can help build their interest. 

You can show office tours, storyboards, rough sketches, concept arts, day in the life, Q&A, and more. These are contents that hardcore gaming fans are interested in, while also piquing the interest of casual fans who may have a curiosity of what goes into making the games. 

An example is the indie studio Landfall Games. They post videos where their team answers a few questions from their followers, where they talk about their design and development processes. 

This makes them feel more “accessible” to their fans. This type of authentic content is also great since people like content that shows an individual’s passion and drive. 

• Leverage Popular Memes

Leveraging popular memes on TikTok can be an effective way to promote your video game. Memes are highly shareable and can quickly boost your content's visibility. To start, keep an eye on trending memes and challenges on TikTok. Being timely is crucial, as memes have a short lifespan. Use these trends to create content that is relevant and engaging. Take popular memes and put a unique spin on them to align with your game’s theme or characters, making your content more relatable and entertaining. For example, if there's a popular meme involving a reaction, you could recreate it with your game's characters or scenarios.

Dream Deer Studios successfully used this approach by adopting a simple yet popular meme format: a Stranger Things character snapping their fingers before cutting to a jump scare from one of their horror games. This video racked up 1.7 million views, showcasing the potential impact of creatively leveraging memes in your TikTok marketing strategy.

• Gameplay

Gaming fans would always appreciate a good gameplay video. Show them clips of high-level gaming, highlight plays, and more. An example is showing a great combo or finishing a really difficult level. All of this can help entice people to try their hand at your game. 

Promoting your in-game items works as well. Show them clips of your items, weapons, characters, maps, and so on. 

Added a new level, or have a new update to the game? A before and after video or a video summarizing all the new changes can be done as well.

• Comedy Sketches

Humor is TikTok’s bread and butter, and gaming content is no exception. According to TikTok, 30% of their users said humor in content was a top motivation for purchase intent. 

If it’s suitable for your game, why not try to incorporate memes, funny GIFs, comedy sketches, POV videos, or trending content in your marketing? 

Among Us did this in their TikTok marketing. They focused on creating funny and memeable content. They also respond accordingly to their follower’s comments and questions, often using slang and Gen-Z jargon while also throwing references to popular memes.

• Hashtag Challenges

TikTok users don’t like to just passively consume content. They want to actively engage instead. This can be done through cosplay, game edits, voiceovers, or challenges.

You can leverage this by incorporating a hashtag challenge for your game. Have your followers post a funny edit of your games, or have them do a low-budget cosplay of their favorite character. 

This type of user-generated content is a win-win strategy. You don’t have to extend so much effort and resources creating the content yourself, while your followers will have more fun since they are actively engaging with your games and your gaming community while doing the challenge. 

Top Tools for TikTok Marketing

In order to excel in marketing your game on TikTok, having the right tools can make all the difference. Whether you're creating engaging content, scheduling posts, or analyzing performance, leveraging specialized tools can enhance your strategy and boost your results. Here are some of the top tools to help you maximize your TikTok marketing efforts:

• ‍Adobe Express

Adobe Express is a versatile tool designed to streamline the digital content creation process, and its integration with TikTok makes it a powerful resource for creating engaging TikTok videos. It allows you to easily optimize videos for your TikTok feed as well as plan, preview, and schedule your TikTok content. Adobe Express users can also access TikTok’s Commercial Music Library through the Symphony Assistant add-on.

• CapCut

From the creators of TikTok, CapCut is a free video editing tool popular among TikTok users. It offers basic features like trimming, cutting, and adding music, along with fun additions like stickers and captions. CapCut also provides easy-to-use 9:16 templates that match TikTok's style, making content creation quick and simple. Beyond the basics, CapCut supports multi-language subtitles and auto-generates them based on the video's language. Advanced AI tools like AI Background Remover, AI Color Correction, and Background Noise Remover ensure your videos are polished and professional. 

• Social Champ 

Social Champ is a comprehensive social media management and automation tool, ideal for enhancing your presence on TikTok. It simplifies day-to-day posting, A/B testing, and optimization, allowing marketers to effortlessly plan, schedule, and track multiple TikTok videos and posts from a single dashboard. Social Champ provides detailed analytics with platform-specific metrics, enabling you to analyze post-performance, comparing weekly and monthly performance. 

• PiPiADS

PiPiADS simplifies the process of finding high-performing ads and trends, making it an essential resource for any video game marketer. By analyzing ad details such as the final link, products, and copy, game marketers can tailor their campaigns to resonate with their target audience. PiPiADS also offers the ability to search for trending products and assess ad performance metrics.

Wrapping Up

TikTok might be relatively new compared to social media giants like Youtube or Facebook, but they are showing that they are unparalleled in gaining their audience’s attention and engagement. Leverage TikTok’s community and dynamic content to their full potential to generate more buzz (and downloads!) for your game.

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