Behind Enemy Lines – “What are my competitor’s users thinking?”

When launching a new game, market research is an incredibly important aspect of your strategy leading up to the launch. A few of the important questions you need to answer: Who else is out there? Why are people playing these games? How did they end up there? What’s their secret?

Understanding your market and getting into the minds of your potential target group and audience is critically important, both in terms of game design and user acquisition.

Who are your competitors, and what do you know about them?

Prior to launching your game, you need to know who else out there is doing something similar—and who already has a piece of your target audience—to help you better understand the market you are entering and the profile of your target audience. Who are the key players? Which categories are they targeting? Which keywords are they ranking high in? What are their games’ titles? Which approach are they using in their logo designs and app store listings? What is their monetization strategy? What are the main features of the game’s key players? What comments do players leave? What are the main pains or wins as described by the players themselves?

Collecting all this information on your competitors is critical if you want to launch a successful game. Your game’s success depends on your own thorough analysis of the market and your competitors. So how do you do it? Legwork. Reading comments, articles, blog posts, social media feeds, trade journals, and websites.

But what if we told you that you could go one step further? What if you could ask your competitor’s users questions directly? What would be at the top of your list? Finding out how users came to play this game? How they go about discovering new games to play? Why do they keep playing this game? What is it that they like about it so much? And if this is not enough, what if you could even target a very specific segment of that audience? What if you could find out what users in a specific country or age group are thinking about the game? What if we told you we could give you the means to do that?

We can.

With Pollfish’s new Behind Enemy Lines feature, we give you the means to target users of a specific app or game. The process is simple: Use the online DIY tool to start building a survey. Add the targeting criteria needed (males, aged 18-24, living in the U.S.), along with the game of interest (your competitor’s app), enter your questionnaire (simply copy/paste from your prepared document) and launch. This will then be distributed to the specific game users you want to reach. Results are available both in real time and in a downloadable format that allows you to perform advanced filtering and segmentation to extrapolate valuable insights.

We can deliver your competitor’s users, but it’s up to you to ask them the right questions. Here are some suggestions:

How did they end up here?

Think smart: These users are your target audience too. Why are they playing this particular game? How do they decide which game to start playing? Is it through App store reviews, YouTube testimonials, game review sites, ads, links from other games? If you can figure out where they “live,” perhaps you can design a better marketing and acquisition campaign to target them for your own game.

Why do they prefer this app?

What is it that they find most interesting in the game they are playing? What feature are they most fond of? Which game mode do they like: one-to-one, solo, or team play? How important is being part of a group, a clan, or an alliance? What, if any, ads do they like? Do they go all out and buy any new weapons/upgrades/features available for their clan or game? What is it that keeps them coming back to the game again and again?

What do they hate in the app? What would they like to see next?

Finding out what frustrates or drives users away from a competitor’s game is information everyone would love to have. Most of the time, game developers themselves are not sure if a new feature will be a win until released. Imagine knowing this before you even get started!

Feedback on your app icon, title, or video trailer

What if you could test your game concepts, logos, titles, or even app trailers and make a better decision based on information straight from the actual users you will be targeting? Better decisions that can help you attract that target audience from your competitor?

What would you ask your competitor’s users, if you could? You can, with Pollfish.