What is the best game name? What game names can drive you the best search rankings? Top 10 mobile game names?
Validating a game name is why we founded Geeklab in the first place, and today I’ll share a few tips and tricks on how to run a successful name test, as well as how to come up with different name ideas.
Step 1: Coming up with good name examples
While this is an excellent opportunity to be extremely creative, it is also an excellent time to consider performance-related insights. It is critical that you conduct research and understand the market and competitors. Once you’ve determined who your competitors are, you can begin working on keyword research. Titles have a significant impact on search performance in both Google Play and the iOS App Store. When looking for good keywords, you should consider three different factors: search volume, competitiveness, and the other apps that come with that specific keyword.
There are numerous solutions available in the market to obtain these data points, ranging from mobile intelligence platforms such as App Annie, Sensor Tower, and Mobile Action to companies focusing on organic ASO such as AppRadar, AppTweak, and ASODesk, to name a few.
After gathering the data points, enter the words with the highest chances into a Google Sheet and wait for it to…. begin to randomize name alternatives. That’s right, take the strong keywords and randomize them. The most common format is {Keyword keyword: Keyword Keyword}. To ensure that it works on both Google Play and the iOS App Store, keep your title to no more than 30 characters.
TIP: If you want to expedite the process, you can use our free game name generator -> Geeklab name generator
After generating a slew of fantastic names at random, it’s time to get creative. Begin experimenting with different formats, combining both creative words and high-performing keywords, such as {Creative Keyword: Keyword Keyword} or {Creative Creative: Keyword Keyword}.
Step 2: Setting up Facebook ads and Geeklab’s App Store pages
After you’ve come up with a few name ideas, narrow them down to five. This allows you to set up an A/B test on Facebook and achieve statistical significance with fewer impressions. To maximize the impact, we need both the Facebook and Geeklab pages to be in good shape.
2.1. Geeklab’s App Store Pages
First, we’ll create App Store Pages for each of the variants in Geeklab. It is entirely up to you whether you want to run the test on iOS, Google Play, or Huawei App Gallery. We typically run the tests on both iOS and Google Play, but we’ve found that the titles have a slightly greater impact on iOS.
To create an eye catching app page, you’ll need:
- icon (1080×1080)
- a minimum of two screenshots (2688 x 1242 or 1242 x 2688 for iOS, anything for Google Play and App Gallery)
- Detailed description
- Category
- The name of the developer
- Subtitle
- App Name (this should vary for all the variants)
2.2 Facebook Ads
Even though we don’t want the ad creatives in general to feature any logos, so that the logo doesn’t skew towards any specific variants, there are still things we can change on Facebook’s end to ensure the ad has an impact.
Each Facebook ad must have its own Facebook Page, which will appear on top of the ad regardless of whether it is displayed on Facebook or Instagram. Even though this may appear to be a minor placement, we have seen that the title has an effect on the CPIs alone.
It is also critical that the test be set up as an A/B test, so that each variant has an equal chance of success and that the budget is distributed evenly among the variants.
Create separate Facebook pages for each of your variants, and create separate Facebook ads for each variant, with the only difference being the Facebook Page that delivers the ad and the tracking link that directs users to Geeklab, which we obtained in the previous section.
2.3 Targeting & budgeting
The final step before pressing the big red button is to define targeting and budgeting. We typically set a lifetime budget of $500 per variant on media costs and allow campaigns to run for 7-10 days.
We recommend that you target your audience using keywords based on their interests. Even if you want to run campaigns for as wide an audience as possible, we HIGHLY recommend focusing on specific geos, such as the United States.
The only required targeting is platform targeting, which must be done manually depending on the platform (iOS & Android).
We’ve written an entire post about creating a Facebook campaign, which you can find here.
3. Analyzing the results
What are the key metrics we want to examine? While the eCPI (estimated cost per install) is a good indicator of where your marketability stands, the final CPI will take into account other factors such as scale and creative format.
Instead, the primary metric we want to examine is installs. Because each variant had the same budget, the number of installs is the ultimate metric that shows you which version worked and which did not. Installs in this context refers to the number of distinct individuals who clicked the “get” or “install” button on the Geeklab app store page.
Second, we’d like to look at the demographics, which you can see on both Geeklab and Facebook. These indicate whether there was a difference between the variants or whether the demographics were more or less what you expected.
Geeklab is also supported by a large amount of behavioral data, which will allow you to delve deeper into the engaged users and their behavior. More information about all of the possibilities can be found in a blog post we wrote a while ago.
4. Conclusion
We now have data-backed proper name suggestions. Furthermore, if you used surveys correctly, you have an initial idea of how the real audience looks in terms of demographics as well as psychological models. These data points are intended to assist you in making an informed decision about where to take your game title.
Remember to run the names by your team and get their feedback before launching the campaign. Identity is defined by a name, and that identity must resonate with the entire game team.
If you have any questions about our tool, a/b testing, game names, or life in general, please book some time with our experts.
