Promotion FAQs

How do I promote my game and maximize revenue?

Follow these recommendations:

• Consider your target audience and think of game mechanics that would attract them.

• On the Draft tab, fully complete all fields so that the scale at the top turns green for each language.

• Prepare high-quality and eye-catching promo materials (images and videos) for your game draft.

• Provide localization:

  • Fill out the game draft in Russian and English.
  • If possible, add a draft in Turkish.
  • On the Countries and regions tab, ensure that the game's distribution is not restricted. Approximately 15% of traffic is to an international audience.

• Adapt the game for different platforms — in particular, for Android OS mobile devices, since they generate the most traffic. In the draft, check the corresponding options under Supported platforms.

• Enable sticky banners in the game draft, because this ad format brings the most revenue.

• Make sure that all ad units in the game are called correctly and not too often.

• Regularly update the mechanics that retain players and increase game session time. For example, create new and exciting levels, run promos and contests, or add new in-game paid features.

What game genres are popular?

For the latest information on popular genres, see the Yandex Games Blog.

If my game supports Russian, do I need to add other languages to attract more users?

Currently, about 15% of the Yandex Games traffic are users who don't speak Russian. To account for them, your game must support the English language to be featured on the international portal.

Additionally, we recommend adding support for several other languages, including Spanish, Turkish, Portuguese, Arabic, Indonesian, French, Japanese, Italian, German, and Hindi.

If my game supports English only, do I need to add Russian to increase user traffic?

Games that support Russian garner more users than English-only games. In other words, in games with Russian localization, most of the traffic comes from players who use this language.

Where are promoted games shown?

The first two positions in the "Recommended games" section are promoted games. There's a lightning icon next to them.

Will the games be selected for promotion?

If you launched a promotion and topped up your weekly budget, the game will be published within a day. Note: the promotion is shown to users if the game isn't already in their Your games selection already. You can't promote games in the Casino category, either.

How do I evaluate the effects of the promotion?

Your ad budget is only spent when the user clicks the game. We optimize the strategy so you aren't charged for accidental clicks and you get real users that increase your play time.

You can see the campaign statistic metrics in your Games Console, your Yandex Direct personal account, or Yandex Metrica. We recommend paying attention to the average play time and average cost per click metrics. You can view them in your Yandex Direct personal account.

After launching an A/B test, should I monitor product metrics or is CTR enough?

We recommend monitoring product metrics. Imagine there's a chess game with a chess-themed icon and cover. In an A/B test, the developer replaces them with playing cards and solitaire. Solitaire is more popular than chess, so the developer will get more clicks and a higher CTR. The product metrics, on the other hand, won't improve because the cover doesn't match the content.

Can I simultaneously launch an A/B test and release a new version of the game?

Covers and icons can affect product metrics, resulting in their decrease or increase. Pay attention to them during an A/B test. After releasing a new version of the game, you won't be able to separate the metrics for the new version and for the experiment. Because of that, you should stop the test before updating your game.

After launching an A/B test, my metrics have improved, but they aren't highlighted in green. What does this mean?

This means that the improvement in metrics is not statistically significant because there's not enough data yet. This change could still be unrelated to the experiment.

The results of 10 experiments were not colored, but in the next A/B test, the metrics were highlighted in green. Does this mean there's an improvement? Should I roll out the new version?

The evaluation system checks changes in metrics with a 95% certainty. If you've run 11 similar experiments and only one of them produced green results, it could be a coincidence. To ensure the reliability of the data obtained, it's better to repeat the successful experiment. If it shows the same improvement again, the probability of success is much higher.

The A/B test results are not colored. Does this mean that the experiment didn't have any effect?

This could be the case. But it's also possible that the data volume was not significant enough to produce a concrete result.

How long should I run an A/B test before evaluating its results?

• If the A/B test results are already highlighted in green or red, it's better to continue it for a few more days to ensure that the evaluation is not coincidental.
• The same applies if the results are not colored.