Advergames can be a great cost-effective way to create a buzz and increase awareness of your brand, product or service online. But is it enough to just think of the game as a means to an end and spend as little as possible, or is it worthwhile allocating a larger budget to your advergame?

Advergames can be a great cost-effective way to create a buzz and increase awareness of your brand, product or service online. But is it enough to just think of the game as a means to an end and spend as little as possible, or is it worthwhile allocating a larger budget to your advergame?

Trying to convince most marketers of the merits of spending any more than the bare minimum on any project can be an uphill struggle, advergames are no different. The problem is you're trying to get your brand in front of the vast online gaming community. With a massive and increasing number of quality free-to-play web based games on offer, you need to give them a reason to give your advergame the time of day. Just throwing together a minimal interactive web based widget on a miniscule budget is unlikely to accomplish this, and it's likely you'll be wasting a chunk of your marketing budget.

Two main factors can make or break any advergame:

1) Will your game attract players?

The main goal of any advergame is to grab the attention of your audience, keep them there and make them want to return again and again. The longer you can keep their attention, the more exposure you get. Obviously this means investing in a great game to providing a great interactive experience. The better and more immersive the game, the better the results will be for your business. You truly do only get out what you put in.

2) Is your game worth writing about?

The other factor in the success of any advergame is the spread of the game amongst gaming community websites and blogs. This is absolutely essential in order to get your advergame in front of the numbers of players it needs to be successful. Without traffic from third party websites, which either host the game themselves or link to the game on your website, you'll be left with a game that gets very few plays. Quite simply the better the game, the more buzz it will generate, the wider it will spread, the more exposure your brand will get and the more traffic will be directed from the game to your website or online store. Conversely, if your advergame is rubbish, very few people will want to play it, or share it with others and again it will fail to produce satisfactory results.

Although the natural tendency is to think of advergames purely from an advertising perspective and think about how to get the most advert from the least spend, this can do more harm than good. The primary goal of any advergame should always be to provide a great free-to-play gaming experience, with the advertising coming secondary. Unfortunately providing that great gaming experience usually requires allocating a reasonable production budget, which many marketers are reluctant to do. A realistic budget to create a great game in it's own right will reward your business with greater engagement with your audience, increased brand awareness and much greater traffic to your website or online store.

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