How to make money with Facebook games

Today, people spend more time on social media than ever before. According to Statista, the average user spent almost an hour and a half on Facebook every day in 2018. If you’re looking for an untapped opportunity to monetize your app, developing a Facebook game may be the solution you’ve been searching for.

With over 2 billion users and counting, there is no denying that Facebook is the biggest social network out there right now. And with users spending so much time on the platform, it’s also a great place to launch your app.

Not only does launching your app as a Facebook game have several advantages from branding and marketing standpoints, but it also comes with unique monetization opportunities that aren’t available to standalone apps.

Understanding Facebook Games

Before deciding to launch a Facebook game, it’s important to understand exactly what makes up a Facebook game. First of all, Facebook games are built on the Facebook platform, which means they are accessible via the Facebook website or app.

Secondly, Facebook games are played using virtual goods, which are items that have no intrinsic value. They can’t be physically held or traded, but they can still have a significant impact on how users experience and engage with your app.

The fact that you can’t physically hold virtual goods makes them a convenient tool for companies to use in advertising. Instead of offering a service or a physical product that needs to be shipped to a customer, you can simply use virtual goods to incentivize players with an immediate reward once they complete an in-game action. Facebook games are also played in real-time, which means that you can create a highly engaging, fluid experience for your players.

Why you should launch your app as a Facebook game

Having established what a Facebook game is, why should you choose to build your app as a Facebook game, as opposed to a standalone app? Well, there are a couple of reasons why Facebook games can be particularly advantageous to you.

As mentioned above, Facebook has over 2 billion monthly users, so getting your game in front of that many people is a huge opportunity. The huge potential audience that comes with building a Facebook game can help you to really grow your business, as well as bring your brand to a wider audience.

And since the game is accessible on the Facebook platform, you don’t have to worry about driving people to download a new app or install a new browser extension. You can just continue to grow your business through the Facebook platform that you’re already familiar with.

Know your audience before developing a game

Of course, before you decide to launch your app as a Facebook game, you’ll want to make sure that it’s the right choice for your particular product. To help you with this decision, it’s important to understand your core audience.
To do this, it can be helpful to use the commonalities method of segmentation.

This involves taking a look at the broad characteristics of your audience, and then honing in on the specific commonalities that mark out your core demographic. In this case, you’ll want to consider factors such as your audience’s age, gender, education level, occupation, geographics, as well as their hobbies, interests, and online behaviours.

Once you have a clearer sense of who your audience is, you can start to imagine how they might interact with your app. Once you’ve done this, you should be able to get a better idea of whether or not Facebook games are the best fit for your product.

Hit the ground running with a proven template

Now that you know your audience, you can start to think about which type of game you might want to build. There are a number of different types of Facebook games out there, but the one that stands out is the casino/poker hybrid.

While casino-style games make up the majority of Facebook games, the poker hybrid has a huge number of advantages. Firstly, it’s an extremely engaging game type, which means that you can really hook your audience and keep them playing for longer. This also means that your game can be much more profitable, since you can charge players per bet rather than per spin.

Secondly, it’s extremely easy to get a casino/poker hybrid game off the ground. The game is made up of three main components – the rules, the bets, and the payouts. Thanks to this relatively straightforward structure, you can get your game up and running in a short amount of time.

Profit from in-game ads and sponsored posts

Once your Facebook game is up and running, you can start to monetize it in a number of different ways. One particularly lucrative option is to use in-game ads to promote your product. By inserting ads into your game, you can promote your own products and services to your players, and drive extra revenue through your app.

You can also use sponsored posts to promote your game to a wider audience on the Facebook platform. By using sponsored posts, you can drive more traffic to your game by promoting it to Facebook users who aren’t currently playing your game. This can be a great way to boost engagement with your brand, as well as increase your revenue, without having to develop any additional content.

Developing a Facebook game is a great way to capitalize on the popularity of the Facebook platform. It can also be a valuable way to promote your product, engage with your audience, and generate revenue from in-game ads and sponsored posts.
However, before you start to develop your game, you’ll want to make sure that it’s the right fit for your product. You can do this by understanding your core audience, and then honing in on the specific commonalities that mark out your core demographic.
Once you’ve done this, you can start to search for the right game template to build your Facebook game around. From there, you can start to build your game, and begin generating revenue, engagement, and brand recognition.