When it comes to marketing esports gaming tournaments, online is king.
Gamers love the internet. I know I do. Before I became a digital marketing expert, I was a games journalist, competitive gamer and professional esports commentator for the FGC (Fighting Game Community). And the internet was half my life.
Fact is: The people you want to go to your esports gaming event are online. So, marketing esports online is a total no-brainer. And the good news is you don’t even need a marketing esports agency to succeed, as I’ll show you in this article.
The best way to advertise a gaming tournament or esports event is online.
There are tons of options here:
- Twitch ads
- Youtube collaborations and ads
- Adwords (Google ads)
- Twitter ads
- Facebook ads
- Blogs posts and guest posts
Most online marketing strategies can be used to market gaming tournaments and esports events.
In this guide I’m going to share with you the best ways to market an esports tournament or gaming event. And as a professional digital marketer I am always happy to hear from you. If you would like help advertising a gaming tournament, gaming convention, or esports even, contact me today.
Now on with the guide.
With this esports marketing guide you will learn about the best marketing opportunities for esports so you can create an esports marketing plan.
Ready?
FIGHT!
I mean… let’s, er, get into it.
How To Market An Esports Event, Convention, Or Gaming Tournament—10 Ways
1. Market your esports event on Youtube
One of the best ways to market an esports event is on Youtube. And this can work even if you do not have your own Youtube channel (although, if this is to be an ongoing event, it’s a smart idea to create a Youtube channel now. It’ll pay off in the long run).
If you do not have your own Youtube channel you can advertise the gaming tournament / event on Youtube using Adwords (more on this below). Or, alternatively, cut a promo with a Youtube creator.
There are tons of gaming Youtube creators you can advertise with. Sponsor one of their videos in exchange for them marketing your gaming tournament or event. Win / Win.
2. Market your gaming event with Twitch advertising
Twitch advertising is a great choice for a gaming tournament.
With Twitch advertising you can create an ad and target it to specific parts of Twitch and its audience.
Twitch has millions of gamers watching gaming streams every single day. And provided you can target your advertisement to the right Twitch channels, there’s a good marketing opportunity for esports organisers and broadcasters here.
3. Facebook advertising for games tournaments / events
Another great choice is to use Facebook ads for esports.
Facebook allows you to create ads around the posts you create, so if you already have a Facebook page you can boost one of your gaming posts. You can also segment your audience so your ad is only shown to people in a certain area, or people who are interested in a specific game, or people local to your gaming store, etc.
The best thing about using Facebook ads for games tournaments is that the targeting options are very advanced. You can save money by precisely targeting your gaming ads to the right audience.
And of course, you can also use free Facebook posts, which are best in video format. Take a look at my guide to boosting your Facebook engagement rate for more on this.
4. Twitter Ads for gaming events
Another great advertising opportunity for games and gaming events is Twitter ads.
Tons of gamers use Twitter as their main social media network, and from my personal experience a lot of the conversation and organising between esports teams takes place on Twitter (and Discord). That’s why Twitter ads for gaming tournaments are a good choice.
A lot of esports organisers helps each other out by retweeting each other’s posts, so there is the opportunity for free word-of-mouth marketing here, and then there are Twitter ads, which you can learn about via Twitter Flight School.
5. Adwords for games and events
Adwords is the most powerful advertising solution the internet has to offer. And there are great things about Adwords for games and gaming events.
Adwords can be expensive but is worth it if you set it up properly. As a certified Adwords expert, I am happy to hep with this.
Here are a few keys to using Adwords for gaming events and esports tournaments:
- Target your Adwords ads to people interested in games related to your esports tournament / event
- Target by demographic and do not show ads to people over 40
- For smaller, regional events, use the Adwords location tool to show the ads to people within a hundred miles of your event
- Choose to show ads on Youtube and Google partner sites
- Don’t show ads on search as most people do not currently search for gaming events on Google search
6. Sponsor posts in the big gaming publications
If you are doing digital marketing for a gaming event that is quite large (for instance, you’re expecting people from around the country), one good marketing option is to sponsor posts on related websites.
Most gaming websites are happy to accept sponsored posts. Just bear in mind that some of their audience will be outside of your geographical target range.
This is a particularly good way to advertise esports events that are large, because the sponsored post will be seen by a national or international audience. It’s not an effective marketing strategy for smaller events (local events will have more success advertising in local newspapers and local news sites).
7. Use SEO to market eSports event on Google
Another great esports marketing plan is to invest in SEO. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of getting your esports event to rank highly on Google.
To help you out I’ve created a beginners guide to SEO. Take a look.
SEO is typically done by creating a blog and writing SEO optimized content that bring people to your esports events page via Google and other search engines.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a blog, either. You can still use SEO guest posts, which is another great esports marketing strategy. With this strategy you publish article on someone else’s website. The article introduces readers to your esports event and includes a backlink to your esports landing page (the online page where you let people sign-up for your events).
And That’s How To Market eSports Events And Gaming Tournament
Above we’ve looked at some of the best esports marketing strategies. You can use these options to create your own online marketing plan.
With digital marketing, esports organisers can create buzz around their tournaments and conventions. With a successful digital marketing plan, esports events can quickly grow in popularity.
As a certified digital marketing exert and avid gamer, I love helping esports organisers with their marketing.
Contact me today.
