How to get funded with Kickstarter

Intro

For their new game Diluvion, the startup Arachnid Games went to Kickstarter for funding. Based in Berkeley, CA, Diluvion is the award winning company’s second game. The game reached its funding goal by 126%, to a total of USD 50.554,- Here’s how:

Parties involved

Arachnid Games
Kickstarter
The fans
24SevenSocial
Facebook

The Story

First of all – don’t know what Kickstarter is? “Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects”, as described on their website. More.

Diluvion’s Kickstarter funding round started on June 2nd, and lasted for 30 days. The goal was $40.000, and the campaign got good traction. Diluvion also became a “Kickstarter Staff Pick”, which is a great recognition among the thousands of projects live on Kickstarter. Going live right before the giant games convention E3 in Las Vegas, Diluvion and its Kickstarter round got coverage by both Gamereactor and Destructoid.

In the first nine days, the game reached $21.075,-. Great numbers indeed. But then the daily amount of pledges started slowing down to $550-800 per day. At that rate, and with the rate of the slow-down, it looked like they might not reach their goal…

The Solution

On June 24th, the daily pledges had fallen below $500,-. The following day, on June 25th, the Arachnid founders pitched in to make a total budget of $630,- to try and get some more traction. Note that $630,- is a tiny ads budget for any conventional ads campaign. They used 24SevenSocial to set up four Facebook posts with images from the gameplay, and texts in their own jargon. The posts directed traffic to Diluvion’s Kickstarter page and were directed towards gaming fans in 10 different countries. By ongoing tweaking, ads going out to the countries that gave expensive clicks were discontinued, and the budget was reallocated towards the countries were the clicks were less costly and more plentiful.

From the first day of Facebook ads, daily pledges climbed to more than $1000,- per day. That number grew steady throughout the ads period, and continued to climb after the ads had stopped running. The final week, the game climbed up to first page of the Most Popular Games on Kickstarter list – adding to the overall distribution and cred of the game, and further accelerating the pledges.

Results

At the end of the campaign, on July 2nd, 1.644 backers had pledged $50.554,- to the project. That’s $10.554,- more than they initially asked for, and opens up for adding more features in the game.

And just as important, Arachnid Games succeeded in creating engagement and great expectations for Diluvion.

Results from the $630,- invested in Facebook:
614 website clicks (clicks to the Diluvion Kickstarter-page)
Cost per website click: $1.03
Page Likes: 56 (new fans on the Arachnid Games Facebook Page)

The four posts that were published got 815 likes, 7 shares, and had a CTR of 1,5%. The latter means that out of 100 people who saw the posts, 1,5 people clicked. That’s a high number.

Analysis

Our (24SevenSocial’s) take on the key success factors in this campaign, and some advice:

1. Be sure your product is great. Kickstarter – and the world – is ruthless to shitty products. Diluvion looks amazing, and from the conversations held in the comments section, the game also seems very well designed. This gets the game press coverage, and gamers start talking about it in their own channels and streams.
2. Dialogue beats monologue any day. The Arachnid guys responded to every single comment on the Kickstarter page. 276 comments, including their own. The comments were made by people who were really interested in the game, who pledged money and who couldn’t wait to play it.
3. Know what you’re doing. Arachnid Games aren’t noobs. And this isn’t their first game. Everything is well thought through, and as a backer, you’re not just sponsoring some guy’s wild dream. Your sponsoring something that will for sure be built, and that you can get your hands on in in the not-so-distant future.
4. You need reach. The result of the Facebook ads were added distribution to people who Arachnid knew would be interested in seeing what they were doing. These people clicked, and it all contributed to added traffic to the site and an increase in pledges.
5. Include stretch goals and rewards for contributions. The extra $10.000 that was pledged will go to extra features, such as a home base for the game’s submarines. A really cool feature, that made gamers pitch in a little extra. Supporters also get access to the game when it’s released, as well as the game’s art book as a “thank you”. Backers of more than $10,- also get all future expansions for free.

We can’t wait to see this game live. Follow the journey here.

For more on how to thrive with Kickstarter, here’s more snacks.

Artofthekickstart.com – “Crowdfunding Demographics: Understand Kickstarter and Indiegogo Backers”
Entreprenur.com – “How This Fashion Startup Beat Their Kickstarter Goal in 4 Hours”

Got questions or feedback? Reach out to me at alex[at]24sevensocial.com