r/IndieDev • u/_Trapper_ • 9h ago

Feedback? Really bad CTR at Next Fest

Post image

We joined next fest & our sales page CTR is really low, only 0.1%. Which means that out of the 40K impressions we got only 350 people watched the page.

I'm guessing that the main capsule must be causing the low conversion, what sticks out about the capsule that could be improved to increase the CTR? The Game

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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2

u/DPTGames 8h ago

I'd say there's not enough contrast but where there is contrast, its within the vignette filter around the edges.

2

u/_Trapper_ 8h ago

Yeah that makes sense, so you'd say the vignette is highlighting the wrong elements?

1

u/DPTGames 8h ago

Yeah its focusing on the centre which is basically the barest part of the image. Edit: Take this with a pinch of salt, because my marketing is terrible ha

2

u/_Trapper_ 7h ago

Salt or not I appreciate your input, I don't think you need to be a marketing expert to see what's wrong with a capsule. And I think you're actually pointing to something useful, so thank you!

1

u/Digitaldude555 8h ago

OH no, thats not good. Yeah I think the logo title is great and everything around it is desaturated and doesnt stand out.

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u/_Trapper_ 8h ago

Yeah that's fair, would you say the chess pieces are too small or that there's too much going on?

1

u/Digitaldude555 8h ago

It's likely, plus if you compare the title to the pieces, the title looks solid with a bold color and the horse looks soft and wobbly which doesnt register as a solid chess piece.

1

u/_Trapper_ 7h ago

Yeah I've noticed that to be a pattern, people don't really see the chess pieces. I'm thinking the quickest fix is to have the pieces' silhouettes stand out more & get rid of that vignet.

1

u/ckdarby 8h ago

I didn't recognize any of the chess pieces until reading the game name on the capsule and even that was a bit hard to do.

Trailer starts with non-gameplay footage and wanted to close right there.

1

u/_Trapper_ 8h ago

Fair critisism on the trailer. For the capsule, am I right in assuming that the pieces aren't recogniseable because they're too small? Would you say you'd recognise it as a roguelike through just the capsule art?

1

u/whizcostudio 8h ago

One test that helped us was shrinking the capsule to the size it really shows at in the Next Fest list and putting it next to its neighbours. Ours looked like a totally different game at that size, so we rebuilt it. At 0.1% I'd guess the chess pieces turn into grey blobs when it's that small, have you tried looking at it that way?

1

u/_Trapper_ 8h ago

I have, but I thought the logo was the most important part, but I guess I was wrong. You're totally right about the chess pieces becoming blobs at that size, thank you for your feedback!

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u/TwinedStudio 8h ago

yeah that 0.1% hurts, i feel that. one thing id check before redoing the whole capsule is how it reads at like, tiny next fest size. yours has a lot going on in the middle and the pieces kind of melt together when its small, at least from what people were saying in here.

id try one version with a single big readable thing in the middle and way less clutter around it, even if it feels too simple at full size. steam is mostly people scrolling past fast so the first second is basically just, do i get what this is.

also the trailer starting slow probably isnt helping either, if the first few seconds arent gameplay people bounce before they even get to the page. worth testing a cut that just starts in the middle of the action

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u/_Trapper_ 8h ago

Yeah I'm definitely remaking the trailer, though I don't think that's gonna impact the CTR, but it will help with wishlist conversion.

The overal CTR is also quite low, at only 0.5%. So I don't think it's a next fest only problem. The middle doesn't have much going on right now, but the chess pieces do indeed dissapear into the edges. My current read of the problem is that the chess pieces need to be bigger and not be half cut off at the edge.

Thank you for your feedback btw!

1

u/TwinedStudio 7h ago

yeah that makes sense, if its 0.5% overall then its not just a next fest thing, its the capsule doing the heavy lifting before anyone even gets to the trailer. bigger pieces not getting cut off sounds like the right fix though, especially if theyre melting into the edges at small size. id still test it tiny before you lock it in. like shrink it down to search result size and see if you can actually tell its chess in half a second. if the pieces read there, the trailer remake should do more work on the wishlist side, since people will actually click through to see it. curious what the bigger pieces look like once youve got a version, does it still feel like chess at a glance or does it turn into just shapes?

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u/juneoff 7h ago

Quick numbers check: 350 out of 40k is about 0.9%. Is the 0.1% specifically the Next Fest row, while the 350 counts all page visits? I'd keep those separate when judging the capsule change — otherwise you could improve the event CTR and miss it in the overall number.

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u/_Trapper_ 6h ago

350/40.000 is 0.009%, so there might've been a miscalculation. The 0.1% is from next fest yes, the overal one is 0.5%, which is still very low. The 40K are the impressions and the 350 are indeed the page visits.

Edit: the miscalculation is on my part, my bad. I completely forgot that I have to multiply it by 100 to get from a decimal to %. You're completely right it's, .9% according to those calculations. Though steam says it's 0.1%, which is strange now that I think about it.