How To Make Money From The Pokémon Go Craze

Well, here we are are, in the midst of one of the biggest viral trends I’ve ever seen.

Two years ago, we found ourselves capitalizing on the Flappy Bird app that seemed to gain fame almost overnight, topping the app charts, with the developer pleading for it to stop!

Since this weekend, it’s hard to go anywhere and not see people playing Pokémon Go, or hear about it. It’s all the buzz on social media with coverage from local news stations, police departments (on safety), and more.

Today at lunch, my wife called me to let me know that she spotted at least 20 teenagers near her work playing! It’s almost giving the term “going viral” a new definition.

For those that aren’t sure what it is, it’s a game that can be downloaded through iTunes or Google Play and utilizes GPS technology where players can find Pokémon and are rewarded points.  Simple, yet fun.  This technology is called augmented reality, and is going to really start gaining traction throughout the entire mobile industry.

In performance marketing, trends such as this provide us all with an unique angle or hook that allows us to transition an audience’s current interest and then funnel them down to our objective. Let me give you an example…

Let’s say you’re promoting a mobile sweepstakes offer that converts on successful carrier billing. Your hook would be to create a survey-style landing page where you ask people a simple yes/no question and then present them the offer you’re promoting:

Have You Heard Of Pokémon Go?

YES or NO

Answer Now For Your Chance To Win XYZ 

After they answer you could then present them with the offer(s) you’re promoting.  If your audience isn’t responsive, you could go on to ask more questions, but you would want to split test on what gets them through your funnel the quickest.

Whenever you’re using a big trend as your hook, you’re able to leverage high click through rates, to gain cheap clicks and bring loads of traffic to your landing page much cheaper than you traditionally would be able too.

Today, my friend Brent Dunn and I, did a live video on YouTube where we talked in detail about this trend, how to monetize it, as well as the technology behind it:

Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more videos as well as stay tuned to our blog as we cover more of these exciting new trends and excellent monetization opportunities!