Acquire
Updated: Mar 3, 2026
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Acquiring players on Facebook is unique because the platform offers both organic discovery surfaces and paid acquisition tools that are tightly integrated with the Instant Games experience. Players who discover your game organically through social sharing or the Gaming Tab can start playing immediately, and players who encounter your game through an ad can try it directly within the ad unit itself — no download required. This frictionless path from discovery to gameplay is one of the most powerful advantages of building on the Instant Games platform.
In this section
- Discovery — Learn how players find games on Facebook. Understand the organic discovery surfaces — the Gaming Tab, News Feed, Messenger, Notifications, Facebook Search, and Game Pages — and what you can do to maximize your visibility on each one.
- Click-to-Play Ads — Explore Facebook’s paid acquisition tool built specifically for Instant Games. Click-to-Play (C2P) ads let potential players try your game directly from an ad unit, dramatically improving conversion rates compared to traditional app install ads.
- Targeting — Configure audience targeting to reach the right players, including lookalike audiences, interest-based targeting, geographic strategies, and optimization goals.
- Setup — Follow a step-by-step guide to create and launch your first C2P ad campaign in Ads Manager.
- Budget — Plan your ad spend with guidance on starting budgets, bid strategies, scaling, and measuring return on investment.
- Creative — Design effective ad creative with best practices for video, playable, and carousel formats, plus guidance on A/B testing and custom payloads.
- Partner Requirements — Understand the eligibility, technical, compliance, and account requirements for running C2P ads.
- Invites — Enable players to invite their friends to play your game using the Instant Games SDK. Learn how invites work, how to customize them, and how to incentivize organic growth through friend-to-friend referrals.
- Sharing — Let players share game content — scores, achievements, and moments — to their Facebook feed, Messenger conversations, and Stories. Learn how to design share-worthy moments and use the Share API to drive viral growth.
Choosing an acquisition strategy
Most successful Instant Games use a combination of organic and paid acquisition. Here is a general framework:
| Strategy | Best For | Cost |
|---|---|---|
Organic Discovery | All games, especially new launches | Free (requires asset optimization) |
Click-to-Play Ads | Scaling player base, targeting specific demographics | Paid (flexible budgets) |
Invites | Games with strong social mechanics | Free (built into the SDK) |
Sharing | Games with shareable moments (high scores, achievements) | Free (built into the SDK) |
The most effective approach is to start by optimizing your organic presence (strong assets, compelling descriptions, social features), then layer in invites and sharing to drive viral growth, and finally add Click-to-Play ads when you are ready to scale with paid acquisition.
Next steps
If you are new to player acquisition on Facebook, start with Discovery to understand how players find games on the platform. If you are ready to invest in paid acquisition, jump directly to Click-to-Play Ads.