TEAMS.gg
I worked as a Marketing Freelancer for the tech start-up TEAMS.gg, a platform helping hundreds of thousands of gamers find new teammates and escape the toxicity of playing solo. The mission was bold and clear: drive massive traffic, build a thriving community, and make TEAMS.gg the go-to destination for team-finding in competitive gaming.
A great product that nobody knew about
TEAMS.gg had built something genuinely useful, a platform where gamers could find non-toxic teammates for competitive games like Valorant, League of Legends, Apex Legends, and more. The product was solid, but awareness was low. The Discord server sat at around 5,000 members, organic traffic was negligible, and the start-up needed to scale its user base fast without burning through budget on inefficient campaigns.
The gaming audience is notoriously hard to market to. They're ad-blind, sceptical of corporate messaging, and live on platforms (Discord, Reddit, Twitch) that don't respond well to traditional marketing playbooks. Any strategy had to feel authentic, community-first, and deliver measurable ROI.
Multi-channel growth, built for gamers
Rather than relying on a single channel, I designed a full-funnel marketing strategy that combined paid acquisition, organic content, and community building. Each channel reinforced the others: SEO blog content drove long-tail traffic, paid ads captured high-intent users, and the Discord community created retention and word-of-mouth.
Google Search Ads
Targeted high-intent keywords like "find Valorant teammates" and "LFG [game name]". Achieved an average CPA of just £0.14, a fraction of typical gaming/SaaS benchmarks (£2–5+). Campaign structure focused on tight ad groups, negative keyword sculpting, and aggressive bid optimisation.
YouTube Advertising
Created and ran YouTube pre-roll and in-stream ads targeting gaming audiences. Achieved £0.25 average CPA by combining engaging creative (short, punchy clips showcasing the product) with precise audience targeting, gaming channels, competitor audiences, and interest-based segments.
SEO & Content Marketing
Built a content engine from scratch. Researched long-tail gaming keywords, wrote SEO-optimised blog posts targeting queries gamers were actually searching, and built internal linking structures. Organic traffic grew from near-zero to 25,648 monthly visits on a consistent upward trajectory.
Discord Community Building
Grew the Discord from 5,000 to 28,000 members (460% increase). Strategies included partnership raids with gaming servers, event hosting, bot integration for team-matching, active moderation culture, and regular community events that kept engagement high and churn low.
Social Media Management
Partly managed TEAMS.gg's presence across YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter/X. Created content tailored to each platform: short-form gameplay clips for TikTok, community highlights for Twitter, and longer format content for YouTube. Focused on authentic, gamer-first messaging.
Data & Analytics
Every decision was data-driven. Set up comprehensive tracking across all channels, monitored campaign performance daily, ran A/B tests on ad creative and landing pages, and reported weekly on KPIs to the founding team. Budget allocation was continuously optimised based on channel ROI.
From zero to 25,648 monthly visits
The organic traffic curve tells the story. Starting from almost nothing, the SEO strategy compounded over time, each piece of content building on the last. By the end of the engagement, TEAMS.gg was pulling in over 25K organic visits per month, with the trajectory still climbing.
Numbers that speak for themselves
Every metric moved in the right direction. The combination of channels created a flywheel: paid ads drove initial awareness, SEO captured long-tail demand, and the Discord community turned users into advocates who brought in more users organically.
Discord: 5K → 28K members. A 460% increase through strategic partnerships, community events, and retention-focused engagement.
Google Ads: £0.14 avg. CPA. Roughly 10-30x more efficient than typical gaming/SaaS benchmarks, achieved through relentless keyword and bid optimisation.
YouTube Ads: £0.25 avg. CPA. Effective video creative paired with precise audience targeting drove high-quality signups at scale.
SEO: 0 → 25,648 monthly visits. A content-led strategy that built sustainable, compounding organic traffic over the engagement period.
Multi-platform social presence: YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter/X content that authentically resonated with the gaming community.
Full-funnel attribution. Every channel tracked, every pound accounted for. Weekly reporting and continuous optimisation ensured budget went where it performed best.
What made this work
Marketing to gamers requires a fundamentally different approach. The audience can smell inauthenticity from a mile away. You can't just run generic SaaS playbooks and expect results. What made this engagement successful was a combination of genuine understanding of the gaming community, data-driven decision making, and willingness to experiment fast.
The Discord growth wasn't just about numbers. It was about building a space where gamers actually wanted to hang out. The SEO content wasn't keyword-stuffed fluff. It was genuinely useful guides and resources that gamers were searching for. And the paid ads worked because the creative spoke the audience's language.
This project reinforced a core belief: great marketing starts with deeply understanding the people you're trying to reach, and then meeting them where they already are.
Need marketing that actually moves the needle?
Let me know if you need help driving growth.
Get in touch