Value Beyond the Transaction: How Online Payments Are Becoming a Vital Marketing Tool in Gaming
On the importance of the payment process, its role in marketing and brand building, Natalia Sobakina, Director of Product Marketing at Xsolla, shared her insights on the pages of App2Top.
Natalia Sobakina, Director of Product Marketing, Xsolla
In both e-commerce and the gaming industry, online payments are often perceived linearly—as a transaction tool, a backend process that needs optimization for fast and reliable processing, or as the final step in the user experience during a purchase. In reality, payments reflect how people live, interact, and engage with the world. They evolve with technology, respond to social changes, and tell a much more interesting story.
Beyond their functional role, payments can become a powerful marketing tool: they enhance engagement, strengthen trust, boost brand recognition, and ultimately increase sales.
Marketing at the Checkout Moment
Let's start with the main point: the moment a user decides to pay is one of the most emotionally charged stages, where they are engaged, focused, and—most importantly—their attention is fully concentrated on checkout. Today, in the digital world where attention is constantly fragmented, and users lose interest and switch to the next experience at the slightest inconvenience, the payment stage becomes one of the few points that maintains a high level of attention. This makes it an ideal opportunity to establish a meaningful connection with the paying user.
Such a connection, in turn, requires the right setting, an emotional continuity from the in-game experience, achieved through branding. When we talk about marketing through brand, we usually focus on the top of the funnel—advertising, trailers, billboards, landing pages—the places where we first attract interest. We work on consistency across these channels but often miss additional branding opportunities occurring at later stages of the user journey, in touchpoints not typically associated with marketing.
Integrating branding into the payment process—through art, backgrounds, fonts, and other visual elements in the game's style—transforms the basic payment moment into a branded, unique experience and a continuation of the game itself. Branded payment forms increase conversion to payment by an average of 11%, and even a 1–2% increase at scale can bring millions of dollars in additional revenue.
Enhancing Brand Identity through Seamless Payment
Conversely, a user-friendly and understandable payment process enhances the brand. Over time, a smooth, seamless buying process becomes part of the overall user and brand interaction experience. Like beautiful packaging in retail or excellent service in a restaurant, the payment process reflects a company’s values. You choose which ones: convenience, security, seamlessness—or any others that align with your positioning.
Ultimately, each successful transaction increases trust in the brand, leading to clear results. Players make bigger purchases, return to the game more often, trust new projects, and respond more actively to upsells. A successful, convenient payment becomes "in the spirit of the brand"—like the checkout with Apple Pay or one-click payments with Amazon.
Direct Communication with Players at Payment
Checkout can also be used for direct communication with players at the transaction moment through visual elements in the interface—from simple welcome messages to news about newly connected payment methods and special offers.
With a couple of short messages in the interface, you can influence key business metrics: average check, retention, and purchase frequency. You can also address less obvious tasks...
- ...Highlighting certain payment methods so you can manage cash flows towards the most beneficial channels, for instance, to ensure the required number of transactions stipulated by a contract or to optimize fees. Payment companies are always interested in increasing sales volume—as a way to compete with major players, reach a younger audience, and build loyalty. They are often willing to sponsor marketing campaigns—thus, games can offer their users promotions and discounts without spending their own budgets;
- ...Informing about new payment methods, thereby encouraging players to switch to more advantageous channels. In some emerging markets, users without bank accounts pay through very expensive methods, such as mobile billing, where fees can reach up to 70%. The rise of fintech startups has provided access to wallets and QR codes—they are cheaper and more convenient.
It's important to note that the payment process is also a convenient platform for testing marketing messages with minimal costs. Every advanced payment interface should support A/B testing. While it is usually used for UX optimization, it can also be effective in testing marketing messages. By testing different messages, you can not only improve payment metrics but also see which messages resonate better with your audience. These insights can then be scaled to other communication channels. Unlike purchasing advertising, this method is native and does not require a media budget.
Gamifying Payment: Promotions and Upsells
Invite players to a "discount hunt," regularly showing promotions tied to certain payment methods. This triggers the same behavioral response as in-game events—the desire to return and check if new offers have appeared.
The payment process is also the perfect moment for upselling: related purchases, subscriptions, add-ons, and cross-sells. In behavioral economics, it is known: if a person has already chosen to make a payment, they are more likely to decide to pay again. This works well in e-commerce and is already familiar to any user, including players. When implemented correctly, upselling can increase revenue by 30% and the average check by 20%.
Scaling the Effect
Viewing payments not just as a processing tool but as a lever for increasing income is a strategic product shift for any business. This approach can scale to various games, all platforms, and regions. By adapting the payment process to different player segments, suitable payment systems, and regional specifics, payments transform from a supportive function into a marketing tool and a dynamic growth driver.