When it comes to making a successful free-to-play mobile game, there's one thing everyone agrees on.

You have to make a great game.

But, as many developers know, that's not sufficient in-and-of-itself.

You need to get people - a lot of people - to play your game, and that takes operational expertise.

Marketing money will help too, but you don't necessarily need to spends millions to build your player base to a level that will sustain a growing business.

Brass tacks

But if money isn't crucial (of course, it helps), how do you gain expertise - without unsuccessfully launching a bunch of titles?

A simple way is to talk to the companies who help dozens of developers and publishers launch their free-to-play games.

One such is Berlin-based AppLift, which has been working with mobile big hitters such as King (Bubble Witch Saga, Candy Crush Saga) in terms of user acquisition and marketing.

It's distilled some of its best practises in a white paper entitled '5 Steps to Successfully Market your Free-To-Play Game.

It's free to download; all you need to do is register.

Place to excel

In terms of information, it covers App Store Marketing, noting general tips as well as the differences between Apple's App Store and the Google Play store for Android devices.

There are also four steps for marketing outside of the apps stores, covering how to pick traffic sources, the differences between CPM, CPC and CPI, the importance of 'Burst and Sustain campaigns', and tracking post-install events, amongst many others nuggets of advice.

Check it out here.