Don't put interstitial ads on your trailer, especially alpha/beta ones. You want people to view it, so don't make it harder for them. Your game mechanic is definitely not unique as others noted. It also reminds me a little of this old gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANDSMyrchGk Marketing is hard, and the usual suggestion is to start it the same day you start development. Write a blog as you develop, participate in forums like this, etc. Also, around the release date, you should send out press releases. We've used prmac.com in the past, and they're cheap and helpful (they did a minor edit of our release). And there's gamespress.com.
I am researching the invest method to bring a game to recognition so I don't have any experience with publishers but I am sure many here do. If you have experience in promoting your ideas to investors then that is a good route to go. My rough guess (because it is untested) is that you will need about $50,000 of advertising to get about 20,000 downloads. This number may be enough to get you some forward momentum. If it does you could get 100,000 downloads in a few days then to 500,000 and so on. You have to keep in mind that a lot of reviewers are looking for games that are hot so that don't miss out on posting their comments. They like you are trying to build an audience and it is a lot easier to do that with hot games than discovering new games. Not too many reviewers have a large enough following to get you 250,000 downloads. Companies that have lucked out and got a game to go viral can promote a new game and guarantee 250,000 downloads in a few days so they automatically attract the reviewers.
Like a lot of the folks here mentioned, with such a crowded market it's hard to promote your game with a journo/article. In my experience, the best way to promote your game is through other publishers ad inventory - i.e. cross-promotion retargeting Another great way to get your app discovered are through what's called incentivized networks. Solutions likes these can drive massive installs in a short period of time which will boost your app to a higher ranking and get more eyballs and drive organic downloads.
