How effective is PAID marketing through iAds/FB/Google?

[IRONFIST Studios]

Hi guys,

We are about to launch our first game soon on the iOS market for Xmas :beer:

As well as promoting through twitter, review sites, etc, - We want to spend a little bit on PAID marketing ($4,000 USD max).

Does anyone have any results/info (or link) to determine how effective paid marketing is through iAds/Facebook/Google?
More specifically info on install % for $ spent rather than just visit traffic alone.

Or any tips on where best to spend the Marketing $?

Thanks!

 

[Just_Me_D]

Great question, and I hope that some of your fellow developers will provide helpful answers to you soon.

 

[NewDawnSoft]

From infos gathered on some websites, FB might not be super effective, but opinions differ.
If it's a game, chartboost/revmob, other games related ads providers might be a good idea, then admob / iAd...

 

[IRONFIST Studios]

Thanks NewDawnSoft, we've been looking into Chartboost.
I wonder how CostPerInstall works with paid apps - or if you are even allowed to go by CPI

Hoping to get more info

 

[LordNedox]

For Android apps I had really bad results with AdMob. The cost per conversion is extremely high, there are definitely better ways to promote, IMO.

 

[iamIcarus]

I also had really bad results with Admob and now on Xmas there's too much competition dunno if you will get your moneys worth

 

[urkheh]

I discovered that advertising in less developed countries (far east) is significantly cheaper that advertising in the US. Though the lifetime value of user from these countries is lower too.

 

[creativem31]

I would also be extremely interested in any actual stats around this. Looking to advertise myself.

 

[PompiPompi]

From my understanding and from what I am told you can't really make revenue from advertising your game.
Maybe with in apps, but if your game is paid you won't make up the money you spent.
It would probably take you more money to get a new user than what you will get paid if he buys your game.

I was told that in order to make profit from ads you would need long term clients.
Which is clients who spend money on your products for the long term and not just in the short term.
I think you somehow measure the value of a client or how much money he spends throughout the time as your client.
If your app will get you only 10$ on average from each client then you will probably not make revenue from the ads.

However, ads are probably good to jump start your game.
It might be hard to get your game noticed and the ad budget might just give it the initial push from which your app will become more popular after the initial exposure.
I never had $4k budget for apps so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Just don't expect to spend X amount of dollars on ads and make Y>O(X) money out of it directly.

 

[pkcable]

The REAL money is in, in-app purchasing CandyCrush and Clash of Clans being the prime examples. Give the app/game away, charge them for stuff inside. Powerups, lives, extra turns etc in games, and extra features in apps! But you have to give them sometime for free. Paid apps are going the way of the dinosaur. Yea yea they ain't quite there yet, BUT in app purchasing is the future of mobile apps!

 

[Eggsavior]

Paid marketing can be effective if you plan and calculate everything. Moreover, no one will ever know about your game without advertising. It's a bit better in App Store than in Google Play, because of Apple's thoughtful featuring system, but you have to be absolutely brilliant or unbelievably lucky to enter top charts without paying for ads.

You can make revenue from advertising, and this is exactly the strategy of Clash of Clans, Boom Beach and Game of War. You make profit if your average player spends more than it costs to attract his or her attention. More ads means bigger profit in this case. For example, average user acquisition costs are about 2-3 dollars per user in 'first world' countries, and we can guess that an average player of Clash of Clans spends just a bit more, - multiplied by billions, it makes hundreds of thousands of dollars for Supercell.

Another really important thing is an average lifetime of a player in your game. As pkcable said, real money is in IAPs. But - PompiPompi is right - it pays off in long terms. It means that your game has to be of real value for your players, so they come back again and again. You must provide them with enough fun to play your game for several months, and enough in-game goods to spend up to several hundreds of dollars. This is exactly what Supercell and King do.

Today you have to be prepared that an average gamer spends about $0.01 in an average free to play game. So, you have to go far beyond average to succeed. And this is the real challenge!

Talking about small budgets, I would recommend iAds. AdMob and Chartboost are really bad for acquisition due to grey patterns of advertising placement. But they turned out to be just OK for monetization in cases of Flappy Bird and Timberman. Facebook ads may work well, but only with larger budgets.

 

[b-funny]

My experience with AdMob is also bad. Thanks for this topic!

 

[Forsbit]

Paid marketing (advertising) can be effective if you do it right of course. For a paid iOS game FB is probably way to go. With right targeting and creative assets it might pay off.