Right, my one app gets nearly 250K impressions per day just from AdMob, and it's not even that highly ranked in iTunes (around #100 in entertainment).
Even at 250K impressions per day, its only around $80. I think you'd have to be pushing at least 500K impressions (but more like 1M) per day to start thinking about putting up money for translations.
250K impressions per day and only $80? Sounds like you can improve your revenue...
If you constantly refine you business strategy based on your current downloads, any chunk of data that presents a significant percentage can be used to make a decision about localization and increase user retention and revenues. That's how you grow from a small indie dev to successful indie dev...
Looking at the data presented above, my first thought was "hmm, maybe localization for Asia region can increase the download rate and keep the CTR..." - if I was Xaron, I would invest $30 into translation ($10 per language: Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese) and would spend 2 days on adding the language switch - a very cheap way of improving your presence in that region. Tier 3 traffic is big but is hard to convert, looks like Xaron has the right app for the region.
Don't want to make yet another Android vs iOS earnings thread, so I'll just drop a line here.
Dragon Lords closed its first month on the Android Market with about 1,250 Euro earnings. Like was said many times before, it's nowhere near AppStore earnings (first month on the AppStore was well over $5k), but there is one interesting thing about it. Seems like the number of daily downloads is increasing every day since the launch. On the AppStore there was initial spike, then drop, finding it's level and then slowly going up. On Android Market it's up, up, up...
I definitely make something wrong... I mean my game is not that bad, should deserve more downloads but that seems hard to reach...
I think your game has potential, maybe a bit more polish, but the gameplay is very attractive/addicting, yet a bit dull. If you can spice it up a little, you may get some really good reviews and things will go better.
I think you may need few things (or variations of those):
1) introduce a mascot (a cute drop of paint with a big smile?) who will be popping up and giving nice comments, tips and encourage the player, some sort of mentor
2) implement achievements - give player silver, gold and bronze stars/medals if they win the level in certain number of steps, other achievements like "Painter" for winning 3 times in a row, etc. Let your imagination fly there.
3) may introduce "real" opponents with a face (cute animals, etc), so player
can be engaged into gameplay even more
4) introduce different play field - different size (3x3, 4x4, etc), replace some buckets with holes or other items to make it more interesting...
This may seem like a lot of work, but you can implement one at a time. I also have a feeling that you are not sure who is your audience (parents, kids, males, females, etc) - this is important when you decide to improve graphics for your game and go with certain gfx details.
Another issue is the app visibility - this one is tough to solve, requires a decent website with SEO magic (to get organic traffic) - I checked your game's web site and it's not SEO friendly (missing metatags, not enough text, text in German, but the majority of your customers are english speaking, etc).
Ask other developers to place your icon and link in their "More Games" sections - this may work very well, or exchange banners with their websites. Dont spend money on AdWords or banners at this point - they wont work.
tau, these are very valuable information, thanks so much! I already have some plans to enhance the game (including network multiplayer and so on), I'll add that to my list!
tau, these are very valuable information, thanks so much! I already have some plans to enhance the game (including network multiplayer and so on), I'll add that to my list!
I really appreciate your comment!
My pleasure
If you are looking for multiplayer matching, you have few options (you may already know these, but still):
1) (iOS only) GameCenter & ZeroConfig - two great tools for creating game matching and quick "deathmatch" over local Wi-Fi spot for iOS 4.x+ devices
2) (iOS & Android only) OpenFeint - huge community, may drive more downloads, they are working on REST interface but it's still in beta I think
3) (any platform) Scoreloop - not so big community but easy white label matching service with REST interface, has monetization service via virtual coins/etc
I think you may find some open sourced ZeroConfig libraries for android and .NET as well to make it easier for local Wi-Fi multiplayer.
Dragon Lords closed its first month on the Android Market with about 1,250 Euro earnings. Like was said many times before, it's nowhere near AppStore earnings
...
On the AppStore there was initial spike, then drop, finding it's level and then slowly going up. On Android Market it's up, up, up...
I bet what you'll see is 3-10% revenue on Android of what you see on iOS in your long-tail, it does not seem monetization is improving on Android... I see that volumes are improving thanks to Asian region, and that's the problem, unless we see decent income/prosperity growth in China...
I wonder if upcoming WP8 & Nokia will be able to get any good market share to replace dying Symbian and make a decent monetization market... But I'm sure Elop will frak it up... My other hope is RIM...
Looks like Android is good for nothing in terms of ad revenue in your case (and not only yours) You may say that AdMob may not have good inventory for Android, but your data relates to almost majority of the devs there... Also, looks like Android only attracts very cheap inventory with $0.01 CPC payout to the developer (also very common).
And the trend is the same for Asian region (iOS only) - I think you have a very good app for that region. I bet if you make a second app with Oriental design and cute characters, and localization in Simplified Chinese, Korean and Japanese - you'll see a very strong demand for free version (and maybe even paid!), and with good CTR.
Also, I would recommend moving your paid app from $0.99 to $1.99. Here is why. $0.99 point became "low quality" pricing for "no-brand" apps lately. It looks like $1.99 works better nowadays, especially if you have a Lite version. You revenue will go up with better reviews. If a user really wants your app, $1.99 is not a barrier, all the "impulse" buyers moved to free-to-play apps.
If you decide to move to $1.99 point, just remember that first 1-2 weeks you may see your paid app getting less downloads, but then magic happens - your app suddenly will be getting same or even more downloads. I cannot explain why (I actually can based on the human psychology, yet it's a theory), and it never failed for us! So, if you will be patient and keep the paid app at $1.99 for at least a month - you can decide if it worked for you or not. If it does not - you can drop the price and see it being picked up by the sites tracking price drops and see a download spike.
But I've always seen a better conversion "Lite->$1.99 paid" than "Lite->$.99 paid".
You are in a very good position to keep experimenting without loosing much of actual cash.
I'm trying hard not to be a party pooper because I really am all for the spirit of this thread, but in reality the sample size is so incredibly small that you can't draw any conclusions.
I still don't get how one can say "you have a very good app for [Asia]" based on 153 admob impressions and $0.56 in revenue. Somebody else said that it's basically a rounding error. To me, an app would be a success there (and warrant investment purely in that market) if the overwhelming majority of revenue was coming from there, and revenue is at least $5K just from that region--or really more like $15K-$20K.
Considering that the app has only made $71 total in 2 months, it's difficult to give any advice other than to move on. It may be a fun app but obviously something isn't clicking with the market. So even if you don't move on, I think you need to reevaluate why it's not doing better at a higher level.
I already have 2 new games in the pipeline and want to build up some kind of high quality portfolio.
Thanks for all the comments, I really appreciate them! I still have a lot to learn, not in regards of programming (which I do for ages now) but in terms of marketing and promotion.
I still don't get how one can say "you have a very good app for [Asia]" based on 153 admob impressions and $0.56 in revenue. Somebody else said that it's basically a rounding error.
I tend to disagree. Statistics work for low number as well. That's why surveys work where they just ask 1000 people and extrapolate the numbers. Time will show if this continues. I hope to get a little boost soon, otherwise there will be more apps which I will share here.
Those are very favorable reviews! While they probably wont bring more sales (you may see a little spike), but they are an indicator of a quality and good product.
I still don't get how one can say "you have a very good app for [Asia]" based on 153 admob impressions and $0.56 in revenue. Somebody else said that it's basically a rounding error. To me, an app would be a success there (and warrant investment purely in that market) if the overwhelming majority of revenue was coming from there
If you re-read my posts you notice that my opinion about the app design being favorable for Asian region is based not on the admob impressions but rather the app colorful design aspects and engaging gameplay
And as Xaron mentioned, you extrapolate the future outcome based on current available results when planing the business strategy.
One should not give up that easily, it took Rovio quite sometime to polish Angry Birds and find the right marketing message to take it off the ground, it was not an overnight success either...
I see a lot of positive reviews. BTW, if you increase the price to $1.99 now, they will help you to maintain the sales even at that price point.
I just had a thought, the title of the game may need some design work. Right now it's black text with Comic (?) font face - may need something more elaborate, you may have a better sale response. You can spend $5 at Fiverr (Fiverr.com) to ask a designer to make a custom design sketch for you, then you can use one of the vector graphics apps to trace it over and polish it.
Android
So, if you will be patient and keep the paid app at $1.99 for at least a month - you can decide if it worked for you or not. If it does not - you can drop the price and see it being picked up by the sites tracking price drops and see a download spike.
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