I'm wondering if anyone else has attempted to advertise on admob. I'm very surprised that any of these apps that are advertising can sustain advertising all day long. I can only imagine how much it would cost to keep your advertisement running all day. $50 went in all of a few minutes. I'm guessing advertising costs for an hour is like $1,000. So like $24,000 to keep up all day.
I'm looking for anybody out there who has actual success advertising with admob.
There have been many stories on these threads that advertising with AdMob does not work. I have never seen a single person say that they even came close to recovering their costs. In fact, most have said they did not even see a blip in sales as a result of advertising.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
Okay, I don't understand what do you mean by "granularity", but what I'm talking about is, if you want to get at least a "bit" of revenue by being a publisher, your app needs to be used quite an amount of time, by lots of people.
Besides, you can't really be sure whether the users will tap the "ads" displayed periodically on the app.
I'm now still using AdMob because I haven't been able to release a high quality app, and AdMob is still the best, I still couldn't see a better mobile ad network solution out there, if we're not talking about AdWhirl (which is a fusion of ad networks).
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
By granularity, I mean, you want to be able to target your ad to certain types of users. For example, if you are doing a weight loss app, you'd probably want your ad to be displayed in other health-related apps rather than in a fart generator or a first person shooter game.
One other question about AdMob's model would be: are you paying per impression, or paying per click-through?
If you are paying for 1000 impressions and can't pick what apps the ads are going to appear on, then you are wasting your money.
Also, think about how many actual customers you might get for that 1000 impressions. If you get one click-through per 1000 impressions, you've just paid $50 to get a 99 cent sale. Getting 50 click-throughs and sales from 1000 impressions is going to only happen if your ad is relatively irresistable to the people who see it.
Remember, advertising is not marketing. Marketing is the art of informing your customers about something that they are already predisposed to want. That means you have to figure out who your customer is going to be, preferably before you even start writing any code. If you can't answer that question, then you are gambling with your development time and money.
For those of you who are doing ad-supported apps, how much money does AdMob pay?
Yes, they let you do that, I set the category of the ads to be similar to the category of my app.
I won't be talking about my app unable to get an acceptable revenue, because I had made some mistakes, but you can read those links I gave you.
By just using your common sense and logic, you can analyze that you'll need a high quality or addictive app and luck to get a bit of revenue.
Worse, if you try to advertise, I spent $50 and it's depleted only in several minutes, and I don't really think it will guarantee that many users will download the app.
Unless, if you advertise a popular app like Skype, Transformers, Star Wars, Facebook, etc. Which is obvious that they have the budget for that.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
Remember, advertising is not marketing. Marketing is the art of informing your customers about something that they are already predisposed to want. That means you have to figure out who your customer is going to be, preferably before you even start writing any code. If you can't answer that question, then you are gambling with your development time and money.
I'd rather gamble, unless I have lots of funding to do that kind of planning.
Gamble, develop good app that doesn't take much of my money, see what happens...
If people like it, then I'll continue, if they don't, think about more ideas to improve the app, while thinking about other ideas.
Good marketing only works if the app is good, so focus on the app development first...
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
Last edited by mnemonic_fx; 07-03-2009 at 05:16 AM.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
Personally, I don't think that in-app advertising using AdMob is the best use of one's ad dollar. Think about it, your ad is basically a distraction in the middle of someone else's app. If I just launch my free to-do list to enter a chore, I'm thinking about that chore, not about your ad.
In this scenario, if the ad is for "ultimate voice-activated to-do list app, stop typing your todos", then yes, that ad could be very successful, and give you an unusual amount of response. But it may never really be noticed.
I think that the Web is generally going to be a better bet for promoting your app, especially if it's a game, since there is an active game press for iPhone . Heck, 50 bucks will put your ad at the top of this site for 5 weeks.
I think, however, that if you pay for advertising, you have a better chance of generating sales by advertising at places that your customers go. A web site for getting people organized would be a great place to run a to-do list iPhone app ad. It's really about the audience for the app. The voice activated to-do app is for busy people who are on the go and want a better way to stay organized.
Advertising on places where people are looking to discover new apps (like touch arcade, aptism, etc.) or on places more specific to the targeted user (Weight watchers for a diet app, consumer sites for a price comparison app, etc.)
Additionally, you can advertise for "FREE" on App Connect iPhone app, they had made the effort to create the database of iPhone apps.
But, then again back to reality, I could only be confident to advertise and market my app just like the way you said, if my app is what I say it's, not some bullsh*t.
"Software is hard" as Donald Knuth said... and lots of people wants a piece of iPhone popularity for them.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
@weaselmeyer - AdMob does not let you target particular markets like Google goes when it comes to showing ad. For instance, my app is wine related but there is no way to only show the ad to wine drinkers. This is the biggest weakness in my opinion.
In general, I want to like AdMob but with my testing I have not found any + effects. Here is an article I wrote on a test I did with my own app:
bottom line: no effect. I did not loss tons of money but I also did not recoup.
__________________ How To Make iPhone Apps http://howtomakeiphoneapps.com Cocoa-Touch, iPad & iPhone Programming Videos, Tutorials & How-To exclusively for new app developers
@weaselmeyer - AdMob does not let you target particular markets like Google goes when it comes to showing ad. For instance, my app is wine related but there is no way to only show the ad to wine drinkers. This is the biggest weakness in my opinion.
In general, I want to like AdMob but with my testing I have not found any + effects. Here is an article I wrote on a test I did with my own app:
bottom line: no effect. I did not loss tons of money but I also did not recoup.
Interesting read. Even though it appeared to have no effect I really like this paragraph:
Quote:
Note that I include the price right in the ad – this was advice given to me by a rep from Admob who took the time to review my ad copy and made this suggestion. The idea is that it is cheaper to include the price – since I was paying for each click I did not want people clicking on my ad that did not want to buy $.99+ apps.
Guess how fast $50 goes on AdMob?
Linear Mode
