1) Paying review sites, nothing in return. Good review -> No one will read it.
2) Paying for a video review/demo. Reviewers will keep it down the way, they don't have time to FIRST test your game/application in depth (Or don't care about it, you are little). Result? Money lost and bad show! You can do better. MUCH better.
3) Social media advertising. I spent some money on it. A sample? 100 Euro for 4 days on one of the coolest. Hundreds of unuseful followers. Most of them are peoples aiming only for visibility. They will 'like' you but will not share anything for you. (But if you have money this will work, maybe...)
4) Spreading PROMO codes to the BIG sites. Actually no one worked for me. Lost codes. Better to share it on Twitter or on the useful iphoneapp-promocodes.com.
5) Sending mails to the BIGs, trying to contact them and asking for a review in many ways. No results. You are little.
6) Blah blah... Nothing.
GOOD:
1) Local review sites. Not as the big ones, but will help to rank your Game/App. I got a review on one of this in the beginning and the day after was a boom. Word of mouth will do the rest. Hoping.
2) Press Release. I used prMac and was very good. And I will use it by default! Professional and very careful on what you post. (And it's cheap!)
3) Tweets! Got some good results, but you need to work hard on it. Will take time... I'm a novice on this...
4) Free App a day! I got more than 1000+ download in one day, without saying nothing about it! Just scheduled a free download! (Will work if your Game/App contains some social media sharing feature and it is of some interest).
5) Update your Game/App frequently! (But include some new features and fix those annoying bugs!) If your Game/App is interesting even the peoples who downloaded it for free will update, and probably will share. (80% in the step 4 for me).
6) Patience! And don't give up! You are a drop in an ocean! Drop by drop...
Nice tips, I have to agree with almost everything and I learned about prMac and iphoneapp-promocodes.com so great post.
Iīm though not so sure about paying reviews sites or not, I didnīt have such a bad experience and I got my money back with downloads.
I think you have just to have luck and get to the good ones for a low price.
Nice tips, I have to agree with almost everything and I learned about prMac and iphoneapp-promocodes.com so great post.
Iīm though not so sure about paying reviews sites or not, I didnīt have such a bad experience and I got my money back with downloads.
I think you have just to have luck and get to the good ones for a low price.
Could you share what site you used please? thanks!
great tips btw, I'm just curious why paying review sites to review your app was ineffective? were they just small sites that didn't have many visitors to begin with?
great tips btw, I'm just curious why paying review sites to review your app was ineffective? were they just small sites that didn't have many visitors to begin with?
Don't know why, but I found that most of the 'notable' web sites who offer a review for $ didn't get so much traffic today. (There are some exception thought). I had to say, anyway, that they where all professional and responsive to any request.
The contacted sites where in the range of 30-80$ per review.
Anyway, I'm about to try one of the biggest, will let you know.
@Gudus Not a good idea to share them here. I can send you a private message, just let me know.
About prMac - yes! Its the best PR place for apps!
Quote:
Originally Posted by clanzotti
3) Social media advertising. I spent some money on it. A sample? 100 Euro for 4 days on one of the coolest. Thousand of unuseful followers. Most of them are peoples aiming only for visibility. They will 'like' you but will not share anything for you. (But if you have money this will work, maybe...)
Thousand of followers means that you should entertain them! Did you tried to engage them in some way? Promo codes there? Some polls? etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by clanzotti
3) Tweets! Got some good results, but you need to work hard on it. Will take time... I'm a novice on this...
What you mean with "hard work"? Are you tweeting all the time? What are you tweeting up there - news? info? promo codes?
Thousand of followers means that you should entertain them! Did you tried to engage them in some way? Promo codes there? Some polls? etc.
Yes, I tried many things. Unfortunately no good results so far. But the time will tell.
Quote:
What you mean with "hard work"? Are you tweeting all the time? What are you tweeting up there - news? info? promo codes?
No, I'm not tweeting all the time. Simply you have to work hard to get 'genuine' followers, spreading news of some interests and than do some sort of ads for your App/Game. And this will take time unless you have already such a big user bases :-)
Yes, Local review sites, press releases and mainly tweets (followers belong to your niche will be more effective) about your app will drive you a huge traffic.
Yes, I tried many things. Unfortunately no good results so far. But the time will tell.
Sorry, but I'm still asking about your experience! Its very interesting to me, because we are preparing with the marketing of our second app! Its better to learn something from others experience! And I am glad that you sharing it here!
So do you mean this social network - FB? I can see that there you have only 300+ fans? You wrote above "thousands"! So you spent 100 Euro for 4 days and took 300 fans? I think it is not so bad result! But still I'm curious is it FB or other social network?
Sorry, but I'm still asking about your experience! Its very interesting to me, because we are preparing with the marketing of our second app! Its better to learn something from others experience! And I am glad that you sharing it here!
So do you mean this social network - FB? I can see that there you have only 300+ fans? You wrote above "thousands"! So you spent 100 Euro for 4 days and took 300 fans? I think it is not so bad result! But still I'm curious is it FB or other social network?
Thanks, I'm glad to share my experience with the hope that they will be usefull to us 'little self promoters' :-)
Damn on me, sorry, serious mistake, it was meant to be 'hundreds'. (Corrected the original post too).
By the way, I was meaning 'hundreds' to enfatized the fact that in only four days I got this number of followers by playing on the campaign bidding. But 100 Euro -> 4 days -> 1% results in terms of user activity is too much for me ;-)
Note that 300+ are the actual followers as most of them simply unfollowed the page.
Anyway I'm still playing with it and I will share more on this later.
I hope no one minds if I jump in here just a little bit with some of my experience.
Bad:
Paying Review sites: Agreed, never. You are doing the review site a favor by allowing them to post your app review, that is how they get content to drive their traffic to sell the ads. We never pay review sites, and get our clients on paid review sites constantly. Stick to your guns, they will cave!
Video reviewers: same as above.
Social Media Advertising: What is your long term goals? Are you a one of developer or in it for the long term. If you are one off- agreed. If you are in it for the long term you need to build a following and that is one EASY way to do it.
Promo Codes Big Sites: Your mistake is to give them the code upfront. Make them email you to receive the code. And yes if you are not connected with someone on the inside you will have very little response.
Send Mails to Big sites for reviews: This is the most successful marketing tool you can ask for. They have thousands of App user followers, and hundreds of smaller blogs syndicate their articles. A review on a "big site" can and will spike your downloads by 5k-10k in just one or two days. You have to use them!
Patience: Kinda mixed there, you have to move quickly. Apps have a shelf life and you only have a short period of time to get exposure and make the News and Noteworthy list - this should be your first week objective. It is however a marathon not a sprint, 298 days of marketing per year.
Good: There is an old saying "Any press is good Press" and I agree. I do not think that there is many bad way to market - just some give higher returns than others, but all methods do give you exposure.
If I was to suggest anything, that would be paid press release like -prmac- are a complete waste of your money. I know some people have had some success, but anyone with any amount of commonsense knows that this is a paid "advertisment" and will pay no attention to it. The media will never pick up the story, most do not subscribe to these types of distribution services.
Local Media, blogs and reviewers will give you huge ROI, if you go to the right ones.
So do you mean this social network - FB? I can see that there you have only 300+ fans? You wrote above "thousands"! So you spent 100 Euro for 4 days and took 300 fans? I think it is not so bad result! But still I'm curious is it FB or other social network?
The companies that offer FB likes for sale belong to a "like" service. There is no need to pay for this service. "Google Facebook like Sites"
Search FB for like sites.
And join Linked in and find groups for FB likes. - there are a ton-
Excuse my ignorance , but do you mean local to your country, local to your app category, or just not one of the big ones?
Hi,
Sorry for not being clear, I meant local to my country, and it was in the general category.
Anyway, I just got a spread even on the BIG ones, obviously in my country ;-)
Sad to say, but it seem that nowdays 80% of us (little companies/developers) didn't get any review on the BIG ones. Take a look, the BIG companies eat them all. ;-)
These factors are absolutely TRUE!! Trying some medium or low level blogs instead of big guns really matters. And on social media running some cool contests may click.
1) Paying review sites, nothing in return. Good review -> No one will read it.
2) Paying for a video review/demo. Reviewers will keep it down the way, they don't have time to FIRST test your game/application in depth (Or don't care about it, you are little). Result? Money lost and bad show! You can do better. MUCH better.
3) Social media advertising. I spent some money on it. A sample? 100 Euro for 4 days on one of the coolest. Hundreds of unuseful followers. Most of them are peoples aiming only for visibility. They will 'like' you but will not share anything for you. (But if you have money this will work, maybe...)
4) Spreading PROMO codes to the BIG sites. Actually no one worked for me. Lost codes. Better to share it on Twitter or on the useful iphoneapp-promocodes.com.
5) Sending mails to the BIGs, trying to contact them and asking for a review in many ways. No results. You are little.
6) Blah blah... Nothing.
GOOD:
1) Local review sites. Not as the big ones, but will help to rank your Game/App. I got a review on one of this in the beginning and the day after was a boom. Word of mouth will do the rest. Hoping.
2) Press Release. I used prMac and was very good. And I will use it by default! Professional and very careful on what you post. (And it's cheap!)
3) Tweets! Got some good results, but you need to work hard on it. Will take time... I'm a novice on this...
4) Free App a day! I got more than 1000+ download in one day, without saying nothing about it! Just scheduled a free download! (Will work if your Game/App contains some social media sharing feature and it is of some interest).
5) Update your Game/App frequently! (But include some new features and fix those annoying bugs!) If your Game/App is interesting even the peoples who downloaded it for free will update, and probably will share. (80% in the step 4 for me).
6) Patience! And don't give up! You are a drop in an ocean! Drop by drop...
:-)
I suggest that you check out Game Giveaway. We are the cheapest way to generate downloads for your game. Our latest promotions have cost developers an average of around 5 cents per download and as low as less than 1 cent per download. Game Developers | Game Giveaway
Why don't you try and add something positive to these forums instead of just relentlessly trying to advertise your product
<hostility>
I don't want to start another flame war, but...
Says the guy who just joined less than 2 months ago and over 1/2 of your posts are bashing us because like several other developers on here, we used app magenta. Also you never discussed Game Giveaway to death, you made tons of jokes and posted false info which was irrelevant to the original thread. You are the one not making a positive contribution to the forum.
In addition, I am posting in a relevant thread.
</hostility>
We are legit and have over 50k active daily users which has been steadily increasing. Oh, and we are cheaper than FAAD.
If you're going to advertising in a marketing thread, at least give all the info so we can have an intelligent conversation to wither your methods would actually be viable.
No, we also promote apps, just not as the giveaway of the day.
Here is some info:
-The week after Christmas, we sold over $35k in paid apps.
-The 5 cents per download and up to less than 1 cent per download stat are only the downloads that we generate (not all of the downloads that the app gets)
-We are currently driving the apps that we feature as the Giveaway of the Day about 15k downloads and usually generate the app double that in generic downloads
-We have over 1,000,000 REAL users (not counting the users that we got from AM)
-We have about 50k active daily users
-We have 5.5k facebook followers and over 1k twitter followers
-If you do the Giveaway of the Day, we can guarantee you a certain rank based on your app
How do you track downloads generated by Game Giveaway? Are you just tracking the click throughs, or do you offer code one can integrate into their app or otherwise track for conversions?
Actually, many apps that we have worked with gave us a special link which they could track downloads with (if the users clicked on the link, it registered their udid with the developers server and if that user downloaded the app within x amount of time, it was counted as a download generated by us).
Some Marketing Tips
thanks!
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