I've just integrated Flurry analytics into my app and I'm considering spending some money with AppCircle to boost the downloads a bit.
There aren't many reviews of the service from a marketer's perspective out there though - anyone here used AppCircle to promote their app? Was it successful? What was the spend/download ratio etc?
Would be good to get some feedback before I part with the $250 minimum spend which Flurry insists upon... Will let you know how it goes.
I've just integrated Flurry analytics into my app and I'm considering spending some money with AppCircle to boost the downloads a bit.
There aren't many reviews of the service from a marketer's perspective out there though - anyone here used AppCircle to promote their app? Was it successful? What was the spend/download ratio etc?
Would be good to get some feedback before I part with the $250 minimum spend which Flurry insists upon... Will let you know how it goes.
Cheers
Nick
I've used AppCircle on two of my titles (Word Duelist & Cuddle Bears) and have had some pretty negative experiences:
* Their support is atrocious. If you have a problem, you really have to rant & rave before anyone takes notice. I waited over a week for a response (to 3 questions) and didn't get anything 'til some random guy saw my complaints on Twitter.
* They've double-charged me in the past. The last time I used their service, I went to put $250 in; the first transaction said it failed, and when I re-did my transaction, I found that I now had $500 in the service instead of the intended $250.
* Minimum bids are more expensive than TapJoy.
It gets the downloads it promises (sometimes more), but in my experience a $250 investment isn't going to recoup itself - if people aren't seeing your game, throwing money into AppCircle doesn't make that problem go away.
I've had a much more pleasant experience with TapJoy's ad program. Again, the above holds - just throwing a small amount of money doesn't magically translate into a huge boost; this might be why TapJoy recommends a minimum $1k investment and iAd requires significantly more just to start campaign? I don't know.
Still, TapJoy's support is wonderful (I asked a question and they setup a call the next day to go over ad strategy). For a free app you'll get more downloads for your money on TapJoy as well (the minimum bid is lower, but that bid still gets used just as well).
It gets the downloads it promises (sometimes more), but in my experience a $250 investment isn't going to recoup itself
Hi Brian
Thanks for your feedback - really good to hear that there are people out there using it. I had also considered Tapjoy, perhaps I'll reexamine the possibility again, although it's a pain having to change the in-app code every time!
If you don't mind, I'm intrigued by the statement above - were you using it for a free or low-cost app? Surely if your sale income is higher than your cost-per-install, you're pretty much guaranteed to recoup what you spend on it? Or am I being naive to think that I can pay a CPI price lower than my revenue?
Thanks for your feedback - really good to hear that there are people out there using it. I had also considered Tapjoy, perhaps I'll reexamine the possibility again, although it's a pain having to change the in-app code every time!
If you don't mind, I'm intrigued by the statement above - were you using it for a free or low-cost app? Surely if your sale income is higher than your cost-per-install, you're pretty much guaranteed to recoup what you spend on it? Or am I being naive to think that I can pay a CPI price lower than my revenue?
Cheers!
I was using it for free & $0.99 apps.
Flurry's min bid is 0.75, so you're definitely losing money. That's expected with advertising. What I was more talking about was the sales bump independent of the ads - theoretically you reach a point where the game starts generating its own organic sales, and you're making more money than you put in. From everything I've read, this involves getting into some top chart, but a $250 investment alone isn't going to take you there - once that money was spent, our sales flatlined again.
TapJoy's min bid is lower, but it has the same problem. Also, for paid apps, the min bid to actually get shown fluctuates wildly - on some days 50 cents would do it, and on others it would take $4.
I'm surprised to hear that Tapjoy is still effective in driving downloads even though the Apple ban on offer walls has supposedly been in effect since April. It sounds like there's still plenty of apps out there with offer walls? Is there a way to download a couple of apps to get a preview of how your app is being marketed through Tapjoy, or do you pretty much just give them your money and hope for the best?
I'm surprised to hear that Tapjoy is still effective in driving downloads even though the Apple ban on offer walls has supposedly been in effect since April. It sounds like there's still plenty of apps out there with offer walls? Is there a way to download a couple of apps to get a preview of how your app is being marketed through Tapjoy, or do you pretty much just give them your money and hope for the best?
Thanks for sharing the info!
Yea, I was surprised too. I asked about that, and they just... quietly ignored the question. :-)
We were just put in TapGen's FeatureGiveaway, which is basically, well, the very definition of an offer wall. Not really - they promote the app, but don't give incentive for downloading it aside from a small chance to win a prize. I actually found it was far-and-away better than all the paid advertising we had been playing with.
I'm sure you can find some apps that are using TapJoy, but I don't know of any off the top of my head. We just hoped for the best.
Apple refuses new apps with offerwalls, but they don't remove old apps with offerwalls from the appstore.
That's why there are still apps with offerwalls.
any incentive to both advertising through a network AND using their monetization? for example, if we put Tapjoy's banners in our app and also promoted our app through their network.
without an offer wall, I don't really understand what Tapjoy *does*. All the offer wall info is still on their site.
thanks for the warning against Flurry's App Circle. We're considering that too - their site sure is purty - but it sounds like it isn't worth the effort to join the App Circle.
Anyone had experience with AppCircle?
- but it sounds like it isn't worth the effort to join the App Circle.
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