Google Play Policy - Fraudulent Installs

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Advertising Networks
1

Hi guys, I just want to know your thoughts on what exactly a fraudulent install could mean in a practical sense.

Here’s an excerpt from Google Play Policy:

“Developers must not attempt to change the placement of any Product in the Store, or manipulate any product ratings or reviews by unauthorized means such as fraudulent installs, paid or fake reviews or ratings, or by offering incentives to rate products.”

Why I’m wondering this is because I was thinking of rewarding my users with a virtual currency if they check out another app I’ve developed, so basically just taking them to the app’s page on google play if they accept the “offer”.

I read that Tapjoy and other ad-networks used to apply this method to drive installs, are they still doing it?

2

This now falls under incentivized installs, and is strictly forbidden as per the new policy. You can’t even ask for users to rate your app in exchange for a reward.

3

Thanks for your input.

I know that you can’t offer incentives to rate the app because it clearly says so in the policy. But where did you read that incentivized installs are strictly forbidden? All I can see is “fraudulent installs”, so basically incentivized installs = fraudulent installs?

I assume Tapjoy etc aren’t offering incentivized installs anymore then?

4

I realize that my interpretation of the policy might not be what’s on Google’s mind, but the way I see it, if you have users downloading a given app purely for a specific reward (most likely uninstalling it right after), how could that possibly not be a fraudulent install? The user has absolutely no interest in the app itself, and the only reason to install it comes from a completely unrelated incentive. Those installs also affect your app’s search ranking artificially, which would fall under “Developers must not attempt to change the placement of any Product in the Store”.

5

Google does NOT prohibit advertisement-based enhancement of download numbers. In fact, in one of their Google I/O videos they specifically mention that users should advertise to boost in rankings etc. Obviously this benefits Google as well. A large part of Admob interstitials are app advertising.

In some way advertising IS a type of boosting - after all it RELIABLY helps an app rise in the rankings (regardless of how good or bad it is). Advertising never REDUCES an app’s download numbers !!

However despite such enhancement, Google can always judge whether an app is good or bad from it’s install/uninstall rate (as one indicator). So what is Google crying about ? Why not use better metrics to judge goodness of an app ?

Advertised apps are not “incentivized” in the sense that user is shown 100 apps (say) over a period of an hour - user is free to choose which of the advertisements to click. Presumably this depends on how good an app is … IN REALITY it depends on how good your banner ad graphic designer is (Google and others spent lots of time choosing between logo designs by doing user surveys or A/B testing).

With current “incentivized” ad networks (like GetJar/Tapjoy) - the user is “encouraged” to click on SOMETHING from within an AppWall. Or a banner ad can sometimes be shown as well (Tapjoy has that also).

By offering an incentive to user you presumably BIAS the results towards a higher tendency to click on ads in the AppWall. The user can STILL pick the better looking app from among the many in the AppWall.

IN REALITY, I have found that the revenue from Tapjoy/GetJar (I’ve tried both) are PATHETIC compared to your regular banner + interstitial ads (“non-incentivized”) - obviously this also depends on how valuable the features you are offering are … but the complexity of the process to earn the coins etc. in practice make it not such a windfall source of profit either for developers.

Note also that “incentivized” installs while seeming like an alternative to paid apps (for example I cannot offer paid apps from my location - thus I was inclined to look at GetJar/Tapjoy) have a very serious problem vs. paid apps (as I’ve outlined before) - and that is the INABILITY to capitalize on “whales” - which are a large portion of paid app revenue. A small number of people (either very rich or very rich parents) spend an inordinate amount of money on IAP (in-app billing). However, this works only because of the psychology of “money can be me everything” or the sense of cheating or excessive advantage leveraging real-world money advantages. And that happens because it is AS easy (mechanistically) to spend $50 as it is to spend $5 - process is easy and users can slip and spend more than they expected.

This dynamic DOES NOT apply to GetJar/Tapjoy - because here every earning of gold coins etc. takes EFFORT - i.e. download and install apps and then uninstall them to keep your phone clean. You cannot earn $50 from GetJar/Tapjoy - as it would take 500 app downloads or more to get that from a user !!

So the reality is that GetJar/Tapjoy have serious disadvantages vs. IAP/paid-apps. Depending on the value of the features you offer, the revenue from GetJar/Tapjoy will be 1/10 of your advertising revenue.

This addresses the desirability of implementing incentivized apps for an app developer.

It could be argued that IF your app can be used WITHOUT use of any gold coins etc. - then it could be argued that user is not “forced” to click on GetJar/Tapjoy AppWalls. Secondly if user has some choice to pick from an AppWall that is not forcing a decision.

However, the decision still lies with Google. GetJar Rewards app is available on Google Play. And Tapjoy is represented on most conferences and is a major player in that space.

In addition it could be argued that while you can incentivize a user to download an app, you CANNOT force them to keep that app installed. So where does that get you - it is not a huge value for the developer.

From what I have seen I have not seen any indication from Google that they are cracking down on this type of incentivized installs. Not allowing any alternative “payment” seems to refer to real cash payments (to avoid fraud etc.). You have addressed it from the point of view of “fraudulent installs” - but the incentvized installs do not see to fall under “fraud” (where is the misrepresentation - is it fraudulent for Google - how is it harming Google, or how is it so compellingly fraudulent since users for the most part STILL will only download apps if they like - and if they install they will also uninstall - which will be visible to Google).

That said, Google can do anything it wants.

6

I think ,the simplest interpretation is, dont buy reviews, no incentive based review, cross promotion and download 2nd app to unlock features is pretty much okay as so many people do that…!

7

I forgot to add that the reality is that you may find BETTER performance from Admob banner House Ads than from the Tapjoy stuff (!) - esp. if you show your other app in a way that is clear is same author.

Often if they like one app, they may trust their other apps as well (esp. if are same genre etc.).