Drops in downloads during holidays?

Hi everyone,

I only have two apps - one with 1200 active users (memory training game) and one with 200 active users (sleep improvement app). First one has about 35 downloads/day and second about 15 dl’s/day.

However, I’ve seen some slow, but steady drops in the last week - first app is down to 20 downloads, second to 5.

Do you also have this kind of experience? Or is this due to some paid advertising I’ve ordered a week ago (back-links, comments, and ratings) - could Google see this sudden increase in interest as spam?

Thanks and Merry Christmas! :slight_smile:

If this is happening after 1 month of lunching then this is normal as the apps removed from “Top New Free” section

First app is about 6 months old and the second one about 3, so I’ve already gone through that shock. :slight_smile: However, I don’t understand what is happening now.

my apps are through the roof, did 25k installs yesterday and hopefully do 30-35k today, but also I have a few apps in the top 100 right now so that’s why

@Insplisity - maybe someone left you a bad comment (in English) - that can hurt downloads for a while. Or you were in some of the lists but didn’t know about it (you can get to top new free even with old application after an update).

Wow, that’s awesome, man!! Could you please provide a link to one of your apps, if that’s OK? I’d just like to see what kind of apps are so popular.

Yeah, I got one bad comment in the gaming app, but the sleep app should be OK. I guess it could be, as you say, that I was dropped from some sort of a list.

I don’t know about the gaming app - it would have to be reasonably good perhaps or topical to current trends.

But for the sleep app - some possibilities to improve downloads:

  • increase visibility in the sleep-deprived community - look for forums discussing this i.e. you have to know your market
  • use twitter to search for folks discussing sleep issues or apps - and point out your app to them (limit posts per day to avoid getting banned)

If your sleep app is good you could get good downloads - I think I saw an app recently which had a good number of downloads - and may even have had a paid version which had good downloads as well.

So your app needs to have the features to compete with the best - then you can push it on forums and such places - and that may need to be a sizable portion of your time i.e. you may need to do it every day to get some type of recognition in that particular niche (esp. if you have all the features covered or if your app is super easy to use).

@adforandroidapps: Thanks for the tips! Yeah, I was thinking of finding some forums, answering questions on Yahoo! Answers etc., but Twitter did not come to my mind. :slight_smile:

Twitter with good hashtags can do miracles. :slight_smile:

Yeah, such a powerful tool, and I missed it completely. :o It’s obvious I’m new on social media sites…

Magnesus,

Hmm … how about without hashtags - doesn’t twitter search return everything. Or in some situations the hashtags are better (if they are - then I may have to give that consideration).

Insplisity:

Some general tips on twitter - try to limit tweets - you can get banned for unsolicited tweeting - though initially you will get a warning - however even after that there is a process and account can get un-banned after 1-2 days.

But generally I’ve seen 10 tweets a day seems accepted (you will have to space out the tweet sessions to ensure not too many fall in the same day).

To avoid this restriction you can create more than one twitter account - maybe one or two more - I don’t know about too many of these and if that can get banned as a spammer etc.

With limited tweets, that necessarily pressures to find folks who have high number of followers - so you may consider someone with 10K followers over someone who has 100 followers.

I’ve seen most folks have 120 followers or so - some have 300+ - and then there are those with 1K and some few with 10K and higher.

Sleep etc. type stuff MAY get good paid downloads even - esp. if your app is good. I’ve seen some sleep type apps with high paid download numbers (compared to games).

I don’t know - never tryed putting things on Twitter without hashtags, really. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the tips! I wasn’t aware about the 10 posts “quote”.

Btw, I’ve joined AppsZoom and tried their ad networking - they give you $50 welcome bonus that you can use on ads. I don’t know what they use, but I’ve set a $5 per day limit, and at the end of ad campaign, I went from 35 DL/day to 350+ DL/day!

That was my first experience with advertising and I was really surprised how effective it is.

Next time I’ll try AdMob to see what will happen there.