It was a disaster since we spent $4.500 on Facebook ads and we only managed to get around 35k download the first month. The lesson we have learned so far is that nothing matters most than the game itself: if people love it , it won´t need promotion (but it will always help of course) and if people don´t like it you will end up wasting your money…
That’s my definition of disaster: loosing money. I really don’t understand users taste. Match 7 Stars is a nice game in my opinion and users don’t liked it. On the other hand, Flappy Bird was a tremendous success.
It’s a lottery.
For best marketing results you really need to manage to reach the right people. For us, this means finding the players which really have fun with the game and want to share this fun with others. It also means understanding WHY they like it. In the end, you also have to look at your competition (distinct for your targetr audience) and find out if you are actually delivering more or less fun to the audience.
The same is true for every market out there, you can just develop the best game of the genre, but in the end not every player likes this genre or have different expectations to a game of this genre and than you end up with a small group of engaged people which is your main marketing target. This is one of the hardest parts in marketing: Finding your target audience and - much harder - obviously target them 
I generally think, that match games would need tremendous affords to keep the players engaged, every player needs a goal in the game to work for example. Keeping players engaged in your game will more like led to a more mouth-to-mouth spreading, which is the true power, getting viral - flappy bird did this. For Flappy Bird it absolutely didn’t matter what the game was - at some point ppl just played it because they don’t want to miss it.
Think about it: If you manage to scratch the rankings, ppl will think they have to try it out, leading to downloads leading to more rankings - exponentially - it’s normal, it’s how ranking works. You just need to find the right ppl giving you the initial boost in popularity You would need A LOT of money to BUY such attention actually
There are so many things that are important about an app, it’s overwhelming.
Without marketing, even if you have a fantastic app, there is little chance it becomes popular.
And if you have a good enough budget to market your app, how would you know the app is good enough?
I’ve put a lot of time, effort and money into a game that I felt it was great and unique, my friends all loved it but it just didn’t succeed. I spent a lot of money with advertising, reached top lists in lots of countries but I got a lot less installs and revenue compared to another game that was classic (with a lot of other alternatives from competitors) and had a narrower target audience.
Best way is to pay for advertising. If you cannot afford it, then you can try advertising your app in popular forums or reddit.
buying installs is the most expensive but it’s prohibitively expensive for most
lots of useful information here. thanks for sharing
Hey, In my humble opinion there is nothing that can come up like facebook if done correctly. paid reviews and installs can get you a lot within a matter of hours, but they are not sustainable definitely. one genuine download is better than a dozen of bought downloads. You know very well, in a paid arrangement people who download your app even don’t know what they are downloading and why. While a single facebook user can act like a perfect brand ambassador, as he may share your application within the circle of his friends.
So, if you really have a nice app then dont be shy and arrange a great launch on facebook. If your app does not meet the requirement to be known as a great or even fine app, then invest more time with it before spending money
Q:what about paid reviews? Worth it?
A:Paid reviews in good popular site valuable.But in free review site are useless and waste of time.As most of them not provide free reviews then sent you mail with their paid offer and package for review.
If you have limited budget, advertising in some social media is an effective method to get app installs. The facebook ads is an important method to popularize your app if you find the targeted users. And the forums is also an useful platforms to get your app featured. You can find some relevant app developers to exchange app installs and reviews with them to help each other. Besides, create a video and put it on some people-crowed places will have huge impact on the installs of your app.
If you have enough budget, cooperating with a reliable app store optimization company is suit for you, which can provide more professional services about app promotion and boost your app ranking in a shorter time. You can buy app installs, buy app reviews and ratings from this company to get more app installs. You don’t have to care about the risk of being removed by Apple, because many companies will provide the services from real users all over the world to protect your app.