Also if you add AppBrain interestitial or banner to an app don’t forget to add the app in the AppBrain console - if you don’t the ads will display but you won’t get money for it. 
And have to do this after post the app on Google Play - because only then does it become register-able in AppBrain.
By the way, david and others:
How does the DAU (daily active user) figure change for an app as it goes from being a 30,000 total download app (DAU maybe 3000-4000) to 300,000 total downloads app.
Does the DAU become 30,000-40,000 or is considerably less (since total download figure contains some ancient users also who would have dropped out by now).
Update on the appannie ranking on more than one “Category” …
David:
I can confirm that even without changing the “Category” for the app in Google Developer Console, you can sometimes automatically be included in another category.
For example I have seen that even though I have not changed my category, appannie.com is showing me appear in another category (for one country so far) - and that suggests that one can wind up being listed on more than one “Top 500” list - regardless of how one listed the app.
Though in this case I listed as Entertainment (which is Application - Entertainment) - and now it is appearing in Applications for one country. So maybe it works within the category.
I don’t know if this means that an Entertainment app could wind up being listed in Business Apps or something like that or not !
You can have , with airpush , a CPM higher than $30 for more details contact us [email protected]
When is Airpush releasing the Airpush SmartWall-alone SDK (i.e. without EULA).
Thanks.
That’s according to AppAnnie. But have you ever seen these rankings reflected on Google Play itself? I suspect this could be something unique to AppAnnie. Maybe they’re ranking your app based on number of downloads, vs. the apps in another section.
It would be great if we could appear in multiple sections! But I just don’t see any evidence of this in all my trawling through Google Play.
Well I have seen many apps which are listed under one category which fleetingly appear in another category in the appannie graph - I have no way of confirming it.
Here’s one:
This app is listed under “Productivity” but makes an appearance (brief) under “Application”.
I can’t confirm if the secondary appearance is correct - but at least the primary appearance numbers that are shown on these graphs match the ranking lists.
For example this app appears in the “Productivity” list at position 88 in the Paid column.
http://www.appannie.com/top/android/united-states/application/productivity/
Now it is another question whether the category lists they are showing are accurate or not.
There are two major categories, Games and Applications.
Inside these two categories there are several subcategories, for example Productivity for Applications and Brain & Puzzle for games. You can only be listed in one category and one subcategory at the time, for example Productivity in Applications. This means you can get listed in the rankings for both applications and productivity. For productivity you “compete” against other applications in the productivity category and to be in the rankings for application you “compete” against ALL non-games, since they are all listed in this category. This explains what has happened to that app. Obviously it will be a lot harder to be listed in Applications or Games as there are more apps to compete against.
I can also confirm this with my own application Math Trainer - for Sweden (http://www.appannie.com/app/android/com.solirify.mathgame/ranking/history/#store_id=SE&view=ranks&start_date=2012-05-01&end_date=2012-10-18 ) you can see it was listed in both “Game” and “Brain (& Puzzle)” from May 7 - June 4. Distimo Monitor confirms that the “Game” refers to “All Games - Free”.
Mystery solved.
Makes sense.
With that resolved we come to the other question - can an app become listed in two separate categories (and not just Applications and it’s sub-category Applications-Entertainment) ?
If not automatically - then can the developer help it along by changing category (once the app has caught on in one category) ?
With this app, you can see it is listed in Application, Entertainment and Overall (which I assume is the widest and hardest to get into category - and the parent category of Application ?).
Which supports your theory.
“Overall” means all Applications and Games.
For example, for free applications and games: https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_free
I doubt you can be listed in more than one category. And David kind of proved that with his experiment - once you change the category you’ll be removed entirely from the other category’s rankings and lists. I would guess this also applies to when changing from Applications to Games and vice versa.
If you go the Google Play Store you’ll see “Top Charts” paid and free. These are the “Overall”.
Then if you click on “Categories” you’ll see Applications and Games which are the two “parent” categories (unless you count the overall one as a category). By clicking on either one of these categories you’ll get to the rankings for that specific category (apps or games). Apps and Games also have subcategories that each has their own ranking list which you can find by clicking on any of the subcategories (for example “Arcade & Action” in Games).
All categories are also sorted by paid/free and also depends on what country you’re in.
EDIT: Here’s an example of someone changing from “Cards” to “Arcade” you can see how it goes from rank 101 in Cards to 0 the next day when changing.
http://www.appannie.com/app/android/com.mobage.ww.a692.Bahamut_Android/ranking/history/#store_id=US&view=ranks&start_date=2012-02-22&end_date=2012-10-18
Good data point - but note how when he changed from Card to Arcade (I am assuming since that is where it places highest - with Game and Overall being progressivly super-Categories above that) that the ranking IMPROVES !
So how does that happen ?
Is it that Google maintains an internal “evaluation” of an app - and judges ranking by that - so if you move to another Category, your ranking is re-calculated “on-the-fly” and you are immediately placed in a “fair” position (and don’t have to spend weeks building up).
This would suggest that one SHOULD try changing categories to see where one is placing in that Category - as one already has a “reputation” internally with Google and it will assign a “fair” rank immediately after you change Category.
Sound like a fair assessment ?
Also note in this example (at least) - there is NO penalization for the app for changing category i.e. no reputation to build up again - but it actually gets placed in a higher-ranking within Arcade.
I wonder if the publisher knew which category to shift to i.e. could do calculations to predict they would not do worse by changing, or tried a couple (that are not showing in the graphs).
Hi,
Can anyone share somo numbers about Appbrain’s and Tapjoy’s appwall? I want to try one of these networks cause Im getting poor numbers with Leadbolt and Airpush.
Leadbolt: completly out of sotck. CPM: 0.0$ CPM
Airpush: 1,15$ CPM Fillrate 60%
Regards,
Hi there byivan, what do you mean by “completely out of stock” ? Low fillrate ?
Others here can give Tapjoy numbers - I have some experience with AppBrain’s appwall at end of app (once per 3 days as suggested) and via the AppBrain banner ads. I have given the revenue comments in above posts - basically getting equal revenue from both.
However I have seen that over time banner ads starting to go down - as perhaps the user base gets used to seeing banner ads.
Rather than talk of eCPM etc. which is misleading for reasons mentioned in above posts - one can talk about daily active users (as reported by AppBrain) - for 3500 daily active users (DAU) I am getting about $2-$2.5 per day from the end-of-app every 3 days AppBrain offerwall.
And for the AppBrain banner ads - is going down steadily and approaching $1.25 per day.
So the end-of-app interstitial is reasonably stable - but banner ads going down (because clicks and eventual installs per banner showing is going down - as perhaps users get used to banner ads and starting to tune it out - though don’t see why that should be since DAU are still mostly new users - i.e. not enough of a user base to give huge recurring users per day).
While my apps total downloads are increasing, the DAU is kind of stagnating.
So my impression is that to really make money from ads one needs to have HUGE DAU.
With my 3500 DAU it is yielding $3.5 or so from the AppBrain end-of-app and banner ads.
Admob banner ads about $1.5 per day (from the 3500 DAU - and getting about 50% share of the banner space with AppBrain) - if you really want to know eCPM that is about $0.39 average (varies by day according to user click behavior etc.).
I am using Greystripe interstitials using a screen saver type way to present them - this is an impression-based (according to Greystripe) revenue model which I found attractive - and this is perhaps why it is scaling somewhat with the DAU (in contrast the Admob and conventional banner ads revenue are affected by user-clicking fatigue etc.). Impression-based ads pay for the opportunity to show an ad (since after all you are giving them that space regardless of what they choose to pay). For impression-based revenue eCPM is actually an accurate indicator (since there is no revenue-per-click variable). HOWEVER, even for Greystripe the variable is all encapsulated in the eCPM they are paying - and this seems to vary all over the place - it started small $1-$2 per day (when DAU was small) - to $3 or so for 3500 DAU as I now have. So the good thing is it kind of scales with DAU. Occasionally the eCPM has jumped hugely to 3x that (don’t know why that was - perhaps some campaign).
So with 3500 DAU, one can say $3 from AppBrain in it’s varieties, $1.5 from Admob and then $3 from Greystripe = $7.5 per day.
The problem is that $7.5 per day is not sustainable for app development.
This points to 35,000 DAU as perhaps a sustainable number - if one has a number like THAT - then perhaps one can earn $75 per day - if you have a couple of such apps, then that may sustain the developer. However not all apps can achieve 35,000 DAU.
While apps could potentially reach 100,000 total downloads, or eventually 500,000 total downloads - a fraction i.e. 30% of those maybe active users. So let’s say 150,000 - and say 10% of user base are recurring users - then that makes for 15,000 users a day.
The weakness in this argument is that as total downloads increase, the DAU may not increase that much. That is, my app may have 3500 DAU and if it is stagnant at that eventually in 100 days it could reach 350,000 downloads. BUT if the DAU remains 3500 then my daily earnings will remain at $7.5 per day (!).
So this is the fallacy of total downloads being big - the real number one should maximize is the DAU.
Anyone just some comments.
the most important is DNoUTCA* rate
with high DNoUTCA even low CPC can generate high revenue
-
- Daily Number of Users That Clicked Ad
Thanks for your replies!
@Androider I mean that I get from Monday to Saturday 0.0$ CPM. Sometimes on Sundays I achieve to earn some cents…
Yes, but how do you raise that number ? Either by having users mistakenly click ads, or making ad designs better (again some ad networks may design ads better that way).
These are all factors outside the control of the developer.
Which is why impression based ads (like Greystripe - and perhaps video ads though they have their overhead - data costs and not always very responsive) are better in that they are a tax on use and give guaranteed returns - EXCEPT that the ad network is free to just tune down the eCPM they pay.
Alternatives which pay higher - video ads etc. are still in infancy and low fill rates and slow startup times etc. (even if ad video is downloaded ahead of time sometimes the player startup time is slow).
Notification ads etc. maybe a “clever” way - but are problematic.
Basically it seems you cannot squeeze enough water out of this rock (no wonder some ad networks then went overboard - installing notification ads that lived beyond the lifetime of the app etc.).
There needs to be some relatively honest, organic type of way to monetize.
And that will appear by stuff which is impression based and pays higher - perhaps video ads will do that later. However even if you download video ads ahead of time, many have video players which take some time to startup. Then you can create space for a video ad and the ad network doesn’t have fill rate because this is still a “new” type of ad.
Which leaves virtual currency - and this seems to be one promising option. Because even with 3500 DAU - taking the banner ad click rate to be 1% - and the interstitial ad click rate typically 2.5% (that I have seen) - one COULD expect that a virtual currency solution (to unlock extra features of an app) - could be a solution. If you have 3% of 3500 DAU willing to go ahead with a virtual currency solution (which has them doing tasks like Tapjoy or downloading apps like GetJar Rewards - or even buying virtual currency with a Google Play purchase) - that would be 105 users. If each pays $1 worth of virtual currency - that is $105. Which is 10x the figure ($7.5 per day with 3500 DAU) that I am seeing.
So clearly virtual currency (or more generally micro-payment) solutions is the holy grail (for the android universe).
Without it, the developer community is going to face extinction - UNLESS of course it is driven by the “success” stories that keeps new people joining in.
I was interested in such a solution - and Tapjoy seemed to be a mix - not a pure virtual currency solution - I think Scoreloop also has a virtual currency solution (as part of a bigger portfolio of features for developers). And GetJar offers money for downloading apps.
In the future GetJar will allow buying of virtual currency with real money (topping up your balance by purchasing from Google Play). This feature maybe available with others as well.
The current model where virtual currency is earned by downloading apps faces two problems - one is that even after changes it is somewhat reminiscent of “incentivized app downloads” (which was prohibited by Apple from it’s App Store - they kicked GetJar out) - and the second is that is the universe of app-download rewards sufficiently big money-wise to accomodate all of e-commerce ?
There is a possibility that the model of app downloads to earn virtual currency may only work in the initial stages and may not be scalable - for example if there aren’t enough apps willing to pay get their download numbers up, then the model collapses.
So some real problems there - but Google may eventually need to setup a micro-payment system that makes it easy for users to just pay $0.10 to an app (to unlock features) - and make this available to all developers (not just in a few countries).
Non-availability of such payment system for some countries (you can’t sell apps unless you are based in certain countries - this is less of a limitation for Apple App Store) is one of the reasons developers may consider something like GetJar.
There is another statistic as well - GetJar and others point to the inefficiency of the Google in-app payment model - that the conversion rate (i.e. someone wanting to use the service and then eventually successfully completing it) is very low (because of complexity of other issues). In comparison the GetJar type of virtual currency solutions have less complication and a higher completion rate.
Just posting this as an examination of the fundamental issues with monetaization on android.
From those numbers it looks it looks like you have 7.6k impressions per day (1.50/0.39/50%). If this is generated by 3.5k daily active users than on average user sees a little more than two impressions. To me it looks like this is the biggest problem. This may be OK for some apps (that are run once to do some job and then dismissed) but for more engaging ones like games this factor should be way higher. With engaging app $100 per day from 3-4k users should be quite achievable.
I can’t believe I’m saying that but for apps like the ones from the first group notifications ads are your best chance. Those rely more on active (and inactive) users than on actual time spent within the app.
From those numbers it looks it looks like you have 7.6k impressions per day (1.50/0.39/50%). If this is generated by 3.5k daily active users than on average user sees a little more than two impressions. To me it looks like this is the biggest problem. This may be OK for some apps (that are run once to do some job and then dismissed) but for more engaging ones like games this factor should be way higher. With engaging app $100 per day from 3-4k users should be quite achievable.
You have a point there - user retention IS a factor under control of the developer.
That is just make a better app … or … make a different app.
Since this varies by app type:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/22/flurry-examines-app-loyalty-news-communication-apps-top-charts-personalization-apps-see-high-churn/
Flurry Examines App Loyalty: News & Communication Apps Top Charts, Personalization Apps See High Churn
Sarah Perez
posted 13 hours ago
For a given app, however these are harder to change - perhaps helped somewhat by “socializing” the app - possibly programmers with low resources time could use SDKs like:
- socialize.com
- papaya social SDK
Maybe someone here has used these and can attest to how easy it was etc. …
I can’t believe I’m saying that but for apps like the ones from the first group notifications ads are your best chance. Those rely more on active (and inactive) users than on actual time spent within the app.
Right and this is even worse for apps like themes etc. (and the Flurry article suggests as much) the only option is one-time monetization.
So the need for one-time monetization option.
Push notification tried to essentially charge not per-use but per-install and so may have levelled the playing field.
Essentially notification ads are leveraging both DAU (daily active users) as well as inactive users !
So it was essentially not just a use-tax, but an install-tax (even if the user doesn’t use the app much he is shown ads).
However, apart from the nuisance value and somethings-not-right feeling from such an approach, there is a very real problem of - what happens when you have 10 ad networks who are broadcasting their own ads - you install 10 apps, each has different ad network, each starts broadcasting ads in notification area (even when user is not using any of those apps).
It is clear this is not a sustainable solution - and it’s only utility may have been to monetize some of the early traffic (i.e. as long as have 1-2 notification ad networks).
This is what I mean by there being an absence of an organic/natural, reasonably honest monetization solution for android.
These fly-by-night approaches may work, but are unsustainable in the long run (eventually there is a backlash).
This while the $0.10 per app per user for unlocking a feature is a very fertile area. Essentially the inability for users to pay micro-payments on-the-fly is what is driving all these alternatives. The real spigot of revenue flow is at the user-wallet level - which Google has not greasified correctly (in contrast to Apple’s dovetailing of itunes infrastructure into iphone).
What is not helping is Google’s potential squelching of these alternatives (by for example not allowing 3rd party payment solutions for apps listed on Google Play). This is all fine and similar to what Amazon is doing (requires removal of Google Play Store links). HOWEVER, that places a burden on Google to deliver the monetization infrastructure - which they haven’t.
There is no easy carrier-billing throughout the world either, and Google billing has low conversion rates (at least from info presented in GetJar slides).
Solutions like GetJar are better at converting (according to them). They also combine both virtual currency (“earned” by downloading apps etc.) and in the future planning refilling of virtual currency wallets using real payments (via Google Play installs of “Buy 1000 coins for $0.99”). The users can then spend the virtual currency in smaller pieces.
Tapjoy is similar - except their picture is a mix of virtual currency and “offers” (user signs away their personal information for money etc.)
And ScoreLoop also seems to have a virtual currency system (as part of wider portfolio of score-keeping etc.).
I think SlideMe also allows direct purchase - but they don’t have a presence on Google Play. GetJar does have a presence on Google Play - the GetJar Rewards app - (why is Google allowing this - perhaps to see how GetJar progresses and then to buy them out if they succeed ?).
One indication that Google is not averse to this type of monetization is evident by their investment in Pocket Change an outfit which combines virtual currency and “offers” (so a bit like Tapjoy perhaps ?):
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/11/pocket-change-series-a/
Google Ventures Leads $5M Investment In Virtual Currency Startup Pocket Change
Anthony Ha
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Then we have mobile-operator-organized payment via SMS etc. - and if those folks can get organized (and get over the money-laundering laws which have prevented creation of virtual currency/digital currency) that would be much bigger:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/22/smartphones-not-required-mobile-money-on-feature-phones-is-hot-in-emerging-markets/
But for it’s own ecosystem Google is not doing it justice. It is letting fruit that was budding die on the vine.
Should probably work on the user retention (i.e. longer sessions).
Just to double-check, what should one leave Admob banner ad settings at ?
- Use refresh rate set in client code
or to something like 120 sec/60 sec ?
In practice however, the banners seem to be refreshing ok.