At first I just used interstitial as an exit ad, and as your saying, the revenue wasn’t much. But showing between levels or on return to menu is much better.
XdebugX,
I was looking through your blog - and in the interview at:
Android Dream Revised: Android indie developer interview: Jeremiah McLeod
Quote:
We sometimes buy installs from AppBrain to give our apps a start and then we see up to 10 times organic installs than what we paid for.
Is the main impact that the extra spending makes you rise a few more levels in ranking - and that increase in downloads is what you are looking for ? Is that what you meant by 10x “organic installs” than you were paying for in the quote above ?
Maybe you were getting good installs anyway and the AppBrain-installs were a fraction of that - or do you mean that when you started AppBrain promotion, the effects were immediate - with rankings increase and consequent 10x rise in downloads ?
Previously with 2 apps I released (no promotion etc.), the app made it to good rankings in Top New Free for some countries like U.K. and one or two others - before falling down when the 1 month honeymoon period expired (which Google gives new apps).
Could there be a strategic advantage in timing the AppBrain paid installs - by not spending early in the rise of the app (assuming it rises) - and waiting for when it reaches the peak almost - and THEN boosting the installs to if you made it to the top 10 in Top New Free for U.K. for instance, then some extra installs at that point may boost it higher ?
Or could it be argued that at THAT point when you are reaching the maximum downloads anyway (i.e. are at max rankings that your app is going to achieve in it’s honeymoon period) - your AppBrain installs will be small compared to your overall downloads (like background noise).
If so, then the conventional approach of starting AppBrain campaign right at the start when the app needs help is where it would be best used for - if so then $1000 would only get you maybe 5000 installs (at $0.2 per install) - and once your $1000 is used up, then the app will seem like it is seeing a downhill fall in interest - and that itself maybe damaging. For example if you use up the $1000 in first 3 days to get the app to rise as fast as possible - then on 4th day if the natural installs are large already then removing the AppBrain installs may have little effect - but if by the 4th day your installs are only 5 times your AppBrain downloads - then removing AppBrain paid installs on 4th day will immediately look like a 20% drop in downloads - and Google algorithm will appropriately start penalizing the app for having “declining downloads” etc. …
Any thoughts would be welcome. Thanks.
By organic installs, I meant that the appbrain campaign boosted us into the ranking so that we were getting install from the ranking lists. I believe it’s most beneficial to get your paid installs as fast as you can as early as you can. Once you start climbing the ranks, organic installs will take over and continue your push upwards.
This would suggest that an app that was going to hit number 10 on Top New Free for U.K. for instance, by itself - for that may not want to bother spending there. Since initial trajectory being faster there may not impact much on where it will finally peak i.e. may not necessarily goto number 5 because of that earlier push (?)
But for an app that may have difficulty getting up there - or even being listed in rankings - for example it is a new concept, or not has great help from keyword similarity to other currently popular stuff - for that it may help to spend very early in the 1 month honeymoon period (that one gets from Google) - so that initial trajectory starts high, and that gets it into recognition territory - so is noticed and so starts rising then on it’s own.
Would it make sense to just spend $500 say in the U.S. market using AppBrain paid installs ? So one makes it into the Top New Free for U.S. ?
Any opinions on spending modest amounts in a persistent 5 days or 10 day sequence, compared to spending it all in one or two days. One would think with high spending peak in just 1-2 days the impact on Google Ranking would be just as bad as you remove your spending and it causes decline in downloads.
Unless of course one spends for 3 days maybe and that gets app up there in rankings so that organic installs start to dwarf the AppBrain promotion installs - then one can scale back - i.e. this could be the algorithm to follow etc. … ? That is, an exponentially decreasing spending budget per day - with highest spend first day and decreasing after that.
I released an app last week and it’s a lot harder to get installs from appbrain now. To get them at a decent amount per day you have to spend like $1 per install. Going to try admob cpa ads.
And at the same time AppBrain seems to pay for their AppWall less. 
Answering to the main topic. I see that the problem was solved but I will say how I do the on exit ad. Simply by onAdClosed event. I display the ad onBackKeyPressed and finish() System.exit (if needed) onAdClosed event. Simple as that:)
PS I use AdMob but I am almost sure majority of SDKs will offer plenty of events and onAdClosed or similiar as well.
Hey i am having trouble, here is the full code of the ad. It shows and it exits, it just takes a long time to get back to the app after the exit. I am using Unity3d.
void Start(){
AdMobAndroid.requestInterstital( “ca-app-pub-*********************” );
}
public void OnGameOver(){
if(AdMobAndroid.isInterstitalReady()){
AdMobAndroid.displayInterstital();
}
}
it’s because you are loading and displaying an ad instead of the app itself. As you now it must be done in main UI Thread where probably you also load every scene. You have to think about concurrency. You will load ad>display ad (and load scene at the same time)>display loaded scene after closing ad. It means that the interstial will be some kind of loading screen.
I had the same problem but in my case scenes are loading fast enough to skip that issue. However I am interested in the solution so please paste it if you handle it:)
here is my app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=games.quiz.com.impossiblequizes
I use admob interstitial and reward ad together when user back press but apps not close.