I read a blog post somewhere which suggested that “compared to last year” (every year there is a new fad I guess like the fashion industry ?) when paid apps were king - then it was IAP (in-app billing) was king (freemium with IAP) - and now saying that IAB is dead also - and choosing the right AppWall type of solutions (Revmob and Chartboost seem to be the favorites of the iOS developer crowd - or at least seem to have been pushed HEAVILY by some blogs - and you can see comments at the bottom of those articles saying the eCPMs are WAY lower).
It seems just like apps wanting to get to the top of the charts (or those which have known profit margins - like casino or game apps with profitable IAB i.e. that type which in both cases it seems preys on the addiction weaknesses of people - note the emphasis on “whales” i.e. users who pay 90% of the IAB revenue !! - so there is some real odd stuff going on).
In a podcast there was mention of some asian games which fail to clothe the avatars - the idea being that it would “shame” the asian ethic to immediately try to clothe the character. These types of tactics PROBABLY work - but this is really the wild west frontier of advertising going on it seems (where anything goes and there will be lots of shady folks making money off that type of stuff).
In any case, one comment one hears from these blogs (many are iOS specific) - is that it may not even be worthwhile to do “House ads” promoting your own app (though there IS the need to promote own apps otherwise how do you get to a high DAU etc.) - but the point being that any type of self-advertising needs to be compared to the revenue potential of that space - i.e. you MAY earn more advertising the casino game because THEY are better able to monetize it.
So for example for your own game the lifetime revenue potential of a new user maybe $0.01 (if your app is so so) - however if a casino game is willing to pay $1 per install then you maybe better off promoting OTHER games.
This analysis however ignores that if you follow this strategy you may never grow your game to 2x or 4x - which may then have greater advertising potential. Unless of course it could be argued that the eventual DAU is going to depend on the game’s inherent playability or popularity or it’s meshing with the keywords people search for - and thus any short-term increase in new daily installs is not going to do much (except increase the total download figure - which counts for a bit in reputation I guess but doesn’t mean much in terms of revenue which is dependent on DAU).
However, some of the argument of these blogs is weakened (because they are assuming high AppWall revenue - from Revmob and Chartboost etc. for the iOS platform).
In reality, Revmob seems to have a reputation of having hyped initially and then gone down (the usual new startup hype strategy i.e. they are spending money to get visible) - and Revmob seems to have issues for Android (i.e. not enough inventory or the casino games not as profitable on Android ? or not as many of those games ?). Chartboost may be similar.
These outfits seem to now be reporting revenues similar to Leadbolt AppWall etc.
AppBrain seems to give $0.18 per install and Leadbolt AppWall HTML ads seem to give as low as $0.03 sometimes it seems (at least I’ve seen increments of that type) - Leadbolt doesn’t reveal total installs so we can’t calculate (compared to Leadbolt, AppBrain DOES reveal the total installs).
However, practically, the Leadbolt AppWall may be more attractive and seems to give slightly better revenue - though I cannot compare - because I am using the Leadbolt AppWall HTML ads as a replacement for Greystripe full screen interstitials - and the AppBrain AppWall appears only at the end-of-app (once every 3 days) as suggested by them OR if users click on the AppBrain banner ads (which are text “More Apps”).
HOWEVER, one thing I HAVE noticed is that by introducing Leadbolt AppWall HTML ads - while they are giving 2x the revenue of Greystripe (which was a pathetic $0.8 eCPM) - a downside is that it has REDUCED revenue from the AppBrain AppWall (at end-of-day once every 3 days).
Now that could be seasonal variation - OR it could be that if you overpresent one type of ad you are going to see it REDUCE user interest in more ads.
Currently I am showing the Leadbolt AppWall HTML ads every 3 minutes or so - the Greystripe full screen ads were being shown similarly - so I just replaced that.
BUT I wonder if a better strategy maybe to present the full screen ads either only ONCE - or at most TWO times per session (WHILE also adhering to the 3 minute between ads at least limit).
This way the user will not get jaded - and may still have some strength to click on the AppBrain ad at the end-of-app (once every 3 days).
Note however if your DAU is 50% new installs - then these 50% WILL see the AppBrain ad - so while it is “once every 3 days” - for many of your daily users it WILL show that day.
Only the recurring users may see it less often.
So that is another thing one could do with the Leadbolt AppWall HTML ads.
Strategies for presenting full screen interstitials
Another alternative is (if you are going to show AppWall twice) - is to show Leadbolt AppWall one time and another ad network’s AppWall the second time - this way there will be some variety.
Another alternative is whether to place the AppWall presentations early on - i.e. space the first two presentations by much LESS than the 3 minutes mentioned above.
The (counterintuitive) idea there being similar for the reasons AppWalls are presented early on:
- that since 50% or more of your users may uninstall the app immediately, the early presentation of the AppWall is a desperate attempt to monetize these users - by this same argument, perhaps presentation of two different types of AppWalls early on may capture MORE of these “about-to-leave” users
This strategy WOULD then suggest that if you are going to present AppWall early on - then you should perhaps REWARD your longer-playing users by NOT presenting AppWalls etc. after the first 2 presentations.
Another longer-term strategy maybe to reward longer-playing users by steadily reducing the ad presentation/AppWall presentation on consecutive days - one strategy (which seems to be employed by the big app publishers) is to award “coins” (for example PocketChange etc. is one and I suppose one could implement an app-specific counting system). Can add the strategy some app developers employ (like Talking Tom Cat 2 etc.) i.e. award coins for use on consecutive days.
Anyway … just some comments …