promotion and monetization of windows phone apps

Marketing and Monetization of Windows Phone Apps

Alan MendelevichAdDuplexailon@ailon.org@ailon

Richard Foster, once a DOS programmer and now working for the family dry cleaning business and developing mobile applications part-time for his company Edgeway Software, is ecstatic about the results he is seeing developing for Windows Phone 7.…Richard has made $28,882 in four months with his suite of apps.

Fast forward to February, and now I am making around $380 a day from ads from my 7 games.…I’d like to start chronicling my experiences as I start doing my Full Time Indie Gig. I started going full time April 1st, 2011 …

-- Elbert Perez , occasionalgamer.com

Did you know …

Product20%

Marketing80%

Research shows that 20% of product’s success is determined by the product itself and the remaining 80% is marketing*

* I totally made this up

Publish an App

38 countries can submit directly, 102 - indirectly

Submitting an app

• App Hubhttp://create.msdn.comAvailable in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States.

• Global Publishing Partners– APPA Market

http://www.appamarket.com/– Yalla Apps

http://www.yallaapps.com/

• App Hub – Free Apps Only*

Make Money

Front-end for your main service

“Kik Messenger Effect”

• 22% higher than anticipated Android and iOS growth after launch on Windows Phone

Paid Apps

• Set a competitive price• Consider psychology• Consider who and where your

customer is• Set a price that makes business

sense– WP7 Developer ROI Calculator

http://www.wpdownunder.com/?p=2055

Trial

• Can’t try == won’t buy• 70% more purchases than without

trials• Counter example: Cocktail Flow

In-app purchases

• No built-in centralized mechanism• Roll out your own• Use 3rd party services (MoVend)

Free apps with ads

• Generally perform better than paid apps*

• Best suited for long/frequently running apps (games)

Ad networks

• Microsoft pubCenter• Google AdMob• Smaato• Millennial Media• Mobclix• MobFox• AdDuplex*

Fill rate

• Smaato: “Worldwide, the average ad network fill rate was 18% in Q2 2011”

• Maximize ad space value by multiple network fallbacks. Fallback to AdDuplex or in-house ads.– Silverlight: Windows Phone 7 Ad Rotator

http://wp7adrotator.codeplex.com/– XNA: ImproviSoft Ad Network Manager

http://www.improvisoft.com

Promote your app, promote your app, promote your app, promote your app…

Don’t monetize your app on day one

Photo by Ginny Washburne

Don’t monetize on day one

• Giving your app away is the cheapest and most effective marketing instrument you have– René Schulte: “Helium Voice was

released in November 2010 and has 18,773 downloads as of today. Helium Voice Free was released in March 2011 and has 143,002 downloads as of today.”

Case Study: Chicks'n'Vixens

• Released as absolutely free (while in beta)

• Went on to be #1 paid game for some time after switching to paid

• New version released as free with ads

Case Study: gMaps

• Started as absolutely free

• Added ads and a “Pro” version later

Release date is a feature• Be the first to solve a problem– René Schulte: “… this was quite important

since it got a lot of attention for being the first real picture effects / photo filter app in the market. The big blogs like Gizmodo, Engadget and MSNBC covered a few of the must have WP7 apps and Pictures Lab got featured in all. I guess that helped to jump start the app.”

• With every SDK/OS release there’s a chance to be the first to utilize some previously unavailable capability

Before you launch…

Marketplace “SEO”

• Name• Keywords• Tile

Release Betas

• Beta-testers are your first evangelists• Recruit beta-testers:–WindowsPhoneBeta.com– Twitter #wp7 #wpdev

Feedback loop• Facilitate user

feedback and ratings

• “Bad” feedback should go directly to you, good feedback – to the Marketplace

• Consider encouraging rating/review after a number of launches

Good feedback

Bad feedback

Publication

• Have everything to get featured– background image is not required, but

you won’t be featured without it

• Don’t submit on Friday• Don’t auto-publish

Online presence

Demo video

• Easier to watch than try your app• Great asset for marketing activities

Online presence

• Web site or section• Facebook Page• Twitter account• Blog

Free promotion

Tip specialized blogs• WPCentral.com, WMPowerUser.com,

1800PocketPC.com, BestWP7Games.com, WPCentras.lt (Lithuanian), WindowsPhone.lv (Latvian), WP7Rocks.com (Russian), etc.

• Make it personal• Include short description–maybe even something that looks like a review

• Link to your demo video. You made it, right?

Tweet and post to Facebook

• Decorate tweets with #wp7 hashtag• Tweet, retweet, post to Facebook

from your personal accounts• Help fellow developers (retweet, like,

etc.)• Temporarily change your avatar to

app’s tile• Mention app in your personal profiles

Monitor and react to feedback

• Monitor mentions of your app on Twitter, blogs, etc.

• Encourage transformation of positive mentions into 5* ratings

• React and address negative feedback

Social media integration

Show off your app everywhere!• Show your app to your friends• Show your app to Windows Phone

enthusiasts• Show your app to influential

community and Microsoft people

Case Study: Wordament

• Promote your app for free• Utilize full potential of your ad space

Paid advertising

Paid advertising

• On the web– Specialized blogs– App catalog sites• WP7AppList.com, appsfuze.com,

windowsphoneapplist.com, etc.

– BuySellAds.com (search wp7)

• Directly on Windows Phone– AdDuplex, AdMob, etc.

Summary

Did you know …

Product20%

Marketing80%

Research shows that 20% of products success is determined by the product itself and the remaining 80% is marketing*

* I totally made this up

Summary

• Marketing is at least as important as the app itself

• Starting with free is the cheapest and most effective marketing instrument

• Be creative, be active, utilize all channels.

Thank you!

@ailonblog.adduplex.comailon@ailon.org