the business side of windows 10 apps - ms network6

Alan Mendelevič@ailon

The Business Side of Windows 10 Apps

Who am I?Alan Mendelevichalan@adduplex.com@ailon

Agenda• What and why?• Making money• Getting users

Windows app ecosystem• 4 indie developers made more

than $1,000,000• Random Salad Games made more

than $1,000,000 from ads• 1 indie game made more than

$9,000 per day from IAPs• Game Insight made “millions of

dollars”• 16 million+ downloads of apps

made by Rudy Huyn

App gold rush is over

Did you know…

WTH am I trying to do?

Hobby?

Contracts?

Apps are my business

Developer’s Work Cycle

Task Deliverables Money

Employee/Contract developer

Task Deliverables Money

Entrepreneur developer

SALE

SALE

What do I build?

Getting ideas and inspirationThe Daily Practice

“Every day I write down ideas. I write down so many ideas that it hurts my head to come up with one more. Then I try to write down five more.…The “idea muscle” atrophies within days if you don’t use it. Just like walking. If you don’t use your legs for a week, they atrophy. You need to exercise the idea muscle. It takes about 3-6 months to build up once it atrophies. Trust me on this.”

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/how-to-be-the-luckiest-guy-on-the-planet-in-4-easy-steps/

Original vs. “me-too”

“One of Jobs’s talents was spotting markets that were filled with second-rate products.”

Top AppCampus alumni

From hobby toXbox Live

Music game #1, funding5 million downloads

Megahit?

Atley Hunter

500+ apps

Release date is a feature!“… 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.”

René Schulte, PicturesLab

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

Getting return on your investment

Paid (Premium) Apps• Set a competitive price• Consider psychology• Consider who and where

your customer is• Set a price that makes

business sense• Can’t try == won’t buy

Freemium/Trial• Nobody buys paid apps anymore• 10x+ more downloads

Free-to-play/In-app purchases• The most popular monetization method

on all platforms• Requires specific app/game design to be

successful• Be careful

3rd party payment services no longer supported in new apps.

All apps starting June 2016.

In-app advertising• Best suited for frequently

launched, long running apps and games

• Not every ad network accepts developers from every country

• Low revenue predictability

Fill rate

Mitigating low fill rate

Ad Provider 1

Ad Provider 2

Ad Provider N

Cross promotion or “house ad”

Ads in Mobile Apps and Games 101

Free ebookhttp://adplx.co/eBookAds

What’s new in Windows 10• Subscriptions• Affiliate program• Promo codes• Discounts on IAPs• New device types (Xbox, IoT,

HoloLens)

What’s new in 2016• Managed consumables• Downloadable content• Bundles• Pre-orders• Scheduled price changes• and more…

(watch sessions from Build 2016)

Crowdsource ideas for new features

CrowdSource.CrowdFund.CrowdMarketLet your loyal fans help you grow your business.

Crowdfund the development of these ideas

Crowd-promote their availability

A P P S T R E TC H . C O M

So, which model should I choose?• Did I design the app with F2P/IAPs in mind?• Can I “extract” any premium functions?• Would people run my app often and stay in it

for prolonged periods of time?• Am I solving a unique important problem in

some niche?

Survey stats

User Acquisition

Don’t monetize your app from day one!

Don’t monetize your app from day one

Giving your app away is the cheapest and most effective marketing instrument you have.

App Store Optimization (ASO)App’s name, rating, price and tile.That is all users see.

ASO: keywords

Beta versions

Release betas. Beta-testers will be your first evangelists.

Kudos to Domagoj for wpbeta.me!

User feedbackControl the flow of user feedback:

Good feedback should go into the store. Bad feedback –into your mailbox.

Good feedback

Bad feedback

Localization

http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2015/04/15/windows-and-windows-phone-store-trends-april-2015-update/

Publication

Provide as many “optional” materials as possible. This improves your chances of getting featured.

Don’t auto-publish

You want to be in control of the moment your app hits the Store.

Online presence• Site• Video

Free user acquisition

Blogs, forums, specialized sites• WindowsCentral.com• WMPowerUser.com• 1800PocketPC.com• OneTile.ru• WindowsPhoneLovers.it

“We’re here to act as a liaison between you and your customers, if you ignore us you’re not taking advantage of your largest Windows Phone resource and that is just bad business.”

Daniel RubinoEditor-in-chiefWindowsCentral

Store featuring• Be ready• Get in front of the

right people

Word-of-mouth

The only realistic way to get users at scale without “scientific” approach to monetization and paid user acquisition.

Jump-starting word-of-mouth• Integrate social networks into your apps• Actively promote your app in social media• Track and react to feedback• Show your app to everyone everywhere

Demo: AppRaisin

Cross-promotion• Don’t forget to advertise your

other apps in each of your apps• Swap adds with other friendly

developers• Participate in cross-promotion

networks

Empowering Windows Phone and Windows Store app and game developers to help each other grow.

Step 1: Create an ad for your app

Step 2: Place a line of code into it and start advertising other apps

Step 3: They promote yours in return

What’s the catch?

You show

You get

AdDuplex HERO Apps

http://adduplex.com/hero

Paid user acquisition

On the web• Blogs• Specialized sites• BuySellAds.com• AdWords, Bing Ads• Facebook• etc.

In apps• Microsoft Dev Center• AdDuplex• AdMob• Smaato• vserv.mobi

In discovery/”app-of-the-day” appsApps advertising special deals, temporarily free apps, etc.

• myAppFree• AppDeals• AppRaisin

How much does it cost?

If you know Lifetime Value of your average user, you know how much you can spend on user acquisition.

To summarize…Pr

oduc

t • In demand• Better than

competition

Busin

ess m

odel • Appropriate

for the product

• Logical• Profitable

UA • Effective• Persistent• Economically

sound

Thank you!

Alan MendelevičFounder & CEOAdDuplexalan@adduplex.com@ailon

download the book at http://adplx.co/eBookAds

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