From 30 to 1.7K installs in a week, an AdWords odyssey
Up until about a week ago, the entire install base for Camverter, was what I had initially gathered from a round of beta recruitment; About 30 or so installs remained. Whilst some of the beta testers have provided quality feedback, it has been few and far between.
Although the app is live on the Play Store, having so few installs, no reviews and not being free, there was little to no chance of getting anywhere. I needed to boost my install count somehow.
My plan was this: Do a "free" sale for one week and buy some AdWords on the side.
Here's some numbers in review, at the current time of writing:
AdWords:
- Impressions: 622K
- Clicks: 12.4K
- Views: 2.09K
- Conversions: 1.73K
- Cost: $335 - $90 promo
Play Store (1 day ago)
- Installs by user: 1.60K
- Uninstalls by user: 966
- Reviews: 15 (Star count - 5: 10, 4: 1, 3: 2: 1, 1: 1)
I'll admit that I had no idea what I was doing, setting up the AdWords campaign, so I just set a budget, did some regional / language wise limitations, and let it be.
I'm quite happy with the results though, and hopefully the churn won't be too bad, through the next couple of weeks. I initially counted on about 50%, since I imagined free installs would often tend to a non-target userbase.
Money-wise, this obviously puts the app in the red for now, but hopefully some sales will cover the expense down the line.
really cool stuff, AdWords is a next target for us. How to hear more stories/insight liek this :)
Interesting read, can I ask why you chose the price tag of $6? Have you considered making it free and monetising other ways. Maybe you could make it free for the first X amount of snaps and then add a pay wall once they're a little more invested? Could even try a subscription model
I must admit I have no idea what I'm doing, when it comes to pricing. My thinking is "about the price of a cup of coffee", but honestly I have no basis for this estimation. It's total guesswork.
There's a very wide range of prices on the Play Store, for apps with similar tech, namely computer vision and OCR. My goal is to not come off cheap, in order to distinguish the app from the really bad low quality apps, but still remain affordable compared to some of the high end OCR apps.
With regard to alternate means of monetisation; I have thought about it, but haven't really found a perfect fit. I thought about something slightly similar to what you're suggesting, but just time based instead. Problem is, a user can always uninstall/install again and circumvent the limited trial concept. Otherwise, you'd have to add a user creation / login feature, which I think, is out of scope for a small tool like this.
I think a subscription based model is a tough sell too, although it would be great from a business perspective. I just don't see users paying a running cost, for a sparse-use utility application.
In reality, and if you want to optimise for making money, this type app really should be free and ad based, no doubt about it.
I really don't want to do that though. I have a firm stance on no ads, at least for this app, even if it means taking a hit in the $$$. :D
I don't really know the space and if the audience if willing to pay. I just know from my first app that very few Android users are willing to pay for apps.
If people had to store info about the prices they scan in a cloud based service then they wouldn't be able to uninstall and reinstall the app?
Also I get that ads are annoying but sometimes they are necessary to make any kind of money :)
I know I've sort of painted myself into a corner in deciding this. On top of the no-ads thing, another principle of the app is that it is offline-first.
I think providing some sort of online storage component, would be a great idea for a free + in-app purchase/subscription type of monetisation. It doesn't necessarily break offline-first, as long as there's a local cache, with a deferred synchronisation. It's quite a bit of work to add, but not a bad idea at all. The question is then, how to validate the idea on existing users, when there's no signup / no channel of contact. In-app questionnaire perhaps. :)
Inspiring! Looking at the 1000+ installs in combination with the price point gives a boost in trust (for me). Do you get more sales now?
I'm very hesitant when it comes to using ads, but I think I'll need to reconsider. :-)
Good to hear it has the desired effect. My thinking is, that a paid app with no installs and zero reviews, basically has a zero chance of ever generating a sale.
So far no sales. I'll probably do an update again in about a week or so.
This comment was deleted 8 years ago