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Hi, I'm a new app developer and I recently published my first app on the android market. Unfortunently I'm not getting any downloads besides those from friends. I've tried posted in app development forums like this one but that did not create an downloads. I also tried running an admob campaign and that did not create any downloads. I've been reading through the forums here and at other sites and it seems people won't download unless you have reviews and other people downloading. If others won't download because no downloads then nobody will download. I would really appreciate any advice. I'm not expecting or hoping for 10000 + downloads but I was hoping for at least 5 downloads since it's been almost 3 weeks now. Thanks for the suggestions.
go to smaller android blogs and ask them to review it. create youtube video and show how it works
This blog post documents my experience in App Marketing
This blog post documents my experience in App Marketing
http://karim-ouda.blogspot.com/2012/05/android-app-marketing-dumping-my.html
Submit your app to http://50bestandroidapps.com/
Submit your app to 50bestandroidapps.com
It's a good web site to get your apps promoted. :fingers-crossed:
the_main_app said:
Hi, I'm a new app developer and I recently published my first app on the android market. Unfortunently I'm not getting any downloads besides those from friends. I've tried posted in app development forums like this one but that did not create an downloads. I also tried running an admob campaign and that did not create any downloads. I've been reading through the forums here and at other sites and it seems people won't download unless you have reviews and other people downloading. If others won't download because no downloads then nobody will download. I would really appreciate any advice. I'm not expecting or hoping for 10000 + downloads but I was hoping for at least 5 downloads since it's been almost 3 weeks now. Thanks for the suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Increase SEO of app..
In app details, enter large no. of keywords related with the app. Also, enter name of other similar popular apps as keyword.
It'll not just increase visibility in built-in search results, but also on external search engines and curators!
I might be able to help?
If you are looking to get your app promoted, I actually own and operate a website called Droid App of the Day, so if you would like a free app review visit my site (I cant post links as am a new member). A google search won't fail you!
the_main_app said:
Hi, I'm a new app developer and I recently published my first app on the android market. Unfortunently I'm not getting any downloads besides those from friends. I've tried posted in app development forums like this one but that did not create an downloads. I also tried running an admob campaign and that did not create any downloads. I've been reading through the forums here and at other sites and it seems people won't download unless you have reviews and other people downloading. If others won't download because no downloads then nobody will download. I would really appreciate any advice. I'm not expecting or hoping for 10000 + downloads but I was hoping for at least 5 downloads since it's been almost 3 weeks now. Thanks for the suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello friend, I have the same problem as you! I also have a new android app, but cannot promote it properly. Could you please, share your experience on promoting your app. It would be interesting not only for me Good luck!
I have wrote this guide for people like me. I have wrote almost everything I tried when I was promoting my app.
http://obscurant1st.biz/blog/how-to-promote-android-app/
obscurant1st said:
I have wrote this guide for people like me. I have wrote almost everything I tried when I was promoting my app.
http://obscurant1st.biz/blog/how-to-promote-android-app/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great article! Thanks for sharing this
Few words about google play app pronotion
Empirically, I determined that a new application has to be seen through search Google play. Search is all that we have without money for a marketing campaign.
Therefore,application should be optimized in the following order:
Application name in google play. This name may be different from the name displayed on the desktop device. The application name contains 30 characters, they should contain the main application keywords.
Description of the application must be clear and also contain keywords.
Attractive icons are very important.
The application must be beautiful and functional. No need to buy a device for $ 300-500 and install an ugly app. People want a beautiful application.
Publication of forums mentioned above.
Well if you don't mind paying for installations try appbrain. It features an option to pay per installation, for a small number of installations you can go as low as 0,20 per installation. They only allow to promote free apps though, and if your income is from ads you will probably not get your money back.
Other options are going to forums and telling the users about your app. Or contact review blogs. Appeggs usally posts good apps, or try app of the day blogs. But make sure your app is ready for the big public or else you might just end up getting bad reviews,
I wrote a little guide on how to promote your apps http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2225125
I wanted to add that the guide that i've been using (a small one) and that lead our team to initially post a thread here on XDA is: http://karim-ouda.blogspot.kr/2012/05/android-app-marketing-dumping-my.html
Interestingly enough, the author of that guide has posted here as well!
So keywords actually do stuff then? I only tried it in one app, I didn't tell anyone I built or released the app. Not even one or two people and admittedly it has had 200 downloads.
I thought it didn't really do anything. Think I have to add keywords to all my apps descs now.
Be careful with keywords: http://droid-blog.net/2011/06/13/how-to-not-get-kicked-out-of-android-market/
This is also interesting: http://droid-blog.net/2011/07/11/four-reasons-why-your-app-wont-be-successful/
And for tips: http://droid-blog.net/category/aso-2/
Ok. It is all from the same blog but I found it very helpful.
Advertising is one option, the other is to advertise your app on various forums, facebook groups. Making youtube video is also a good practice. It avoids you negative reviews as user has already been aware of all app features.
First of all, I want to say that I have no experience in promoting Android apps. But I did some work in promoting websites for businesses, and I can suggest some things.
Key is a having a functional app. If users download an app which is half done and has disabled functions because they aren't done yet, they are going to uninstall it. Second suggestion, a great design is makes a difference for a lot of people whether they're going to install it or not.
When you have both those things, you can get on with actually promoting the app. I would search for an SEO copywriter to get the description for your app. SEO copywriters are specialized in optimizing texts for Google. And I would look into advertising on Facebook. I think you can actually promote your apps, and advertise only on phones. This way your advertisement will only be showed to people who are using Facebook on their phone. User will probably more tempted to install the app.
My app is now having more 1600+ downloads! I am planning to do a major update which might increase the app exposure!
EDIT: I would like everyone to know that I have started a free review service, so if anyone in the process of promoting thier android app, they could consider requesting a free review from me!
the_main_app said:
How to Promote Android Apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello to all.
You can promote your apps at Appsorg.com :good:
Appsorg.com - Helps you share and organize your Android apps from around the web.
ps - This is my first post at xda, but this is not a spam )
I really think this site will be very helpfully to all of us
App promotion
Thanks for all the interesting links and posts on app marketing ideas. We're a new app developer & in the same boat.
It seems that App Store Optimisation along with submissions to as many review sites as possible are good starting points. We started looking at pre launch strategies as well focusing on building up some marketing steam.
Check out pre apps. It's a pretty interesting idea. We also submitted to any app dev competitions and as many journalists as we could. Paid reviews are worth a look at as well if you can scrape a few 100 bucks together but make sure the site has traffic
dinamotxt dot com
I have created my first android app. I have created a nice icon, title contains the main keyword, article contains keyword around 5 6 times. I have promoted it on twitter and facebook. Submitted on almost every review site. But downloads are not starting. What can i do to promote my app and increase installs.. Thank you
Google Play Link
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Waiting for your suggestions.
Thank you
increase installs
Hi,
I see that your app contains ads. I'm just wondering if the monetization brings you any revenue? (as users don't use your app all the time).
I think that best way to promote your app is to think hard about your target audience. They seem not to read a lot of reviews, but definitely have problems with wake ups... Maybe you should google for some forums where people discuss their problem and suggest them your app. It is called guerrilla marketing.
If you are going to attract users and then monetize them, you should know that you must have some loyal users who won't abandon the app because of ads.
If you have high retention rate, give a chance to paid methods of user acquisition (spend money - attract users - monetize users - return money).
Hi! I'm Dylan, the xda intern :victory:
I'm doing some research on how devs monetize their apps. We're currently exploring ways to help you make more money from your apps and we'd like to find out about what you currently do. If you could please, please take this short survey, it would be much appreciated! We promise to keep everything confidential; in fact, the survey is anonymous.
Thanks again! :laugh:
~dylan
Gave the survey.
Where can i see the results?
ablawle which
Make an account in Admob by google. And read this monetization in developer.android
Forums
Posting on forums or other websites that allow it.
Today in this competitive world whether you have an iPad app...., Android app or any Mobile app you need to advertise to make people know about your app. very important factor for advertising your app is effectively determining where and how to advertise your app.effective app advertising requires mainly 4 key areas....
Brand
Buzz
Balanced opportunity
Social Media support
I have the same problem.
2 weeks ago I published an Android app but very few people tried it.
The market is full of apps so it's hard to acquire visibility.
So I'm looking for websites to advertise it.
admob sucks
I have like 40,000 plus downloads on admob. got like 9 dollars. U don't need to advertise. Just pick a name. They will find it. The market is large
Posting on forums, when allowed
Contacting websites and suggesting the app for review
Using admob for monetization
We tried admob too, no luck there. Posting on forums (where allowed), trying to make a good icon and description and looots of luck
we tried getting some reviews done too, but didn't see any rise in downloads. Also we got into a printed medium too, which didn't seem to have much impact either.
posting it on social network like google+,fb+twitter+forum is way better than admob
Yes idlike to know this
Sent from my GT-I9070 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
One major problem, (for example with google play) is that they dont actually give a chance
for new developers to promote their applications
Our apps hide under a pile of dozen of others.
One sulution
A random application could be featured on the main entry page every hour.
This will balance the major companies promoting their stuff. And if the app is good, it wil get
the hype to climb up
Unfortunately we dont see that comming soon.
carbonpeople said:
One sulution
A random application could be featured on the main entry page every hour.
This will balance the major companies promoting their stuff. And if the app is good, it wil get
the hype to climb up
Unfortunately we dont see that comming soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And why? Because there are lots of crappy apps out there. I'm glad (even from a developer standpoint) that this won't happen.
nikwen said:
And why? Because there are lots of crappy apps out there. I'm glad (even from a developer standpoint) that this won't happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
a) Half of the apps in google play are NOT crap. Have you seen them promoted ?
I can point to some excelent apps (better than the well known competition) with
so little downloads that looks suspicius
b) Even imdb has a heuristics system to remove biased/suspicius rankings, so surely
google can do that. A crap-free promoting system can be created
But it seems that
1. Either major companies want to clear out small competition on google play
or
2. Or... some developers created a good highly-downloaded app and had their
idea stollen from somebody else who created a better one, and want
to push new competition out of the way
Either way...
carbonpeople said:
a) Half of the apps in google play are NOT crap. Have you seen them promoted ?
I can point to some excelent apps (better than the well known competition) with
so little downloads that looks suspicius
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course, there are many good apps. I even think that this is the majority.
And I've seen those great small apps, too. (But most of them got lots of downloads within a few months. It took some time but if the app is good and unique, you will get your downloads. )
b) Even imdb has a heuristics system to remove biased/suspicius rankings, so surely
google can do that. A crap-free promoting system can be created
But it seems that
1. Either major companies want to clear out small competition on google play
or
2. Or... some developers created a good highly-downloaded app and had their
idea stollen from somebody else who created a better one, and want
to push new competition out of the way
Either way...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that it is Google that doesn't want to promote the small apps.
If they did it randomly, most apps (not all!!!) would get less downloads than the bigger ones.
If they selected the small apps by hand, it would be very expensive and they wouldn't know where to start.
If they choose the big ones with many downloads (like now), they can be sure that they will get many downloads. And with downloads comes money.
I don't think it's fair, but I can't think of a better and still efficient method to select the small apps which generates as much income as the system does now.
~dylan said:
Hi! I'm Dylan, the xda intern :victory:
I'm doing some research on how devs monetize their apps. We're currently exploring ways to help you make more money from your apps and we'd like to find out about what you currently do. If you could please, please take this short survey, it would be much appreciated! We promise to keep everything confidential; in fact, the survey is anonymous.
Thanks again! :laugh:
~dylan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, i dont think ist good to use ads in an app anyway. better use "donations" or "Pro" Versions since ads will make your Reviews and Ratings worst.
mynote said:
well, i dont think ist good to use ads in an app anyway. better use "donations" or "Pro" Versions since ads will make your Reviews and Ratings worst.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A combination of approaches work best. Having a facebook presence helps. Some of the very successful apps integrate with facebook very well. Some games tend to grant more time/lives if you share or like on facebook (Candy Crush, for example).
Depending on the app, limited-time trial versions are quite effective.
Agree that plain ads can be problematic as they can lead to poor reviews.. that in turn can hit your G. Play ranking and lead to fewer downloads.
Hi guys! Interesting discussion. Actually there are number of general ways to monetize an app:
Paid applications. You create an app that will charge a certain amount from the beginning.
Freemium. A software product can be downloaded free (so-called 'lite' version), while its extended, 'premium' features and services are offered for a payment.
Subscription (paid access). This monetization model originates from real magazines and newspapers, and is also very widespread.
In-app purchases.
Ad banners, texts, videos - this monetization model is constantly growing, encompassing the market of free applications.
User base. When the free software you own finally becomes popular, wins an audience, it can also be used for further monetization.
MobiDevCorp said:
Hi guys! Interesting discussion. Actually there are number of general ways to monetize an app:
Paid applications. You create an app that will charge a certain amount from the beginning.
Freemium. A software product can be downloaded free (so-called 'lite' version), while its extended, 'premium' features and services are offered for a payment.
Subscription (paid access). This monetization model originates from real magazines and newspapers, and is also very widespread.
In-app purchases.
Ad banners, texts, videos - this monetization model is constantly growing, encompassing the market of free applications.
User base. When the free software you own finally becomes popular, wins an audience, it can also be used for further monetization.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And which one do you prefer?
nikwen said:
And which one do you prefer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually we develop mobile apps for our clients, so it's monetization is their decision.
One of the most widespread one is freemium, but like other models it has its limitations.
Hi Fellow Developers,
A little bit about myself. I am part of a group called 'New Rich' . The NR is a group of individuals who make just enough money to fulfill their dreams by doing things that excites them with their free time . Each NR is excited by different things and I find my excitement in teaching others what I have learnt and still learn from the group. I am currently working in India and I teach a lot of youngsters the way of the new rich and enable them to be financially free by blogging, App development E-Commerce and me and my fellow NR's do a lot of free knowledge sharing on this front . I see that a lot of developers develop brilliant apps but fail to get it in front of the market and the app gets lost in oblivion. I hope that I can give my two cents here and be able to help you in promoting your apps. This is my first post and I would not be able to post links here . But will update the post if it proves popular and once I have posted 10 comments.
Warning : Post would be long and will be updated from time to time so feel free to grab a cup of coffee.
The post is based on two principles.
80/20 Principle (Pareto's Law) : 80% of your downloads comes from 20% of the sources.
Pareto's law on income distribution can be applied to just about anything you want . The usually accepted assumption that all the work you do will yield equal result is false. For example : Most of the blogs will have that 10 or 20 posts out of a 100 which gets them more than 80% of the traffic. Only 20 % of what you study will be asked in your examinations. 80 % of your effort on preparation for the exam is useless. So what if you can know that 20 % of your promotion effort which is giving you more than 80 % of your downloads ? Then all you will need to do is spend more time on this 20 % and not waste time on the other 80 %.
Parkinson's Law : Work expands to fill the time available for its completion
After you know that 20% which is giving you the best results. Come up with the things you should do to maximize and DO IT NOW !!! Keep a deadline of 3 hours to complete all your promotion task and call it a day. Don't fall into the trap of reading a hundred posts on promotion and not doing even one . Dont get into the habit of 'paralysis by analysis'. Another suggestion would be not to read something to its entirety. Even this post. Read the part that you really need to do now and the rest when you are ready to execute .
You must be well aware by now that more than 80% of the apps in Playstore get majority of the downloads and consequently more than 80% of the revenue. I don't want to bombard you with stats bore you to death. This is also true with marketing and sales. 80% of your sales will come from 20 % of your sources. Here I want to distinguish between sales and marketing.
Marketing : Where you let a lot of people know about your app . Promotion, Ads, Guest Post are examples for marketing.
Sales : Where you convincing a person who reaches your play store link because of marketing to download your app. Beautiful app Icon, an HD YouTube video explaining your app, screenshots explaining your app features on each screen and not just a plain screenshot are examples of sales.
Our method for app promotion is simple. Find out which 20 % of the events or actions that you do gets you 80% of your success (80/20 Principle) and Do more of that 20 % to get you the best result in the least amount of time spent(Parkinsons Law).
Finding out which 20% of the things you do is getting you 80% of your result
One of the problems is finding out from where you are getting your downloads. So the idea is to measure from which source you are getting maximum downloads. This can be done in three ways.
Whenever you are posting your playstore url ALWAYS use an url shortner(search "Google url shortner" ) and use the short link to post about your apps in forums. This will allow you to track the sources from which you are getting your clicks from and this is very important.
You can now link your app to Google Analytics. This will allow you to track how your downloads are generated. Using this you will be able to better determine the percentage of your downloads which are generated through Organic(People searching for your app or keyword in your app description through Google Search and Play Store) and InOrganic(People clicking on some link you have posted elsewhere and reaching your app) . Google on how you can add your app to google analytics page and its easy.
Another effective method to know if your app was mentioned on any blogs or news is very important to keep track of your app.
Enter your app name in quotes in Google Search(Ex : "FallToid app") and click on "google news" . At the very end of the search list you will have an option to called "Create an Alert" . Set that up once and whenever your app is mentioned on any news or blog you automatically get alerted about it by Google.
If you do the above , you can be rest assured that you are tracking almost all the sources of your downloads. Also I have noted that many people don't trust short-links so it would be better if you add something like (shortened link to play-store) to let people know that it is a play-store link.
Next up, Posting links to your app . I have a list of forums and websites on which I have had success promoting my client's apps and I will post those when I am able to do so. But basically there are two kinds of apps .
Promotion based apps : These are the apps which people don't want currently or don't know it exists but will download them when they come across it. These apps will not get much organic downloads. But can go viral based on the downloads they get. Examples for these apps are most of the games and some of the apps. User sees the link or reads about the app from some website or forum and downloads the app. These apps need more promotion channels including Social network sites.
Need based apps : These are the apps that user goes looking for. Examples of these are popular games like Chess, Crosswords, Scrabble etc or some root apps such as SuperUser, or sim unlock app like SuperSimUnlocker are examples of such apps. These apps will get organic downloads but will need some promotion and acceptance initially.
This post will talk about promotion based apps.
I love forums like XDA for promoting my apps for one main reason . You don't need permission to create a post(like this one) provided that you follow the rules and add some value to its readers. Forums are after all about user generated content and the more good content they get the better it is for them . Plus most of the forums are free. That is why I suggest you begin by writing a useful content for the users of the forums and add value first. I have also seen that many of us will just reply to a thread that talks about an app and spam it with your play store links . This is useless and does not work 80 % percent of the time . Spend most of your time here and it will be worth it .
Next up app review sites , If you can pay 100 bucks for a couple of review sites to review your app it will do wonders to your promotion . Don't look at this as an expense but as an investment. If you have faith in your app then go ahead and spend it . At worst you will at-least know what does not work .
Play store is not the only app market for you you know , Play-store has the highest number of users but also stiff competition . Place your app on all the alternative stores that you can find and this will get you more downloads. The main goal is to get your app in many places as possible and who knows if an influential blogger likes your app then he may spread the word around.
You have already heard it many times that your app needs to have a social presence. But Google+, You Tube is much more important than Facebook and Twitter simply because these are Google Products. Integrating Google + in your app as well as an HD video on YouTube will make Google like you very much . Also if your app is doing very well including GoogleAdMob will get you much much more promotion than using any other Ads platform simply because this is a Google product and it is in the best interest of Google to take care of the app which earns them most.
Add your app in product hunt dot com . This will get you some eyeballs.
I know press release is important but I dont want to spend all my time on it . What I do is spend 50 bucks on pitchpedgion dot com and send my app to over 120 influential bloggers at a time and call it a day.
The last promotional effort that I do is I find the app which is similar to my app. For Ex : If I am doing a calculator app I find out the competitor app and lets say the name of the app is "Calcu" . Then I search for the app on Google along with the quotes. This will give me the list of websites that this app was mentioned in and get in touch with them and use this trail to promote my app in the same places.
I have also noted that many of us just spam comments this actually works for some time . As you can see comments are sorted as latest comment first. So this means that if you add a comment earlier and don't add your comment often then you will get to the bottom of the comments and will be a futile effort.
That is it . Now sit back and analyze from where you are getting maximum downloads and spend more time on it . Don't worry about the least 10 percent since it is not worth your time .
I will post part 2 of this post shortly.
Mods, Please consider this to be a sticky post and if I have broken any of the forum rules please send me a pm allowing me to correct myself. Happy Promoting.
Great read, looking forward for the next part!
It's true 20% of my apps have the +80% of total revenue! Do you think i should focus on promoting those 20% or the others?
Hi all,
I have low budget for the marking of my new game that i will publish soon
I have only $200 , is that amount will effect or i will just spend for nothing ?
and how i can use them ?
Thanks
It would be very easy to throw that money away. It won't do a lot, all told. Focus instead on the app, encouraging people to review it positively, managing bad reviews, building up a good relationship with an initially small number of users so that they'll tell their mates and build your numbers up. Talk to people for whom your app solves a problem. They don't exist? Well, there's your problem and $200 of marketing won't help
Ryan.T.Student said:
It would be very easy to throw that money away. It won't do a lot, all told. Focus instead on the app, encouraging people to review it positively, managing bad reviews, building up a good relationship with an initially small number of users so that they'll tell their mates and build your numbers up. Talk to people for whom your app solves a problem. They don't exist? Well, there's your problem and $200 of marketing won't help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ryan has an important point: actually, adwords, facebook ads, *can* bring some result but at a too much heavy cost. I have tried them and my cost per install was like $5 to $10, for free apps...
Prompting users to review your app in your app works, but do it at moments when they achieve something positive with your app, like attaining a certain level in a game. Building a relationship is a key, i can't agree more to that
$200 is a low budget.
Try first the all free methods we all know are aware off (mailing, asking parents and friends to download and promote the app, posts on forums and so on).
Also try to exchange reviews with other developers (I'm always willing to do it, for instance).
And if your really want to boost the number of downloads of your games in order to look more attractive for users visiting your Google Play page, you can buy incentive installs from tapjoy (0.10 / install will give you up to 2,000 downloads (but I don't think it worth the effort, as vast majority will remove your app right after they get their rewards).
Here are some useful methods to increase downloads for consumer mobile apps:
• Application name-is unique
• Keywords-including related keywords, but be careful - don’t stuff every keyword into your app
• Make Facebook or Twitter page for your app and write story of your game there to attract every users
• Description. Your description is clearly the value of your App
Best of luck in your app business.