Hey guys,
I have an app which was fortunate enough to be very successful with no promotion called 'Multiscreen Multitasking'. In the first year or so, that app and a few variations on the theme (similar apps with slightly altered UIs, prices and feature-sets for instance to target different keywords) together made me over £10,000 ($20,000) with no marketing necessary.
Since then though the app has slowed down - I guess due to competition and saturation - and I've tried a few different things to get it to pick up sales again. I've had mixed results and thought I would share some here. Perhaps others could also chime in with their experiences and we could create a long list for others to dip into as a resource? Plus we can try each others ideas out and hopefully get some inspiration...
Here's what I've tried:
Lowering the Price: This is what prompted me to write this post. I just had a huge bit of luck because I dropped the price from £1.20 to 70p and got featured on one of those 'app sales' apps. Currently mine is the top listing and I'm seeing about 100 downloads a day. Which is brilliant. Of course it won't last but it's a definitely increased my mood...
Note that in order for this to work I had to offer a significant discount. That meant I had to first price the app a little higher so that I had room to come down. Moving price around is definitely worth experimenting with then. Previously £1.20 had proven the 'magic number' in terms of maximising profit without driving away sales... Once this stops I'm going to try putting the price up high to see if the people still downloading are the ones who are hardcore enough not to be put off, and that then gives me the opportunity to do a larger discount in future...
App Review Sites: I once paid to have a different app (a game) reviewed on a website. This was a bad idea as it turned out - the site charged about $60 and the front-page review drove no traffic. I guess it was really just an ego thing (I've always wanted a review) so won't be doing that again. Re: non paid app review sites though, I've submitted to tons of them over the years and never had any success. Not sure what I'm doing wrong (I use press release templates or their own forms). Advice from anyone with more luck?
Paid Play Reviews: I also once paid on Fiverr to have my app reviewed by fake customers (I know, I know). I was worried about this though so I only did it the once in case Google somehow found out. Anyone else got experience with this? It was clear too that the person didn't download the app, which is disappointing as I paid extra to cover the download cost. Also wouldn't recommend.
YouTube: Another strategy I'm trying is to work with people who already have an audience. I spotted a guy who does great Android customisations on YouTube and has a big following and offered to create an app for him. He's gone for it and we're working on it now. He's already posted one video about it and it's had a very encouraging number of comments. It's a different approach and one that may work. I'll update this thread when I know!
Anyone else got any methods that have worked for them? I will let you know if I can think of anything else and how my future strategies pan out. In the near future I will be trying PPC and offering exclusive discounts to App sites.
Would love to hear your stories/advice/feedback. Hopefully we can help each other out! Thanks a lot guys
I have an app which was fortunate enough to be very successful with no promotion called 'Multiscreen Multitasking'. In the first year or so, that app and a few variations on the theme (similar apps with slightly altered UIs, prices and feature-sets for instance to target different keywords) together made me over £10,000 ($20,000) with no marketing necessary.
Since then though the app has slowed down - I guess due to competition and saturation - and I've tried a few different things to get it to pick up sales again. I've had mixed results and thought I would share some here. Perhaps others could also chime in with their experiences and we could create a long list for others to dip into as a resource? Plus we can try each others ideas out and hopefully get some inspiration...
Here's what I've tried:
Lowering the Price: This is what prompted me to write this post. I just had a huge bit of luck because I dropped the price from £1.20 to 70p and got featured on one of those 'app sales' apps. Currently mine is the top listing and I'm seeing about 100 downloads a day. Which is brilliant. Of course it won't last but it's a definitely increased my mood...
Note that in order for this to work I had to offer a significant discount. That meant I had to first price the app a little higher so that I had room to come down. Moving price around is definitely worth experimenting with then. Previously £1.20 had proven the 'magic number' in terms of maximising profit without driving away sales... Once this stops I'm going to try putting the price up high to see if the people still downloading are the ones who are hardcore enough not to be put off, and that then gives me the opportunity to do a larger discount in future...
App Review Sites: I once paid to have a different app (a game) reviewed on a website. This was a bad idea as it turned out - the site charged about $60 and the front-page review drove no traffic. I guess it was really just an ego thing (I've always wanted a review) so won't be doing that again. Re: non paid app review sites though, I've submitted to tons of them over the years and never had any success. Not sure what I'm doing wrong (I use press release templates or their own forms). Advice from anyone with more luck?
Paid Play Reviews: I also once paid on Fiverr to have my app reviewed by fake customers (I know, I know). I was worried about this though so I only did it the once in case Google somehow found out. Anyone else got experience with this? It was clear too that the person didn't download the app, which is disappointing as I paid extra to cover the download cost. Also wouldn't recommend.
YouTube: Another strategy I'm trying is to work with people who already have an audience. I spotted a guy who does great Android customisations on YouTube and has a big following and offered to create an app for him. He's gone for it and we're working on it now. He's already posted one video about it and it's had a very encouraging number of comments. It's a different approach and one that may work. I'll update this thread when I know!
Anyone else got any methods that have worked for them? I will let you know if I can think of anything else and how my future strategies pan out. In the near future I will be trying PPC and offering exclusive discounts to App sites.
Would love to hear your stories/advice/feedback. Hopefully we can help each other out! Thanks a lot guys
