Tips and tricks to generate more exposure and revenue from your Windows Phone apps. Want me to present on the topic at your conference or other event? Contact me at ailon@ailon.org

1. Marketing and Monetization of
Windows Phone Apps
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Alan Mendelevich | AdDuplex | ailon@ailon.org | @ailon
Developer’s Guide to

2. 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 started going full time [indie] April 1st, 2011 …
…
Grand total revenue for 2011 - $61,321.58
-- Elbert Perez , occasionalgamer.com
I generally get about 1.5 hours a day for game development
…
Total marketplace/ad revenue for both Krashlander and Krashlander
Free - $23,215.68
-- Jeff Weber

3. Did you know …
Product
20%
Marketing
80%
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

4. Developer’s Work Cycle
Task Deliverables Money
Employee/Contract developer
Task Deliverables Money
Entrepreneur developer
SALE
SALE

5. What to build?

6. Scratch your own itch

7. Original vs. “Me too”

8. Megahit vs. Smaller Hits

9. Getting ideas and inspiration
“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.”
The Daily Practice
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/how-to-be-the-luckiest-guy-on-the-planet-in-4-easy-steps/

10. Make Money

11. Front-end for your main service

12. 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

13. Trial
• Can’t try == won’t buy
• 70% more purchases than without trials
• Counter example: Cocktail Flow*

14. In-app purchases
• No built-in centralized mechanism
• Roll out your own
• Use 3rd party services (MoVend, Linxter)

15. Free apps with ads
• Generally perform better than paid apps*
• Best suited for long/frequently running
apps (games)

16. Ad networks
• Microsoft pubCenter
• Google AdMob
• Smaato
• Millennial Media
• Mobclix
• MobFox
• Inneractive
• AdDuplex*

17. Fill rate
• Smaato: “Worldwide, the average ad
network fill rate was 10% in Q3 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 AdStreamer™
http://www.improvisoft.com

18. Promote your
app, promote
your app,
promote your
app, promote
your app…

19. Don’t monetize your app on day one

20. 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.”
– Jeff Weber: “Krashlander total downloads
(Includes both trials and purchases) - 23,500,
Krashlander Free total downloads - 327,000”

21. 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
– Meds: “After being #1 for almost 2 weeks as a paid app I can say
that I'm very happy with the results. I won't give specific numbers
but suffice to say it would make many iOS and Android devs
green with envy.”
• New version released as free with ads

22. Case Study: gMaps
• Started as absolutely
free
• Added ads and a “Pro”
version later

23. 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

24. Before you
launch…

25. Marketplace “SEO”
• Name
• Keywords
• Tile
• A/B testing?

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

27. 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

28. Localize
• Keep in mind that you will probably start getting
feedback/support requests in languages you don’t
know

29. Publication
• Have everything to get featured
– background image is not required, but your chances
of being featured without it are low
• Don’t submit on Friday
– András Velvárt: “If you look at the charts from
WP7AppList, you can see that almost no applications
get verified and published during the weekends. …
You essentially have two more days to test and make
sure the app doesn’t fail digestion without impacting
the publishing date.”
– René Schulte: “48h difference in submission (Friday
night - Sunday night) -> 12h difference certification
email (Thursday morning - evening).”
• Don’t auto-publish

30. Online presence

31. Demo video
• Easier to watch than try your app
• Great asset for marketing activities

32. Online presence
• Web site or section
• Facebook Page
• Twitter account
• Google+ Page
• Blog

33. Free promotion

34. Tip specialized blogs
• WPCentral.com, WMPowerUser.com,
1800PocketPC.com,
BestWP7Games.com, WP7Rocks.com
(Russian), etc.
– Filterable list at WindowsPhoneSites.com
• Make it personal
• Include short description
– maybe even something that looks like a
review
• Link to your demo video. You made it,
right?

35. 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

36. 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

37. Social media integration

39. 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

40. Case Study: Wordament

41. Empowering
developers to
help each other
 Cross-promote apps with
other developers
 Utilize full potential of your
ad space

42. Paid advertising

43. On the web
• Specialized blogs
• App catalog sites
• WP7AppList.com, appsfuze.com,
windowsphoneapplist.com, etc.
• BuySellAds.com (search wp7, windows
phone)

44. On the phone
WPUG12
50% off

45. In discovery apps

46. Summary

47. 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.

48. Thank you!
@ailon
blog.adduplex.com
ailon@ailon.org