Developer's Guide to Windows Phone App Marketing and Monetization

YOU YOU R R AD AD HER HER EDeveloper’s Guide to EMarketing and Monetization ofWindows Phone Apps Alan Mendelevich | AdDuplex | ailon@ailon.org | @ailon

Richard Foster, once a DOS programmer and now working for thefamily dry cleaning business and developing mobile applications part-time for his company Edgeway Software, is ecstatic about the resultshe 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 adsfrom my 7 games.…I started going full time [indie] April 1st, 2011 ……Grand total revenue for 2011 - $61,321.58 -- Elbert Perez , occasionalgamer.comI generally get about 1.5 hours a day for game development…Total marketplace/ad revenue for both Krashlander and KrashlanderFree - $23,215.68 -- Jeff Weber

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

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

What to build?

Scratch your own itch

Original vs. “Me too”

Megahit vs. Smaller Hits

Getting ideas and inspiration The 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/

Make Money

Front-end for your main service

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

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

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

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

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

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

Promote yourapp, promoteyourapp, promoteyourapp, promoteyour app…

Don’t monetize your app on day one

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”

Case Study: ChicksnVixens• 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 Im very happy with the results. I wont 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

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

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

Before youlaunch…

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

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

Feedback loop• Facilitate user feedback and ratings• “Bad” feedback should go directly to you, good feedback – to the Marketplace• Consider Good feedback encouraging rating/review after a number of launches Bad feedback

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

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

Online presence

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

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

Free promotion

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?

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

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

Social media integration

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

Case Study: Wordament

Empoweringdevelopers tohelp each other Cross-promote apps with other developers Utilize full potential of your ad space

Paid advertising

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

On the phone WPUG12 50% off

In discovery apps

Summary

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.

Thank you!@ailonblog.adduplex.comailon@ailon.org

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Developer's Guide to Windows Phone App Marketing and Monetization

by Alan Mendelevich

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