Promotion and Monetization of Windows Phone Apps

Marketing and Monetization of Windows Phone Apps
Alan Mendelevich
AdDuplex
ailon@ailon.org
@ailon

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’d like to start chronicling my experiences as I start doing my Full Time Indie Gig. I started going full time April 1st, 2011 …
-- Elbert Perez , occasionalgamer.com

Did you know …
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

Publish an App

38 countries can submit directly, 102 - indirectly

Submitting an app
App Hubhttp://create.msdn.comAvailable in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States.
Global Publishing Partners
APPA Market http://www.appamarket.com/
Yalla Appshttp://www.yallaapps.com/
App Hub – Free Apps Only*

Make Money

Front-end for your main service

“Kik Messenger Effect”
22% higher than anticipated Android and iOS growth after launch on Windows Phone

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 Calculatorhttp://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)

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
AdDuplex*

Fill rate
Smaato: “Worldwide, the average ad network fill rate was 18% in Q2 2011”
Maximize ad space value by multiple network fallbacks. Fallback to AdDuplex or in-house ads.
Silverlight: Windows Phone 7 Ad Rotatorhttp://wp7adrotator.codeplex.com/
XNA: ImproviSoft Ad Network Managerhttp://www.improvisoft.com

Promote your app, promote your app, promote your app, promote your app…

Don’t monetize your app on day one
Photo by Ginny Washburne

Don’t monetize on day one
Giving your app away is the cheapest and most effective marketing instrument you have
RenéSchulte: “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.”

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
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 you launch…

Look native
VS

Marketplace “SEO”
Name
Keywords
Tile

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 encouraging rating/review after a number of launches
Good feedback
Bad feedback

Publication
Have everything to get featured
background image is not required, but you won’t be featured without it
Don’t submit on Friday
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
Blog

Free promotion

Tip specialized blogs
WPCentral.com, WMPowerUser.com, 1800PocketPC.com, BestWP7Games.com, WPCentras.lt (Lithuanian), WindowsPhone.lv (Latvian), WP7Rocks.com (Russian), etc.
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 #wp7hashtag
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

Promote your app for free
Utilize full potential of your ad space

Paid advertising

Paid advertising
On the web
Specialized blogs
App catalog sites
WP7AppList.com, appsfuze.com, windowsphoneapplist.com, etc.
BuySellAds.com (search wp7)
Directly on Windows Phone
AdDuplex, AdMob, etc.

Summary

Did you know …
Research shows that 20% of products success is determined by the product itself and the remaining 80% is marketing*
* I totally made this up

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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Promotion and Monetization of Windows Phone Apps

by Alan Mendelevich on Oct 10, 2011

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Promotion and Monetization of Windows Phone Apps — Presentation Transcript