Comment by msencenb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by msencenb | Hacker News Reader

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Thanks for the feedback let me right out a paragraph here and see if it explains better:

adsReloaded is all about getting downloads. Let's say you have a 0.99 cent app and decide you want to spend about $25 dollars on advertising. For paid apps the price you pay users is at least the price of the app (so for a 0.99 cent app the minimum payout to a user is 0.99).

Since your budget is about $25 dollars you take the CPD (cost per download = 0.99 in this case) and multiply it by the number of new users you want (let's say 20). This puts your total advertising purchase at $19.80. I take 25% (added to this number) + the price of one download (to moderate the campaign/test to make sure the question is correct). So the total campaign price for 20 users follows this equation: 19.80 + 4.95 (the 25% I take) + 0.99 (price of app) = $25.75

This $25.75 will get you 20 new users. Granted you will make back .70 cents per user so really it will cost you $25.75 - 14 (your profit) = $11.75 for 20 new users.

This may be murky brand awareness to you but I think there is also a "word of mouth" marketing piece here as well... and if you push it hard possibly even extra downloads from moving up the app ranking lists.

Does this help explain more?

Do I have this straight? Someone who can't get users is selling a service where he tries to get other people users. There may be a problem here.

Also the sample numbers you provide has the developer losing $11.75 out of pocket for the honor of acquiring 20 new users. Given that the developer is trying to make money, this doesn't seem like a great deal. (Even worse, with the quoted figures you could buy 20 copies of the app for yourself, and walk away $4.95 richer. All of the mindshare etc benefits the developer is hoping for wouldn't apply in that case.)

I didn't say that... I did relatively well (8k total for a small quotes app) I merely stated that I always had trouble getting blog writeups.

I understand that this doesn't seem like a great deal, my question to you is how much money are people using a service such as admob losing in order to acquire users (Are you able to acquire 20 new users for 11.75 for an app priced at 0.99?)? I have seem some pretty terrible conversion rates (although feel free to point me in another direction if you feel this assumption is misguided).

Yes there is a certain level of trust as well.. but hopefully the site will grow and this trust will be established. I'm not out here to make a quick buck by swindling developers.

Thanks for that writeup. That's the information I needed to make an informed decision. However, I'm really not convinced to lay out the money. Let me explain why.

You're in the same boat as a lot of other iPhone app marketing--spend more than you take in, hope you make it up somewhere. The problem is, there are a lot of much better ways to throw away app licenses:

* Giving promo codes to bloggers, who are definitely influencers and costs me nothing for the first 50.

* Just gift apps to people myself, which is 25% cheaper, and I have direct control over who the people are, so I have firsthand experience that they're movers & shakers

So really you're going to have to convince me: first, that giving away licenses is a good idea and second, that paying you to give away licenses is better than doing it myself. This means you're going to need really stellar users who are better evangelizers than my friends & family, who care about the product mostly because they care about me.

That's going to be an uphill battle, to say the least.

One thing that might help you is a couple of testimonials or success stories from other developers. Find a "deadpool" app that really does show some promise. Reach out to the developer and offer to promote it for free in exchange for access to all the sales figures. If you can demonstrate "hey, we made this guy 10% more than we would have charged him" that at least sounds promising enough for me to give you fifty bucks and see how it goes.

Excellent explanation and I see the logic behind your decision; however, I don't think its all-encompassing for every iPhone developer:

1) I personally never had any success reaching out to bloggers. Maybe it was because my apps weren't innovative enough or I didn't have the right connections but I always felt that the time I wasted reaching out to bloggers could have been better spent elsewhere. If you are successful reaching out to bloggers then more power to you!

2) While I agree that this gives you more control and in fact might be very good for user testing... some people simply don't enjoy this type of tactic or have the time. Some people would rather spend time answering support e-mails and developing new apps and products, its just kind of their style. This is where my product comes in.

Also the testimonial idea I think is worth pursuing and I will be looking for a perfect subject tonight. :)

It may very well be that your strategy provides better returns for less effort than the alternatives.

I'm simply saying that, as a potential customer, it doesn't look like that on its face, and you need to convince me to buy in. A good way to convince me is with a success story.

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