Mobile App/Game Marketing - Your Thoughts || Experiences?

[eTox]

you are like 3 years too late.

i think there is an opportunity in app store (iOS) search ads and snapchat ads right now, Facebook is becoming a mature, expensive medium to advertise apps for indies.

With all my respect, I have no idea what your experience is and to further add I'll say I have none for my self, but I would like to disagree on the first statement and reserve my right to my opinion. I may in future disprove or prove you are right, but that's irrelevant because I can't right now. I do agree with you on the app store search ads.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[toxicrain]

oh ok thanks i get it, i forgot you can target people based on what pages they like! that's very useful.

Shame about the facebook sdk requirement, i can do it but man its so annoying dealing with third party SDK's.
Seems to be worth it for the lookalike audience.

I have question though, isn't the facebook sdk data gathering only work for apps that are hosted on facebook? or do i just need users to "log into" the app using their facebook account or something?

I make very casual apps and i like to keep things as minimal as possible for users.

It shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to setup fb sdk for a professional. It will cost $10 if you outsource this to someone who knows how to.

Its literally 2 lines of code.

Facebook sdk tracks users of your app and matches them to those that are registered on Facebook (if they are). Your users don't need to login using Facebook sdk for you to have analytics or install tracking on your ad campaigns.

 

[luniac]

It shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to setup fb sdk for a professional. It will cost $10 if you outsource this to someone who knows how to.

Its literally 2 lines of code.

Facebook sdk tracks users of your app and matches them to those that are registered on Facebook (if they are). Your users don't need to login using Facebook sdk for you to have analytics or install tracking on your ad campaigns.

What i don't quite grasp is how does the Facebook sdk match users of the app without logging into facebook?
Where does it get information about the user?
Does it check to see if the facebook app is installed on the phone and use the data from that?
I'm having trouble seeing the connection between facebook analytics inside an app and the facebook ad campaign itself.


im familiar with google analytics but that's easy to understand, it just collects info on actions taken within the app, it has no access to info about the user such as age, etc...

 

[toxicrain]

What i don't quite grasp is how does the Facebook sdk match users of the app without logging into facebook?
Where does it get information about the user?
Does it check to see if the facebook app is installed on the phone and use the data from that?
I'm having trouble seeing the connection between facebook analytics inside an app and the facebook ad campaign itself.


im familiar with google analytics but that's easy to understand, it just collects info on actions taken within the app, it has no access to info about the user such as age, etc...

when you run ad campaigns on Facebook mobile feed, only people with Facebook app will see your ads. Thats where the match is made. When you test you campaigns you will see that you will need the Facebook app to test properly.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[luniac]

when you run ad campaigns on Facebook mobile feed, only people with Facebook app will see your ads. Thats where the match is made. When you test you campaigns you will see that you will need the Facebook app to test properly.

im ***** retarded... obviously they see them inside facebook app lol...
thanks.

 

[toxicrain]

im ***** retarded... obviously they see them inside facebook app lol...
thanks.

its all good, that part caught me off guard at first time too

 

[eTox]

Did you know you could retarget mobile app users on Facebook?!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Gamer]

I've been testing lot of ad networks to acquire players for my games. For me the best ad network is Facebook/Instagram Ads.

Almost all ads networks works like an auction. If you give more money per install, you can get more installs. So if you need low cost installs you have to set up daily budget very low, it can be about $25-50 per day in one country, one platform. Than your ads will be visible after big companies, when prices go lower.
Always integrate Facebook SDK and set up eCPM payment optimized for installs (don't use cost per install!!!). It's always better use eCPM payment when you want low cost installs.
So set up your ads, you can start with $10 per day. Test multiple countries and multiple targeting options. Multiple creatives too. It's easy to test it all with Facebook ads. If your game is good you can achieve CPI about $0.4 for top tier countries (or maybe even less, my best is ~$0.32 for USA). But you need to test a lot before you achieve numbers like this.


Is paid advertising worth if average revenue per user is lower than cost per install?
I think it's not if your game is mediocre and long in app market.
Paid advertising is good when you're launching the game, so you can speed up organic growth. But your game has to be good. People should really like it. Once I spent like $1k on mediocre game, achieved good position in TOP NEW in small country and right after I stopped the ads, my position dropped drastically.

For Google Play you don't need to advertise to get traction and achieve stable organic downloads. All you need is to gain some downloads right after launch (lets say 1.000 downloads in first two weeks) and I believe you will see stable organic downloads. You can achieve it by spamming Facebook, reddit, sending press kits to press and so on... Ofcource you need a nice ASO for this to work .

 

[eTox]

I've been testing lot of ad networks to acquire players for my games. For me the best ad network is Facebook/Instagram Ads.

Almost all ads networks works like an auction. If you give more money per install, you can get more installs. So if you need low cost installs you have to set up daily budget very low, it can be about $25-50 per day in one country, one platform. Than your ads will be visible after big companies, when prices go lower.
Always integrate Facebook SDK and set up eCPM payment optimized for installs (don't use cost per install!!!). It's always better use eCPM payment when you want low cost installs.
So set up your ads, you can start with $10 per day. Test multiple countries and multiple targeting options. Multiple creatives too. It's easy to test it all with Facebook ads. If your game is good you can achieve CPI about $0.4 for top tier countries (or maybe even less, my best is ~$0.32 for USA). But you need to test a lot before you achieve numbers like this.


Is paid advertising worth if average revenue per user is lower than cost per install?
I think it's not if your game is mediocre and long in app market.
Paid advertising is good when you're launching the game, so you can speed up organic growth. But your game has to be good. People should really like it. Once I spent like $1k on mediocre game, achieved good position in TOP NEW in small country and right after I stopped the ads, my position dropped drastically.

For Google Play you don't need to advertise to get traction and achieve stable organic downloads. All you need is to gain some downloads right after launch (lets say 1.000 downloads in first two weeks) and I believe you will see stable organic downloads. You can achieve it by spamming Facebook, reddit, sending press kits to press and so on... Ofcource you need a nice ASO for this to work .

Awesome write-up @Gamer! Thank you for sharing your experience.