Skip this if you are short on time: Things are still going well on the app but not exceptionally well, several variables outside of my control are really messing my timing up with traffic flow and my sales goals for the first week. There are times when you can't control every single aspect of your business, lesson learned, I should have had a backup plan and I didn't. I should have waited on the app release until I was 100% sure the dominoes had started falling on my plan, several (not just one) websites have closed/gone under re-branding that was supposed to give me some slightly more traffic this week, the apple review process is killing me, I should have done my research, I thought updates took 3-6 hours or something to complete. Now, waiting 5-7 days for an update is absolutely horrible, especially when you have a big source of traffic unavailable until the update is complete. I had one other marketing strategy not fail but it is coming later than expected which is not good at all. Every second that downloads remain average (and not noticeably above average) is a percentage less chance that the app could get featured in the app store (which is a major letdown). If I could do it over, I would have released some stupid semi-pointless app as my first app so I could learn the ropes, and then aced it with this app which had/has SERIOUS potential, I am beyond pist at myself for seemingly destroying my chances of doing this right. Now I have to swim upstream instead of just ride the current in order to get anything more than average cash out of this. Don't get me wrong, I can still make amazing money for a 16 year old kid, but not life changing money now, unless I get a lucky break and considering I have had nothing but horrible luck, I doubt any will be coming my way.
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I wish I had a couple grand to throw around on marketing but I don't, so I am looking into doing some low budget PPC/CPM advertising, I have been doing about a $100 a week on Facebook advertising, trying a bunch of different ads to see which ones gets some good CTR's, problem is, people seem to be on Facebook to look at friends posts, not click on ads (who woulda known?). I have literally no experience in Google adwords but I would think anything substantial is way out of my budget, I have no idea where to even begin with adwords advertising, and I don't have a month to learn the basics of it.

So here is the curve ball, right now my cost to acquire a customer can't be any more than .70 or else I will start loosing money, again, if I had $1,000+ I could take a loss on the front end to get purchases and get the word out, but I don't have that type of cash freed up to spend on advertising. So if anyone has any experience with advertising with such horrible margins, please put in your .02. I am just looking for something to bring in some pretty download numbers for this next week until my PR strategies begin to start rolling, I am ok taking a loss of about $200 on advertising if I have to this week, any ideas?

Oh man I know what you mean, I have gone through my 3rd update and like you I thought it would take a day but nooooooooooooo it takes a week sometimes longer. I have had close to 1000 download but it is when the app is free, I have made it .99 cents now but still wating for the update to be approved before marketing it.

I have tried FB ads but you may want to check this out before spending anymore money with FB

The 7 Ugly Truths About Facebook | The Exchange - Yahoo! Finance

Probably not, but a shot in the dark, any way to give it away for 2 days then back to selling?

Then you would get a lot of reviews and help with boosting the exposure.

Ok if that wont work, can you sell it on Amazon? If so I know you can give it away for the first day or 2 to get reviews and help with getting more exposure.

Who are you targeting on Facebook, interests, etc? Break it down by age groups so you can see what is working. If you do try ppc terms on adwords, don't go for the obvious ones. Think in correlation to, not directly the target phrase...these are expensive. Think about who your target is, what site they visit, do they use an iphone?

These are just some thoughts, PM me if you need any more specificity and don't want to post it here.

PatrickP said:

Probably not, but a shot in the dark, any way to give it away for 2 days then back to selling?

Then you would get a lot of reviews and help with boosting the exposure.

Ok if that wont work, can you sell it on Amazon? If so I know you can give it away for the first day or 2 to get reviews and help with getting more exposure.

Click to expand...

I actually like this idea, giving it our for free combined with some advertising (noting it is free for a limited time) should get the word out, if I can change the price quickly (no 5-7 day waiting period) I will definitely do this. Seems to be the only realistic way to turn for this week

Vic said:

Who are you targeting on Facebook, interests, etc? Break it down by age groups so you can see what is working. If you do try ppc terms on adwords, don't go for the obvious ones. Think in correlation to, not directly the target phrase...these are expensive. Think about who your target is, what site they visit, do they use an iphone?

These are just some thoughts, PM me if you need any more specificity and don't want to post it here.

Click to expand...

I have been going off of more interests, targeting is hard because this isn't necessarily a niche product as in there is no category which people who can't fall asleep consistently identify themselves with. Been excluding people 50+ from the ad's because the majority of them probably don't download iPhone apps often (maybe I am wrong). I am going to run several ad's with different age groups over the next week and see who is clicking more, thanks!

Tony71 said:

Oh man I know what you mean, I have gone through my 3rd update and like you I thought it would take a day but nooooooooooooo it takes a week sometimes longer. I have had close to 1000 download but it is when the app is free, I have made it .99 cents now but still wating for the update to be approved before marketing it.

I have tried FB ads but you may want to check this out before spending anymore money with FB

The 7 Ugly Truths About Facebook | The Exchange - Yahoo! Finance

Click to expand...

I wish android had a better system for payments, if they did I wouldn't even go near iOS apps again .The approval process thing is just ridiculous, I can understand for an app submission but an update, really??? I have read that article before, I still have some hopes for fakebook but will scrap it all if I don't get some results in the net week. I PM'ed you if you haven't read it yet btw.

Mike39 said:

I have been doing about a $100 a week on Facebook advertising, trying a bunch of different ads to see which ones gets some good CTR's, problem is, people seem to be on Facebook to look at friends posts, not click on ads (who woulda known?). I have literally no experience in Google adwords but I would think anything substantial is way out of my budget, I have no idea where to even begin with adwords advertising, and I don't have a month to learn the basics of it.

Click to expand...

Facebook traffic can convert really well there though so it's not just clickers.

Some CPC tips when you are on a very low budget:
- focus on very small groups for your targeting
- be upfront in your ads about the price of what you are selling. This will lower your CTR - but also eliminate a lot of wasteful clicks of people who are just curious and never serious in the first place! "Get this app for just $0.99 NOW!"
- bid conservatively. Do NOT let Facebook tell you what you should bid. What are your bids like now? I hope you didn't go with their "suggested" range. Always start out with around 40% lower of what their minimum amount says. So if they suggest a range of $1.00 to $1.50 CPC, start with $0.60. If the campaign doesn't get any impressions - slowly but surely increase the bid in increments in steps of $0.05 until you are seeing impressions come in.

If you need specific tips on Facebook ads or Google, feel free to hit me up (or better yet - ask them in my PPC thread (see my signature) so more folks can learn from it). Facebook has become trickier over the years and you have to get the targeting right and lose some money upfront there to get close to see what works.

Also - for your purpose I would skip Google search for now - but instead consider their display inventory. Have some banners made and start up a display campaign (turn off search altogether). Again, I can help with this if anyone needs.

Eskil said:

Facebook traffic can convert really well there though so it's not just clickers.

Some CPC tips when you are on a very low budget:
- focus on very small groups for your targeting
- be upfront in your ads about the price of what you are selling. This will lower your CTR - but also eliminate a lot of wasteful clicks of people who are just curious and never serious in the first place! "Get this app for just $0.99 NOW!"
- bid conservatively. Do NOT let Facebook tell you what you should bid. What are your bids like now? I hope you didn't go with their "suggested" range. Always start out with around 40% lower of what their minimum amount says. So if they suggest a range of $1.00 to $1.50 CPC, start with $0.60. If the campaign doesn't get any impressions - slowly but surely increase the bid in increments in steps of $0.05 until you are seeing impressions come in.

If you need specific tips on Facebook ads or Google, feel free to hit me up (or better yet - ask them in my PPC thread (see my signature) so more folks can learn from it). Facebook has become trickier over the years and you have to get the targeting right and lose some money upfront there to get close to see what works.

Also - for your purpose I would skip Google search for now - but instead consider their display inventory. Have some banners made and start up a display campaign (turn off search altogether). Again, I can help with this if anyone needs.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply I will have some questions for you shortly I am sure

Mike39 said:

I have been going off of more interests, targeting is hard because this isn't necessarily a niche product as in there is no category which people who can't fall asleep consistently identify themselves with

Click to expand...

Agree in part with this but also there could be some specific groups where you can target that will be more willing to buy your app, like people related with meditation, yoga, and fields related. Since meditation is basically a breathing activity, people that is new to it could need some external source to be more focused, like music, images OR your app.