

Facebook App Ad Experiment Results - jazzychad
http://txt.jazzychad.net/gist/7634378

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Mitchella
Here are the problems with only spending $30 on ads.

#1. Ads are experiments both is where they're located but also the text,
target, etc. IE: you didn't spend nearly enough and try enough possible ads to
get anywhere.

#2. You're only charging $.99 - This just flat out doesn't work as a model
unless you're a novelty that goes viral. Even then though, the majority of
apps that achieve this are running at a $.99 price point in order maximize
downloads and not revenues because they capture an audience to their brand or
via social networks and eventually market expansions, in app purchases, or
other materials (the moron test is a great example of this).

Like another user said your purchase rate isn't going to drop horribly when
doubling to $1.99. Once a user has made the decision to purchase an
application, by which I mean spend any amount of money, the difference of a
dollar in the mind is minimal. It's the hurdle between free and paid that
creates a huge barrier in conversions.

Example: Currently you have ~4% conversion rate (with that demographic at
least). This means that at $1 price point (and because of apple fees, $.70
profit) you'll need to spend less than $.027 per click to the page to break
even.

Now under the assumption that you drop down to a 3% conversion rate when
doubling your price. You'll make $1.39 per purchase, meaning you can spend
$.042 per click to break even.

Lastly, while still on this note... you're unable to ever offer a 'sale'
unless you'd like to go temporarily free. Sales, while not a huge deal for
applications that no one has really heard of... they do still drive people to
purchase through impulse if they were already thinking about it.

Warning: While I say this and it tends to be true... test it... always test
it! Play with different prices and see what happens.

#3. Offer upgrades/in app purchases. If someone has already come to pay $1 for
the application, they're likely to invest more into the game.

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carbonatedmilk
So now you know your effective CPA for the ad you ran. You can count on a 3.7%
install rate. Your app costs $1 For every 100 people who click your ad, 3.7 of
them buy it - Making you $3.70 You need to pay less than $3.70 per 100 clicks

So set your CPC for that ad at 0.036 and write another, better ad. Want to cut
down on spurious clicks? Make sure it's obvious it's a paid app before they
click, and make sure you're talking right at what they need/care about

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lnanek2
The one guy I know with an app, who directly makes more money from ads than
they cost, has an expensive outdoor GPS app, not IAP. One thing I've noticed
is that web apps are ridiculously cheaper than mobile ads. So even if your
conversion sending people to a web site instead of an app store was only 10%
as much, it is still more cost effective. Personally, I've only bought ads
whenever I'm trending in app stores and want to stay in the trending category,
which nets a lot of users. Although I often do ad exchanges/trades/or market
in other apps of mine.

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monkey_slap
I've heard the ad exchange/trade/etc before, but I'm curious how others
actually implement this. Do you make an iAd-esque banner and advertise your
other apps? Do you use an existing system/framework?

If its your own implementation, how do you manage/track impressions?

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blackysky
As your first campaign you should try to catch a large audience like people in
US over 18.. that's it ! and test your ad copy first... then base on your data
you can decide the perfect demography for your app.. Are you going to blow
money on the first second and third iteration ... the answer is yes but at
least you will know exactly what's work best for your app on facebook...Ad
campaign optimization is not easy. My best advice is to use a great ad
tracking tool... you must track everything... no guessing game here... Finally
a small variation is you copy and/or app presentation could have drive better
results with the same $30.....don't give up :)

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hisyam
Can you recommend which ad tracking tool to use for Facebook Ads?

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austinl
I would be interested to hear the results with the free/IAP app. I've read in
a few places that even a $.99 app loses 90% of potential installs right off
the bat, so I wouldn't expect much with a $30 campaign.

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cclogg
Yeah, running ads with a paid app is a losing battle it seems like. Even with
a free app, it's going to be tough because your app has to then make more per
user than you spend on ads (this is the whole Zynga, Clash of Clans, etc
model). And they do mass ad buys with crazy optimization and marketing
teams...

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monkey_slap
I've always heard that the CPI with Facebook Ads was ridiculously high. Thank
you for posting the results of your experiment. 0.009% installs is amazingly
low to me, but I'm not too familiar with ad-based installs for iOS apps.

I've weighed heavily on word-of-mouth and just "quality" (website, app,
reviews, etc) instead of CPIs.

Could you elaborate on how you chose your demographic?

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nl
$6/install is high, but _could_ be made to work if your app had a viral
component that encouraged more than 9 installs (of course, realistically
you'll need a free version to have anything like that level of viral
installs.)

Also, what happens if you raise your price? Some experiments have shown that
the install rate doesn't decrease dramatically between $0.99 & $1.99

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lalos
any reason on why did you choose Women in the United States Aged 35 and older?
would be nice (and more expensive) to compare results with other target
audiences

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kunaalarya
Probably the reason why: He has a word puzzle game, and that's the typical
demographic for those games.

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marojejian
Flagged for broken link...

