

Promoting your iPhone app in print - alex_c
http://blog.indieiphonedev.com/2010/01/27/promoting-your-iphone-app-in-print/

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patio11
I love people trying to innovate, but this is going to run into the brick-wall
reality of conversion math.

My site, where 6 cents gets me a guaranteed visitor: ~20% download or sign up,
~2.5% pay, cost per conversion thus about $12. I charge $30 and smile.

The iPhone app will have three different gates in the funnel: percentage of
people who visit website (or search on AppStore by name -- can you even do
that?), percentage who download, percentage who purchase. I can tell you that
gate #1 is not going to be anywhere near 100%. I'd be pleasantly surprised if
it were in the two digits. The math just gets more depressing from there.

Don't charge $2 if you're going to have marginal advertising expenditures,
folks. It is not sustainable.

~~~
Zev
I don't see $150 breaking the bank, not if the app being advertised has sold
marginally well in the past. And its a fun, different way for people to
remember about your app _after you've spoken to them about it_ (say, after a
conference). If they seem interested, give them a card. And if the person in
question isn't interested, just don't give them a card.

Not that the situation I outlined above is how the cards are being used.
Instead, an _application about running_ is being advertised at a _running
event_. Presumably, you have some sort of interest in running, if you're
watching a leg of a marathon take place. So, its not too hard to presume that
this would be useful for more than 1 in 25 people watching the marathon.

This kind of reminds me of a sticker. Only, instead of just a picture of the
app (or the app icon, in Colloquy's case when we handed out stickers), it also
says a few words about what the app does for you.

 _percentage who download, percentage who purchase._

These two "funnels" are the same. The App Store doesn't currently have any
sort of trial, and this app doesn't seem to have a free version of any sort.

 _or search on App Store by name -- can you even do that?_

Yes, you can search for applications by name (or keyword, or developer) in the
App Store.

 _Don't charge $2 if you're going to have marginal advertising expenditures,
folks. It is not sustainable._

As a random datapoint, I've seen a few companies pay for a weekly spot on
daringfireball, which is $2,500/week where the app only costs $2/app and the
company didn't have any other applications available.

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megablahblah
I will be curious to read about the results. I don't foresee it being very
successful. My guess would be 1 in 100, at best, will result in a sale.

I think he'd have more success with iPhone text ads targeting running-related
sites on the mobile web. It will cost him $.25 per click, but the conversion
rate will be much higher because 100% of the people that click the ad will
have an iPhone and be interested in running.

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robryan
Possibly if the app is really good this kind of advertising could generate a
lot of word of mouth buzz around the app.

