Doug Harper

Mobile Apps and Websites

App Development

by

MMA Quotes Preview

I’ve been working to get MMA Quotes ready for App Store submission.  Several people are beta testing a current version and I’ve received positive feedback so far.

Here’s my first version of the App Preview, without sound. I still need to add some music and voice over to get it ready for some final polishing.

The listing at PreApps is getting lots of votes, which is somewhat new for me. Feel free to check it and add another vote. If you’d like to get notified when it’s available register for MMA Quotes Announcements.

by

Chartboost – First Ad Campaign Thoughts

 

After a couple gameplay tweaks to improve Caribbean Catch I ran a short Chartboost campaign to get some installs and experience how Chartboost operates.

My Ad

Caribbean Catch

I researched ads on the Chartboost Blog and came up with this masterpiece.

  • My game has 2 “characters” so I featured them both.
  • Made sure everyone knows this is a FREE game.
  • App Store badge.

Campaign Logic (My own)

Caribbean Catch was my entry into a Reskinning Tournament, which is judged by downloads in the US Store, getting the most downloads for dollars spent was a primary consideration (surprised?).  I also wanted to see the results over several days to determine if there were daily trends. I chose a very low Cost Per Install rate which limited my daily impressions.

Targeting was very narrow, limited to US gamers within the same 3 App Store listing categories.  My thinking was to acquire gamers who might stick around and tap through some of my ads as well. Of course I limited the devices to iPhone users running 5.0 & higher, matching my game’s requirements.

Results

The ad ran 5 days, spanning Friday – Wednesday. I had a Click Through Rate of 12.18% with a 2% install rate, ECPM was $1.35. Monday was the best day with CTR = 13.12%, IR = 2.6% & ECPM = $2.30. Friday was the worst in all stats.

What I Learned (I think)

My sample size is very small, but I think there’s enough data to formulate a few ideas for future projects.

  1. I’m not sure how good/bad my stats are. My gut tells me the CTR is pretty good, but the IR is a lower than expected. Now this could be because some games were spamming ads & I got a lot of “false” clicks, but it could also mean I need to improve my icon, screenshots, & description to increase conversions. I guess it never hurts to improve them, so that’s a priority for all future ad campaigns.
  2. The competition for ads seemed to be more intense on the weekend. I’m not ready to give up on those days, but I don’t think targeting them for a blast would be a great idea. Which also reminds me to check on release dates of major games before scheduling a campaign.
  3. Monday was the best day by far, Tuesday ran second. Good days to focus on if possible?
  4. Low bid, limited impressions worked for me in this case. In the future I think investing my full budget within a 24hr period might be the best option, as long as I have a good target day. I should be able to determine the effectiveness of the campaign much easier than spreading it out.

Feel free to share thoughts.

by

Caribbean Catch Available in the App Store.

Caribbean CatchCaribbean Catch is now Available in the App Store.  This is my third app launch, but first “real” game.  I chose to take part in contest hosted by AppsFresh,  Everyone was given same source code on July 1st & tasked with coming up with their own game… most downloads in the US App Store by month’s end wins.

I figured it was great way to learn about developing apps while working efficiently.  I spent most of the first day planning out the theme & marketing strategy using a Sensor Tower.  There are tons of experienced developers competing, so working a smart plan is my best bet.  Putting the game together went pretty smooth and I tested it thoroughly before submitting it on July 2nd, hoping for a July 10th launch – which is exactly what happened.

I lost sleep on day 1 localizing the description & keywords for several different languages, hoping it would pay off with some social media carryover to US customers.  We’ll see how it goes from here.

 

Tap to Text