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Short version: We used a Google Ads pre-registration campaign to get installs for our app. Google charged us for 16,171 conversions. When we launched, we only r

Short version: We used a Google Ads pre-registration campaign to get installs for our app. Google charged us for 16,171 conversions. When we launched, we only received 1,371 installs.

for_i_in_range 3y ago
And we threw $20k in ad spend at it (which quite frankly is insane).
- Firmwarrior 3y ago
  Seems like at this point you'd come out ahead if you just mailed people 2 dollar bills with the promise of another 2 dollar bill if they install your app
  - munk-a 3y ago
    Honestly, there's a lot of advertising out there that I think could benefit from direct monetary incentives. A large portion of the population is becoming resistant to regular advertising (good for them) and opting in to ad blockers when available. Actually paying people for the attention you're demanding from them would be refreshingly different... and heck, it worked for timeshares.
    - Firmwarrior 3y ago
      That's a good point. I got some in-game spam mail in World of Warcraft the other day with a few gold coins attached. Even though it was an amount you'd earn in about 2 seconds of playing the game (real world value: 4/100ths of a cent), it made me a lot less angry than ads usually do
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    Indeed there are groups and "businesses" that "pay" you to install apps. I assume someone is on the other side of that transaction paying for new user installs. Doing it yourself would probably be cheaper and you would probably be offering a much higher payout than those systems.
    - for_i_in_range 3y ago
      It's called "incent traffic" and it's notoriously awful traffic. Users are worth 5% of a normal user because they're freebie seekers who are usually broke.
_delirium 3y ago
The core reason seems to be that Android pre-registration (unlike iOS) doesn't, by default, automatically install the app once it's available. Instead it just signs the user up for a push notification, unless the user has opted in to automatic installs. So this campaign had 16,171 people click through and pre-register, but only 1,371 of those converted to actual app installs once it was available.
LastTrain 3y ago
What was the time between pre-registration and release?
- andreaskam 3y ago
  We started the pre-registration around 2 months before release and it ran right up until release. The max you can do is 90 days.

Short version: We used a Google Ads pre-registration campaign to get installs for our app. Google charged us for 16,171 conversions. When we launched, we only received 1,371 installs.

for_i_in_range 3y ago

And we threw $20k in ad spend at it (which quite frankly is insane).

Firmwarrior 3y ago
Seems like at this point you'd come out ahead if you just mailed people 2 dollar bills with the promise of another 2 dollar bill if they install your app
- munk-a 3y ago
  Honestly, there's a lot of advertising out there that I think could benefit from direct monetary incentives. A large portion of the population is becoming resistant to regular advertising (good for them) and opting in to ad blockers when available. Actually paying people for the attention you're demanding from them would be refreshingly different... and heck, it worked for timeshares.
  - Firmwarrior 3y ago
    That's a good point. I got some in-game spam mail in World of Warcraft the other day with a few gold coins attached. Even though it was an amount you'd earn in about 2 seconds of playing the game (real world value: 4/100ths of a cent), it made me a lot less angry than ads usually do
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  Indeed there are groups and "businesses" that "pay" you to install apps. I assume someone is on the other side of that transaction paying for new user installs. Doing it yourself would probably be cheaper and you would probably be offering a much higher payout than those systems.
  - for_i_in_range 3y ago
    It's called "incent traffic" and it's notoriously awful traffic. Users are worth 5% of a normal user because they're freebie seekers who are usually broke.

_delirium 3y ago

The core reason seems to be that Android pre-registration (unlike iOS) doesn't, by default, automatically install the app once it's available. Instead it just signs the user up for a push notification, unless the user has opted in to automatic installs. So this campaign had 16,171 people click through and pre-register, but only 1,371 of those converted to actual app installs once it was available.

LastTrain 3y ago

What was the time between pre-registration and release?

andreaskam 3y ago
We started the pre-registration around 2 months before release and it ran right up until release. The max you can do is 90 days.