If I am understanding this right, the crux of the issue is that Google Play doesn't auto-install apps that you seemingly signed up to have auto-installed?
Seems like a bug on Googles side, whether intentional or not.
We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads
11–20 of 136 posts
Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads
#12Neat article.
I would like to criticize your landing page for your app. It very very much bugs me, when landing pages for apps have only a QR code which I am supposed to scan with my phone.
Luckily, you also added a "Get the App" button. Problem is, that you try to be smart and automatically forward me to either the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Since I opened the link on a Macbook Pro, you assume I want to see the App Store. However, I am an Android user.
I just want to be able to see two buttons, one for each store and click it myself.
You are by far not the only one who does this. Would be great if App devs would change it all together.
Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads
#13Short 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.
And we threw $20k in ad spend at it (which quite frankly is insane).
Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads
#14Not just google ads. Meta ads and reddit ads all fake the metrics and charge more money than what they send you. It's all a scam but because of the larger gun policy nobody can do anything.
Google has such a gigantic incentive to lie about how effective their advertising is. It's impossible to verify and they make more money the more effective they say it is. So it's something I've suspected is happening for a long time. The question then becomes, what does the internet look like if advertisers only spent 10% of what they do now? How much of the internet is built on the lie that digital advertising work…
>It's impossible to verify
1. Determine sales rate 2. Deploy ads 3. Determine delta sales
Am I missing something?
Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads
#15Alternative idea: spend $1,000 or less on something that is unproven. You speculated and it turned out different than expectations. That's the name of the game. The only right answer is test. But you shouldn't expose yourself to so much downside.
For sure. Live and learn. And hoping to share it here so others can learn from my mistake.
Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads
#16It seems pretty clear that's what you get when you use the campaign?
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...
"After you make an app or game available for pre-registration, users can visit your store listing to learn about and pre-register for your new app or game.
Then, when you publish your app or game later, all pre-registered users will receive a push notification from Google Play to install it.
Eligible devices will also have the app or game auto installed on the day it launches. (more details on this in documentation)
Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
> because of the larger gun policy nobody can do anything Oh please do elaborate
You'll spend more than $20K trying to get your money back in court.
Ah so it’s a joke used to reference the complete lack of power companies/people have against behemoth corps?
Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads
#18Not just google ads. Meta ads and reddit ads all fake the metrics and charge more money than what they send you. It's all a scam but because of the larger gun policy nobody can do anything.
Google has such a gigantic incentive to lie about how effective their advertising is. It's impossible to verify and they make more money the more effective they say it is. So it's something I've suspected is happening for a long time. The question then becomes, what does the internet look like if advertisers only spent 10% of what they do now? How much of the internet is built on the lie that digital advertising work…
That was the past, which gave us a glorious internet at the expense of idiotic advertisers in exchange for a few bits of data.
Thanks to the EU and the privacy social justice warrior that era is gone: welcome to the era of cookie banners and walled gardens.
Search will be even worse than today, your Google search won't be very useful (and it's definitely not as useful as it was 15 years ago): you'll have to search on Reddit, Facebook and who knows how many other walled gardens which can't live off advertising anymore and will need to find a different revenue model (which probably will cost the user).
Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads
#19Short 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.
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.
Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads
#20Alternative idea: spend $1,000 or less on something that is unproven. You speculated and it turned out different than expectations. That's the name of the game. The only right answer is test. But you shouldn't expose yourself to so much downside.
Was this really an option here? They probably aren't launching that many apps on the Play Store. So they had one shot to try out a pre-registration campaign to get a big app launch.