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We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads

andreaskambanis.com

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Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads

#121

Post by DangitBobby »

neom wrote: post #108
DangitBobby wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the author's assessment that only 1371 users were actually converted and they were charged inappropriately.

This complaint is tantamount to me saying: I spent $20,000 advertising my new cloud provider on twitter, 5000 people signed up for an account but only 5 of them ever logged in so only 5 converted. That isn't how it works. In google ads a conversion is clearly defined as the users clicks the link and then completed a second action (pre-register in this instance). When you create a campaign, you define the goal like th…

No, it amounts to Google claiming that 13k users will install the app and billing for their hand in that when the actual install base was 1.3k.

Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads

#122

Post by MrZander »

Farbklex wrote: post #12

Neat 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 s…

I'm using Brave on a Windows PC, the "Get the App" button sends me to the Apple store also. In fact, there is no indication that this is even available on Android at all.

Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads

#123

Post by [deleted] »

DangitBobby wrote: post #121
neom wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This complaint is tantamount to me saying: I spent $20,000 advertising my new cloud provider on twitter, 5000 people signed up for an account but only 5 of them ever logged in so only 5 converted. That isn't how it works. In google ads a conversion is clearly defined as the users clicks the link and then completed a second action (pre-register in this instance). When you create a campaign, you define the goal like th…

No, it amounts to Google claiming that 13k users will install the app and billing for their hand in that when the actual install base was 1.3k.

[deleted]

Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads

#125

Post by stemlord »

htrp wrote: post #24
stemlord wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's impossible to verify 1. Determine sales rate 2. Deploy ads 3. Determine delta sales Am I missing something?

Confounding effects

Wouldn't that be a good reason not to spend money on ads?

Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads

#126

Post by mcsniff »

Farbklex wrote: post #12

Neat 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 s…

This is definitely something I was cognizant of when I made my product page.

Since I have an app for both platforms, 2 buttons works very well, allows the user to make the choice, and you can even add a simple useragent check and redirect the user after X seconds if they haven't actioned.

There are some interesting "rules" (or recommendations) around how to place app store images, their sizes, etc, too.

Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads

#127

Post by for_i_in_range »

mrguyorama wrote: post #76
Firmwarrior wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

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.

Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads

#128

Post by andreaskam »

danpalmer wrote: post #110
tennis_80 wrote: post #40

This doesn’t surprise me. A user has a need - in this case a food diet app. They find this app, think it looks good, and registers their interest. Good. Launch day comes around, they’re nowhere to be seen - why? Well, they may have found another app, or decided they don’t need the app after all - say they lost interest in the diet / health kick. I feel like app registrations would only work for “special” apps that do…

I work on related things at Google so have to be careful what I say here, but to clarify things a little... In the docs it makes it clear that there are a bunch of caveats to the auto installation. Reading through these caveats, they are all there for good UX reasons, essentially to ensure that what gets advertised is what gets installed (no bait-and-switch), and that users are going to be ok with the auto-installati…

Appreciate the reply.

I think you're referring to these guidelines: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...

We did go through the guidelines to make sure our app would be eligible for auto install. For example our download size is sub 100mb. I can see in Google Play Console that all our installs are Android M+.

There are some factors I can't verify. For example, where can I check what Google Play Store version users are on?

If certain factors make a device ineligible for auto install, then maybe these devices should be excluded from the ad campaign to help ensure developers are getting good value for their ad dollars?

It created such a negative first experience for us on the Google Play store, which is a shame as we'd of been happy to invest in install ads and Google would of made a larger return from us over time. The low quality of support gave us no path to at least share our concerns with Google.

Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads

#129

Post by andreaskam »

tehwebguy wrote: post #112
andreaskam wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

haha it's been my pleasure being a guinea pig. Just wish I could of learned the same lesson for $5k instead of $20k.

One question I had when reading: Had you opted in to all of the appropriate settings so that your personal device should have automatically installed?

I have no way of being 100% certain, however I followed the best practises: - Being on a new version of Android - Having an up to date version of Google Play store app - Being on wifi - Having lots of battery and also plugging my phone in to power

Re: We spent $20k on Google Play pre-registration ads

#130

Post by chii »

burnte wrote: post #118
l5870uoo9y wrote: post #42

> MealPrepPro is built by a small indie dev team and $20k was a painful amount of money for us to waste. With pre-registration ads you're putting all your faith in Google that they'll deliver the conversions they're showing in the ads reports I am running a small independent startup myself where I count every nickel and dime. I tried Google Ads (there was an offer to spend $400 to get an additional $400). Besides a f…

Their biggest problem was not doing research. Conversions are hard, usually a percent or two. But what is a conversion? It's getting a user to respond to your CTA. In this case, the CTA was to get people to see the ad and click through to a "preorder" page. They got what they bought. The problems were they expected a greater response, didn't know what they were getting into, and spend $$$ on ads before anyone could g…

> Anything else isn't a preorder, it's a waste of time.

cept for tesla, they charged $100 for a "pre-order" (of the cybertruck).

It's smart, because they managed to get an interest free loan off these customers, and also gauged interest at the same time!

So yes, the CTA must include a form of payment - otherwise, you're not getting a customer for your spend, you're just getting eyeballs.

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