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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

#31

Post by frognumber »

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…

Yeah. The landing page didn't answer the questions I had. It's a hard pass. Feedback:

- Give a long enough free trial to get addicted (e.g. 30-90 days). If you're delivering value, I will pay $4/month

- For me to have value, you'd need to plan things like ingredients. In a best-case scenario, you'd integrate with Instacart and other delivery services, and there would be zero waste. You'd also make use of ingredients I already have.

I have no idea what it is you actually do, though, so I won't install. I can already subscribe to a recipe listserv, and I have no idea the delta. Is this the same thing, only for $$$ and with aggressive data scraping from my mobile?

You don't need to answer here. Answer on your landing page. I was curious around to click around, and find crickets.

Thank you for posting and sharing, though.

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

#32

Post by simple10 »

Google is notorious for over-reporting ad data for all sorts of reasons.

One super important thing to know is conversions could also be landing page views depending on how the ad account is setup. By default, Google will use any type of conversion configured in the ad account for displaying stats in the campaign. It's a bit tricky with Google Ads to configure a specific campaign to only report conversions as app installs, signups (leads), or sales.

Best practice is to mostly ignore the data reported in Google Ads dashboard (unless you really know what you're doing) and instead rely on your own metrics. Run multiple campaigns to different audiences and different landing pages to be able to more easily verify what's actually working. Fortunately, it's fairly easy -- although not straight forward -- to pipe Google Ads data into a Google Sheet and merge it with actual data from your website. I'm not sure how this works with pre-registration ads since I've never run that specific type of campaign.

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

#33

Post by andreaskam »

flokie wrote: post #16

It 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 instal…

If you look at the first screenshot in the article it shows what the pre-registration page looks like.

It says:

Perks of pre-registering

- Automatic install

Install automatically when it's available

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

#34

Post by cpncrunch »

sdflhasjd wrote: post #25
flokie wrote: post #16

It 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 instal…

Is sending someone a push notification really worth $1 though?

Is paying $1-3 simply for a click on google ads worth it either?

(In my experience, no).

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

#35

Post by jimnotgym »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #18
alexb_ wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Hang on... the decline in Google search is due to the EU?

Walled Gardens are caused by cookie banners?

I have heard some things in my time....

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

#36

Post by paxys »

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…

How many people out there install smartphone apps from a desktop web browser? You anyways have to pull out the phone to use the app. Having a QR code front and center and navigating to the app store listing on the phone is the preferable outcome for 99% of customers. The majority of them aren't even signed in to Apple/Google on the desktop browser.

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

#38

Post by CodesInChaos »

Conversion rate issues aside, why did they choose pre-launch ads over post launch advertising?

Some apps rely on a critical mass of users on launch (multiplayer games, social networks, dating sites, etc.) so generating hype pre-launch is important for these.

But this looks like an app where it doesn't matter for a user how many other users there are. So slowly ramping up your ads after launch, while you work out bugs and other flaws looks like a much better approach to me. This also allows you to track ad effectiveness and adjust as you go, instead of taking a big gamble.

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

#39

Post by andreaskam »

jb87 wrote: post #27

Thanks for sharing your experience. I would have thought they would auto-install the app for users that pre-registered, as Apple does. Seems kind of pointless that they don't do this!

Hope it's helpful for some fellow developers when considering how to promote their app launch :-)

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

#40

Post by tennis_80 »

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 don’t have close competitors or have a particular buzz - e.g. Threads, ChatGPT etc

EDIT: I’ve misunderstood - the app was supposed to auto-download on launch day. It didn’t. This story makes a lot more sense now! I assumed it just sent a push notification / email.

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