After releasing Bug Drop!, my collaborator, Steve, started to get curious about running ads for it using Apple’s ad platform. He decided to give it a shot because it wasn’t that expensive and, hey, if it works that means more people get to experience the game!
So he fired up a few ad types. CPM ads run a block of impressions for a fixed cost whereas the “cost per install” ads are a fixed cost per install and it’s up to Apple to effectively display the ad in order to get the install.
The ads ran for about a week and here’s what he found:
I ran $9 worth of ads on the CPM based “Advanced” Apple ads and it got 7 taps, 0 installs.
The other cost per install based “Basic” ads haven’t done anything yet. They are suggesting a $2.15 cost per install, making it not worth it.Ads are a racket.
Look, I’m not a ruthless businessman; however, I can be practical when needed, but our initial experiments with Apple’s ads are dispiriting. We will not be continuing them.
I also find it galling that they would suggest we bump our price for the cost to install to above the current price of the app. Maybe we just need to charge more so we can pay apple more for people to buy the game. Oh well!
Anyway, go buy Bug Drop!. It’s fun!