Does my game worth spending $40,000 for Ad?

[REANIX]

A friend of mine said when I develop a good enough game, he would like to give money for AD.

I told him I want $40,000, and $30,000 will be used on ADMob.
The left will be used for website, such like TA. I don't want he lost his money, so before I decide to spend his money, I want to know does it worth to do or how can I get the answer? Maybe your answer is find a PR company, that's enough?

Any suggestion?Thanks, and my game is:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/action-egypt-free/id359582721?mt=8

[derek420]

That's serious $$$, and from what I've read from devs, advertising [Admob, banner on sites, etc] It doesn't always pay off. I'm not a dev though, so I'll wait for some to jump in.

[REANIX]

That's serious $$$, and from what I've read from devs, advertising [Admob, banner on sites, etc] It doesn't always pay off. I'm not a dev though, so I'll wait for some to jump in.

All I know if you want your free app be the NO1 of all the free games, you need to spend about $30,000 on ADMob.

[derek420]

I really have no experience in the area, I'm just saying my opinion. From what I've gathered AdMob isn't always worth it.

[baldong]

be careful, admob is waste of money, unless you have a lot of money (enough to push your game to the top list)....

[Kyle Poole]

Why don't you try $400 first and see how that goes... :p

Also be sure to use the special AdMob Download Tracking so you can know how many people install the game vs how many people clicked on the ad.

You really need to work on your app description in iTunes though.

[Symbolist]

Money would be lost. Game is just not that much interesting. No way. Sorry. Tried to be honest.

[johnwayne]

A friend of mine said when I develop a good enough game

well, then start doing that ;)

sry, but i'm also honest, this would be likely a worse investment with this game you actually have.

[Grumps]

It looks good but definitely not good enough to justify a $40,000 advertising budget. You could instead use the $40,000 to build a Triple A rating game and perhaps sell better without any advertising budget as compared to what you're planning to do now.

[mommagamehouse]

Good advice. @Grumps

[REANIX]

It looks good but definitely not good enough to justify a $40,000 advertising budget. You could instead use the $40,000 to build a Triple A rating game and perhaps sell better without any advertising budget as compared to what you're planning to do now.

You mean make a Game Box like 26 in 1 which is the NO1 now?

[REANIX]

well, then start doing that ;)

sry, but i'm also honest, this would be likely a worse investment with this game you actually have.

It looks good but definitely not good enough to justify a $40,000 advertising budget. You could instead use the $40,000 to build a Triple A rating game and perhaps sell better without any advertising budget as compared to what you're planning to do now.

It's OK, thanks for your honest.

[MexicanJesus]

Is your friend female and single? I'm just hoping!

[REANIX]

lol, He is old and fat but he love cute boys.

[FlagellumDei]

If I had 40.000 dollars I wouldn't coding games :eek:

I'm kidding!

Instead of AdMob advertising, I would invest into a good PR campaign and ads on gaming websites like TouchArcade.

[mattll]

the game looks nice and it is fun to play but i dont would advertise it with 40 k
maybe you will get featured by apple
thats free ( i think so )
and the best advertisement

[REANIX]

I am coding game. He is not, he is a big boss now.

[REANIX]

the game looks nice and it is fun to play but i dont would advertise it with 40 k
maybe you will get featured by apple
thats free ( i think so )
and the best advertisement

I am coding game. He is not, he is a big boss now.
It looks many people think ADMob is not worth it.
Thanks.

[lukeca]

Spend part of that $40,000 on hiring an english speaking firm that can write a good description for your game.

[REANIX]

Why don't you try $400 first and see how that goes... :p

Also be sure to use the special AdMob Download Tracking so you can know how many people install the game vs how many people clicked on the ad.

You really need to work on your app description in iTunes though.

About the app description, which is the best app description you have seen?

I like the Falling Balls description, it's very short.. Just one sentence:
Tilt IPhone or IPod Touch to run left or right. Avoid falling balls. That's all. really.

I think most people don't want to read too much words.

[MexicanJesus]

I think the problem is the word themselves, not the quanity you chose to use. For example, this sentence in your last post:

"I think most people don't want to read too much words."

could be

"I think most people don't want to read too many words."
or, since you like them short:
"I don't think people want to read too many words."

[abruce42]

OR spend like 600 dollars for freeappaday, get rocketed straight to th top of free games.

[Grumps]

You mean make a Game Box like 26 in 1 which is the NO1 now?

That is not what I meant. I'm actually referring to higher budget projects such as Rayman, Plants Vs Zombies. Well if you really do wish to run a successful ad campaign just PM/email me. I'll guide you through with my experience.

[mehware]

or even better since your game is OpenFeint go to http://freegameoftheday.com/ and try to be a part of their promo. It made our app Lockdown when switched to free in the top 8 in its category.

Ok give me your monies now for my advice.

[doodlejumper]

What you should do is skip admob completely and just go to professional websites. $40,000 will get you advertisement for a week at touchArcade, SlideToPlay, AppModo, AppGamer, and more. All of those sites running the same ad at once for such a long time will generate a lot of attention and will get you a lot of sales.

[Mondae]

Will go in advertise In sig for 15 dollar iTunes card for too months. I made same offer on other page. I joined late February that's why my post counts low. I DO POST REGURALARY!!!!!!

[goldglover411]

if i were you....id take his 40,000 and use it to develop a whole new application and cut him in on some of the profits. If he is willing to give you 40000 just to put into advertising, then he has to have some cash on his hands


i think that it would be a waste of 40,000 to spend it on advertising. In order to make that back, you would need to sell 57,720.0577 (:p) copies of your game just to break even. Unless you see advertising generating that much sales, then i wouldnt do it

i suggested on the other thread to hire kids like me for $15 or $25 per month in itunes cards just to post on forums like these and write reviews on sites. It would be more cost effective....like making baseballs in Haiti




Will go in advertise In sig for 15 dollar iTunes card for too months. I made same offer on other page. I joined late February that's why my post counts low. I DO POST REGURALARY!!!!!!

desperate for itunes money much....i suggest getting a job as a bagger at a grocery store (though i dont know how much minimum wage is in perv why do you care), however if that is in the US you can make $15 in 2 hours of shopping compared to like 10 hours spent promoting an app

[Mondae]

if i were you....id take his 40,000 and use it to develop a whole new application and cut him in on some of the profits. If he is willing to give you 40000 just to put into advertising, then he has to have some cash on his hands


i think that it would be a waste of 40,000 to spend it on advertising. In order to make that back, you would need to sell 57,720.0577 (:p) copies of your game just to break even. Unless you see advertising generating that much sales, then i wouldnt do it

i suggested on the other thread to hire kids like me for $15 or $25 per month in itunes cards just to post on forums like these and write reviews on sites. It would be more cost effective....like making baseballs in Haiti






desperate for itunes money much....i suggest getting a job as a bagger at a grocery store (though i dont know how much minimum wage is in perv why do you care), however if that is in the US you can make $15 in 2 hours of shopping compared to like 10 hours spent promoting an app

I would post on here any who's. And I lost my summer job and no supermarket:(

[NickFalk]

What you should do is skip admob completely and just go to professional websites. $40,000 will get you advertisement for a week at touchArcade, SlideToPlay, AppModo, AppGamer, and more. All of those sites running the same ad at once for such a long time will generate a lot of attention but won't necessarily get you a lot of sales.
Fixed it for you. ;)

[Nitzan]

Has anyone here actually had success with AdMob?

I mean sure, I have heard stories of games getting to the top lists for a day or two purely from AdMob advertising, but based on my experience I seriously doubt those stories are true.

With my previous game I experimented with AdMob a bit, my experience was less than 1% conversion for the FREE version. Paid version was in the 0.1% range.

$40,000... assuming you can spend it in one day, at a cost of $0.04 per click (used to be the AdMob minimum, no idea what it is now), multiplied by 1% conversion rate... would only be 10,000 downloads. That's assuming you can spend all that money in one day.

[REANIX]

Has anyone here actually had success with AdMob?

I mean sure, I have heard stories of games getting to the top lists for a day or two purely from AdMob advertising, but based on my experience I seriously doubt those stories are true.

With my previous game I experimented with AdMob a bit, my experience was less than 1% conversion for the FREE version. Paid version was in the 0.1% range.

$40,000... assuming you can spend it in one day, at a cost of $0.04 per click (used to be the AdMob minimum, no idea what it is now), multiplied by 1% conversion rate... would only be 10,000 downloads. That's assuming you can spend all that money in one day.

Thanks for your information.
1% conversion for the FREE version, It seems too low. That's mean 100 clicks, just one install?

May I ask you how much money you spent and which game?

[Nitzan]

Sure, the game was Tatomic and I tried it twice, once for the paid version (at the time Tatomic was $0.99) and once for the free lite version.

I spent $50 each time and set the cost per click at $0.04. I got 1250 clicks in a matter of a few hours.

Compared with the average downloads, I got roughly ~18 additional downloads for the free version, and 6 for the paid.

So 1.44% conversion for free, 0.48% for paid.

I have never heard anyone who has actually tried admob themselves say it was worth the money.

[frendil]

yea game doesn't interest me and I dont think that it would interest people in mainstream gaming, so probably not worth $40 000

[Spotlight]

Let me tell you one thing:

you won't reach the number 1 position in the ranking of the free apps even if you spend 1 million dollars.

The reason is because your game doesn't have that big potential.

Egyptians are boring. It's a very niche topic and you can't buy the #1 position of the ranking, but you have to deserve it.

For sure advertising helps a bit, but this app doesn't have any chance.

Save $30.000 and develop a better game. Really.

[Spotlight]

Statistics related to advertising are pretty useless.
You should analyse them based on the potential and type of your application.

If Doodle Jumps requires $1000 to reach the number 1 position of the ranking, then you'll need about 2 millions dollars and advertisee the game on TV, magazines, websites etc.

If you cover all the media of the world, then you have some chances to reach the #1, but at the same time you'll lose a lot of money.

From my point of view, whatever you do it's a loss of money.

Spend $30.000 for developing a better game, not about egyptians but something nicer that the people might like.

[REANIX]

Hey, Spotlight

Thanks for your viewpoint. I have a question, if the game is not about the Egypt, just think about the gameplay. What do you think?

As you know , the 26 in One now is the Top, what do you think about this?
How about the game LineUp, why did it success? Thanks if yo have answers.

As so far, I think the best way to do this is to find a PR company and let them to do a research.

Thanks again for your honest.


Statistics related to advertising are pretty useless.
You should analyse them based on the potential and type of your application.

If Doodle Jumps requires $1000 to reach the number 1 position of the ranking, then you'll need about 2 millions dollars and advertisee the game on TV, magazines, websites etc.

If you cover all the media of the world, then you have some chances to reach the #1, but at the same time you'll lose a lot of money.

From my point of view, whatever you do it's a loss of money.

Spend $30.000 for developing a better game, not about egyptians but something nicer that the people might like.

[Spotlight]

Hey, Spotlight

Thanks for your viewpoint. I have a question, if the game is not about the Egypt, just think about the gameplay. What do you think?

As you know , the 26 in One now is the Top, what do you think about this?
How about the game LineUp, why did it success? Thanks if yo have answers.

As so far, I think the best way to do this is to find a PR company and let them to do a research.

Thanks again for your honest.

I think it is better to be 100% honest for this kind of opinions.

If the game wouldn't be about Egypt, I think I would like it more (or less?).

What I don't like the most about your game that it is so Egyptian-like, and I'm tired of Egypt, but also it's a tetris game and I feel like we don't need any more tetris.

I feel the key of the success is creating something new, even if it might be hard, or making a better version of an already existing game.

Doodle Jump improved Papi Jump, for example.

I don't feel you're going to improve Tetris even if you dedicate a life to this game.

I don't know. I would invest those money in finding a good designer who can create a user friendly, simple and cute interface + graphics, then it's all about the game idea.

The idea must be new, but not complicated.

People are loving simple games, very immediate and cute (fligh control, doodle jump, pocket god).

Of course this is just my opinion.
At this moment I wouldn't get another Tetris even if it's good and for free.

[REANIX]

Thanks.
I just wanna say it's a Match3 and a physics game too. It's Revolutionary of
Tetris, match3.
I think your view is very especial. I will remember it, no more tetris no more Egypt theme.


I think it is better to be 100% honest for this kind of opinions.

If the game wouldn't be about Egypt, I think I would like it more (or less?).

What I don't like the most about your game that it is so Egyptian-like, and I'm tired of Egypt, but also it's a tetris game and I feel like we don't need any more tetris.

I feel the key of the success is creating something new, even if it might be hard, or making a better version of an already existing game.

Doodle Jump improved Papi Jump, for example.

I don't feel you're going to improve Tetris even if you dedicate a life to this game.

I don't know. I would invest those money in finding a good designer who can create a user friendly, simple and cute interface + graphics, then it's all about the game idea.

The idea must be new, but not complicated.

People are loving simple games, very immediate and cute (fligh control, doodle jump, pocket god).

Of course this is just my opinion.
At this moment I wouldn't get another Tetris even if it's good and for free.

[REANIX]

Sure, the game was Tatomic and I tried it twice, once for the paid version (at the time Tatomic was $0.99) and once for the free lite version.

I spent $50 each time and set the cost per click at $0.04. I got 1250 clicks in a matter of a few hours.

Compared with the average downloads, I got roughly ~18 additional downloads for the free version, and 6 for the paid.

So 1.44% conversion for free, 0.48% for paid.

I have never heard anyone who has actually tried admob themselves say it was worth the money.

Thanks for this information, some people just like you spent $50, and they said it's not worth.
I just think if the money is not enough or some other reason.

[Spotlight]

Thanks.
I just wanna say it's a Match3 and a physics game too. It's Revolutionary of
Tetris, match3.
I think your view is very especial. I will remember it, no more tetris no more Egypt theme.

Also I don't like a game that is too many things at the same time.
Tetris, Match3, Physics is too much, from my point of view.
I prefer to buy a game that plays a single thing, but good.

As long as I know, there are not so many big titles that include various type of gameplay. If you notice, most of the successful games (even the ones for free) are focused on something and get straight to the point.

By the way, don't take my words too seriously. :)
It's just the opinion of a single, potential, buyer.
I'd wait for other complaints before to decide "no more Egypt". :)

Good luck with everything!!!

Sorry for my English. I'm not a native speaker.

[DominoL]

A friend of mine said when I develop a good enough game, he would like to give money for AD.

I told him I want $40,000, and $30,000 will be used on ADMob.
The left will be used for website, such like TA. I don't want he lost his money, so before I decide to spend his money, I want to know does it worth to do or how can I get the answer? Maybe your answer is find a PR company, that's enough?


$40,000 is too much of a budget for iPhone advertising. If you must, I suggest using 1/100 of that money on ads targeting Apple employees and keeping the rest for anything else.

I'm preparing to release my 1st app soon and honestly I can't fathom spending even $1000 on advertising in Admob... from what I gathered it just isn't worth it.

[EssentialParadox]

If you really have that much of a budget to run, I'd do a takeover ad on wired.com or engadget. Heck, maybe even Yahoo.com

[REANIX]

If you really have that much of a budget to run, I'd do a takeover ad on wired.com or engadget. Heck, maybe even Yahoo.com

Shall we do a investigation first?

[Spotlight]

If you really have that much of a budget to run, I'd do a takeover ad on wired.com or engadget. Heck, maybe even Yahoo.com

Nice idea, but advertising can't sell everything.
Advertising is helpful when you have a good product.

Investing $30.000 on advertising Rolando and investing $30.000 on a Khalid Shakid (or whatever his name was) application is not exactly the same thing.

I remember ngmoco buying Touch Arcade (*cough*, I mean advertising on Touch Arcade) for Rolando. I believe they could easily cover the cost for that ad by selling many copies and increasing the hype around the game, but... would it be the same thing for the game we are talking about now?

My answer is "NO".

The sales of Fumbers didn't increase that much: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?threadid=42298

[NickFalk]

The sales of Fumbers didn't increase that much: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?threadid=42298
Depends how you look at it. The Fumbers sales increased infinitely compared to the week before I ran the advertisement. :D

[REANIX]

In my situation，50 free downloads bring 1 paid sales.
Yes,it looks bad.

I am just thinking if I can use less money to get more people to download free version. Maybe I can earn money. I am just a developer, try to understand IPhone game market.

Thanks to all the people here.


Nice idea, but advertising can't sell everything.
Advertising is helpful when you have a good product.

Investing $30.000 on advertising Rolando and investing $30.000 on a Khalid Shakid (or whatever his name was) application is not exactly the same thing.

I remember ngmoco buying Touch Arcade (*cough*, I mean advertising on Touch Arcade) for Rolando. I believe they could easily cover the cost for that ad by selling many copies and increasing the hype around the game, but... would it be the same thing for the game we are talking about now?

My answer is "NO".

The sales of Fumbers didn't increase that much: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?threadid=42298