Something doesn't add up with FAAD

[Luke2]

FreeAppADay.com is an app promotion service that's used by many large and small app developers, but something seems fishy about their operation. For starters the company has absolutely zero information about itself on its website except for a contact form. It doesn't seem to be run very professionally considering the amount of business it's doing. Also, it appears that FAAD is much more popular with developers than it is with users. The company behind FAAD (ICS Mobile) has released several apps that allow users to keep up with their promotions, but the highest ranked one is 618 in Games (see http://www.appannie.com/company/ics-mobile-inc/ ). This is a giant red flag to me. I expected their app to be far more popular. Their facebook and twitter pages also show little activity. When we emailed them, they could not provide provide any numbers regarding how much traffic they directly drive, claiming not to have any analytics. This is very unusual and unprofessional for a company whose business depends on advertising promotions.

For me, it just doesn't add up. Developers seem to think their promotions are effective, but I don't see how that's possible when nobody is using their app. I suppose it could be a front for a bot farm?

[Future777]

You can say everything about FAAD being effective or not..they are no scam and they dont use bots. They exist on the App Store since a long time and collected quite a lot of followers during that time.

[AlienSpace]

I had my game Alien Space Retro once on FAAD, and it definitely gets tons of downloads and shot me way up in the charts.

[Luke2]

Originally Posted by AlienSpace

I had my game Alien Space Retro once on FAAD, and it definitely gets tons of downloads and shot me way up in the charts.

The question is wether the initial spike is legit downloads or bot generated, and if it is legit, how much of it was generated because of FAAD, not just because the app was set free or other promotions.

Based on the chart rankings of their apps, FAAD has very little traction with actual app users, so I find it all very suspicious.

[iSky]

I once read an article about services such as FAAD and most of the time your app will get to at least the top 100 and stay there for quite sometime. I'll see if I can find the link (doubt it )

[AlienSpace]

Originally Posted by Luke2

The question is wether the initial spike is legit downloads or bot generated, and if it is legit, how much of it was generated because of FAAD, not just because the app was set free or other promotions.

Based on the chart rankings of their apps, FAAD has very little traction with actual app users, so I find it all very suspicious.

I went free once without it, and while it also created a spike, the FAAD spike was much bigger. Also, since my game has IAP, I could also see a spike in IAP revenue... so at least some of those were real customers. The publicity from FAAD was enough to push my game up the free and grossing charts, which itself then generates downloads and sales.

I think the main thing is that in order to get the most from FAAD you need a game with IAPs. The spike in downloads will continue a bit after the free promotion, but it wont be that big. You need to be able to make money from the tens, or hundreds, of thousands who download the game while it's free... which would be about 4 - 7 days, as they recommend.

[shariq]

Someone I know recently spent $5k with freeappaday and said it wasn't worth it. The traffic/downloads generated by them have been declining consistently month after month.