People with FAAD experience

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Attollos Technologies, Jul 1, 2011.

  1. Attollos Technologies

    Attollos Technologies Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2011
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    iPhone Development Company
    Hello all,

    In the upcoming month to our first game coming out, I have started creating a contingency plan in case direct sales does not prove to be as fruitful as I would hope. In the event that we gain 0 market exposure and limited sales, I would be hoping to go down the free app route and monetize through in app purchases.

    Therefore I was wondering if anyone had any experience with free app a day and:

    What download increase did you experience?
    Did you monetize with adverts or in app purchases
    What click through rate did you experience?

    Basically is it worth it :p

    Thank-you very much in advance :)
     
  2. Hollyweird Zombies

    Hollyweird Zombies Active Member

    Jul 1, 2011
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    Transmissions Engineer
    Hollywood, CA
    Hello, I'm glad you asked this. I'm very interested to find this out as well. So far everyone I ask either doesn't know or just will not answer. Thanks again.
     
  3. Therealtrebitsch

    Therealtrebitsch Well-Known Member

    Mar 2, 2010
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    We tried this a few times.

    If your app is any good and you make your app free for a few days, it will probably skyrocket in downloads. You don't need any 3rd party site like FAAD for this.

    If you change it back to paid and you get the same downloads, like before, then you know, which way to go.

    Our one game is selling maybe 10-20 times a day. When I changed it to free, we had 150.000 downloads within 24 hours. Then I changed it back and after 2 days it went back to 10-20 downloads a day.

    We will change that game to free with AD and inapp upgrade.

    So if your game doesn't sell well, just go with free-AD. If it sells good, never ever think to make it free.
     
  4. Attollos Technologies

    Attollos Technologies Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2011
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    Many thanks for the reply, that's interesting... 150,000 within 24 hours :eek: I think we will have a go at trying to make it paid, but personally i'm more keen to just get the brand name out there rather than trying to make capital straight away. Good to see there are other options rather than FAAD. I've heard people have been quoted $10,000 which is crazy money..
     
  5. you can also just try putting your game to free for a few days without paying anyone anything.

    There are plenty of places that will report on all games that drop to free automatically, and you might end up getting some 10,000's of downloads anyway.
     
  6. Shaz

    Shaz Well-Known Member

    I know one game got 100,000 downloads in 24hours with freeappaday. And then another got 33,000.

    Also heard good things about freeapphero.
     
  7. olive

    olive Well-Known Member

    Jul 1, 2011
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    I‘ve emailed FAAD twice(once per day), and no response. Is there any problem with the way I said or just got a wrong email adress?
     
  8. Attollos Technologies

    Attollos Technologies Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2011
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    Can you change the app i.e. put in iaps or adverts before you use faad or do you have to use the current version? if you know :)
     
  9. Hollyweird Zombies

    Hollyweird Zombies Active Member

    Jul 1, 2011
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    Transmissions Engineer
    Hollywood, CA
    Wow. Awesome trailer. It got my attention.
     
  10. flybird

    flybird Well-Known Member

    Mar 8, 2011
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    :confused:
     
  11. Hollyweird Zombies

    Hollyweird Zombies Active Member

    Jul 1, 2011
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    Transmissions Engineer
    Hollywood, CA
    I saw the trailer for armored combat but I guess it posted somewhere else. Sorry for any confusion.
     
  12. undeadcow

    undeadcow Well-Known Member

    Dec 4, 2010
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    Houston, TX
    #12 undeadcow, Jul 6, 2011
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2011
    Not a developer but respectfully I don't think it's fair to paying consumers to make a paid app free and add IAP. I don't think the intention of FAAD or other sites it to help developers promote freemium titles. I wouldn't normally post here but found this strategy somewhat offensive as a consumers. What's fair is fair and developers deserve profit but there are better ways to built brand loyalty and fan base without resorting to cut throat profit tactics.

    Edit: Consider promo code or other contests as ways to market; also twitter post contests can generate some buzz.
     
  13. Attollos Technologies

    Attollos Technologies Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2011
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    Equally would you not prefer to have the opportunity to test the game and then upgrade through iaps if you wanted to rather than just paying the 59p. Cut throat profit tactics are sadly all indie developers can do if they want to have any chance of competing with the big boys and appearing out of the noise. I appreciate your opinion though and will consider what would be best for any potential consumers :)
     
  14. Shaz

    Shaz Well-Known Member

    Not sure what freeappaday will want you to do or not do with ads etc.

    Although one dev was asked to have their game set as paid for a couple months before it went to free for a day. (it had already been free for a while and was doing well with iaps so they decided not to do it)

    I think they charge around $3k but also do post promotion profit shares too.

    That other one - freeeapphero don't charge devs as it's a paid app. Again, not sure what their criteria is.
     
  15. nantas

    nantas Well-Known Member

    Mar 11, 2011
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    Designer at aBitGames Studio
    Xiamen
    FAAD's website is intimidating... you can't find any information about their deal

    Can anyone point me to a link or something that explain what FAAD want from developers?
     
  16. FeatureGiveaway

    FeatureGiveaway New Member

    Jul 2, 2011
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    Apps whose revenues are solely derived from in-app purchases don’t work for paid-app-free contests, as users are very aware that the apps are already available for free, and/or that the majority of their functionality comes from in-app purchases.

    As an alternative, we have found that our app’s sponsored contests have worked well for apps that are already available for free or use in-app purchases, as users are grateful that the app has sponsored the contest prize.
     
  17. Therealtrebitsch

    Therealtrebitsch Well-Known Member

    Mar 2, 2010
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    #17 Therealtrebitsch, Jul 6, 2011
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2011
    I tried everything.

    I held contests where I gave away ipod touches = I got maybe 20 contestants.

    I have built a website, which is banned here, although it is a legit and free promotional site and had done good things to users and devs = 300 unique visitors a day (should be in the thousands)

    I paid advertisements even on toucharcade for a few thousand dollars = 50 clicks in one month (= 5 sales?)

    So please, don't tell me. I would want to build a fanbase, but the fanbase doesn't want to be pleased, so I will do everything to earn money with any strategy, because I have to pay programmers, artists, composers, accountants and many others, who also have to feed their family.

    If the users would be willing to pay for something that was made with hard work and costs tens of thousands of dollars and they wouldn't just demand and demand, then we could talk about everything.

    And the most funny thing is: Users pay actually tens and hundreds of dollars for some freemium utter crap with IAP, just because it comes from a Big Boy, but won't pay even 99 cents for a good game, just because they think, it should also have helipads.
     
  18. Attollos Technologies

    Attollos Technologies Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2011
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    How did you advertise those contests out of interest? Just on here or on twitter and stuff as well? But yeah life is hard when you don't have a publisher :( We simply don't have the financial clout of some of the big boys who can throw money at an app and still sell it for 59p
     
  19. Therealtrebitsch

    Therealtrebitsch Well-Known Member

    Mar 2, 2010
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    #19 Therealtrebitsch, Jul 7, 2011
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2011
    I advertised it on different forums and websites, twitter and facebook... the whole package. Everything I could do.

    Most interest came from here anyway, but it was not enough.

    Publisher: another topic, but as a short note on my opinion is that it doesn't matter if you have a publisher if you want it really just for hoping on better advertising.

    It doesn't matter if Chillingo or Gameloft published your game. They won't throw any money into it. They hope, they can sell it with their names, because they were lucky enough to publish 1 or 2 games, which accidentally got successful.

    I have to meet a publisher guy, who can tell me exactly, what he will do for my app, before I change my mind.

    They will promote your game after it got successful, not before.

    They just hope, that their games will be mentioned everywhere, because every website is jumping on their names. Which may help a bit, but I don't think, it can be seen as real promotion coming from the publisher.
     
  20. Attollos Technologies

    Attollos Technologies Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2011
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    iPhone Development Company
    Aww that's lame :( I have a game coming out in a few weeks and just don't want it to get swallowed... On a little side note, have a look at the IDRTG on twitter - basically big group of indie developers which retweet each other.. it's working well to get traffic to my blog so you could always join that. :)
     

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