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In App Purchase Strategy — Gideros Forum

In App Purchase Strategy

hgvyas123hgvyas123 Guru
edited January 2013 in Game & application design
Hi Guys

from what i heard is about 10-12 % of people are likely to buy iap from our game but for me this number is very very very low may be it is around 0.X or 0.0X % see very small so far from appstore my game Aaron the viking Runner is downloaded almost 5000 times and i have got 11 iap only (all from the us :( ) which is very bad so i wanted to know what i have done wrong.

it is also live in android market but so far almost no downloads so i cant talk about that

some of the things i wanted to try are :-

1) lock the game with few levels say only snow mode and lock jungle mode,dirt mode and endless mode and offer iap for 1 or 2 $ to unlock the whole game

2) offer iap to remove ads $1

3) give magnet for the $1

4) give all of the above at the $2

5) increase the number of coins or star to purchase any other characters or life for life i am also thinking to increase price after each purchase of life

6) give added functionality of checkpoint user have to purchase checkpoint additionally so that if his game over and he has still not cleared his level then he can use 1 chk point and game will start from the same place where his game had over

plz suggest me what to do or any other suggestion is also welcome. i dont want to take this decision myself as i am pretty bad in this.

:)

Comments

  • damn it for me it is only 0.0022 :(
  • fxonefxone Member
    edited January 2013
    @hgvyas123: 9/10 games from Apple Store and 8/10 from Google Store in the USA at TOP 10 Free Games category have InApp purchases. So it looks like trend on the market. But at the end of TOP 500 in that category only 20-30% games have InApp purchases. So my point is that you should worry about to be ranked at least TOP500 and now don't bother yourself about strategy of IAP purchases , what you can do later. For now you should split these prices to decimal format like 0.1$ -0.2$ per purchase. And when your downloads will get over 10000 result at least, you should consider little by little to increase prices. Until then, in my opinion, indie developer should pay people for downloads rather than trying to be paid by them... Man, you rock, as you said in other thread today: you earn almost 300$ from Google Play market monthly, that's the story :D also 5000 downloads at Apple Store less than month?... awesome!
  • hgvyas123hgvyas123 Guru
    edited January 2013
    @fxone :-

    i personally dont want to purchase any downloads or ads it will just increase my budget. it is always good to have 100 downloads for free instead of 4000 downloads for which i had paid around 1000$ it will just increase my cost of the game 0.25 per install.

    about the 5k downloads apple is very good in starting on the first day i had got around 1200 downloads which is decreased to around 600 on second day and currently it is 200 a day.

    :)

  • @hgvyas123 I totally agree: it was rather metaphor how to difficult thing is to get such results for free... ;)
  • @hgvyas123 I totally agree: it was rather metaphor how to difficult thing is to get such results for free... ;)
    yup and i even dont want thousands or lacs of downloads for now ;) currently i want to increase this 0.0022 to 5-6 % :D

    :)

  • Hi Guys

    from what i heard is about 10-12 % of people are likely to buy iap from our game
    I'm not sure where you've read that but it's contrary to everything I've ever seen. Good conversion rates on IAP are generally considered around 1-5%. You need download volume to make it worthwhile with such conversion rates and then, the game needs to be really compelling to push the rate up to the higher end of that scale.

  • @moopf

    one discussion is in our forum see this

    http://www.giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/1496/coming-soon-cerberus-the-puppy#Item_21

    i had also read few more but they are in different forum or in blogs so dont want to find them but even we consider 1-5 as good conversion rate i am too much behind.


    :)
  • moopfmoopf Guru
    edited January 2013
    @moopf

    one discussion is in our forum see this

    http://www.giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/1496/coming-soon-cerberus-the-puppy#Item_21

    i had also read few more but they are in different forum or in blogs so dont want to find them but even we consider 1-5 as good conversion rate i am too much behind.


    :)
    I think you're reading those figures wrong on that post. What @phongtt says is:
    . Nearly 20% of user purchased full upgrade
    . Of those 20%, only 12% successully purchased, the rest used IAP cracker programs which we could detect and didn't allow transaction
    So actually it's 12% of 20% that legitimately tried to purchase the upgrade. Which is actually 2.4%. Or maybe I'm reading them wrong, or it's a problem of languages :) If it is 12% of everybody that downloaded it then that's really high.

    Like I said in my previous post, it has to be compelling for them to purchase. Even then you're only going to get to something like 5%. A few things I note from your app:

    1. The first thing you see is an ad in the top left corner.
    2. The second thing you see if a 'Top Apps/Offers of the Day.
    3. The ads in the game are actually pretty obtrusive.
    4. All all those 3 above leave me with a 'spammy' first impression. Are you after ad revenue or IAP revenue?
    5. The menu page doesn't have the title of the game, nothing moves. It's just really static. It's not engaging.
    6. Your game over screen has nothing apart from two icons on it - there's no feedback on how you did.
    7. The world navigation is glitchy swiping left and right. You need to swipe from the gaps inbetween the options - it's frustrating.
    8. On IAP, there's no real impulse created in the player to buy. From what I can tell (and it's not explained at all) I buy stars (or collect them in game) to buy different characters or hearts? But there's no indication of how much those things cost though, nor how much each pack of stars cost to buy. I don't know how many I need to collect to unlock one of the other characters. You need to make it obvious, you need to give people a reason to buy and you're not doing that currently. It's also all under a menu button called 'Options' - shouldn't it be Shop or something like that? Also does buying coins get rid of the ads? If not, why not? If it does, then tell people!
    9. And the big thing you have to ask yourself is, there are a lot of endless runners in the app store - what will make people spend money on yours in comparison to the competition? Is it as polished, is it as fun? Does it stand out?

    Fundamentally you have to give people a reason to buy, you have to engage them and you also have to explain it to them, explaining the value proposition to them. Hold their hands.

    Likes: Scouser, Mells, phongtt

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  • whoops you find tons of mistakes bye bye saturday sunday ;)

    :)

    Likes: gorkem

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  • @moopf never thought your moopfiness could be used in such a noble way, to improve app experiences. Nice.

    When I'll release my next app, will have to make some snarky comment about it being best in the world, just so you can come along and dissect it pixel by pixel :D

    Likes: fxone

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  • ScouserScouser Guru
    edited January 2013
    @moopf: What an excellent and informative critique.

    This should help a lot of members create a more polished app and give their buyers / players a more rewarding experience.

    You should write this up as a guide on how to make IAP pay. =D>

    Doh!! Ninja'd again :((
  • Cheers guys, just trying to give a bit of constructive help. Whilst it's applicable to IAP it's also applicable if you're charging upfront as well (apart from point 8, obviously).

    @ar2rsawseen - Bring it on, more than happy to offer constructive help on apps. My moopfiness makes me honest :D

    @Scouser - I would write a guide but as I've never released an app with IAP, and this is based purely on what I believe makes a good app and what's made me make IAP purchases in the past, I'm not sure I'm qualified :)
  • One thing I've read about re IAP is to make sure you offer a few different choices at different prices, basically allow people to spend what THEY want, people who are happy to spend on IAP are statistically more likely to come back and spend more so make it easy for them by offering extra resources, customisation options etc etc and then your customers can choose how much THEY want to give to you!

    Also (surprisingly - at least to me) is that consumable IAP's seem to perform much better than permanent ones, so a bag of 50 coins that will allow 50 plays seems to be preferred over a single purchase that will unlock the game for ever ????

    Lastly - I've always been of the opinion that if I made a game that accepted IAP then one option would simply be the purchase of a smiley face badge that was displayed in the corner of the title screen that simply said "I support indie games" or something like that, something simple that was just a way to make the player feel good about their purchase.

    Although at the end of the day, nothing makes a game better than making a better game, polish every part till it gleams and leave no byte unchecked (especially the ones with bugs in them). One thing I've noticed a lot recently is the very poor standard of English (I know it's not everyone's first language) that is used on App descriptions and on ingame text, these are bits of polish that a LOT of people seem to miss - and if English isn't your first language imagine how you'd think if you looked at an App description that was localised into your first language and it read like it had been written by a 7 year old, would it make you want to download the app???

    Just my $0.02

    Likes: moopf, Mells

    WhiteTree Games - Home, home on the web, where the bits and bytes they do play!
    #MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
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  • MellsMells Guru
    edited January 2013
    @hgvyas123
    Start here : 10 articles about numbers you should have read during 2012
    And what they tell you about the mobile games business


    IAP Look at the top IAP for those popular games : User Acquisition

    it is always good to have 100 downloads for free instead of 4000 downloads for which i had paid around 1000$ it will just increase my cost of the game 0.25 per install.
    Not always.
    I think you are missing the most important information here : your Revenue per user.
    It all depends on your revenue per user. For example if you make $3 per user through IAP/Ads (because your game is addictive AND your IAP strategy adds value to the game AND/OR you display Ads with a good CPI - Revenue Per Install in that case) then you can pay up to $2.90 if you want.
    Then buy in volume (find an investor, show him your numbers, split the results), it's all benefits.
    $3 is unlikely (believe me you wouldn't be here on the forums with us but partying somewhere) but you get the point.

    That's why I think you should focus on increasing your revenue per user first (that means the people that already play your game found more reasons to like it so you have to make it easy for them to send you feedback) then scale (play with the price of your app, put it free for a day so it get caught by AppGoneFree, AppShopper, etc, reward the player with free in-game currency).
    Once you have some cash + a stable Rev per user, find ad networks where you can buy installs for a lower price than your Rev per user if you want.

    Ads
    If you want to monetize through Ads, study apps that generate a lot through it :
    Fruit Ninja making more than $400,000 a month from ads
    But paid version remains the bigger player


    If you focus on ads, go for volume. Don't try to niche your game, and don't be afraid to be a little bit invasive (fullscreen Ad at the opening of the game) if you are providing a game that is worth a download and that you provide for free.
    Don't be too invasive or they won't play the game again, but don't be shy if Ads revenue is what you are aiming for.

    In-game currency
    I believe that having a well-thought in-game currency system is a key to profit.
    twitter@TheWindApps Artful applications : The Wind Forest. #art #japan #apps
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  • hosamredhosamred Member
    edited February 2014
    s s

    Likes: fxone

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  • @hgvyas123 - I noticed that Vicki Wenderlich has given Aaron a shoutout in her blog about games made with her free artwork.

    http://www.vickiwenderlich.com/2013/01/roundup-11-games-made-with-free-art/

    Likes: fxone

    WhiteTree Games - Home, home on the web, where the bits and bytes they do play!
    #MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
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  • hgvyas123hgvyas123 Guru
    edited January 2013

    @techdojo

    yup i had submitted contact form for that after all i had used some graphics( statue, ships etc) from that site

    :)
  • So how's Aaron doing at the moment?
    WhiteTree Games - Home, home on the web, where the bits and bytes they do play!
    #MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
  • doing good if i compare it with my other games getting around 150 downloads daily from appstore in android market doing bad. iap is very bad not a single iap in last 2-3 weeks.

    :)

  • The thing is to make iAP a core part of the game, or at least make the perceived value gained from iAP to be worth it.

    As the game is free I'd think about adding a simple iAP that just does nothing more than display a "smiley" badge on the front screen that says "I support indie developers", give the person a reason to buy and make it easy for them to do so. You can even add an "nag" box that asks people if they like the game to consider supporting you. Make it personal, emphasis the fact your a single developer and appeal to your customers.

    Likes: hgvyas123

    WhiteTree Games - Home, home on the web, where the bits and bytes they do play!
    #MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
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  • Just wanted to share my experience..I have a free android app with over 250,000 downloads to date and after a few experiments I ended up getting more money from ads. I tried no ads free version with limited functionality - it made things much worse and a lot of nasty reviews from people complaining that they want more.

    The trend is (for both iOS and Android market) is free apps unfortunately and only a few % of people would pay to upgrade. But if they want free, the only way to make money for us is ads.

    Another thing I saw is keeping it free but rewarding people by removing ads if they install other free apps - I heard some developers are doing very well using this strategy, but you app should be popular enough.

    Likes: hgvyas123

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  • hgvyas123 said:

    Hi Guys

    from what i heard is about 10-12 % of people are likely to buy iap from our game but for me this number is very very very low may be it is around 0.X or 0.0X % see very small so far from appstore my game Aaron the viking Runner is downloaded almost 5000 times and i have got 11 iap only (all from the us :( ) which is very bad so i wanted to know what i have done wrong.

    it is also live in android market but so far almost no downloads so i cant talk about that

    some of the things i wanted to try are :-

    1) lock the game with few levels say only snow mode and lock jungle mode,dirt mode and endless mode and offer iap for 1 or 2 $ to unlock the whole game

    2) offer iap to remove ads $1

    3) give magnet for the $1

    4) give all of the above at the $2

    5) increase the number of coins or star to purchase any other characters or life for life i am also thinking to increase price after each purchase of life

    6) give added functionality of checkpoint user have to purchase checkpoint additionally so that if his game over and he has still not cleared his level then he can use 1 chk point and game will start from the same place where his game had over

    plz suggest me what to do or any other suggestion is also welcome. i dont want to take this decision myself as i am pretty bad in this.

    :)

    Well most of the in-app purchases will be bypassed using apps like freedom and creehack. These mimic a real purchase and unlock all the premium features for free
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