Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple's 'iAd for Developers' May Not Be Cost-Effective

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,555
30,882


Late last month, Apple enhanced its iAd mobile advertising platform to allow app developers to purchase ad space for simple banners that expand to display "in-app" App Store pages that allow users to read about and purchase applications without leaving the app they are currently in. Billed at $0.25 per click as opposed to the per-impression and $2-per-click fees for traditional advertisers using interactive ads, iAd for Developers appeared to offer a way for small developers to make use of the company's platform.

Anecdotal evidence from developer David Smith of Cross Forward Consulting (via Silicon Alley Insider) suggests, however, that the program may not be cost-effective for developers, as a test ad campaign resulted in low click-through and conversion rates for an app priced at only $0.99.
From August 19 through August 25 I ran a campaign on the newly released iAd for Developers platform for our Audiobooks Premium app. The results were, to say the least, disappointing. For all the promise of selling your apps directly within an advertisement, it appears that so far this is not a viable way to drive traffic and create an economically sustainable promotion. For $1,251.75, my campaign generated a total of 84 downloads, thus a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) of ~$15. For a $0.99 app, those economics just can't work out.
Click to expand...
The remainder of the post details the process of signing up for an monitoring the iAd for Developers, and while Smith was pleased with the professionalism of Apple's iAd staff and the ease with which he could monitor his campaign, the return on investment was simply nowhere near what would be required to be viable. While an application carrying a higher price tag or significant in-app purchasing content might stand a better chance of seeing a profitable ad campaign, conversion rates would likely be even lower for a more expensive application.
Given that the cost for the campaign is entirely based on clicks, we designed our banner to try and provide the audience with all the basic information they need to understand what Audiobooks is and whether they might be interested in purchasing it. This lead to a more textual treatment than a graphical one. Since we don't pay for impressions we only wanted truly interested people clicking on the advertisement.
Click to expand...

105837-audiobooks_premium_banner_ad.jpg


Smith's banner ad for Audiobooks Premium
Apple's iAd program utilizes a "targeting system" that helps identify which users might be most likely to respond to and purchase a given application, and for that reason, Apple's staff encouraged Smith to continue the campaign beyond the first few unsuccessful days in hopes of refining that targeting and boosting yields. Improvement was non-existent, however, and the campaign was canceled after six days and only 84 downloads on over 2 million impressions.


105837-audiobooks_premium_iad_performance.jpg


Smith also performed a comparison campaign using the same banner ad on AdMob's network, finding a click-through rate over five times higher than that for iAd, and with AdMob's cheaper cost structure, Smith's cost-per-click was over six times cheaper on AdMob than on iAd. The reason for the significant difference in click-through rates between the platforms is unclear, especially considering the widely-held belief that the iAd program would offer a "premium" branding that would be more enticing to users than traditional banner ads.

Article Link: Apple's 'iAd for Developers' May Not Be Cost-Effective
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/26/apples-iad-for-developers-may-not-be-cost-effective/
andiwm2003

andiwm2003

macrumors 601
Mar 29, 2004
4,382
454
Boston, MA
uhm, if you have 1275 clicks but only 84 downloads then the App seems to be not good enough or only of interest to a very limited customer group.

This is not necessarily an iAd problem.

iAds are not there to increase sales of uninteresting goods. They are there to make interesting good products more visible. All starts and ends with good products. I'm always stunned that people think that advertising and marketing can fix everything. Only sometimes it can. Most of the time it can't.

In this particular example i have to say that i have a ton of classic audiobooks for free on the web anyway. Even more you can order them on DVD's so that you have them available without filling up your HD. So at least I personally don't see a need for this 99 cent app. And advertizing is not going to change that.
 
I

iguanarama

macrumors member
Oct 20, 2007
57
0
I don't think a single advertiser's (negative) experiences warrant even raising the question of whether an entire advertising platform will be successful, especially one that will evolve over months and years.
 
M

malohkan

macrumors member
Oct 14, 2008
35
0
As a big audiobook fan, who listens to many regularly in long car trips, I can say with certainty that I wouldn't download this (at least based on that banner) for free. My first thought is, "wow that would be a LOT of space used up on my iPhone for audiobooks I'd almost certainly never get around to listening to." Mostly, I'd click on it, get a sense of their titles, and then realize that 'classics' mean old, boring, wordy titles with low imagery not suited for times when I'm usually listening to audiobooks.

In other words, if they were offering a more attractive product, they would have made more sales. 'Premium' advertising should be used when you have a really good product.
 
G

griz

macrumors 6502a
Dec 18, 2003
583
222
New London, NH
Since Apple stands to gain from the sale of Apps even through inApp Ads, they should just make them free. If you cross advertise an App, you pay nothing. Apple gets their cut and so do you. Or if Apple wanted more, they could just change the split. Make it a 60/40 split for Apps sold through inApp Ad clickthrough.
 
K

kingnimrod

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2004
56
0
I think this has more to do with the quality/appeal of the app itself. There are plenty of free audiobooks out there, so the general public isn't necessarily going to care.

Pouring tons of advertising money into a weak that doesn't sell. They shouldn't be surprised, nor should they blame the advertising.
 
N

neuropsychguy

macrumors 68020
Sep 29, 2008
2,387
5,692
andiwm2003 said:
uhm, if you have 1275 clicks but only 84 downloads then the App seems to be not good enough or only of interest to a very limited customer group.

iAds are not there to increase sales of uninteresting good. They are there to make interesting good products more visible. All starts and ends with good products. I'm always stunned that people think that advertising and marketing can fix everything. Only sometimes it can. Most of the time it can't.
Click to expand...

I largely agree. However, if the same developer with the same app has a higher purchase rate using a different ad network, then for him, at least, iAd is not cost effective. However, this is a single sample so no general conclusions should be drawn from it.
 
pcp_ip

pcp_ip

macrumors regular
Nov 12, 2002
120
1
Could it be that his creative sucked and thus his ad wasn't engaging enough to warrant a click?
 
DylanLikesPorn

DylanLikesPorn

macrumors 6502
May 20, 2010
314
1
iguanarama said:
I don't think a single advertiser's (negative) experiences warrant even raising the question of whether an entire advertising platform will be successful, especially one that will evolve over months and years.
Click to expand...

yeah, well it's a slow news day, so we make up the news! this will eventually makes the rounds on mac sites and end up on bloomberg, where Jobs will loudly decry it's iAdgate. :)
 
X

xizar

macrumors regular
Dec 17, 2009
112
0
I've been deliberately poking ads *because* of the inane price structure.

I figure if it costs them enough, eventually they'll migrate away from putting ads in my games.
 
Bonte

Bonte

macrumors 65816
Jul 1, 2002
1,163
505
Bruges, Belgium
2 million impressions ?

What a waste of money if the banner didn't have a logo or name on it! A $1000 for 2 million impressions isn't bad at all.
 
WildCowboy

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,390
2,829
This isn't just *some* app that no one wants. It has over 1.6 million downloads and has consistently been a top 10 book app.

Audiobooks Premium

But yes, it's anecdotal and certainly we'd like to hear from more developers about their experiences with the program.
 
Dwalls90

Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Feb 5, 2009
5,427
4,413
The advertisement wasn't that exciting. Plus, people can obtain audio books through more popular sources.
 
A

al2o3cr

macrumors regular
Oct 14, 2009
210
0
Wow: boring ad for boring app which provides re-heated free content leads to low sales. WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED?
 
D

Digitalclips

macrumors 65816
Mar 16, 2006
1,475
36
Sarasota, Florida
kingnimrod said:
I think this has more to do with the quality/appeal of the app itself. There are plenty of free audiobooks out there, so the general public isn't necessarily going to care.

Pouring tons of advertising money into a weak that doesn't sell. They shouldn't be surprised, nor should they blame the advertising.
Click to expand...

The app itself and the iAd itself. It is a very subjective area and as others have said this is way too small of a test to draw any conclusions.
 
I

iguanarama

macrumors member
Oct 20, 2007
57
0
xizar said:
I've been deliberately poking ads *because* of the inane price structure.

I figure if it costs them enough, eventually they'll migrate away from putting ads in my games.
Click to expand...
At $0.25 per click (based on the table in this article) you may need to be poking for a while.

iAds aren't going anywhere. So rather than costing an advertiser (who could be a developer you like) money for no reason, a better way to show your disdain would not be to click at all.
 
S

starnyc

macrumors newbie
Nov 13, 2007
22
0
qualitative

how about some qualitative data... like, did the ad suck? was the app popular, unique?
 
Porco

Porco

macrumors 68040
Mar 28, 2005
3,315
6,909
Good. I don't want Apple in the ad business. This is one area I'd like them to moderately fail in.
 
I

iguanarama

macrumors member
Oct 20, 2007
57
0
What I've just realised is that at $0.25 per click, a developer with a $0.99 app would need more than 1 in 3 people who click through to buy to make a profit, given the developer takes home $0.70 from a sale. (Assume that later referral sales and so forth do not account for a great deal more, or cannot be easily calculated.)

That's an absurdly high conversion rate for an advertisement, and should have been noted from the start with even the most basic of calculations. I don't see what the developer was hoping to achieve here.
 
notjustjay

notjustjay

macrumors 603
Sep 19, 2003
6,056
167
Canada, eh?
iguanarama said:
What I've just realised is that at $0.25 per click, a developer with a $0.99 app would need more than 1 in 3 people who click through to buy
Click to expand...

kingnimrod said:
I think this has more to do with the quality/appeal of the app itself. There are plenty of free audiobooks out there, so the general public isn't necessarily going to care.

Pouring tons of advertising money into a weak that doesn't sell. They shouldn't be surprised, nor should they blame the advertising.
Click to expand...

malohkan said:
In other words, if they were offering a more attractive product, they would have made more sales. 'Premium' advertising should be used when you have a really good product.
Click to expand...

This is the real issue here, not the platform itself.

If you're a small business owner, say an independent coffee shop, you wouldn't even dream of purchasing space on the billboard next to the highway, or taking out a half-page ad in the national paper. It simply wouldn't be cost effective for you. This doesn't mean that highway billboards and newspaper ads are ineffective or not worth the cost.
 
EllieV

EllieV

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2010
253
53
I never thought iAD for developers would ever work, only for extremely expensive and interesting apps.
 
N

nastebu

macrumors 6502
May 5, 2008
354
0
neuropsychguy said:
However, if the same developer with the same app has a higher purchase rate using a different ad network, then for him, at least, iAd is not cost effective.
Click to expand...

This point is quite good. It's not about the quality of the app or the appropriateness of the medium. The problem is the same advertisement of the same app on iApps wasn't as effective as an advertisement on the competing network.

Yes, it's anecdotal and only one experience, but here is smoke. One should probably go check if there's fire.
 
S

SpamJunkie

macrumors regular
Jun 3, 2003
172
52
The author gives away the root problem himself, "I have tried just about every advertising platform around and have generally found none of them to be demonstrably effective."

Too many successful apps have shown the opposite for this to be true. Obviously, in this situation, I would think the problem lies elsewhere. Perhaps the app, as others have suggested, or the content of the app's page in iTunes, or perhaps even the price - which, for a $0.99 app, could be too low.
 
K

kornyboy

macrumors 68000
Sep 27, 2004
1,529
0
Knoxville, TN (USA)
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A400 Safari/6531.22.7)

I wonder if we would see any difference if it was tried on a free App. Personally, when I pay for an App I don't want to see any ads, therefore, I'm less likely to click on one in a paid App. Just a thought.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom