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Marketing and Monetization of Windows Phone Apps
YOUR
AD
HERE
YOUR
AD
HERE
Alan Mendelevich | AdDuplex | alan@adduplex.com | @ailon
Developer’s Guide to

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Alan Mendelevich@ailon15+ years development experienceFounder & CEO of AdDuplexCo-host of AppBizDev podcast

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Windows Phone ecosystem according to Microsoft

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App Gold Rush is over

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Did you know …
Product20%
Marketing80%
Research shows that 20% of product’s success is determined by the product itself and the remaining 80% is marketing*
* I totally made this up

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WTH are you trying to do?

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A hobby?

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Contracts?

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My app is my business!

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Developer’s Work Cycle
Task
Deliverables
Money
Employee/Contract developer
Task
Deliverables
Money
Entrepreneur developer
SALE
SALE

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What to build?

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Original vs. “Me too”

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Top AppCampusalumni
from spare time
project to Xbox Live
#1 music game, external funding
5 million downloads
Megahit

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AtleyHunter
500+ apps

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Release date is a feature
“…this was quite important since it got a lot of attention for being the first real picture effects / photo filter app in the market. The big blogs like Gizmodo, Engadgetand MSNBC covered a few of the must have WP7 apps and Pictures Lab got featured in all. I guess that helped to jump start the app.”
René Schulte, PicturesLab

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Release date is a feature
With every SDK/OS release there’s a chance to be the first to utilize some previously unavailable capability

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Getting ideas and inspiration
The Daily Practice
“Every day I write down ideas. I write down so many ideas that it hurts my head to come up with one more. Then I try to write down five more.
…
The “idea muscle” atrophies within days if you don’t use it.Just like walking. If you don’t use your legs for a week, they atrophy. You need to exercise the idea muscle. It takes about 3-6 months to build up once it atrophies. Trust me on this.”
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/how-to-be-the-luckiest-guy-on-the-planet-in-4-easy-steps/

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Getting a return on your investment

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Paid Apps
Set a competitive price
Consider psychology
Consider who and where your customer is
Set a price that makes business sense
Can’t try == won’t buy
Trials: 70x more downloads, 10% conversion rate

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In-app purchases
iOS: “18 of the top 25 grossing of all apps are Free To Play Games (72%).” http://www.treysmithblog.com/the-fall-of-angry-birds/
Windows Phone 8+

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Advertising is best suited for long/frequently running apps and games
Generally perform better than paid apps*

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Ad networks

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AdDuplexas a Fallback Solution
Smaato: “Worldwide, the average ad network fill rate was 10%in Q3 2011”
“AdDuplex+ pubCenteris a winning recipe”
JC Cimetiere
Marketing Director, Unity Technologies,
Former DirectorProduct ManagementWindows Phone Microsoft

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Maximize ad space value by multiple network fallbacks. Fallback to AdDuplexor in- house ads.
Windows Phone Ad Rotatorhttp://wp7adrotator.codeplex.com/
Unified Ad Control For Windows Phonehttp://wpunifiedad.codeplex.com/

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Lifetime user value

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So, which business model should I choose?

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Game’s lifecycle
Promote, Promote, Promote
Monetize,
Monetize,
Monetize
Cross-promote
Passive monetization
time

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Promote your app, promote your app, promote your app, promote your app…

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Don’t monetize your app on day one

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Giving your app away is the cheapest and most effective marketing instrument you have

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Before you launch…

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App Store Optimization: app’s name, price and tile. That is all users see.

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ASO: Keywords

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Release Betas: Beta-testers are your first evangelists
Recruit beta-testers:
WPbeta.me
Twitter #wpdev

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“Bad” feedback should go directly to you, good feedback – to the Store
Good feedback
Bad feedback

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LocalizeEnglish33% Italian15%Spanish13% Chinese8% Russian7% German5% French4% Polish3% Portuguese3% Finnish2% Other7% Windows Phone Languages (March 2013)

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Publication: have everything to get featured

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Don’t auto- publish

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Online presence

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A picture is worth a thousand words. A video is worth a thousand screenshots?

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Your app needs a web site… or at least a section on your site
Windows Phone 7 App Site template
http://wp7appsite.codeplex.com/
WP7Graze
https://github.com/mikoskinen/grazewp7

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Free promotion

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Tip specialized blogs
WPCentral.com, WMPowerUser.com, 1800PocketPC.com, BestWP7Games.com, WP7Rocks.com (Russian)…
Filterable list at WindowsPhoneSites.com

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Podcasts
WindowsDeveloperShow.com
AppBizDev.com

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Get featured in the store

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Tweet, post on Facebook, retweet others, change your avatar, bio…

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Monitor and react to feedback

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Social media integration

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Show off your app everywhere!

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Case Study: Wordament
“This became clear to Microsoft Game Studios, which quickly talked Jason and John into taking Wordamentpro and becoming full time game developers.”
Wordament: The developer story of one of Windows’ most original and compelling hit games

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Cross-promote your own apps

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Empowering developers to help each other.

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What’s the catch?
You show
You get

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On the web: specialized blogs and sites, BuySellAds.com, AdWords, Facebook, etc.

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On the phone

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In discovery apps

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Lifetime user value

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Summary

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Thank you! @ailonblog.adduplex.comalan@adduplex.com