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Android Money – Income Report #3: July 11

2011/08/01 / / 24 Comments

July is over, so it’s time for my monthly income report again.

If you are new to this series, let me explain it to you: Since Android is an open platform, I decided to be open about the income I’m making with my Android apps too. In the last report I aimed to reach $800.- for the last month. You will see if it worked out.

For all income reports, please click here.

Which Apps?

3D Invaders – about 92.000 installs (+10k), 16% active

AL Voice Recorder – about 359.000 installs (+24k), 25% active

AL Voice Recorder Ad Free – 690 installs (+40), 43% active

Droid-Blog.net Android App – 120 installs (+110), 35% active

SmsToSpeech full – 656 installs (+16), 44% active

What did I do?

The Android Market changed a bit and so did it’s ranking algorithm. Fortunately, this led to a slightly better ranking of the AL Voice Recorder which caused it to be downloaded 24.000 times. That’s a fantastic increase in new downloads of 60%. Accordingly, also the installs of the AL Voice Recorder Ad Free increased from almost 0 to about 40. SmsToSpeech, my other paid app, didn’t sell as many copies as in the last month, but as the ad free version of the voice recorder is way more expensive, these losses are well compensated.

The Droid-Blog.net app increased an unbelievable 1100%  in downloads while grossing the same amount of money as in the last month: nothing.

Essentially, I did nothing to promote my apps. I did release some minor updates on 3D Invaders in the first half of the month but that’s it. The active install ratio of 3D invaders declined from 20% to 16% which means I have to do definitely more there.

Advertising Stats

Here are some statistics from the two advertising networks I’m using, AdMob and Madvertise. Please read the last income report for an explanation of the following numbers.

AdMob:

Requests: 415,263 (-45k)

Impressions: 408,058 (-47k)

Fill Rate: 98.26% (-0.74%)

Clicks: 11,192 (+2.75k)

CTR: 2.74% (+0.89%)

eCPM: $1.08 (+$0.27)

House Ads: 5,503 (-18k)

Adjusted Requests:  420,766 (-64k)

Adjusted Fill Rate: 96.98% (+2,84%)

Madvertise

As I’m not using house ads in Madvertise, no adjusted requests and fill rates are shown here.

Requests: 341,884, (+6,5k)

Impressions: 65,339 (+10k)

Fill Rate: 19% (+2%)

Clicks: 3,314 (+692)

CTR: 5.07% (+0,34%)

eCPM: $6,52 (+$1,08)

As you can see, the AdMob performance of my apps decreased a bit in terms of requests. Still, due to an enormous increase of the CTR, my apps were able to get a plus of 2,750 clicks. Madvertise also performed fantastic last month, getting even a slightly better fill rate this time. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the work/effect ratio my apps produced this month.

How much?

Now that you have seen that my ad performance increased, you can probably guess that my revenue did too. This time I separated the Market sales and the In-App sales. Here are the numbers:

AdMob: $439,56 (+$71.60)

Madvertise: ~$426,07 (+$123.91)

Market sales: ~$130,76 (+$56.35)

In-App sales: ~$8,63

Total: $1,005.02 (+$260.17)

I totally reached my goal of $800. As I knew I wouldn’t have much time in the last month and as July has one more day than June, I thought this would be realistic. The change of the Android Market and the great performance of the ad networks caused my apps to do way better, resulting in the more than 1k income for the last month (hurray!).

What’s next?

I’m still working hard on our next game which is why I think I won’t have much time to spent on my private apps this month too. My goal for the next month is to reach the great numbers of this month again: $1005,02.

 

Please feel free to share your own experiences in the comments. Please also don’t hesitate to tell me if there is anything else you’d like to get some information about.

 

Android Money – Income Report #2: June 11

2011/07/01 / / 19 Comments

June is over, so it’s time for my monthly money report again.

If you are new to this series, let me explain it to you: Since Android is an open platform, I decided to be open about the income I’m making with my Android apps too. In the last report I aimed to reach $750 for the last month. You will see if it worked out.

For all money reports, please click here.

Which Apps?

You might have noticed that Droid-Blog.net now has its own Android app. The number of ad requests and downloads was enormous and so was its overall success. Here are the numbers:

3D Invaders – about 82,000 installs (+10k), 20% active

AL Voice Recorder – about 335,000 installs (+15k), 26% active

AL Voice Recorder Ad Free – about 650 installs (+-0), 44% active

Droid-Bog.net Android App – 10 installs (+10), 30% active

SmsToSpeech full – about 640 installs (+40), 44% active

What did I do?

As you can see the AL Voice Recorder gained 15,000 new users while the overall userbase declined a bit (about 3,500 active installs were lost). 3D Invaders had some frequent updates and new weapons in the first half of the month. Some days later I also published In-App Billing. While the latter was not quite successful, the overall active downloads increased while the download-active installs-ratio stayed the same. Also, I switched back from Mobclix to AdMob which resulted in an increase in AdMob income.

The Droid-Blog.net app was able to get a total of fantastic ten downloads and brought in not a single cent. AL Voice Recorder Ad Free didn’t sell many copies too, but somehow SmsToSpeech Full was sold about 40 times. I didn’t do any further investigation why this happened, but I positively accept it.

Advertising Stats

Sebastian S. suggested to include not only download numbers, but also ad statistics. Before I start some definitions:

A request happens when a device requests an ad to be served. An impression is an ad that is actually delivered and shown on the device. The fillrate is the impression-request-ratio (#impressions / #requests * 100%). The CTR (Click Through Rate) is the clicked ads-impressions-ratio (#of clicked ads / impressions * 100%). The eCPM is the average money generated by 1,000 impressions or, in other words, the value of 1,000 impressions.

I also use the term adjusted fillrate and adjusted requests . These numbers are the same as described above, but they are taking house ads into account. House ads are ads published by you in your own products. They are free of cost and are not part of the request and fillrate numbers. My settings are made in a way that house ads are only delivered if no payed ad can be displayed which is why I’m introducing these adjusted numbers here (as otherwise the transferet impression could be missleading).

Here is how the two main ad networks I used last month performed:

AdMob:

Requests: 460,532

Impressions: 455,912

Fillrate: 99.00%

Clicks: 8,419

CTR: 1.85%

eCPM: $0.81

House Ads: 23.,739

Adjusted Requests:  484,271

Adjusted Fillrate: 94.14%

Madvertise:

Madvertise doesn’t offer house ads, so the adjusted numbers are equal to the normal numbers here, therefore they are not mentioned. Edit, I received an e-mail from Madvertise: Madvertise does offer house ads, but you have to mail the support for that. In the future, it will be automatically available for everyone.

Requests: 335,352,

Impressions: 55,401

Fillrate: 17%

Clicks: 2,622

CTR: 4.73%

eCPM: $5.44

The bad fillrate of Madvertise is because it is focused mainly on european countries. While the most clicks come from the UK, German clicks are by far the most expensive. They grossed an eCPM of $12.77 in the last month, so if your app targets Germany, go and use Madvertise! By the way, the customer service is also great, while it is almost not existent at AdMob.

The CTR is also way higher on Madvertise, but it seems as if this would change in this month (AdMob is becoming better).

Ok, how much?

Here is how much I earned:

AdMob: $367.96 (+$107.45)

Madvertise: ~ $302.16 (+$7.16)

Market sales: ~$74.41 (+$29.41)

Mobclix: ~$0.32 (-$50.62)

Total: ~ $744.85 (+93.38)

As you can see I disabled Mobclix very early in the last month. I didn’t reach my goal of $750, but I got very close to it. To me, it’s still satisfying.

What’s next?

This month I will have lots of work to do, so I will be able to work on my own apps only in the last third. I will focus on an new fantastic app (you will love it, I hope) and the AL Voice Recorder this time. Because I have not that much time to spend, my goal for the next month will be $800.-


Please feel free to share your own experiences in the comments. Please also don’t hesitate to tell me if there is anything else you’d like to get some information about.

Android Money – Income Report #1: May 11

2011/05/31 / / 19 Comments

Today I’m startin a new series of articles in this blog. It’s name is: Android Money Report.

As Android is open (at least way more open than other OSs), I decided to be open too. This is why I will share my monthly private income through Android Apps with you. The Income I’m getting with ANDLABS will not be part of this reports though, because I’m not allone in the company and hence not allowed to do so.

For all money reports, please click here.

Android and Money? How’s that gonna work!

Many Android developers heard that many times. Most people still say: “iOS, that’s where the money is (for apps)”. My experience shows that that’s definitely not true. The difference is that most of the Android apps gross more money when being ad supported instead of being sold. This month the proportion of my ad income to marked sales income was about 13:1. In one sentence: For most Android apps, using ads probably is the way to go!

Which Apps?

Here are the apps that are currently making me money:

  • 3D Invaders – about 72.000 installs, 20% active
  • AL Voice Recorder – about 320.000, 30% active
  • AL Voice Recorder Ad Free – about 650 downloads, 45% active
  • SmsToSpeech Full – about 600 downloads, 45% active

All my other apps are either not intended to bring in money or are a property of ANDLABS.

As AL Voice Recorder Ad Free and SmsToSpeech Full are not ad based, I don’t care too much about their active installs, in terms of income. But as you can see, my ad based apps, 3D Invaders and the AL Voice Recorder, don’t have too high active install rates, which is a problem for ad supported apps.

With 3D Invaders I think this is basically due to the fact that the game is very repetitive. It is fun first but becomes quiet boring after a while.

The voice recorder has a mysterious bug I was not (yet) able (and, I admit, willing enough) to reproduce which causes it not to work on some devices. I guess a lot of uninstalls have to do with this.

How?

Most of my apps generate money with ads. The voice recorder uses AdMob, 3D Invaders uses a mix of AdMob, Mobclix and Madvertise. While Admob brings stable income, I’m not satisfied with Mobclix. Madvertise used to bring enormous eCPM (more than $ 10) but decreased strongly in the last weeks.

Okay, how much did you get?

Here’s what you’ve been waiting for, my Android income for May 2011 (so far):

  • Madvertise: ~$ 295
  • Mobclix: ~ $ 50,94
  • AdMob: $ 260,51
  • Market sales: ~ $ 45

Total: ~ $ 651,47

(Numbers with a ~ are converted from Euro to USD)

This is an acceptable result. I must say that there have already been better times, but the future is bright as Android grows and so do my apps, I’m convinced.

What’s next?

3D Invaders will get a new set of weapons in the next days which will hopefully lead some more users to it and lets them keep the game longer and increase their playtime until they have tried out all the different weapons (especially the so called “Nuke”). I’m reworking the voice recorder but this might take a little while as I’m currently focussing on 3D Invaders and, of course, ANDLABS.

Hopefully my income will increase in the next month. My target figure is $ 750. I think this is definitely possible. We’ll see.

Please feel free to share your experiences with Android app revenue in the comments below.

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