Johannes is the co-founder of February is over, time to sum things up.
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 private Android apps too. In the last report I aimed to reach $4,000 for the last month. You will see if it worked out.
For all income reports, please click here.
Which Apps?
3D Invaders – about 212,000 installs (+20k), 16% active
AL Voice Recorder – about 652,000 installs (+60k), 21% active
AL Voice Recorder Ad Free – 961 installs (+51), 36% active
Droid-Blog.net Android App – 431 installs (+27), 14% active
SmsToSpeech full – 740 installs (+14), 32% active
80 thousand new downloads, with the voice recorder speeding up a little while 3D Invaders gained about 2k less downloads than in January, but we have to keep in mind that February had two days less.
What did I do?
Lots of work, especially for customers, no updates for my existing apps.
Advertising Stats
Here are some statistics from the two advertising networks I’m using, AdMob and Madvertise. Please read the second income report for an explanation of the following numbers.
AdMob:
Requests: 692,041 (-16k)
Impressions: 680,731 (-14k)
Fill Rate: 98.37% (+0.25%)
Clicks: 20,207 (+2.2k)
CTR: 2.97% (+0.38%)
eCPM: $1.29 (-$0.02)
House Ads: 2.496 (+1,559)
Adjusted Requests: 694,537 (-14k)
Adjusted Fill Rate: 98.01% (+0.03%)
Madvertise
Requests: 1,181,607 (-22k)
Impressions: 143,392 (-17k)
Fill Rate: 12.14% (-1.18%)
Clicks: 4736 (-1,775)
CTR: 3.30% (-0.76%)
eCPM: $5.24 (-$1.25)
While AdMob stayed at about the same level like in the last month, madvertise lost another percent in its fillrate again. To make things worse: Also the CTR suffered, reaching almost an AdMob level. To give a little preview: Many of you may know that madvertise’s developer fund ended with the beginning of this month. Since then, the average fillrate went down to 6% which is really painful. I hope this will change soon or I might have to change my ad networks once again.
How much?
Here are the numbers:
madvertise:
3D Invaders: ~$597.49
AL Voice Recorder: ~$153.72
madvertise Total: ~$751.21 (-$288.93)
AdMob:
3D Invaders: $269.61
AL Voice Recorder: $609.21
AdMob Total: $878.82 (-$28.27)
Market sales: ~$76.63 (-$58.19)
In-App purchases: ~$14.83 (+$2.65)
Total: ~$1,721.49 (-$372.74)
It is clearly visible that madvertise doesn’t perform as well as they did in the end of 2011. Since the developer fund ended and the fillrate dropped even more, I assume that the madvertise results in March will be way less than now, while AdMob will probably bring one or two more dollars than in this month.
What’s next?
I didn’t reach the goal I set in the last month, so it’s $4,000 for this month again. I think this almost is impossible since I will be travelling a lot this month and, as I mentioned, the madvertise developer fund has ended.
Please feel free to share your own experiences and hints in the comments. Please also don’t hesitate to tell me if there is anything else you’d like to get some information about.
2012/03/06 at 14:36
Ah, I’ve waited for that, thanks for writing this post, I am always curious to read about your latest numbers. I am impressed how long your apps stay at a decent income level .. Robo Miner has generated ~3mio impr. last month but my eCPM is much lower than yours (half of yours) – also I wont bother with implementing madvertise..
2012/03/06 at 15:17
Great to hear your success! 3 mio impressions with a eCPM of $ .645 is still $1935, isn’t it? Did you expect this amount of incom a month ago?
I’ll let you know once madvertise recovers.
2012/03/06 at 14:38
Thanks for sharing!
I published my first two applications last month. Madvertise has a fill rate of just 1 percent. Maybe I’ll take it out completely. Admob runs very well.
2012/03/06 at 15:18
Good luck with your applications! Let me know when you find another good mobile ad network!
2012/03/06 at 15:38
I’ve never expected such a success, but I am very happy, that people like my game :-) Some of my other games are using madvertise (and some other networks), I get some CTR improvement the last days (after dev-fund ended) but seems to stall again – but my other games are still quite unrecognized by the public so your numbers (on madv) are more precise :-)
2012/03/07 at 12:01
Well, one game with a high acceleration is better than nothing, right :)
I hope to see your game featured on Google Play soon.
And I hope that madvertise will come back to normal again soon.
2012/03/06 at 18:07
Thanks for writing. I wrote a lot Apps this month, so I learned much and my income increase.
My Third month:
Requests: 2168641 (+1496641)
Income: 1088.92$ (+878$)
Today there are 20 free Apps by me on the market.
(https://market.android.com/search?q=rico+saage&c=apps)
For me it is i a really nice Result.
Best regards Rico S.
2012/03/07 at 12:02
Hi Rico,
awesome results, keep it up!
Best regards
Johannes
2012/03/06 at 20:05
I’ve just released my first Android Reports for this year – by far not as detailled as yours (cause no time) and only in concerns of admob but maybe some are interested in reading them :-) Just my approach to give something back to people like you which helped me too to not give up this business :-)
Android Report February 2012
2012/03/07 at 12:03
A great read!
Maybe I should start a collection of all the Android Income reports out there.. Just not enough time.
2012/03/07 at 01:26
Hi Johanness,
Just wanted to share my income for the month. Android Income Report February 2012. I was hoping for a 20% increase in income overall and ended up beating it by 5%.
2012/03/07 at 12:05
Hi Steve,
thank you for sharing again.
I see push ads worked out very well for you again. Any ideas why your eCPM dropped so much?
Best regards
Johannes
2012/03/07 at 09:43
Januar and February my madvertise income was ca. 25% of the “normal”, i got in the month’ at end of 2011. At beginning of march it dropped again 50%. I dont know, if the 40% share is included in the revenue shown in statistics. As you know the publisher gets only 60%. Last time i reached the 1000000 Impressions the 40% share was deducted later.
My 3 most important apps have now also MobFox included and i use it as second fill after madvertise. The eCPM is not as good as madvertise, but the fillrate seems to be better. My absolute income is now higher on mobfox than on madvertise.
Life was so easy, when madvertise worked. Only one network, no need for paid apps and very good revenue. Let’s pray, they get back to old strenght.
2012/03/07 at 12:07
Hi Horst,
I’m thinking about including MobFox or other networks as well. Do you use the eCPMcontrol or serve just any ad available? How is your eCPM with MobFox?
Best regards
Johannes
2012/03/07 at 12:55
@Johannes: At moment i have no eCPMcontrol. I just want get more experience before. After Mobfox i use Millennial Media and then InMobi as Backfill. And at last i use ads for my own apps. And Millennial is split to 50/50 for use AdMob. A little bit confusing, i know. ;-)
One interessting thing: I see instand uplift of my downloads, when i server more own ads. It seems like mobile advertisement is really working great. And my ad banners are only homemade.
2012/03/08 at 17:06
Thank you Horst.
That’s a long list of networks.
I experienced the same, as long as the ads are not clicked by accident.
2012/03/13 at 13:57
Hi Johannes,
I believe the ecpm dropped because the users are seeing the same advertisments. They aren’t very likely to click the same advert more than once. It is still pretty respectable compared to banner ads. I also wanted to drop by and let all you guys know that I published my very first game. This is also my first attempt at game programming so take it easy on me in the reviews. Impossiballz a free game on android market.
I am also thinking about starting an Indie app developer syndicate. The main idea is to cross promote apps between indie developers to leverage the wide reach of our apps. This would be a great way to get free exposure and drive new users to our apps. In the long run it will be beneficial to all. Anybody can send me an email if you are interested. steve_delarwelle att yahoo.com
2012/03/15 at 14:08
Hi Steve,
that’s probably true. Good luck with your game.
Regarding the Indie dev thing: Some ad networks, like madvertise, allow only house ads for own products, this could be a problem. Let me know how it is doing though.
Best regards
Johannes
2012/03/17 at 15:45
Hi Johannes, I have a question about the AdMob-bank-transfer-duration:
how long takes a average bank-transfer by AdMob? I get the message: “Payment for $ 303.21 complete by Wire on 2012-03-01”. But so far I have not seen any money in my bank-account. Is it faster with PayPal? I have also a German bank account. Thank you for your help.
Rico S.
2012/03/17 at 22:49
Hey Rico,
same for me as for Peter, received the January payment three days ago on paypal. Bank account probably needs more time until the transaction is completed.
Best regards
Johannes
2012/03/17 at 18:59
@rico paypal was finished 3 days ago (for jan)
2012/03/17 at 21:01
You have a nice blog here. Can you tell me what frameworks you are using for your games ?
2012/03/17 at 22:52
Hi Yasith,
for 3D none, for 2D AndEngine.
Best regards
Johannes