There are a many, many different iPhone app launch strategies.
But there are a limited number of strategies that will explode you into the top rankings. If that is your goal, you may want to consider FreeAppADay.
What is FreeAppADay?
FreeAppaDay is a service created by the folks at ICS Mobile, OpenFeint, and TapJoy to give away one free app every day.
They’ve currently got 60k users coming to their website daily to find free apps.
Here is how it works:
- You need a quality paid app in order to be included.
- Contact FreeAppADay to promote your app.
- You pay $1,200-$2,000 depending on the day and type of app.
- They promote it to their over 60k users for one day.
That’s Crazy
$1,200…that’s madness!!! Well it might be if you have no “method to your madness”. You need a strategy to go with that level of spend.
I suggest you make sure you have:
- A solid app that people like
- Strong retention rates (high % of users continuing to use your app days after initial download)
- Ways to reach back to those users later
It’s crazy not to spend the money if you could do as well as Face Fighter. Read on.
Example
Appy Entertainment just used FreeAppADay to promote their FaceFighter app on 2/18. They kept FaceFighter free for a total of 6 days and had 1M downloads.
Their results:
- FaceFighter was 150 in its paid category before 2/18 and shot up to 50th after it went back to paid
- They cross promoted another app called Tune Runner in FaceFighter during this time generating 100k downloads for that app
- Tune Runner reached category #1 or overall #1 in these countries: Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden
Read more about App Entertainment’s experience with FaceFighter on FreeAppADay.
Pros
What are the pros to this strategy?
- Generating a million downloads gives you a user base
- You might, like FaceFighter, raise your ranking after you go back to paid
- Being creative you can cross promote other apps
Cons
What are the potentional cons to this strategy?
- You will lose revenue every day your app is free
- 1M downloads still = $0 revenue
- Your app may not have that level of success
In Conclusion
I think FreeAppADay gives smaller app companies a solid option for launching apps. Just make sure if you go down this road, that you have a plan to turn these users into revenue.
Photo credit: Alan Vernon
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