Price manipulation
IsabelleK
Member, Sous Chef Posts: 2,807
Hello,
I've heard about good sides of price manipulation, especially:
1. Increasing app's price for a few hours and decreasing it to the previous level.
2. Decreasing app's price for a special event or just for sometime.
Do anyone have any experience with these? It would be great if Joe (FMG) write anything here, because I check his TSoGM frequently and I noticed it's price drops.
Thank you very much for any suggestion!
I've heard about good sides of price manipulation, especially:
1. Increasing app's price for a few hours and decreasing it to the previous level.
2. Decreasing app's price for a special event or just for sometime.
Do anyone have any experience with these? It would be great if Joe (FMG) write anything here, because I check his TSoGM frequently and I noticed it's price drops.
Thank you very much for any suggestion!
Comments
Thank you!
I've used both methods you mention with varied results.
#1 (Recommended)
The benefit of this method is that your app is never free, so you can still make money for the day. The free for a period promos only seem to work well with significant accompanying advertising.
If you are going to do this type of price manip, do it for a least a whole day. If you have a 99 cent app, I'd recommend increasing the price to 2.99 or higher. That way, when the price drops back to 99 cents it looks like a "better deal".
Also, do it manually, don't schedule the price change in iTunes Connect. I haven't stayed up to watch it so I don't know when scheduled changes take effect. Based on my experience I would suggest making the change manually 1-2hrs before midnight Eastern Standard Time, so the change is there before the "start" of the day at its earliest point in the US. The goal here is to get as many of the price watcher websites to list your app when the price drops back to normal the next day, but you have to assume that each site checks for changes at different times, so the earliest point in the day the better. Change the price back at about the same time later that day.
There are those like myself who use websites like Appshopper for apps that I want, but don't need right now & will wait to go on sale before I buy. When I see an app has changed their pricing up and down a lot of times over a short period I typically do not buy the app. You can kind of tell when people are 'price manipulating'. I am not saying to NOT do it, I am saying don't do it a lot. I think raising the price for a few days & lower it after a few days is fine, but don't do it every week. It just looks bad. Good luck with sales.