iAds vs Paid...I know now which way I will be going...

Thunder_Child

Hello folks. I have seen questions before about which way to go...PAID vs ADS ?

Just thought I would tell you all how its working for me now that I have tried both. I released 4 apps...free with iAds....have about 150 downloads. I can tell at least a few people are playing a couple of thise ganes regularly and via iAds I have made a whopping $5.37 in the past 5 months since they were released.

Now they arent epic ganes by any means so to make anything at all was a bonus. 2 weeks ago I released 5 games over a weekend. Again not stellar games but Im proud of them. Bthey are all paid apps $.99. No Ads...no IAP...in two weeks I have made $15...

I know this is not a himuge amount of money but you can see the difference. Paid apps get less downloads by leaps and bounds but you can make more this way...in my opinion.

That is all. Any comments or opinions are welcome.

Braydon_SFX

Nice feedback! Thanks for sharing! Generally, unless you get a large spike of downloads the first day of release, ads won't do much good. The most I've made from ads is $60 a month, which isn't stellar. In the end, I think it comes down to marketing and how the player views your game.

jamie_c

@Thunder_Child‌, I've had exactly the same experience. I'll probably continue to release my games as both paid and free with ads. Since they both make a few dollars, why exclude either source of income, no matter how slight it is.

BBEnk

No matter which way you go, it still takes downloads to make real money.

phamtastic

@jamie_c‌
Do you release the same game but different monetization built in for FREE and PAID?

I have a game that's making $300 a month through ads but I would also want to try the PAID method in parallel to see how that would work.

jamie_c

@BBEnk, agreed!

@phamtastic‌, I don't have high downloads but over all I have made more through paid downloads vs free (ad supported) downloads. And yes all three of my games are released for free (ad supported) and paid (no ads), besides the ads they are identical downloads.

Thunder_Child

@jamie_c‌ my wife suggested I do an ad AND NO ad version like you are doing.

Most of the games I make with ads I do so that the ads are as unobtrusive as possible. I figure they might just allow the ads because of that and not purchase the game. I have 3 games to release the weekend of Turkeyday here in da US so I may try that next. Free with ads and paid no ads and compare that next. Ill keep notes and post about that newyesrs. Would be another good barometer.

phamtastic

@jamie_c‌
Don't you need to change your game somewhat like the paid version would offer more content? And what about the name? Don't you need to rebrand it?? Title, AppIcon, ??

jamie_c

@phamtastic, I don't know of any specific requirements from Apple or other store owners. I think that is more of your choice than something that is dictated by someone else. My choice is too offer exactly the same game in both cases, if a player doesn't mind ads they can play the free version as long as they choose. If they get tired of ads they can purchase the non-ad supported version.

As far as naming I typically use "Game-name" and "Game-name Free!", for the icon I typically use the same image and add the word Free to the free version of course.

These are not some requirements set in stone somewhere, just what I have done with my games. It's probably important to note that I don't make games as my primary source of income and don't plan to. I make them to enjoy the process of creating them and once they are done make them available to play for others.

I'm sure I could be more aggressive in trying to make money with them but that is honestly not my goal. I make them because I enjoy making them. I personally don't like iAPs so I don't and won't include those in my games, as a player I hate them. When I download a game I want to be able to play the entire game, with no additional cost or other forms of time wasting punishment. So I make my games to meet that desire.

phamtastic

@jamie_c
Thanks for the insight. You definitely have the right attitude when comes to making games. Btw - I often follow lots of your tutorials and bought some of your templates. Great work!!!

jamie_c

@phamtastic, thanks I'm glad you found my stuff useful.

phamtastic

@jamie_c‌
When it comes to PAID version for Android, isn't there a big concerns of piracy? It seems there's a lot of sites out there that can get hold of your APK and redistribute it for free. Is this a big concern ?

jamie_c

@phamtastic, I haven't published on Android. Perhaps someone else can offer some insight on that one.

Lovejoy

iAds alone isn't a big money maker unless you get millions of downloads. Its when you ad services like chartboost which i recommend, that you will start seeing some more money roll in. Some day i find myself making $7 a download which add up quick to a good amount of daily income.