Interview with AppLift: getting into the top in Russia costs $10k

What events do developers most often track in the game, how much it costs to get into the Russian and how much into the American top free App Store apps, whether traffic prices will decrease – this and much more App2Top.ru told the AppLift company.

The questions were answered by the manager of the business development department of the AppLift company Fatima Aliyeva.

Fatima AliyevaHi, what exactly does AppLift do?

Hi!

AppLift is engaged in the promotion and monetization of mobile games. On the one hand, we provide publishers (publishers) of mobile games with high-quality users, and, on the other hand, we monetize mobile users by implementing our SDK. Everything is done on the basis of CPI. 

In the process of promoting mobile games, we pay special attention to the LTV of purchased users. This means that our publishing partners send us data on “events” in the game. Publishers independently determine which “events” are of the greatest importance, and this allows you to measure the LTV of purchased traffic.

The following “events” are very popular: 

• buying inapps;
• keeping users in the game for a specific period of time;
• virality of purchased users.

Our partners send us data on these “events” starting from the first day of their mobile app promotion, and we collect and analyze them. We have a team dedicated only to this, we provide this service for free

Based on the analyzed data, we see which traffic sources bring the best LTV results to our partners (using the example of a particular game). The sources with the best results receive improved payouts and provide us with more quality users. Partners who have provided low-quality traffic are blocked for this game in accordance with the publisher’s desire. 

Moreover, developers and publishers can implement our SDK to monetize traffic. We are preparing customized banners for our developer partners who have significant mobile traffic. We strive to make our advertising formats look like part of an affiliate application, and not as an advertisement. This helps to improve eCPM significantly.

Is it really necessary for developers to contact traffic companies? Are there cases when their applications themselves fired?Yes, it is necessary.

Cases like Flappy Bird are, unfortunately, rare. All successful developers and publishers of mobile applications know about this. There are too many apps in the AppStore and GooglePlay and not everyone is as lucky as Dong Nguyen. Developers and publishers need to turn to traffic companies if they want to be successful and don’t want to wait until they get lucky.

Imagine that I am an independent developer, I have a potentially strong project. How much money do I need to get the game into the Russian top 25? American?In Russia, to get into the tops of free apps in the App Store, you will need about $ 10,000.

In the USA, about 5-7 times more. 

What factors make up this price?These prices depend on the platform, country, type and size of the game.

Recently, there have been rumors that the increase in traffic prices is due to the fact that market leaders are actively buying it. Is it so?Yes, it’s true.

The demand in the traffic market has grown in recent years, and this is due to the increase in prices. There are no anomalies in the growth of prices, the mechanism of the market economy is working. It is for this reason that publishers strive to improve the LTV of users.

Superdata stated a few months ago that the CPI in the US is several times higher than ARPU. Is it so?I think it depends on the game and the publisher.

Publishers have different advertising goals. Some people just want to do branding, while others want to make money. Based on AppLift’s experience, I dare to disagree with Superdata’s statement. Our publishers buy traffic in the USA because users are monetized there better than in other countries. 

Is it worth waiting for a decrease in traffic prices?No, it’s not worth it.

I am sure that the prices for mobile traffic will not decrease. More and more developers are publishing mobile apps. Publishers of online and desktop games are also starting to publish mobile applications. As I have already noticed, the mechanism of the market economy also works in the mobile traffic market. 

Thanks for the interview!