AdBuddiz & Corona Now Official Partners

AdBuddiz is thrilled to announce an official partnership with Corona!
The AdBuddiz plugin is now listed in the Corona Marketplace.

Our teams will work hand in hand to provide continuous support to the developers using the plugin!

About Corona
Corona SDK is a cross-platform mobile development framework chosen by 300,000+ developers around the world to create their hit mobile apps.

Stay tuned for more good news to come!

 

How to Optimize your Ranking in App Stores

Are you developing the next big Hit? Great! In order to optimize your number of downloads, you need to optimize your app’s ranking. Indeed, smartphone users look for new apps through 2 main tools: the top charts on the store and the search bar.

Here’s some advice on how to get the best ranking on Apple and Google’s App Stores:

Keywords

    • It’s important to find the right keywords before you launch your app. Newly released apps seem to have a better chance of getting a higher ranking by the stores’ algorithms. You don’t want to miss that chance!
    • Choose the right keywords for your package name, title and description. Get inspiration from the store suggestions, and choose a short name for your title. Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to the description.
    • Once your app is live, you can use tools like AppAnnie to review your ranking, and remove keywords to which you rank low.

Downloads

    • The number of downloads and their growth rate have a high influence on the app’s ranking. It is even more important within the first few days after releasing your app, so share it with your friends, family and on relevant forums.
    • The most efficient way to get downloads is to buy traffic from ad networks. You can also increase your downloads by having your app featured on websites or apps like Giftiz, which showcase apps against a fee or return traffic.
    • Keep track of uninstalls as they bring your ranking down. An unusual uninstall rate can mean that there are issues within your app (bugs, loading time).

Retention

  • App store algorithms also take into account in-app metrics to determine your app’s ranking.
  • Work on having the highest percentage of active users: make sure users can start using your app within minutes (Is the sign-up easy? Is the tutorial too long?) and don’t experience any bugs. Keep your users active: send them notifications and give frequent rewards (e.g., first levels of a game need to be easy to reach).
  • Make sure you update the app frequently, fix bugs and provide support.

Reviews

    • Both ratings and the number of reviews count towards your app’s ranking.
    • Ask your happy users to review your app! Good reviews improve your app’s ranking, but you also need constructive feedback to improve your app. It’s a good idea to include a contact form in your app, so that unhappy users don’t feel the need to get your attention through a bad review.

Good luck!

Happy Holidays from AdBuddiz!

2015 at a glance

  • The number of publishers on AdBuddiz more than tripled this year
  • Working with top advertisers (such as Ximad), we ran thousands of campaigns every month
  • We introduced RTB (programmatic) campaigns in our ads selection, enabling publishers to earn on a CPM basis alongside CPI
  • We launched our premium video ads (rewarded and non-rewarded), which have so far been reaching up to $20 eCPM
  • We attended and made new partnerships at various events including Mobile Webtainment Conference (Berlin), Game Connection Europe (Barcelona) and Appsworld (London).

Did you know?

January is the peak month of activity for mobile apps. Is your app ready? Check our article on ad placement.

We wish you a peaceful and lucrative holiday season as well as a fantastic year 2016!

Success Story Series: Star developer – DAF

DAF is a team of two indie developers from Málaga, Spain who are having great success in the mobile game industry - doing what they love. David creates the games and Pablo creates the music.

We are happy to feature DAF in this weeks’ Success Story Series.

1. David, can you tell us briefly about your background? How did you become an indie developer?

Years ago I used to program simple games on my PC, but my only audience was my brother and some friends. I had long been disconnected from the computer world, but then my first smartphone landed in my hands. I decided to start app development to entertain myself and earn extra income on the side (the economic crisis in Spain was at its worst). Although I did expect to eventually make a living out of it, to tell you the truth, I did not expect such success in such a short time. It was a real surprise.

2. What is your most successful game? What is its concept in a nutshell?

It is called Archanoid DEMOLITION. It’s just a clone of the classic arcade game Arkanoid, in which bricks are destroyed by bouncing a ball on a racquet.

3. Your games have a simple yet addictive gameplay. What are your tips for creating successful mobile games? 

Although it may sound cheesy, I believe that a game can only be successful if you create it with affection. In the case of Archanoid, I had tried many clones in the Play Store, but none of them corresponded to my idea of what Arkanoid should be like, so I decided to create my own game.

How to make a game that is addictive? I guess by creating a desire in the player to surpass himself; to beat his own records or achieve certain levels and have fun while doing it.

4. Creating a game is one thing, but how do you get many people to install it? What are your promotion methods?   

I placed links to my game on a few Facebook pages of Android magazines, but I didn’t really notice an increase in the number of downloads. In my case, what really seems to have worked is word-of-mouth.

5. Why did you choose AdBuddiz?

One day I received an email from you, inviting me to try the service. I liked how you operated and have been with you ever since.

6. What has your experience been using AdBuddiz? 

Very good. AdBuddiz ads have beautiful graphics and a very elegant design, which makes them very pleasant for the user, not annoying at all. In addition, out of the three advertising companies that I use, AdBuddiz generates the most revenue for me - twice as much as the other two.

7. What would you change about AdBuddiz?

Lately the portal has been greatly improved, we can now visualize the number of clicks and installs. Perhaps adding even more statistics would be nice.

8. Do you use any other monetizing methods apart from advertising? What combination works the best for you? 

Currently I only monetize through advertising.

9. What are your inspirations when creating a game? Where do you get your ideas from? 

The inspiration usually comes from the most unexpected places. An old comic you’re rediscovering, a film… And of course the classics, the wonderful games from arcades. The 80s is an endless source of inspiration.

10. Do you have enough time to play yourself? What are your favorite games? 

Not much, but of course I play the odd game. I have ‘Hill Climb Racing’ and ‘Final Freeway 2’ installed in my mobile devices. On PC, I sometimes relax doing a virtual flight with Microsoft Flight Simulator X. But since you’re asking for my favorite games, I have to mention a very, very old game that gave me many hours of fun, and made me interested in how video games are made: ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark’ – from the great Atari VCR console.

11. What changes in the mobile ad market do you anticipate from here until 2016? 

It is difficult to predict, but I guess more and more companies of all kinds will be created around mobile applications, not only IT companies. Perhaps in the future there won’t be much difference between the ads on apps and the ones we see on television today.

12. Where do you see DAF in 5 years’ time? 

My dream is to start a business together with some friends, but under a different name. I would like DAF to always keep the indie spirit it has now. In the near future, I would like to enter the world of Apple - at the moment I’m dedicated to Android only.