How do YOU market your app? aka. get more downloads

My app has been on Google Play for about a month now but only has 15 downloads, it took about 2 - 3 weeks to make and i tried to make it an engaging experince to play. I feel like im not getting enough traffic because it has such an obscure name : LERP. Its heavily integrated with social media and i post regularly(ish) on its facebook and twitter page but still, nothing. I was wondering how you market YOUR app? How do you increase your downloads?

oh if your interested here it is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.boastudios.games.LErP15

Regards, Lemon

Your description needs some work so that google can index it better for starters.

That aside, a lot of what you are experiencing also has to do with the category you are in puzzle is one of the worst categories to put your game in I know it sounds silly but there are 1000’s of templates out there that people are just recycling so you never even get in the top new free because by the time your app is indexed there are already 100 more new uploads.

There are a ton of different things you can do but it has been my experience that there is no special recipe which is why I just built my own ad network into all my games so when I launch a new app/game I can promote it to all my users.

For example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mycasinolife.honeybunz

This game hasn’t been up that long “maybe” a month (and already over 22k of downloads) and all I really did was tell my ad network to promote it in my other games for a day or so then once it got up in the free new google pretty much took over from there and I was able to turn my ad network back off.

It is something I have been thinking about building a web front end for, like a “launch” platform just haven’t figured out how to keep it from being abused etc. but think it would be a cool free indie launch service.

hmm thanks for the ideas, will definitely take them into account

Your app icon is very dull and unattractive. The color is nice, but it doesn’t tell me anything about the game, or doesn’t make me want to click it to see more info. That is the first thing that people see, so they have to feel the urge to click it, otherwise they’ll just go to the next icon that is attractive and catches their attention. This may sound stupid, but it makes a difference. It’s not easy making a good catchy icon, and these days it’s much more important than it was 3 or 4 years ago. Note that I’m comparing your icon to the few good ones, not the massive amount of crap ones, which are far far worse than yours.

However, your biggest problem is probably that your whole game is just not very attractive in the first place. There are tons of visually attractive free games on the app stores, and unfortunately, that’s the most important thing for customers browsing the available apps. There’s nothing wrong with using low contrasting colors, but if you’re going to do that try to come up with a theme. For example, make all levels in shades of blue or something. Don’t just use random colors. Put some work into the graphic side of things. The animations are nice, but people can’t see those on screenshots, so you have to make them enjoyable on their own.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but the online app stores are brutal nowadays, so unless you can pull a “Flappy Bird” you have to invest a lot more into the design of the game, and in making sure that the gameplay is solid. However, most people will never get to experience the gameplay if the game doesn’t catch their attention visually.

Thanks i really appreciate your honesty. i recently changed my icon so im not quite sure if my new one is worse but perhaps i need to change it again. How would i go about making my app more attractive maybe an example app that i could base my UI off (?). I was trying to go for the minimalistic approach but perhaps i should try something else but anyways thanks for the download! :slight_smile:

Regards, Lemon

Have a look at Two Dots in iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twodots/id880178264?mt=8

It is a good example of using a vector style look and feel.

I agree with ricardo on the animations they are pretty nice but the user has no idea that they are nice etc. so I would make a video of your game and add that to your screenshots it will come up first so they can see it. 

You will also be able to start using a video preview in iTunes now as well.

Videos actually do help a lot.

On a side note.

On the Nexus 7 the swipe doesn’t work that well i have to swipe about 4-5 times before it moves that will cause a lot of uninstalls.

Your description needs some work so that google can index it better for starters.

That aside, a lot of what you are experiencing also has to do with the category you are in puzzle is one of the worst categories to put your game in I know it sounds silly but there are 1000’s of templates out there that people are just recycling so you never even get in the top new free because by the time your app is indexed there are already 100 more new uploads.

There are a ton of different things you can do but it has been my experience that there is no special recipe which is why I just built my own ad network into all my games so when I launch a new app/game I can promote it to all my users.

For example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mycasinolife.honeybunz

This game hasn’t been up that long “maybe” a month (and already over 22k of downloads) and all I really did was tell my ad network to promote it in my other games for a day or so then once it got up in the free new google pretty much took over from there and I was able to turn my ad network back off.

It is something I have been thinking about building a web front end for, like a “launch” platform just haven’t figured out how to keep it from being abused etc. but think it would be a cool free indie launch service.

hmm thanks for the ideas, will definitely take them into account

Your app icon is very dull and unattractive. The color is nice, but it doesn’t tell me anything about the game, or doesn’t make me want to click it to see more info. That is the first thing that people see, so they have to feel the urge to click it, otherwise they’ll just go to the next icon that is attractive and catches their attention. This may sound stupid, but it makes a difference. It’s not easy making a good catchy icon, and these days it’s much more important than it was 3 or 4 years ago. Note that I’m comparing your icon to the few good ones, not the massive amount of crap ones, which are far far worse than yours.

However, your biggest problem is probably that your whole game is just not very attractive in the first place. There are tons of visually attractive free games on the app stores, and unfortunately, that’s the most important thing for customers browsing the available apps. There’s nothing wrong with using low contrasting colors, but if you’re going to do that try to come up with a theme. For example, make all levels in shades of blue or something. Don’t just use random colors. Put some work into the graphic side of things. The animations are nice, but people can’t see those on screenshots, so you have to make them enjoyable on their own.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but the online app stores are brutal nowadays, so unless you can pull a “Flappy Bird” you have to invest a lot more into the design of the game, and in making sure that the gameplay is solid. However, most people will never get to experience the gameplay if the game doesn’t catch their attention visually.

Thanks i really appreciate your honesty. i recently changed my icon so im not quite sure if my new one is worse but perhaps i need to change it again. How would i go about making my app more attractive maybe an example app that i could base my UI off (?). I was trying to go for the minimalistic approach but perhaps i should try something else but anyways thanks for the download! :slight_smile:

Regards, Lemon

Have a look at Two Dots in iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twodots/id880178264?mt=8

It is a good example of using a vector style look and feel.

I agree with ricardo on the animations they are pretty nice but the user has no idea that they are nice etc. so I would make a video of your game and add that to your screenshots it will come up first so they can see it. 

You will also be able to start using a video preview in iTunes now as well.

Videos actually do help a lot.

On a side note.

On the Nexus 7 the swipe doesn’t work that well i have to swipe about 4-5 times before it moves that will cause a lot of uninstalls.