My experiences with InMobi

General (non-technical) Marketing and Monetization
#1

Wanted to share my experiences with InMobi hoping that other developers may find it useful. I gave the service a try recently after they were featured at the Corona LaunchPad.

So, I signed up for a $40 campaign, mostly to try out how well it would work, for my universal iOS game Nervous Fly (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nervous-fly/id449706857). I used a targeted campaign for only iPhone 4 users from the US. As the budget was low I wanted to at least tailor it to a very specific group.

After some days these were the results, according to the InMobi stats:
266,850 impressions
532 clicks
No noticeable (to me) extra downloads or payments in my AppFigures account.

So, in other words it didn’t work out for me, and I won’t invest more. This is not to say their service isn’t good, as this is a very personal experience that may have depended on ad text, ad icon, my type of game, my game’s past ratings and reviews etc. To clarify, my budget of $40 was a trial budget to see if there is an increase in my numbers – I likely would have invested more later on would it have worked.

I’m curious to hear about other experiences – which marketing options worked for you, which didn’t? [import]uid: 10284 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 313437[/import]

#2

My first game hasn’t shipped yet but I’m trying to understand all the marketing possibilities. Thank you for posting your results, it’s useful and interesting to see actual numbers.

I understand it feels like money not well spent if there’s no noticeable bump in sales, but disregarding that for a moment it seems like for that $40 spent you got 532 people who were interested enough to click on the ad. If 10% of those had made a purchase it would have been a (barely) profitable success, no?

I would assume if they clicked on the ad then they were at least somewhat intrigued. The big question to me is why did none of them “pull the trigger” and purchase after following the ad? Maybe there’s something you can tweak on the ad landing page, or wherever they end up, that would lead to more paying customers?

Again, thanks for the insight.

-Stephen [import]uid: 9422 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 49336[/import]

#3

Steven, it’s indeed quite possible that my description, title, screenshots or reviews and ratings are at fault. For what it’s worth, I pointed the campaign directly to http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nervous-fly/id449706857, which I hope would open the respective App Store app -> details page on the iPhone. Considering it’s a free game, it would have been nice to at least see a peak in the downloads (in-app payment notwithstanding) but I didn’t really notice anything remarkable. Maybe it works better for games with a big number of reviews, but then again the whole point of this campaign would be to get the word out in the first place, so :slight_smile: [import]uid: 10284 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 49337[/import]

#4

Hi Philipp,

If I click the link you provided above I get taken to the browser version of the app store. If I want to download the game I have to click on another link to open in iTunes. However, if I enter this in my browser window it opens in iTunes directly:

http://itunes.com/apps/nervousfly

“http://itunes.com/apps/nervous-fly” Doesn’t work though. It opens iTunes but can’t find your game.

No idea how this all works with your ads being served and users clicking on them, but if the clicked ad is opening up safari on the phone, rather than itunes, it might account for some people not clicking all the way through to download the game. Have you been able to verify that your ads open iTunes to your game?

-Stephen [import]uid: 9422 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 49343[/import]

#5

So, if this didn’t work for you, may I ask what did? Have you found a good click-return ratio in any other vendor/publisher/advertising/PR ?
thanks
[import]uid: 12407 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 49352[/import]

#6

I’m sure Inmobi is a fraudulent company.

We have been a publisher for them for 3 months and generated millions of ads impressions. Then they blocked our account for violating terms and conditions, and when we request for reasons they simply dont reply to our ticket.

Well, why and how would we violate their TOS since we use them with Admob meditation and still complies with other network rules?

Inmobi is a dishonest ad network and should be avoided by publishers.

Lots of other publishers have reported about their fraud. For more details please look at this thread http://coding-talk.com/f60/inmobi-blocked-me-anyone-have-the-same-experience-16680/. [import]uid: 181802 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 125536[/import]

#7

You found it too late.

[import]uid: 89165 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 125638[/import]

#8

I’m sure Inmobi is a fraudulent company.

We have been a publisher for them for 3 months and generated millions of ads impressions. Then they blocked our account for violating terms and conditions, and when we request for reasons they simply dont reply to our ticket.

Well, why and how would we violate their TOS since we use them with Admob meditation and still complies with other network rules?

Inmobi is a dishonest ad network and should be avoided by publishers.

Lots of other publishers have reported about their fraud. For more details please look at this thread http://coding-talk.com/f60/inmobi-blocked-me-anyone-have-the-same-experience-16680/. [import]uid: 181802 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 125536[/import]

#9

You found it too late.

[import]uid: 89165 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 125638[/import]

#10

Last week my account got blocked without assigning any reason. When I emailed them, they replied that my account was violating their terms of service. Now they just dont reply for further clarification or specific reason. Inmobi stole my $2500+, they suck big time. Cheater fraud company.
PS: my traffic is 1000% genuine. No fake clicks. I’m using 3 other ad-provider and they dont have any problem at all. [import]uid: 227408 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 142863[/import]

#11

Last week my account got blocked without assigning any reason. When I emailed them, they replied that my account was violating their terms of service. Now they just dont reply for further clarification or specific reason. Inmobi stole my $2500+, they suck big time. Cheater fraud company.
PS: my traffic is 1000% genuine. No fake clicks. I’m using 3 other ad-provider and they dont have any problem at all. [import]uid: 227408 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 142863[/import]

#12

Last week my account got blocked without assigning any reason. When I emailed them, they replied that my account was violating their terms of service. Now they just dont reply for further clarification or specific reason. Inmobi stole my $2500+, they suck big time. Cheater fraud company.
PS: my traffic is 1000% genuine. No fake clicks. I’m using 3 other ad-provider and they dont have any problem at all. [import]uid: 227408 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 142863[/import]

#13

Last week my account got blocked without assigning any reason. When I emailed them, they replied that my account was violating their terms of service. Now they just dont reply for further clarification or specific reason. Inmobi stole my $2500+, they suck big time. Cheater fraud company.
PS: my traffic is 1000% genuine. No fake clicks. I’m using 3 other ad-provider and they dont have any problem at all. [import]uid: 227408 topic_id: 13437 reply_id: 142863[/import]

#14

Thanks for letting me know i was trying inMObi but i wont try now thanks

#15

Thanks for letting me know i was trying inMObi but i wont try now thanks