Android App Installs, Google's New Play Store App Ad Units, and Implications for AM (16)
Android App Installs, Google's New Play Store App Ad Units, and Implications for AM
Google just made a huge play to capture a massive portion of the App install advertising market.
Google will now allow app makers to advertise directly on the Google Play store and target extremely high intent users, while avoiding most of the compliance, poor traffics and other challenges they have faced from working via affiliates and affiliate networks.
- The losers in this move will be affiliate networks heavily dependant on app installs, and many affiliate marketers who are just focused on app installs.
- The winners will definitely be Google who will see a massive reallocation of app developer marketing budgets directly to the Google Play Store itself and those extremely well funded app developers.
- It will likely be a matter of time until Apple's App Store follows suit ... it is just too easy money for both Apple and Google to just pass up.
Google just made a huge announcement
by JILLIAN D'ONFRO
from http://uk.businessinsider.com/google...#ixzz3StbNWHTv
"If you're an Android owner, you might start seeing ads in Google's app store soon.
The company is going to start testing out search ads in the Google Play store. That means that when you search for a kind of app — like "travel" or "coupon" — the top result could be a sponsored suggestion that a developer paid for.
"Search ads on Google Play will enable developers to drive more awareness of their apps and provide consumers new ways to discover apps that they otherwise might have missed," the company writes in a blog post.
In the next several weeks, a limited set of users will start seeing ads from a select group of advertisers. Google will test out the ads for a few month and look at the results and feedback before deciding on an expansion plan.
Selling ads on Google Play is a big opportunity for Google. The company makes billions of dollars a year from search advertising on web search and YouTube — adding Google Play would just sweeten the pot. Product chief Sundar Pichai told Forbes that the company wants to capitalize on the app store's growing momentum. As investors and analysts panic about how Google's search advertising revenue growth is slowing because it can't charge as much for mobile ad clicks as desktop ad clicks, this news offers another avenue for mobile monetization.
Google Play search ads could provide a big revenue boost to Google.
More than 1 billion people around the world currently use the Android operating system.
The company also reported it's paid more than $7 billion to developers this year. Apple, which does not have ads in its App Store, paid developers $10 billion."
More and More reason to phase away from app installs
interesting share. I really do wonder how it'll affect affiliate networks that are focused on apps.
looks like advertisers didn't know quite how to access traffic like affiliates do, this might just change and give them some more control.
Originally Posted by dvir0776
advertiser has one more option now day and i assume googleplay's traffic quality will beat ours.
so advertiser will build a team to run google play ads, set higher budget for it.
and the reason is so on and on.
....i *heart* google 
I said it not once.. not twice.. but quite a few times before.. big budgets app installs are not here to stay for affiliates.
so it seems like apps install is not to focus on as it is phasing out soon and taken back by the giants.
Originally Posted by cmdeal
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/0...app-discovery/
Originally Posted by adgale
But I imagine most app developers will just take this budget in house. It is not as if any of them need to bid on millions of keywords ... most of them will bid on less than 100, and it is hard to justify not doing this in house from a pure cost-benefit basis.
@cmdeal If I am currently trying to make my first profits with mobile PPI and Decisive - what other combination to start out would you advise?
This will change the entire landscape!
Most devs using freemium monetize their apps with ads. This move by Google will shift a lot of the ad spent away from the networks which will force different models for devs. Monetization will have to adapt. Expect a lot more paid apps in the future
Originally Posted by tim roth
If you have these core skills, you can apply them many areas of affiliate marketing, regardless of what happens to apps or a certain traffic source.
There are plenty of folks in AM who are one trick ponies.
They get lucky riding one wave, one traffic source, one offer, one way of engaging in black hat activities. But because they have not developed their entire range of marketing skills and knowhow, once this wave disappears, they can't adapt. There is no shortage of people in this industry who went from nothing to $500K the next year to working at McDonalds the year afterwards.
Don't be one of these guys. As Warren Buffet likes to say, "Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked."
If you have these core fundamental marketing skills, on the other hand, you can apply them to plenty of businesses even outside of affiliate marketing.
Some examples:
2. James Patterson: Before James Patterson became one of the best selling authors in the world earning a cool $100 million a year from his books, he was a brilliant advertising executive and copywriter. Many of the skills he developed as a marketers have helped him understand how to convince his readers to buy and keep on buying his books.
I could go on and on ...
@cmdeal
Loving what you're saying, can you share a 3 & 4? I think i recall seing a thread mentioning the dollar shave founder being a marketer too
great post..
One thing I'd like to add.
Every time a huge ad tech product release comes out like this.. i noticed there's a huge upheaval, especially among smaller marketers. For example, when quality score came out.. people said, "oh adwords is useless now"... "there goes easy $5k days"... etc. Or when adwords express came out, I noticed every PPC agency say "Oh crap, there goes our business".
I could be self deluded, but I think exact OPPOSITE happens. Like @cmdeal said, all these one trick pony AMs... or blackhatters... or lazy marketers (in general) can't understand how this is an ADVANTAGE to those who know how to be compliant, innovative, and are real businessman as opposed to bit slinging arbitragers.
Sure it's gonna be tough, but this innovation wipes out all these low quality marketers who've been "abusing" the ecosystem. Sure the hurdle is higher but if u can make the jump, the profits are more longer & more stable. If anything, I think Google blessed mobile CPI marketers.
Another thing.. usually when Google releases these things, they make them SUPER freakin' complicated (eventually) to the point that 99.9% of non-marketers just cannot understand what the hell is going on. Remember adwords before 2010? Child's play compared to what it is now.
INtersting story.. I gave talk on PPC to bunch of SMB owners in San jose right about the time adwords express came out. The clear concensus was that they're gonna bypass the agencies and use adwords express themselves.
During the next couple of months, I must've had 12-15 clients who called me and asked me to take over their adwords account b/c their self service campaigns sucked major balls.
Usually DIY = crap. When google releases these to the public.. cpc / cpi costs are gonna skyrocket (which is what google wants). So the developers are gonna have ot make a choice.. get 2X CPI from Google, or < 1X CPI from 3rd party CPI sellers. Remember, adwords DIDN'T kill insurance CPL campaigns on CPA networks.. if anything, the higher adwords costs probably gave them more business.
Like @cmdeal said, if you stick to the process & focus on skills, opportunities are endless... especially if you can innovate (like create your own offer, mobile app, etc.). If you're in it for "hit it and quit it"... well, time to quit.
Of course, this is STM.. so i'm probably preaching to the choir.
Awesome thought sharing ( as usual )
I don't understand they hype though; I rarely search for new apps ... but I'm most likely in the minority.
Hopefully some STM London talks will address these issues and talk about life after app installs.
To be honest, I don't see what the fuss is about. It's just another advertising avenue for publishers. It's not like they couldn't drive sales themselves before. Clearly, aff marketing is benefiting them and the smart ones will still use aff marketers. I suppose if you think of it as just another app placement, but the one publishers can only access it doesn't seem all that critical.
People have been installing apps directly through playstore since it started.
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