Why MS AdCenter sucks today
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I have written an entertainment app for Windows 8 and later ported to Windows Phone also. It doesn't do much, but I didn't consider it as a serious project anyway. I thought I'd get a few hundred downloads and that's it. Also it's a free app, but I figured I'd put some ads in it, the Microsoft Advertising SDK seemed simple enough, so I went with that. Somehow my app did better than I hoped and have about 800 downloads for W8 and 5000 (!!) for WP. The latter being especially suprising, since I posted the app 2 weeks after the Windows version (12th April, got published on 16th). This did cause some headaches at first with some aspects of the solution, but otherwise I was happy. Now for the rant part. I've just checked my numbers for this month's ads. Overall I have 2,978 ad impressions, 1,342 from WP, rest Win8. 2 clicks, which isn't the best CTR, but hey. And all this got me about... $0.50 ! I mean is this serious? Had I made it a 1 dollar app, 1 paid download would've gotten me more revenue! I have no previous knowledge with advertising, but this struck me as a ripoff honestly. Is this the same with other competing platforms or is just MS's solution this bad?
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I have written an entertainment app for Windows 8 and later ported to Windows Phone also. It doesn't do much, but I didn't consider it as a serious project anyway. I thought I'd get a few hundred downloads and that's it. Also it's a free app, but I figured I'd put some ads in it, the Microsoft Advertising SDK seemed simple enough, so I went with that. Somehow my app did better than I hoped and have about 800 downloads for W8 and 5000 (!!) for WP. The latter being especially suprising, since I posted the app 2 weeks after the Windows version (12th April, got published on 16th). This did cause some headaches at first with some aspects of the solution, but otherwise I was happy. Now for the rant part. I've just checked my numbers for this month's ads. Overall I have 2,978 ad impressions, 1,342 from WP, rest Win8. 2 clicks, which isn't the best CTR, but hey. And all this got me about... $0.50 ! I mean is this serious? Had I made it a 1 dollar app, 1 paid download would've gotten me more revenue! I have no previous knowledge with advertising, but this struck me as a ripoff honestly. Is this the same with other competing platforms or is just MS's solution this bad?
The key here is click through. It doesn't matter if a million ad impressions are made, if no one actually clicks on an advert, you ain't going to make money. I see this as well with the ads on my website, lots of impressions, very few click throughs.
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
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The key here is click through. It doesn't matter if a million ad impressions are made, if no one actually clicks on an advert, you ain't going to make money. I see this as well with the ads on my website, lots of impressions, very few click throughs.
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
DaveAuld wrote:
you ain't going to make money
Actually they have a mixed model and pay for impressions as well. If it weren't so, than I wouldn't be surprised. They give a quite detailed report on how each ad unit is doing, I'm just suprised how little the impressions are worth.
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The key here is click through. It doesn't matter if a million ad impressions are made, if no one actually clicks on an advert, you ain't going to make money. I see this as well with the ads on my website, lots of impressions, very few click throughs.
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
By the way, they sample report shows 500,000 impressions being worth $2,800, so going by this million impression would mean $5,600 USD. Yeah I know, that's it's just a sample, but I didn't think I would be making 1/30th of that (going by their numbers 3,000 impression would mean 16 dollars, which on the other hand is obviuosly unrealistic, but still ).
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By the way, they sample report shows 500,000 impressions being worth $2,800, so going by this million impression would mean $5,600 USD. Yeah I know, that's it's just a sample, but I didn't think I would be making 1/30th of that (going by their numbers 3,000 impression would mean 16 dollars, which on the other hand is obviuosly unrealistic, but still ).
szukuro wrote:
$2,800
szukuro wrote:
$5.600
FYI, this is a bit confusing... you are using two different number notations here. I am guessing you mean: $2,800.00 $5,600.00
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DaveAuld wrote:
you ain't going to make money
Actually they have a mixed model and pay for impressions as well. If it weren't so, than I wouldn't be surprised. They give a quite detailed report on how each ad unit is doing, I'm just suprised how little the impressions are worth.
szukuro wrote:
I'm just suprised how little the impressions are worth.
I'm not sure why you would be. The only bit that surprises me is that they're offering anything for them at all. Seriously, when's the last time you paid attention, in a positive way, to one of the ads? The only reaction advertising almost ever gets from me is rage-adblocking if it manages to do something to interfere with what I'm doing. LOLing at Google for determinedly coming up with something totally absurd[^] rather than admitting it can't serve me anything relevant isn't any better.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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szukuro wrote:
$2,800
szukuro wrote:
$5.600
FYI, this is a bit confusing... you are using two different number notations here. I am guessing you mean: $2,800.00 $5,600.00
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szukuro wrote:
I'm just suprised how little the impressions are worth.
I'm not sure why you would be. The only bit that surprises me is that they're offering anything for them at all. Seriously, when's the last time you paid attention, in a positive way, to one of the ads? The only reaction advertising almost ever gets from me is rage-adblocking if it manages to do something to interfere with what I'm doing. LOLing at Google for determinedly coming up with something totally absurd[^] rather than admitting it can't serve me anything relevant isn't any better.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
While you're mostly right, do consider that we're mostly talking phones and tablets here, where the ad itself is a relative big portion of the screen (for WP7, of the 800x480 resolution the ad occupies a 480x80 space, that is 10% !). Besides no one clicks ads on mobile, it totally breaks the experience. At this point I just can't understand how an ad-funded revenue model can work at all.
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I have written an entertainment app for Windows 8 and later ported to Windows Phone also. It doesn't do much, but I didn't consider it as a serious project anyway. I thought I'd get a few hundred downloads and that's it. Also it's a free app, but I figured I'd put some ads in it, the Microsoft Advertising SDK seemed simple enough, so I went with that. Somehow my app did better than I hoped and have about 800 downloads for W8 and 5000 (!!) for WP. The latter being especially suprising, since I posted the app 2 weeks after the Windows version (12th April, got published on 16th). This did cause some headaches at first with some aspects of the solution, but otherwise I was happy. Now for the rant part. I've just checked my numbers for this month's ads. Overall I have 2,978 ad impressions, 1,342 from WP, rest Win8. 2 clicks, which isn't the best CTR, but hey. And all this got me about... $0.50 ! I mean is this serious? Had I made it a 1 dollar app, 1 paid download would've gotten me more revenue! I have no previous knowledge with advertising, but this struck me as a ripoff honestly. Is this the same with other competing platforms or is just MS's solution this bad?
I average 150,000 requests a day. Last month I was getting about $0.53 eCPM. This month it fell through the floor to about $0.10 eCPM. I average x3 that much with Android/AdMob and 6-7 times more on iOS. I think it's nothing technical - people just prefer to advertise with Android/Apple rather then MS. As far as you are concerned, I think you are doing great - seems like your eCPM is more than double of what I'm getting. You just need to increase requests (may be build more apps) and wait for MS to get their sh###t together.
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I have written an entertainment app for Windows 8 and later ported to Windows Phone also. It doesn't do much, but I didn't consider it as a serious project anyway. I thought I'd get a few hundred downloads and that's it. Also it's a free app, but I figured I'd put some ads in it, the Microsoft Advertising SDK seemed simple enough, so I went with that. Somehow my app did better than I hoped and have about 800 downloads for W8 and 5000 (!!) for WP. The latter being especially suprising, since I posted the app 2 weeks after the Windows version (12th April, got published on 16th). This did cause some headaches at first with some aspects of the solution, but otherwise I was happy. Now for the rant part. I've just checked my numbers for this month's ads. Overall I have 2,978 ad impressions, 1,342 from WP, rest Win8. 2 clicks, which isn't the best CTR, but hey. And all this got me about... $0.50 ! I mean is this serious? Had I made it a 1 dollar app, 1 paid download would've gotten me more revenue! I have no previous knowledge with advertising, but this struck me as a ripoff honestly. Is this the same with other competing platforms or is just MS's solution this bad?
Because of this thread[^], I have decided to go with in app purchase.
Frazzle the name say's it all
Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
John F. Woods