The results of the promotion "Great eight applications"

Today we want to share the results of the promotion of the eight applications under Windows 8. Recall that the winners of the New Year application competition received a prize - the promotion of applications by Microsoft companies during the New Year holidays.

What did the prize include

The prize included 4 million online impressions, free ad impressions from AdDuplex , promo on microsoft.com and partner sites:

1. Applications will be placed on a special page of the competition on the microsoft.com resource.
2. Each application will receive a minimum of 4 million impressions and will be promoted in the following digital communication channels:
- in search (Yandex and Google);
- in the most popular network VKontakte;
- on mobile versions of 36 popular sites;
- on the social resources of Microsoft VKontakte and Facebook for more than 55 thousand followers and their friends;
3. Mention in the special projects of Microsoft devoted to Windows 8:
- Afisha.ru
- Timeout print
- Cosmo.ru
- Maximonline.ru
- Spletnik.ru
- Woman.ru
4. Prize from AdDuplex - 250,000 ad impressions on the AdDuplex network.

Results and conclusions

Based on the findings of the previous campaign , one of the channels for promotion was the social network VKontakte. This communication channel has shown its effectiveness in previous Microsoft promotions .
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VKontakte can give the greatest coverage, while not giving the right amount of application downloads.


If you need specific downloads of the application, rather than large coverage and transitions to the Windows Store page, the most effective channels are from t. downloads is posting on mobile devices. Promotion in mobile applications through WapStart gave much larger final downloads than promo in social networks. The average price for installing the VKontakte application is $ 0.65, while the average installation price when using Wapstart is 0.15.


The format of mobile placement requires maximum brevity and visual appeal in extremely small banners (we used 120x20,168x28,216x36, 300x50 with targeting on “Windows Phone 8, 7.5 and 7”), which dictates high requirements for the visual identity of the application icon and simplicity and clarity of its essence.

Also, an essential tool for increasing application downloads is search, with Yandex being more efficient than Google (response 1.04% vs. 0.83% at a CPC of 5p. Vs. 8p.).


When placing ads in the search should pay attention to the selection of search phrases and the formulation of the text of the ads:
1) In addition to the fact that the application should be located under the phrase “Application for Windows 8 \ RT \ Windows Phone”, you should maximize your presence in low-competitive topics - these are any information requests, tips, etc., for example, such topics as cooking, recipes demanded by the audience and the corresponding application received the highest number of hits and clicks in the search.
2) The text of the ad is better formulated as a call for a specific action, for example, “Collect Christmas balls in a line - get points! Game for Windows 8 and RT »
3) If several applications are promoted, then we can formulate general search phrases and quote them for each application, for example, no more than X clicks per day per application.

Also, when promoting the application, we used PR tools - special projects in magazines and media that promoted the application brand itself, but of course did not lead to instant download of the application. Therefore, with limited budget, we do not recommend using this tool as a priority.



And, in conclusion, I traditionally want to remind you about the current application competition, which will end in 2 days: contests.techdays.ru/Win8Apps/2013-01

Participate and win promotion!

PS If one of the winners wants to know the exact number of impressions and interest on different three-letter abbreviations - write me in a personal.