FreeMyApps business model: how to make money on user interest in free applications

About how using the FreeMyApps service to get a “freebie” was already written on Habré two years ago. We decided to look at this kind of services on the other side - as a tool for promotion. Today we hear a lot of talk on the topic “TOP is already the organic matter sucks”. But the fact remains: the output of the application in the TOP remains one of the most effective tools for obtaining a quality audience. It is no coincidence that this market is in a zone of constant regulation - from the ban on offers to the public “shooting” of Appgratis. We tried to find out what these tools can offer today, how their business is regarded by the contributors themselves and how appropriate it is to use this type of promotion.

We met with representatives of the company Fiksu, which owns the FreeMyApps service, during the St. Petersburg conference WNCONF. Thanks to this conversation, the idea of ​​a small interview was born, in which we tried to find out how the FreeMyApps business works.

But for starters - a small educational program. FreeMyApps allows you to install mobile (iOS and Android) applications for free. At the same time, the installation itself is stimulated by obtaining credits, by accumulating which you can get different types of gifts from the service. This results in a double user benefit and stimulated advertising for the publisher of the application.
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Oliver Clark , Fiksu Sales Director, kindly agreed to answer our questions.

Oliver, tell us a brief history and current statistics FreeMyApps.

FreeMyApps was created as a platform for connecting customers with application publishers. We reward users for downloads, luring free applications for both iOS and Android. Thus, we have the opportunity to attract and retain an interested audience, which application publishers can in turn engage in their own advertising campaigns.

Since the launch of the platform in 2011, the audience has grown to 1.6 million active users per month, among which social activity is about 600K likes on Facebook and about 400K followers on Twitter.

You work in a very competitive market. What is the difference FreeMyApps from other channels of stimulated advertising of mobile applications?

FreeMyApps has several advantages over other incentive advertising services:

• Net downloads in iTunes Store USA reaches 100K in 72 hours.
• Interested audience enhancing the result through social media.
• The ability to conduct CPE (cost per engagement) campaigns that encourage users not only for the initial launch, but also for certain actions within the game or application.

This market is not only very competitive, but also under constant control from the side, often applying their sanctions. So, last year Appgratis was removed from the App Store. How did the discovery apps market, where you work, change at that moment?

Apple has never concealed the fact that apps that mimic the function of storage do not match their vision of the iOS ecosystem. Applications that provide internal advertising for other applications using Offwals unfortunately do not correspond to this vision.

FreeMyApps, on the contrary, always promoted the idea of ​​creating a community of interested users, encouraging them for their interest in new games and applications, without copying the experience of the App Store. Moreover, FreeMyApps is a mobile web service, not an application.

Recently, Apple has a fairly strict policy on the identification of users. What do you use for tracking installations? How do you think this problem will be solved in the future?

Like all Fiksu products, FMA can use several industry standard tracking technologies, including Apple IDFA, android referrers, and digital fingerprinting. As industry standards continue to develop quite rapidly, sometimes we will continue to support leading candidates. From the very beginning, our platform was created to support new technologies, so while someone - be it Apple, Google or others - is leading the industry to meet tracking standards, we can support them.

What is the daily and monthly audience of your service at the moment? And what result can advertisers expect?

We have a total of 1.6 million active users per month, mainly on iOS. The figures for the day are different, but systematically increase on weekends. The number of application downloads can reach 100K in 72 hours and up to 200K in 30 days.

Against the background of an understandable model with stimulation, does the popularity of the Hot Apps tab raise the question? How many installations receive the top 1 application per day of this category, given that there is no user incentive for this?

Hot Apps is an innovation that has already become a significant tool for attracting users and interacting with them. However, applications presented in Hot Apps have fewer downloads than those promoted by our standard methods, due to the specifics of the Hot Apps wall. We received positive feedback from publishers who used these attitudes as part of a long-term advertising campaign with subsequent spikes in activity.

You work exclusively with US users. What are the reasons for this restriction? Last year, the Japanese audience surpassed the US in terms of revenue, Korea is growing strongly in terms of attractiveness, and Russia is not the last market in terms of prospects. Will you expand your audience in other countries?

In fact, we have users all over the world. We focused on the apps presented in iTunes from the United States, but since users from different countries can choose which version of the App Store to use, we practically cover the entire global audience. Focusing on the American side is more likely associated with large investments by advertisers than with user behavior.

What kind of awards (gifts) do users choose most often? Among the options seen and possible participation in charity - how often do your users choose it?

The most desired rewards are platform dependent. iTunes, Google Play and Amazon are the most popular providers. The ability to use loans for charity is new. However, this option very quickly became one of the most popular.

We are constantly looking for and evaluating new options, as well as giving our users the opportunity to put forward their proposals. In 2013, we added ten new options and are going to replenish the list.

Do loans have inflation? How has the amount of credits changed that you charge the user for the installation, during the service?

There was no inflation - starting from the moment of launch, the values ​​of credits remain unchanged.

Why don't you use the possibility of issuing users of a virtual card service (for example, VISA) and charging them real money? Do you have a high level of willing to hack the system?

Because most often we use iTunes and Google Play gift cards, and the money almost immediately returns back to the application ecosystem, as users purchase paid apps or make in-app purchases. Thus, we make our contribution to the overall economics of the application market.

If we are talking about the support of the ecosystem, we will take an interest in the availability of a proposal for indie developers who cannot afford to buy tens of thousands of installations. Will such stimulated traffic be effective for them?

We have a self-service portal that allows indie developers to start with a budget of just $ 1,000 and $ 0.20 rates.

For small budgets, the goal is not to achieve top ranking positions, but to achieve success in its category, which will lead to additional downloads at the most effective total price. Companies that support low rates can often attract quality users at the prices of non-incent companies.

How long does the advertising campaign of a particular application last? What is the most effective segment?

There are three main scenarios in which we work:

• Intensive advertising campaigns (24-72 hours, as many users as the budget allows)
• Long term campaigns (low stakes over a long period of time)
• Combination of these two options

Typically, advertisers use intense campaigns infrequently - at launch, at a suitable time for the season, or when the application is significantly updated. Since the goal is to attract audiences as quickly as possible, subsequent similar campaigns are not so profitable. Campaigns that combine both approaches, in the long term implying also connecting non-stimulating sources, are the best approach for constant promotion.

We often see publishers of a large number of applications that return to FMA every time they launch a new application, and FMA is becoming a standard component of their launch strategy.

In October last year, you started using the CPA model. Is it more in demand than CPI?
CPI remains the most popular pricing model among FMA advertisers, primarily because CPA is intended for advertisers with narrower needs. For advertisers with very specific goals, CPA works well. It can be about registration, training and a deeper level of understanding of the game.

In one of the interviews, your CEO, Mika Adler, expressed support for publishers of paid apps. Experts believe that the free-to-play model finally wins. Do you think that paid applications still have a place in the market?
Quote refers to how users can use their rewards to purchase paid apps. Now, two years later, it is absolutely clear that buyers are more likely to prefer free apps and are ready to spend significant amounts of money in the game. Of course, there will always be some paid applications, must have, which define particular categories, for example. But they will become increasingly niche. Fortunately, there is a very small difference between using rewards to buy paid apps and in-app purchases; the App Store gift cards allow both.

In the same interview, Mika Adler stated that one of the most important ways of developing FMA is maximum customization for a specific user, issuing the most interesting applications to him. At the moment, nothing of the kind within the service is noticeable. Is work planned in this direction?

With the development of FMA over the past two years, we realized that we want to work with all kinds of games and applications. When active users use most of the applications we offer, there is no particular need for customization. 600K fans on Facebook, 380K followers on Twitter are an indicator of inspiration with which users relate to new apps and the rewards they imply.

Moreover, advertisers in incentive networks are usually interested in quickly attracting the maximum audience, so segmentation is less in demand here than in other channels of application marketing.