Facebook App Ad Experiment Results

Recently, I released a word puzzle game app for iPhone and iPad called WordGrid. As part of marketing/promotion, I decided to take out some Facebook Ads to get some installs.

I decided to throw $30 at Facebook and see what happened. This is a tiny amount of money in terms of mobile app ad campaign spending, but the results were interesting to me nonetheless.

Upfront Info:

• WordGrid is a $.99 paid app.
• I have Facebook install tracking so the install reporting will be accurate
• I spent $30.00
• The campaign ran from 1pm to 9pm on a Saturday

I chose the following target audience:

• Women in the United States
• Aged 35 and older
• Running iOS 6.0+
• Browsing Facebook on their mobile device
• Interested in casual gaming

Results:

• 5,335 users saw the ad
• 135 clicks on the ad
• 2.773% click-through rate
• $5.33 eCPM
• 5 app installs
• $6.00 spent per install

I'm not sure that these numbers give a statistically accurate representation, but it was definitely a losing proposition in terms of user acquisition profitability. I assume it would be very difficult to do paid acquisition of a $.99 paid app. I also assume this is why most successfully marketed apps are now free with in-app purchases (the average revenue per user is much higher thanks to the "whales" that spend a disproportionately high amount of money in the app).

My next game app will be free with IAP, and I will do similar ad testing. I predict that the number of installs will be much higher because of the "free" price tag.

For now, if you enjoy word games, why not give WordGrid a spin?