Payed games vs Free games with iAd

Mogos

Hello.

I currently have 1 game for iPad on the App Store and during december the iPhone version will also be available.
iPad is on Tier2 ($1.99) pricing and the iPhone version will be on Tier1 ($0.99).

In the meantime, I'm thinking on also releasing the same games for FREE with iAd.

The question is, based on your experience, is this worth it?

I know everyone is very touchy on answering sales volumes, etc., and I can understand that.
What I'm asking is just to share the outcome of you experience if you ever did this.

Apple concept behind the iAd was to a certain extent, to have more and more free apps, that iAd would work as an alternative to payed games, the big question is, is it really an alternative?

Thank you for sharing.

Br

ZackGS

Just a note.. its "Paid" not "payed"

And personally i think Lite + Full game is the way to go

StusApps

yeah, have been too tempted to try out iads now I have them so am reworking an older game to include them at the mo. publish tomorrow I hope. It gets pretty poor sales now but i did make it free for 2 days and it shifted 12000 copies, so am hopeful that it will serve as a reasonable test once it's free to see if there is any money in iads.

MagoNicolas

I will try first a lite versión with iAds, then Maybe a full game with it If it makes good Money. But would like to here peoples real experience with them!

CodeCode

i read somewhere in the internet that some developers are actualy making much more money with free aps with ads.

jonmulcahy

I have an app that was downloaded over 300k times. I put iAds in it, and have made $75 since august.

you need to have a game that is downloaded thousands of time a day, consistantly to make any sort of money with it.

and honestly, if you have a free game that can manage that, making it free will make you more money.

the game is going to make you money, NOT iads. All the express members who have been clamoring for iAds since it was announced as PRO only, are in for a wakeup call.

gamevicci

I have made 3000$ with iAds and only 400 with paid app in last 6 months.
The reason is that my game are not great games, but they may arouse users's curiosity, so people won't spend money for them but maybe they download them if the app is free.

It's very very important to have iAd banner during the game, and drive users to play the game for at least 5-10minutes (it's not easy), so every user will watch more banners.