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I’m not against adverts. How could I be? I make a significant portion of my income from sponsorship and job adverts in this newsletter. I feel strongly about how I approach advertising, but I’m certainly not against the principle.

I was sarcastic about Apple’s new App Store ads last week but didn’t make mention of the uproar or quick course correction as I didn’t have anything to add. The topic has been on my mind this week, though.

My sarcasm comes from my gut feeling that the App Store would be better off without ads. Still, I wanted to consider the positive effects for app developers. If advertising works, it should make you money rather than cost anything. If it’s breaking even or losing you money, there’s some part of the complex equation that’s wrong.

I wanted to find some success stories for a couple of reasons. It’s incredibly hard to launch an app as a small developer if you don’t have an existing audience on another platform, and it could be a partial solution to that. Also, I was curious if anyone was having success with the more traditional use of advertising of supplementing and accelerating organic growth. So, I put out a tweet asking for success stories. There’s no point in me pontificating on whether these ads are good or bad. If they’re good for “normal” app developers (rather than casinos and free-to-play games), then people should be making hay with them!

I only received one email from that tweet, from Stephan Lerner, who writes the Monee app. He has had a promising start with the ads, but it’s early days:

I’ve been using advertising in the Appstore for two months and I’m seeing an immense effect on downloads and thus also on the number of subscribers. Whether the whole thing is also economically worthwhile cannot really be said at the moment. But I think it would be much more difficult without the advertising.

This sounds promising. Money goes in, and subscribers come out! As long as the average LTV of a subscriber is more than you’re paying per acquisition, this could be a success story.

There must be more success stories out there. Have you had success with App Store ads? Please drop me a reply to this email (or dave at this domain if you’re reading via RSS) if you have had success, either now or previously, with App Store ads. I’d also be interested to hear comparisons to other advertising you do. I won’t promise to do a follow-up to this, but I may if enough interesting stories get sent my way.

Dave Verwer  

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Senior Swift (iOS) Developer @ Nord Security – iOS developer has an essential role in growing the NordPass product and a lot of freedom to make an impact. There is plenty of space for experiments and constant improvement. You would be a part of a very ambitious and enthusiastic team which gives a lot of support and encouragement every day. – Remote (within European timezones)

Senior iOS Engineer @ Doximity – Doximity, the medical network used by over 80% of US clinicians, is hiring passionate iOS engineers (fully remote!). Come be part of an amazing product team + work on an app that is constantly evolving. Use your skills (Swift, TCA, Combine) to be an integral part of our growing telemed feature. – Remote (within US timezones)

Native iOS Engineer @ MartianCraft – Are you someone who enjoys collaboratively solving challenging problems? At MartianCraft, we work together to create innovative software for our clients. You’ll always be surrounded by the best and brightest in the industry. – Remote (within US timezones)

R&D OSS Engineer @ DockYard – DockYard is a digital product consultancy, solving complex problems for enterprise clients like Netflix and Apple. We are an active OSS contributor currently working on a new naitve app framework. We're seeking to hire a SwiftUI Engineer to work within our R&D department to build out the libraries. – Remote (within US timezones)

Senior iOS Developer @ Shape Games – Join a team of talented developers who are passionate about working with Swift. We offer visa and relocation support if you want to join us in lovely Copenhagen. We are also open for fully remote team members. – Remote (within European timezones)

iOS SDK Developer @ Stream – Do you want to work on an open-source chat SDK used by hundreds of high-profile companies and startups that impact billions of users? If you are a product-minded engineer and care about software quality, apply on the link below. – Remote (within European timezones) or on-site (Netherlands)

Freelance Interview Engineer @ Karat – We're dedicated to improving access in tech. If you are too, join us as a Karat Interview Engineer. As such, you'll conduct technical interviews of developers like you on behalf of our hiring clients (including Duolingo, Indeed, and more) using the Karat Platform and its data-tested questions. – Remote (within US timezones)

 

And finally...

What do you need to deliver this feature by Monday? 🔷

(Yes, that's the closest emoji I could find to a blue star)