Is Alexa reliable?

Community Forums/General Help/Is Alexa reliable?

GfK(Posted 2011) [#1]
I'm being swamped with advertising offers from various ipad game sites at present, all claiming millions of monthly visits etc etc. One in particular is claiming ove two million impressions per month, but the Alexa stats tell a very different story.

Can alexa stats be relied on as something approximating fact? Or is it waste of time looking on there?


ima747(Posted 2011) [#2]
It's my experience that if they come to you they're trying to sell snake oil. See all the "get ranked in the top 10 on google!" offers I get every day as one example... anyone that could actually drive that much traffic legitimately would a) have no need to advertise their service since they could just drive traffic and b) wouldn't sell their service, they'd drive traffic to any number of locations that are openly paying for such things. This means either they can't actually generate traffic, or the traffic they generate is suspect at best and as a result isn't worth anything except load on your servers for no return.


GfK(Posted 2011) [#3]
These aren't random emails - they're from iPad game sites I've recently sent promo codes to. And the ad would link to my game on iTunes, not to my site, so no extra server load (for me, at least).


Gabriel(Posted 2011) [#4]
Can alexa stats be relied on as something approximating fact?

Not really, but in the context of iPad sites offering marketing opportunities, I'd trust a promise from Gary Glitter over anything those sites tell you. Once you have a game on iOS you will get approached by a number of people offering to review your game, and at some point they'll mention that a small donation gets you to the top of the review list (which is surprisingly long considering they're out there soliciting for new ones all the time).

Basically, if it's a big site, you'd know it was a big site. Some of them are easy to weed out because they're crappy blogs with no comments, no link-backs and speling misstakes alll ovre the plaice. There are a few which have a slightly more professional appearance, but I wouldn't spend a penny on them personally. When it comes to iOS, unless you're a big player like Chillingo or Gameloft, mainstream advertising won't work for you. The cost will be too high for the percentage of people who will actually have an interest in a game of the genre you've* made. Your best bet as anyone other than the big guys is niche advertising, whether that be niche app sites, or even sites which don't really relate to apps or even games at all. For a game like yours**, I would be looking to tie in with the mystery/crime crowd.

* That's the generic you.
** That's not.

Last edited 2011


GfK(Posted 2011) [#5]
I've offered one of them a pittance for an ad run, with the caveat that I'll stump up full price for a longer run if they get results.

Haven't replied. :)


big10p(Posted 2011) [#6]
You know what they say about goldrushes. The only people that make any money are the ones selling picks and shovels. ;)


*(Posted 2011) [#7]
I havent heard about Alexa for ages, they were a bit shift back in 2002 when I was thinking of looking for a publisher.