App Search Engine Appolicious Introduces “AdWords For Apps”

Appolicious, an independent apps marketplace and search engine, has introduced “AdWords for Apps”: a new PPC advertising system for app developers and publishers. The company says it’s the largest independent apps engine and market. Chomp, which was recently acquired by Apple, was its primary competitor (other than iTunes and Google Play).

Between iOS and Android there are more than 900,000 apps. App discovery is now a major problem for both consumers and developers — hence the new advertising option on Appolicious. Chomp was planning to introduce a similar capability and then was bought by Apple. Appolicious is currently the only app engine or marketplace where developers can bid for placement in search results.

Developers can bid for placement by keyword and by broad match or exact match. It works like a simplified version of AdWords. There’s no guidance currently about bid amounts, but it’s a relative bargain at this early stage.

A considerable amount of mobile display advertising these days is devoted to promoting app downloads. Appolicious CEO Karl Stillner contends the difference between those broadly distributed mobile display ads and paid-search ads on Appolicious is that users on his site are much more targeted prospects.

Appolicious also has an expanding network of partners that include Best Buy and Samsung. Eventually the paid-search app ads will make their way to the company’s partner network.