Let People Know How Great Your App Is
#1 How to Market an App: Google AdWords
If you choose to go with Google AdWords to promote your mobile app, here’s a breakdown of some of the different types and features that you can go with for your mobile app. You first need to determine whether you want to show your ad on the Search Network, Display Network or YouTube. Instead of making the ads yourself, ads are generated by the lovely people at Google based on the text you submit and the app details in Play Store (icon and images). If you really want to go all out, try an optional YouTube video link on your ads that you can connect to your YouTube channel. A mobile app install is the most direct way of getting people to download your app. You can get an ad in standard format, image or video app install ads. If re-engagement is your priority, a mobile app engagement is the best bet. Ads deep link to specific scenes within your mobile app, shown on either Search Network or Display Network campaigns. You can choose between standard and image app engagement ads.
#2 How to Market an App: Website and Social Media
There are several things you can do on your part to ensure that our marketing efforts will be fruitful. First and foremost, a pre-established presence via social media and a website is a HUGE boost to the effectiveness of your ads. If someone already recognizes your brand name, they’re much more likely to click on the ad. If you have a strong following on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you already have a group of people that are going to be receptive to your ads. If you have your own website with a simple description of your app and a contact form, it gives the app more legitimacy. If someone googles your app, you want to be in control of what’s popping up first. Your website should be numero uno—none of those overly-vocal one-star reviewers that can ruin your reputation. In addition, you should have download buttons clearly displayed on your website once the app is released. This visible call to action makes it easy for people to download your app.
#3 How to Market an App: Make Connections
Making connections is also imperative with any app, since it establishes you in your niche community. According to apptamin.com, Facebook groups like App Entrepreneurs and Marketers and BluecloudSelect are great networking pages. If you have a website that you want back-linked from relevant, high-trust sites, this is an important tactic.
#4 How to Market an App: Research the Competition
Doing some marketing research before you get started on you campaign is another great tactic. It’s important to gauge the demand of your app before implementation. If your app type doesn’t generate a lot of revenue with your competitors, this might be a bad sign. If you can’t find a single app that is similar to yours, this may be a bad sign. Sure, there’s a possibility that you could just be a trendsetter with the most creative mind out there. Or it could mean that the idea has been tested and tried and failed. If you need help finding these competitors, the ASO platform Mobile Action can give you a list of the competitors for your app. After finding the competitors, look into their reviews. The two-star and four-star reviews are going to have more legitimacy than the five-star/one-star ones, because they’re probably offering practical pros and cons to the app (rather than complaining or praising). Use these reviews to figure out what people like and what they don’t like, then incorporate that information into your app updates. In fact, emphasize in your ads the components that can’t be found in your competitor’s apps. Make the most of your research. If manually going through hundreds of reviews doesn’t make jump with joy, there’s always sites like Sensor Tower that can do all of that for you, sorting reviews, allowing you to search by keyword, and giving you the option to view reviews by category tags.
#5 How to Market an App: Respond to Reviews
It’s imperative to respond to negative reviews, since those are the ones that people normally go to first when they’re looking up your app. If you want to improve your ratings, you can route bad ratings to your support. You should make contact easy by allowing users to contact you within the app, through the App Store Page, and via your website/social media platforms. Non-vocal customer won’t voice their concerns and problems with your app-they’ll just delete it. Applications like Apptentive make it easy for you to receive feedback and for unhappy users to contact you within the app.
#6 How to Market an App: What’s Your Pricing?
There are several different pricing options that you can go with:
- One time, up-front fee
- Up-front fee and in-app purchases
- Free with in-app purchases
- Free (lite version) and in-app purchase
- Free with advertising
- Subscription
- Cross Promotion
Depending on which option you go with, your paid advertising efforts might be harder or easier. For example, cross promotion within apps allows you to speak directly to users without having to pay anything. Plus, users are more likely to trust your other apps if they’re already using one you’ve developed. However, with a one time, up-front fee app, you may have issues getting people to make the purchase. Free (lite version) and free with in-app purchase options may be an easier sell since people see ‘free’ and get excited.
#7 How to Market an App: Analyze Results
If you’re not sure which promotional channel is bringing in the greatest revenue for you, companies like Tune, AppsFlyer, and Google Analytics can give you that info. It’s also a good idea to partner with other start-up app companies to help each other advertise. TapForTap is a program that lets you do free tap exchange, so you can trade clicks with other app developers. You earn credits when you show ads for other apps, then you can use those credits for your app. If you show paid ads in your app, you can even earn money.
#8 How to Market an App: Email Marketing
Emails are one of the best ways to get your name out there, since you’re not competing with other ads for your user’s attention. By choosing the right subject line, your email marketing strategy should do exactly what you want it to. Included in your emails should be info about your app launch date, a brief reminder about what your app is for, and info about your crowdfunding campaign (if applicable). Besides informing, it’s also good to get people involved in your product. Ask for feedback, contest participation, and votes. If you want to target those who are really interested in your product (like, investor-level interested), you should be sure to add them to special mailing list with investor offerings. Let them be the first to know about your app’s progress, even before the public. You can also give out promo codes to create buzz and get your app listed on promo code websites.
#9 How to Market an App: Localizing and Looping
Localizing is a smart tactic if you have an app that’s targeted toward people all over the world. It can be beneficial to build your app in English and then localize from there, since English is a widely-known language. Once you have your foot in the door with native language markets, look at how your app is doing in countries that speak another language. Countries like China, Argentina, and Russia have especially large opportunities for growth should you choose to translate your app into their respective languages.
A tactic that is hard to get just right but can result in huge free advertising for your business is incorporating a viral loop feature. An example of this would be if an app gave users the opportunity to share their high score on Facebook, invite a friend to play, etc. Essentially, the happy user does the advertising for you.
#10 How to Market an App: Paid Advertising
A surefire tactic to make people see your app and download is paid advertising. With platforms like Facebook, this type of advertising doesn’t have to be outrageously expensive. Think about how much time you have to dedicate to some of these other tactics—it’s basically the equivalent. It’s always good to do trial runs of different campaign text to see what performs better. For example, some of your app’s specific features (ie: free international calls) may perform better than others.
If you’re not sure how to market an app, our app downloading services are the perfect way to get your name out there and draw in an audience. A simple click-to-download mobile ad is all you need to multiply your profits. Once a user clicks on the ad, they’re directed to the Google Play Store or iTunes App Store to download the app directly onto their phone. With cost-per-click mobile ads, you don’t pay for anything unless someone clicks on your ad to download the app. If you take advantage of our app download advertising service, you don’t have to market an app on your own—we’ll work with you to incorporate all the amenities and features you need to make your app a success. Contact us so we can get started on your app download advertising.