6 Things That Will Improve Your Mobile App Marketing
We’re living in wild times, which has pushed many consumers online.
The recent shift to almost exclusively shopping online, coupled with an unbelievable amount of downtime, has created optimal conditions for marketing an app.
In addition, Google has started putting ads in the app store to help mobile app marketers draw attention to their apps and has stated that mobile signals will affect search rankings.
It’s an online world, baby, and we’re living in it! ???
While transactions may be down, people are researching, especially while in store, and are taking long looks at your brand’s digital platform.
Marketing your app will help you stay competitive and raise brand awareness, which is something every business needs to thrive.
Ever thought about marketing your app? Then you’re in the right place!
Never considered marketing your app before? It’s a good thing you’re here.
Keep reading to discover 6 things you should do when marketing your app!
1. Do Your Research Before Mobile App Marketing
As with most things when it comes to marketing, do your research!
You should evaluate the amount of money and time it will take to build and market your app, and you should check that there’s a demand in the marketplace.
A good thing to remember is you get what you pay for, so consider dedicating a considerable amount of money so you can make sure your app is built well and marketed effectively. When you decide to build an app, consider it an investment for your business. This is going to help you make more money in the long run.
Make sure to allocate money for the future as well – creating an app and marketing it is endless. ?
Start your research by reading the reviews of your competitors. Consider what people love about the app, what needs improvement, and what they dislike altogether.
Ask yourself these questions:
?What do you want the app to do?
?What problems will the app solve for your customers?
?How can you create an app your consumers will love?
A great resource to utilize is App Annie. This helps estimate the number of downloads you can anticipate through looking at your competitors downloads. You should also look at the amount of downloads for an indirect competitor to evaluate the demand of the market.
2. Engage with Potential Customers
When designing your app, it’s important to keep your customers’ needs first.
If your app doesn’t solve a problem, then what’s the point in downloading it?
Seek feedback from your ideal consumers throughout the development stage. Make sure you engage with potential customers throughout the process as well.
You can also utilize forums on social media and other sites to get feedback from real users.
3. Try to Get Feedback
The way mobile apps are ranked in the app stores on popularity and value is heavily dependent on ratings.
Come up with a strategy to get your customers to post reviews and feedback in order to increase your downloads. Make sure to include your contact information in your app descriptions to remain available to customers who have questions or detailed feedback.
Another strategy to implement is to respond to the feedback – good or bad! When you reach out to customers who’ve had a bad experience and address it, you’re more likely to improve overall customer satisfaction.
4. Optimize Your App for Mobile App Stores
On average, 40 percent of consumers download mobile apps through the search bar in the app store. Make sure your app is optimized to pop up when someone makes a relevant search. A great way to do this is to use relevant and researched key words in the name of your app.
Search ads are also a great method to increase your number of downloads. They help improve visibility and pop up as soon as a consumer searches for a relevant app, which in turn drives downloads.
5. Keep Track of Your Spending
On average, you should expect to spend $5-10K a month on marketing your app. This kind of budget will be able to get you on Facebook or Twitter. You can also use AppLift, a mobile user acquisition company, to run your campaigns (it’s important to consider vendor fees before doing this, though).
Whether or not you choose to run the campaign yourself or outsource the project, you need to consider:
Incentivized vs Non-Incentivized
This works for some companies, and not so much for others. When you create an incentive to fill out a survey, sign up for a list, or download an app, consider that the people following through are doing it for the incentive and not to actually use your app.
You can choose not to use an incentive, though! Just make sure that’s a clear part of your strategy.
Cost Per Install
Using Cost Per Install (CPIs), you would pay a network each time your app is installed on a mobile device. The upside to this is knowing your cost per acquisition costs (CPA) and acquiring a qualified user.
On average, 20 percent of apps are opened once – by getting qualified users, you know your app is being installed by someone who is going to utilize it.
Cost Per Click
Using CPCs means paying every time your ad is clicked. This is the same process Google Ads and Bing ads are sold.
Mobile, however, tends to work a little differently because accidental clicks are a very real problem. If you’re struggling to find networks that do cost per install, then create larger mobile banner sizes – this helps eliminate some accidental clicks and allows more creative freedom.
6. Keep Track of Analytics
App analytics come in two sections: preinstall and postinstall.
An install counts when a consumer downloads and opens your app within an average of 30 days.
When establishing your preinstall analytics, find a vendor that has the ability to integrate with the platforms you’ll be using to keep track of installs (not downloads). AppsFlyer is a great vendor for this!
Other mobile analytic options that are great to work with are Apsalar, Upsight, Branch, and App Annie. Make sure you really research the vendors you use – the right vendor can make or break your app analytics experience.