Making an app is one thing and it’s a very big thing, but marketing it once its out can prove more challenging and can often prove a much bigger block to success. Its very common for app developers to make something really amazing but then stumble at the last hurdle because they simply do not have the marketing experience. It may well be worth budgeting for a marketing agency to help but before doing that its is useful to consider the best marketing channels for app promotion and how you could do them yourself.
Budget and Plan
Before you start working through the options in terms of marketing your app its well worth coming up with a budget. Even if it’s a provisional figure it will give you some idea of what you can afford when you start planning out the marketing channels. You may have investors who are willing to stump up some initial budget and that can be very helpful but they will be much more likely to offer more if you have a budget and a plan.
Influencers
These days influencer marketing is a very important channel especially for apps. The reason this works so well is because not only do these creators have a huge reach in various niches but the platforms offer direct links to the app stores and sometimes just 2 clicks between viewing some content and downloading your app. Conversion rates can be high but so are the risks of getting it wrong. Simply paying anyone with a following to promote your all can be a big mistake. The key is to find the right person and the right social channel.
You can choose form various influencer platforms from the more stayed but solid YouTube creators to Snap and TikTok. YouTube can be simply a case of finding some people with lots of views and paying them to promote your app via their channel. They have to declare sponsorship but generally it’s the simplest way to do it. Insta is also a simple platform to use and as long as everything is clearly marked sponsored you can managed it in house quite easily. TikTok and Snap can get a little more complex and often using an agency can be the best way to do this. A good TikTok influencer agency will not only pair you up with the right creator but they will also help curate and work on the content with the influencer for the best results.
SEO and Content Marketing
If your app fulfils a common request or solves a common problem people search for answer too then Google could be a very good way to market it. Build a good website that converts well and then start optimising it for key terms around the topic of your app. Create advise blogs, detailed pages and make sure you do your keyword research to isolate what people are searching for. This is all part of SEO and it can be a very powerful tool to market an app. It is a niche marketing tactic though and once again and agency may be the best way forward. Getting it wrong can lead to Google penalties. You can also use content marketing on external websites to help promote the app through helpful guide, tips and top 10 lists. Good content marketing should not be about your app it should be about a subject your app plays a role in and ideally a problem your app can solve.
If you have decided people are using Google to help with a problem your app can solve then Google AdWords may also be a good marketing option for you. It can get complicated so getting an agency onboard might be worth while. Paid Google ads if done correctly can generate a good level of traffic but beware! Some search terms can be very popular and as such very expensive indeed. If your campaign is not done perfectly the potential costs per acquisition can be very high indeed. Always look for a Google Partner agency if you are thinking about taking on someone to do this for you.
App Store Promotion
One of the most direct ways to get your app noticed is to pay for promotion within the app stores. It can be a little hit and miss with hardened app users perhaps choosing not to click on ads assuming only the best apps rank organically in the stores. But on the whole in store promotion can work very well.
App Store Optimisation
Just like optimising for Google making sure your app is optimised can help you be seen in the app store. Make sure your title makes sense and is clear. Get lots of useful key terms in the description and avoid using other brand names unless they are yours. Get good reviews, create in app ways to get reviews that work well. Test your logo, if numbers are not good but you rank well then improve downloads but redesigning the logo.
So Much More
There is so much more to app marketing but the above channels and tips are all ones to consider. Trial, Test and optimise is an important mantra. Give things a good budget to test, tweak and change and if they don’t yield move on. If they do show signs of generating downloads then push more budget into them and keep going.