How to advertise an app?

Product owners and marketing managers face a crucial question: how to advertise an app and which channels to choose to avoid wasting the budget and attract new users. It’s equally important to think about how to monetize the app if it’s free. Let’s explain.

Marketing Channels for App Advertising

If you’re looking to advertise an app but aren’t sure where to begin, let’s start with a quick overview. Mobile marketing channels generally fall into two categories: free and paid. Here’s what you need to know to lay a solid foundation for your app promotion efforts.

Free Marketing Channels for Advertising an App

Everyone’s first question is how to advertise an app for free — and we’ve got great news! Free marketing channels offer a unique advantage: they often have an indirect relationship between costs and traffic. Here’s what that means:

• The advertiser does not need to pay for each click.
• Reducing the advertising budget does not necessarily halt the flow of leads.
• Increasing costs can boost traffic, but it does not provide a guaranteed outcome.

However, it is important to continue investing in the development of any channel to keep it effective. Free channels for mobile app promotion include ASO (App Store Optimization), content marketing, and SMM (Social Media Marketing). We will not focus on the latter two as they are already well-known in the market.

ASO (App Store Optimization)

Before starting advertising an app, let’s see what we already have. After a mobile app is released, it is placed in app stores to capture user attention and gather feedback. Users can discover the app through curated lists (featuring), such as “Top Games”, “New Releases” and more. To be featured in such lists, an app doesn’t necessarily need a high rating or a large number of reviews. For example, to be included in the “New Releases” category, it’s crucial to have a well-optimized app page (as illustrated below).

For these purposes, we employ ASO (App Store Optimization) — a process that optimizes an app’s store page to enhance its search ranking and improve conversion rates. ASO involves selecting the correct metadata, and assets, and working with incentivized traffic and reviews to rank higher in keyword searches, making the app page easier to identify and the app itself more likely to be installed on a device.

ASO also includes incentivized traffic and reputation management.

Incentivized traffic refers to users who are attracted to the app through specific incentives or rewards. This type of traffic can help manipulate ranking algorithms and push the app to top positions in search results through new reviews and ratings.

In practice, incentivized traffic might look like this: an order is placed on specialized platforms (e.g., for 1,000 users to install the app in Poland), and the platform calculates the cost. Part of the payment goes to users who complete the targeted action, while the other part is retained by the platform as a mediator. Incentivized traffic is most commonly used to generate positive reviews.

The reputation of a mobile app largely depends on the quantity and quality of user reviews. The app’s rating can decline for various reasons: technical issues, user frustration with an inconvenient interface, or slow loading times. It’s crucial to manage the app’s reputation effectively before starting to advertise the app.

ASO, therefore, encompasses a set of essential tools that significantly impact the app’s future success. In the early stages, basic settings may suffice. However, if the app is entering international markets, it’s advisable to prepare materials in the main language first, and then proceed with localization.

According to AppsFlyer, non-gaming app categories are gaining popularity, including finance, food and beverages, travel, generative AI, and social media. As more alternatives emerge in the market, apps in these categories particularly require high-quality ASO.

Paid Marketing Channels for Advertising an App

Free channels come with their share of limitations. To achieve greater visibility and recognition, many turn to paid methods for app promotion. Paid marketing channels operate on a straightforward principle: the more you invest, the more traffic you generate. However, reducing your advertising budget typically results in less traffic, as each click or impression comes at a cost. Let’s dive deeper into how paid advertising channels for apps work and determine who can benefit most from them.

Paid Social Media

How to advertise a mobile app without one of the main sources of traffic? Targeted and contextual ads on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Google allow you to reach a wide audience and attract a large number of users who are capable of taking the desired action.

Tools for advertising an app in Paid Social Media:

Google Ads — contextual advertising for placement on Google search results pages. For example, if a user searches for “Food Delivery,” Google will display relevant applications with a “Sponsored” label. Ads can appear both at the top and bottom of the search results. Google’s audience is vast, making this tool suitable for any category of mobile applications.

Apple Search Ads — a user-friendly platform for advertising iOS apps on the App Store, including on the “Today” and “Search” screens, search results, and product pages. This platform helps increase app visibility in the store, provides high-quality traffic, attributes users, and protects your brand from competitors.

Facebook Ads — a tool that allows you to advertise apps to users who meet specified criteria, such as interests, geography, and lifestyle. With Facebook Ads, your advertisement will be shown only to the relevant and interested audience. Additionally, promotion settings can be configured not only for Facebook but also for Instagram. This tool is also suitable for any category of applications.

TikTok Ads — a tool that allows you to create video ads displayed to users in their feed among general content. These ads include a “Sponsored” label and a call to action, such as a link to download a mobile application.

Snapchat Ads — a tool designed to build a positive image of an app, reinforce its presence in users’ minds, and attract a large number of millennials (people born between 1984 and 2000). The target audience for the ad campaign is selected by artificial intelligence, and ads can be shown to users who have previously responded to similar ads. Snapchat Ads are particularly well-suited for apps in the “Entertainment” category.

There are more tools for promoting your app on Social Media available. This article covers the most popular ones.

OEM-traffic

OEM Traffic Sources — another way to advertise an Android app. These are special platforms that utilize traffic within the interface of Android mobile devices. Examples of OEM advertising include suggestions during text input, banners in app stores, and icons in desktop recommendations. This is native advertising that effectively “reaches” mobile device users. OEM traffic is particularly beneficial for the e-commerce sector.

OEM platforms can be divided into two types:

• OEM from manufacturers.
• OEM aggregators.

Examples of OEM platforms from manufacturers include Petal Ads (Huawei Ads), Mi Ads, Vivo, Oppo, Lenovo, Samsung, Transsion, Realme, ZTE, and others. These platforms provide various tools and features for creating and optimizing ads. The ads can be displayed to mobile device users across different applications: from media players to browsers.

OEM traffic aggregators include Avov, Xoom Ads, Appnext, and others. These platforms integrate with mobile device manufacturers and resell traffic from them.

In-app advertising

In-app advertising refers to ads displayed within other mobile apps that are monetized through in-app ads. Game apps often utilize this type of ad monetization. For example, AdMob — Google’s advertising network — enables developers to generate revenue from mobile apps by displaying ads based on specified criteria. These ads are created and paid for by advertisers.

Technical Requirements: What you need to advertise an app

Now that you have a clearer understanding of the app promotion methods available in the market, it’s time to take the next step: learning the key essentials for successfully advertising your app.

1. The first essential step is to ensure that the mobile app is functioning properly. Technical issues are often the reason for a drop in the app’s rating.
2. Once technical issues are resolved, the next step is to focus on building a strong rating, which significantly impacts conversion rates. According to Alchemer, 79% of users always check an app’s rating before installing it. Increasing a rating from 3 to 4 stars can boost conversion by 89%. How to achieve a good rating was discussed in the article on ASO (App Store Optimization).
3. The next crucial step before launching ads is to connect a Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) — a platform that helps track the effectiveness of campaigns across various marketing channels. The primary function of an MMP is traffic tracking.

A Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) is indispensable for app advertising for several key reasons:

• Precise Tracking: It enables accurate measurement of every user action right from the app’s installation.
• Marketing Scalability: Facilitates the efficient scaling of your marketing campaigns.
• Budget Optimization: Helps maximize the impact of your advertising spend by identifying what works best.
• Resource Efficiency: Saves valuable time and resources by streamlining the tracking and analysis process.

Choosing an MMP is a complex process that involves considering various factors: from security and privacy to a full set of features. We will discuss the different MMPs available and what to consider when selecting one in future articles.

The Process of an App Advertising

The process of advertising mobile apps can be divided into six key stages:

1. Defining the campaign goal, target action, and budget. The goal is usually to either attract new users or re-engage existing ones. At this stage, the target audience is specified, determining who will see the ad. Machine learning is often used to display ads to the most active and relevant audience. However, there can be legal restrictions, such as age limits for car-sharing services (e.g., 21+).
2. Technical integration. This stage involves integrating ad networks with the Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) and providing the agency with all necessary access. MMP plays a key role in aggregating, processing, and analyzing data for attribution and measuring the effectiveness of mobile applications and marketing campaigns. Therefore, it is important to choose solutions that comply with data protection laws such as GDPR and CCPA and support current technologies like Privacy Sandbox on Android, which is in the process of gradual implementation.
3. Creative preparation. All the required materials for launching the ad campaign are designed during this stage, including cards, illustrations, and banners.
4. Launching the test campaign. During this period, it’s possible to assess whether the set CPA is realistic, estimate the expected purchase volume, and determine which creatives perform best. For example, at Acquisition.mobi, the test period can last from two weeks to one month.
5. Evaluating the test period and interim results. After the test period, the ad performance is evaluated using metrics such as CTR, IPM, CPI, CPA, and Conversion Rate. These metrics help assess the effectiveness of the ads and guide further campaign optimization steps. We will cover how these metrics are calculated in upcoming articles.
6. Campaign scaling. At this stage, the test period results are reviewed, the next steps within the campaign are determined, and forecasts for the timing and volume of target traffic acquisition are made.

Conclusion: Advertising an app with Acquisition.mobi

To efficiently advertise an app is not about choosing a single method but involves finding the right combination of several strategies. It is crucial to select what best suits your specific niche.

If your mobile app requires professional advertising services or if you would like to get a consultation on how much it costs to advertise an app or which channels to choose, please contact us at info@acquisition.mobi.