App marketing campaigns

Companies are increasingly investing in the development of an app. Where in 2008 consumers spent a 'few' few million dollars on downloading apps from app stores, today this market is worth around USD 110 billion. It is therefore not particularly surprising that the range and quantity of apps has increased considerably in recent years. Since the birth of Google Play and the App Store 10 years ago, the market has experienced substantial growth. Today, there are over 2 million apps available for download on the Google Play (Android) and App Store (iOS) and these numbers are expected to increase in the coming years. In short: the app market is booming. The downside? 60% of the total app supply has never been downloaded.

How do you make your app stand out among all the other millions of apps? The last thing you want as a project manager is that your app is not or hardly downloaded after months of intensive development. How do you take care of it app marketing for your application to stand out among all the millions of other apps?

It actually starts before the app is developed and an app developer has been appointed at all. You have an app that solves a problem, fulfills a need or makes a process more efficient. But what is the story you want to tell with the app? What is the purpose of your app and who will be/is your (desired) target group? Storytelling helps you effectively reach your target group through a narrative (=story). With a good story you touch the experiences of your audience and make them part of your brand. Defining good storytelling takes practice, but it ensures that someone is fully immersed in your message. This way it feels like they have really experienced, seen or experienced it. This ensures that they will not soon forget your app/message, are more positive about (all) your app/communications and more importantly; they pass on your message. So they become the ambassadors of your brand.

*Wondering how storytelling works? Then take a look at how Google has applied this in its Search “Reunion' campaign”, or Lego in “Let's built together”.  

During the development of your app, you effectively involve your target group by adding incentives. You do this by, for example, communicating about news about your app, providing updates about expected features or announcing certain important dates. This allows you to create brand loyalty even before the app is live. A good example of this is the Pokémon Go app, where the app was already hyped before it was even downloadable. You can even effectively involve your audience in the creation process by entering into a conversation and letting them participate in the development process. For example, think of a poll or forum with choices about certain features. In this way, valuable feedback can be collected even before launch. This also ensures that you can generate sales immediately after the launch of your app.

* Useful tools to use for this are focus groups, usability test en in-depth interviews.

Each product life cycle has its own type of customer. When an app is launched, the innovators are the first to download your app. If you have applied steps 1 and 2 correctly, innovators will want to purchase your product immediately when it can be downloaded from the stores. After the innovators, the early adapters follow. It is advisable to use personalized marketing strategies per type of customer. A handy tool for this is the SEE – THINK – DO – CARE model from Google. To increase the effectiveness of your campaign, it is advisable to tailor each advertising message to the phase of the customer journey in which the target group is located. For example, make sure that you have arranged the price in such a way that it does not look too cheap, but is also not too expensive to enter. A good balance is key.

*Tip: It is always easier to slowly skim down than up. Please note that you do not lose the authority. So don't start price promotions until a few months after launch at the earliest.

The launch of your app is finally here and after a lengthy approval process, your app is finally live. How do you ensure that your app survives the war for downloads? This is the time when you want to get into the top list. This works through Delta, if you go from 0 to 10.000 downloads within a few hours, you are immediately in the top list and this effect reinforces each other. But how do you realize this? The key to findability in the app stores lies in two aspects. On the one hand, this lies in effective advertising of the app (also known as 'appvertising' or 'app install campaigns'). On the other hand, this is due to making good use of SEO for your app, the so-called 'App Store Optimization' (ASO).

App install campaigns. In Google, more downloads can be achieved in various ways. Various options include Search in the Google Play store, Display and Video ads in Google Display Network and/or Youtube or with Universal App campaigns (UAC) in Adwords. A big advantage of UAC is that it is made very easy to set up a campaign. Depending on the desired goal and budget, you focus on installing the app or completing certain in-app actions. If your goal is to recruit new users, then you target installations of the app. Is the goal to encourage these prospective users to perform certain actions in the app? Then you focus on in-app actions. Of course you can also use both campaigns side by side for optimal results. Some experience with advertising is advised.
* Handy to know: you cannot link target groups lists within this campaign form. Google's algorithm determines who the most relevant recipients are based on data already collected.   

App Store Optimization (ASO). This is comparable to SEO of your website, the higher your app ranks in the App Store, the better it is found by the desired target group. Both the title of the app and the right keyword combination(s) are crucial for this. Relevance and download percentages are the most important starting points, followed by the search volume. Factors that can be directly influenced include: the title, the app category, the description, the keyword field and the developer account.

In addition to App-Install Campaigns and ASO, there are of course more ways that can ensure that your app is downloaded more often through App marketing. Think of affiliate marketing, social media marketing, Search Ads, e-mail marketing, banners and direct marketing.

To measure = to know. A term that we all know and maybe get a bit tired of by now. Nevertheless, it is no less true. Especially in the current online climate, data-driven marketing is becoming increasingly important. A useful tool that can help you with this is marketing automation. Marketing automation allows you to know everything about leads/prospects through various automated systems. This way you know exactly where they come from, through which campaign, how active they are and how 'warm' they are. The nurturing of these leads is done automatically via tracking and lead scoring. This enables you to bind leads to you at an early stage in your customer journey and increases the chance of eventual conversion.

The leads or prospects have downloaded the app, great! Is the app marketing ready now? Not exactly, in addition to realizing downloads, it is also important that you build a lasting relationship between your customer and the app. After all, you have to know how to bind them to you (if you also want to be able to achieve in-app goals). By using app remarketing, you can effectively approach groups that have not used the app for a while or have shown interest in a specific action in the app.

So.. How do you ensure that your app has been downloaded thousands of times? For anyone who has scrolled through this article quickly, here is a brief summary about App marketing. It all starts with a well-thought-out brand storytelling before the app goes live. Make sure you know who your target audience is and what you want to tell them with your app. You then involve your audience in the entire process, set up your marketing strategy per customer cycle, use the right marketing campaigns (in combination with each other) during the launch and create engagement. Do you find this all a bit difficult or do you have any questions? Please feel free to contact us if full-service app development agency we are specialized in app marketing and we can help you further.