Quick tips for impactful app promotion

As a mobile app marketer, your goal is to master app promotion and connect with users who will engage and stay loyal. You’ve gone from idea to app and now might be asking, "How do I promote my app successfully?" This requires dynamic strategies that drive quality downloads and foster long-term user relationships.

As a leading mobile measurement partner (MMP), mobile attribution, campaign analytics, and optimization are our bread and butter. This means we also know a thing or two about what works well when it comes to app promotion. Here are a few top strategies to help you discover and captivate your ideal audience.

App promotion, or mobile marketing, is the process by which app developers and marketers publicize their apps to increase visibility, installs, and user engagement. With millions of apps on major app stores, it’s essential to have a solid marketing strategy to make your app stand out. The key foundations of any promotion are a comprehensive understanding of your target audience and thorough competitive analysis. Once those steps are completed, here’s how to effectively promote your app:

1. Craft a stellar landing page: A high-impact landing page serves as a dedicated space to showcase your app’s features, benefits, and unique selling points. It also allows you to begin building the foundation for retargeting campaigns at launch, and chipping away at your search engine optimization (SEO).
2. Use organic social media marketing: Start building an audience on social media and regularly engage with them. This is a great way to answer questions, foster community, and even incorporate early feedback to make potential users feel they have a stake in the app.
3. Prepare with app store optimization (ASO): For iOS apps, the App Store offers a pre-order function, while for Android apps, the Google Play Store offers a pre-registration option. Starting to build data this way will help you refine and optimize your listings with ASO. Focus on keyword relevance, search relevance, and keyword density in your app’s description. We have a whole app store optimization guide to boost conversions at this pivotal point.

Explore more soft launch strategies.

1. User acquisition (UA) through paid channels: Consider using platforms like Google Ads and Apple Search Ads to reach your audience directly within the app stores. Test a variety of ad formats and placements from interstitial ads to smart banner ads.
2. Email marketing: Provided you have marketing consent, include app promotion in all your emails, whether they are newsletters, customer service emails, or payment confirmations. Provide value in your emails to encourage users to download your app.
3. App reviews as a UA channel: Respond to all user reviews, both positive and negative. Show your users that you value their feedback and are committed to improving their experience.

1. Strong call to action (CTA): Ensure your ads have a compelling call to action. Test and learn to see which CTAs work for each audience segment.
2. A/B test: Speaking of testing and learning, let the results of A/B tests speak for themselves rather than assuming what works for your target audience. There are endless variables that you can test from CTAs to frequency capping.

The most important step of app promotion is campaign analysis. The measurement stage is going to tell you how effective your efforts are, and provide insights that will help you tweak your campaigns to get the most out of your budget. This is done with an MMP who provides mobile attribution, the science of matching two data points (like ad spend and installs).

An MMP helps measure key performance indicators (KPIs) beginning at the first impression through in-app events. This allows you to see which channels and campaigns are driving the most installs, engagement, and revenue. With this data, you can allocate your budget more effectively, focusing on high-performing strategies and cutting back on underperforming ones.