Attracting an audience to a site using an iPhone application
In this topic, I will try to share my own experience: why did we create an application for the iPhone and how did they unwind, did our expectations come true and did the site traffic increase.
Why iOS, not Android? According to liveinternet statistics, in Russia there are 2 times more devices running on iOS and connected to the Internet (which is very important for us) compared to Androids.
The application itself is a reader of community posts in a convenient form. Its main feature is the ability to download information in bulk and view it without an internet connection (to save traffic / money).
We tried to make it as simple as possible, only downloading and viewing information so that there were as many users as possible who understood the application.
To achieve our goal and attract new users, we needed to promote the application in the App Store. That is why it was created. Before investing in promotion, we reported on the program on our website. Our users began to download the program and leave feedback.
Further promotion consisted of posting reviews on sites dedicated to Apple products. We suggested that the editors of these resources cannot post reviews of everything, they select information and post what will be of interest to readers. Therefore, before writing to the owners of these resources, we waited for the moment when the application rises in the TOP of its section and receives at least a few positive ratings. On the day of the announcement, the application climbed to 15th place in the Entertainment section, after which we began to be interested in advertising. Editors worked quickly and posted reviews in the coming day. A day later, we were in 1st place in the TOP of all free applications. We didn’t hang out for long, but in TOP 25 there were 3-4 days for sure.
Over the first 10 days, it was downloaded about 20 thousand times, this is how the statistics look:
And this is how the statistics of loading information (accesses to XML) look
And the most interesting. How website traffic has changed after posting. Bookmark (type-in) traffic rose by 2000 people per day.
Application development: 70,000 rubles
Application promotion: 2,500 rubles (purchase of reviews)
Not the cheapest way to promote, but it has a couple of advantages:
1) long-term audience growth
2) promotion of the resource using content: you do not “annoy” people with annoying advertising, but offer interesting content
- The application should work on the earliest version of the firmware. Many complained that the program only works with a version older than 4.2
- Prepare in advance for the load on your server and channel, but do not overdo it. We installed a gigabit unlimited channel, which turned out to be superfluous - the load increased only by 30-40 Mbps
PS We decided to make the application when we had already tried all the other more or less budgetary ways to attract an audience.
PPS I rewrote the article 2 times, I hope it came out useful :)
Why iOS, not Android? According to liveinternet statistics, in Russia there are 2 times more devices running on iOS and connected to the Internet (which is very important for us) compared to Androids.
The application itself is a reader of community posts in a convenient form. Its main feature is the ability to download information in bulk and view it without an internet connection (to save traffic / money).
We tried to make it as simple as possible, only downloading and viewing information so that there were as many users as possible who understood the application.
To achieve our goal and attract new users, we needed to promote the application in the App Store. That is why it was created. Before investing in promotion, we reported on the program on our website. Our users began to download the program and leave feedback.
Further promotion consisted of posting reviews on sites dedicated to Apple products. We suggested that the editors of these resources cannot post reviews of everything, they select information and post what will be of interest to readers. Therefore, before writing to the owners of these resources, we waited for the moment when the application rises in the TOP of its section and receives at least a few positive ratings. On the day of the announcement, the application climbed to 15th place in the Entertainment section, after which we began to be interested in advertising. Editors worked quickly and posted reviews in the coming day. A day later, we were in 1st place in the TOP of all free applications. We didn’t hang out for long, but in TOP 25 there were 3-4 days for sure.
Result
Over the first 10 days, it was downloaded about 20 thousand times, this is how the statistics look:
And this is how the statistics of loading information (accesses to XML) look
And the most interesting. How website traffic has changed after posting. Bookmark (type-in) traffic rose by 2000 people per day.
Cost.
Application development: 70,000 rubles
Application promotion: 2,500 rubles (purchase of reviews)
Not the cheapest way to promote, but it has a couple of advantages:
1) long-term audience growth
2) promotion of the resource using content: you do not “annoy” people with annoying advertising, but offer interesting content
Underwater rocks
- The application should work on the earliest version of the firmware. Many complained that the program only works with a version older than 4.2
- Prepare in advance for the load on your server and channel, but do not overdo it. We installed a gigabit unlimited channel, which turned out to be superfluous - the load increased only by 30-40 Mbps
PS We decided to make the application when we had already tried all the other more or less budgetary ways to attract an audience.
PPS I rewrote the article 2 times, I hope it came out useful :)