How to effectively promote applications during the New Year holidays
New Year and Christmas holidays for retail all over the world is an opportunity to increase turnover several times and make good money on pre-holiday madness. Application developers can also directly increase revenues or get new users, which, however, is accompanied by additional advertising costs due to higher cost of installations. The right marketing strategy, well-placed priorities and chosen advertising platforms will help balance the costs of promoting your application during the holidays .
A new tablet or smartphone has long been considered one of the best gifts. According to statistics, every Christmas in the United States, millions of Americans unpack new devices and first of all download applications from stores. Last year, the number of downloads for Christmas and the post-Christmas period was 2.5 times higher than the December average. It would seem that this is a chance for marketers to take advantage of a surge of activity and work to get new users, but it’s not so simple: during the holiday period, CPI increases by 1.5-2 times. And if large players can afford high volumes of paid traffic, then in the case of small developers, promotion during this period can deplete advertising budgets. You can’t refuse paid installations either: according to AppsflyerThe 1-on paid installation leads to the 3rd organic. And in order to reduce risks, already now we need to start a campaign to optimize and increase our customer base.
November
Start preparing your New Year’s campaign with budget planning, taking into account the future costs of attracting new users during the holidays. Pay attention to your tactics of ASO (app store optimization): you need to improve the visibility of applications, so the cost of acquiring new customers will be more effective. For example, remind users of the opportunity to evaluate your product in the store, because, according to the study of ApptentiveBy raising the rating by one star, you can increase the conversion up to 40%. So, if the application with 3 stars agreed to download only 50% of the smartphone owners surveyed, then with 4 - already 96%.
In addition, if you have been thinking about updating your application for a long time, holidays are ideal for this. This may be a new interface, additional thematic features or useful functions for holiday shopping. Make sure that the application is ready to increase the number of downloads and make the necessary technical adjustments. It is important to remember that due to the high excitement, updates to the stores can take up to two weeks, so the end of November is the ideal time for such operations.
December
Before raising advertising costs, it’s good to run pre-holiday campaigns. Work on seasonal themes in applications: for example, update the logo by hitching a Santa hat in the upper corner, add famous jingle bells or association words to push messages. For in-app messages, you can offer visual elements, for example, garlands, snowflakes, Christmas balls. BUT! It is important not to overdo it, because your goal is not just to change the design, but to share the festive mood with users.
Of the simple but illustrative examples, you can recall Line , an instant messaging application that released special Christmas stickers in 2014. Similarly to the LINE camera application (now aillis), developers added frames and the ability to create Christmas cards.
If your application is in the e-commerce category, think about coupons, sales, free delivery, the “buy one - get the second free” promotion. Otherwise, think about how it can be useful to users during the holidays, for example, applications for travelers can focus on maps with designated restaurants with special Christmas menus or other "chips".
Such campaigns are also good at attracting organic users. Check out several advertising channels and formats, do a split-testing of announcements on holiday themes to find the best option for promotion on Christmas and New Year.
Christmas holidays
This is the time when you need to focus on volumes. Monitor your CPI / CPA and don’t stop achieving your desired results. The most common mistake developers make is that they refuse to pay installations after reaching a certain planned level, which leads to a quick loss of positions. An important point: plan advertising campaigns, depending on the region for which you work. Let's say when Christmas has ended long ago in the EU and the USA, everything is just beginning in the CIS countries. There is a separate discussion about the Chinese: despite the fact that they are increasingly following Western traditions, their New Year falls on February.
January
Although after the holidays, many users continue to download applications to their new devices, the installation cost still falls. On the one hand, you can continue to attract new users, on the other hand, you must focus on those who downloaded your application. This is a time of promotions and active promotions. As a rule, user activity on holidays can increase significantly, especially if your target audience is students and schoolchildren. Do not miss the opportunity to raise your ROI, plan and prepare high-quality stocks, use PR resources and social networks. Launch re-engagement campaigns to support the interest and activity of users, offer them new opportunities, bonuses or discounts.
A new tablet or smartphone has long been considered one of the best gifts. According to statistics, every Christmas in the United States, millions of Americans unpack new devices and first of all download applications from stores. Last year, the number of downloads for Christmas and the post-Christmas period was 2.5 times higher than the December average. It would seem that this is a chance for marketers to take advantage of a surge of activity and work to get new users, but it’s not so simple: during the holiday period, CPI increases by 1.5-2 times. And if large players can afford high volumes of paid traffic, then in the case of small developers, promotion during this period can deplete advertising budgets. You can’t refuse paid installations either: according to AppsflyerThe 1-on paid installation leads to the 3rd organic. And in order to reduce risks, already now we need to start a campaign to optimize and increase our customer base.
November
Start preparing your New Year’s campaign with budget planning, taking into account the future costs of attracting new users during the holidays. Pay attention to your tactics of ASO (app store optimization): you need to improve the visibility of applications, so the cost of acquiring new customers will be more effective. For example, remind users of the opportunity to evaluate your product in the store, because, according to the study of ApptentiveBy raising the rating by one star, you can increase the conversion up to 40%. So, if the application with 3 stars agreed to download only 50% of the smartphone owners surveyed, then with 4 - already 96%.
In addition, if you have been thinking about updating your application for a long time, holidays are ideal for this. This may be a new interface, additional thematic features or useful functions for holiday shopping. Make sure that the application is ready to increase the number of downloads and make the necessary technical adjustments. It is important to remember that due to the high excitement, updates to the stores can take up to two weeks, so the end of November is the ideal time for such operations.
December
Before raising advertising costs, it’s good to run pre-holiday campaigns. Work on seasonal themes in applications: for example, update the logo by hitching a Santa hat in the upper corner, add famous jingle bells or association words to push messages. For in-app messages, you can offer visual elements, for example, garlands, snowflakes, Christmas balls. BUT! It is important not to overdo it, because your goal is not just to change the design, but to share the festive mood with users.
Of the simple but illustrative examples, you can recall Line , an instant messaging application that released special Christmas stickers in 2014. Similarly to the LINE camera application (now aillis), developers added frames and the ability to create Christmas cards.
If your application is in the e-commerce category, think about coupons, sales, free delivery, the “buy one - get the second free” promotion. Otherwise, think about how it can be useful to users during the holidays, for example, applications for travelers can focus on maps with designated restaurants with special Christmas menus or other "chips".
Such campaigns are also good at attracting organic users. Check out several advertising channels and formats, do a split-testing of announcements on holiday themes to find the best option for promotion on Christmas and New Year.
Christmas holidays
This is the time when you need to focus on volumes. Monitor your CPI / CPA and don’t stop achieving your desired results. The most common mistake developers make is that they refuse to pay installations after reaching a certain planned level, which leads to a quick loss of positions. An important point: plan advertising campaigns, depending on the region for which you work. Let's say when Christmas has ended long ago in the EU and the USA, everything is just beginning in the CIS countries. There is a separate discussion about the Chinese: despite the fact that they are increasingly following Western traditions, their New Year falls on February.
January
Although after the holidays, many users continue to download applications to their new devices, the installation cost still falls. On the one hand, you can continue to attract new users, on the other hand, you must focus on those who downloaded your application. This is a time of promotions and active promotions. As a rule, user activity on holidays can increase significantly, especially if your target audience is students and schoolchildren. Do not miss the opportunity to raise your ROI, plan and prepare high-quality stocks, use PR resources and social networks. Launch re-engagement campaigns to support the interest and activity of users, offer them new opportunities, bonuses or discounts.