Himself Santa Claus: As a developer of the application to earn maximum during the holiday period?
New Year's holidays are close, which means that many users will buy or receive as a gift new gadgets that will be filled with new and favorite applications.
For application owners, this means a seasonal influx of users and a lot of competition.
And although the holiday season is in full swing and users have already spent on Black Friday, you can have time to fit into this golden period and increase the number of users and profits without high costs.
Below we will look at the three stages of preparing an application for the holidays, which do not require much development time, but can double the income from the application.
Application Preparation
Most developers arrange discounts on applications three to four times a year: for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, New Year, Easter.
According to the Shopify report , the golden time of earnings falls from the end of November to January. There are also a lot of insights on preparing different brands for the holidays. The ideal time to start preparing advertising campaigns for the year - September . But while scientists are still working on creating a time machine, you will have to remember this and apply it next year.
According to App Annie, games account for 31% of downloads, but 75% of user spending:
What should developers do who have a non-game application? Or those who have a lull after January?
Create your sales cycle for the holidays and choose not only well-known, but also specialized. It sounds simple, but not everyone remembers it. According to Prosper Insights & Analytics, a monthly consumer spending survey, American consumers planned to spend more per person on Back to College than on winter holidays. And on purchases at school was spent 687.72 US dollars per person.
When forming the festive promotional strategy of the application, be sure to analyze the historical data and use it to optimize future campaigns.
See what went down and what - no last year. Campaign optimization is an important part of the marketing strategy and allows you not to reinvent the wheel.
Seasonal ASO
It is important to track Google trends and search queries in Google Play and the App Store in order to understand how users search for applications. And then add the most relevant keywords to the title and description of the game.
Use Keywords Search Popularity Tool (for IOS), Keyword.io , Ubersuggest , etc.
Personalization
Personalization should be the main focus for any holiday campaign. According to a Google study, users have long considered it normal that information is at hand and adapted to their specific needs. According to All Correct Games , the level of English proficiency in Russia is medium.
And if it is not possible to localize the entire application, add at least minimal personalization elements to the push notifications on the application download screen.
Festive decor application
Elements of seasonal holidays are important for two reasons: to stand out in appstore and increase user loyalty. You do not need to completely change the graphics of the application for the holiday: add snowflakes to the application icon, add a Christmas hat to the title or come up with another nice thing.
Discount system
Evaluating the growth of world consumer interest in Black Friday , and the consistently high activity of users during the New Year holidays, it is important to form a clear discount system.
If the biggest discount is expected on Black Friday, do not repeat it on New Year's holidays. The value of the application grows if users understand that the biggest discount happens once a year: you attract new users and encourage existing ones to purchase new features or renew a subscription at the lowest price.
The logic of discounts is usually the following: a discount of up to 40% on Black Friday or 50% for existing users, then support for Cyber Monday and further pre-New Year promo to maintain the interest of the audience, and the New Year holidays - the second peak of sales.
This is a standard chain of holidays, where the interest of users must be consistently heated. Some applications lengthen this chain even Valentine's Day, March 8, etc. Discounts for the user’s birthday as well as small loyalty bonuses work well.
Plan for discounts in advance - and try not to distribute maximum discounts more than once a year. It is better to include remarketing companies in the audience of interested users and those who have tried the free version of the application, but have not bought the pro version.
Promo application
According to App Annie , this year user spending on applications increased by 30%. Due to the growth of Android users in India and Brazil, and the rapidly developing AR technologies, in 2019 this figure will only grow.
Competent targeted advertising helps to increase user retention, increases user loyalty and helps further monetization.
It's time to come up with vivid pictures for social networks and media publications. Believe me, a couple of hours of designer work will distinguish you from competitors with low-quality screenshots of their applications.
Media reference
Online publications love to do thematic collections of applications and announce discounts on useful devices. The beginning of December is the best time to get into the New Year's Eve collection. If you still think that you should not waste time and write to any editors, geeks, then nothing: the number of publications with an active link to the application helps to get new users in the long term, out of season.
The online resource Lifehacker regularly arranges digests with discounts on applications, so that as soon as you see the recession of users, it makes sense to connect the media with collections of favorable discounts on applications.
Application package discount
Package applications (bundle) help users to save on the purchase of a particular application, but to get more applications at a reduced price.
Often, users buy a package for a couple of favorite applications, while the rest are almost never used.
You can add your own application to the HumbleBundle or Mac Bundles (for IOS) sites, and indicate the subject where you want to stay.
Affiliate programs
Affiliates is one of the most effective ways to attract new users to the application. This strategy is effectively used by Uber and other taxi services, many arcade games and others.
Active users of the application become app ambassadors, sharing them with friends and family and receiving rewards for downloading or using their promotional codes.
As a reward, loyal users are given premium features, discount on subscriptions and other bonuses.
New advertising channels
Paid advertising increases the percentage of organic downloads on holidays and helps maintain the influx of users after the end of the New Year HYIP. Pay attention not only on Facebook , but also on Pinterest and Snapchat.
Pinterest is a social service where users save and share photos, has proven to be an effective platform for advertising . And Snapchat recently rolled out an update, where deep links allow you to display users directly to the functions they need in applications.
This makes Snapchat an ideal remarketing tool, helping developers manage traffic in a specific section of the application, targeting users who have already interacted with it. For example, an arcade developer can target those players who have reached a certain level in the game.
Application monetization
Holidays are a great time to offer users an upgrade of the application and add a few chips to increase the interaction time with the application. Among the well-known monetization strategies of the application, there are several win-win options that it makes sense to start using, if you have not yet begun.
Date monetization
Monetization of user data involves the collection and transmission of non-personal information about users of the data collectors application. The intermediary between end customers (research centers, brands, etc.) and application owners are monetization companies. They collect impersonal data from several application owners, segment them and transfer to advertisers.
The scheme of monetization of user data is absolutely transparent and safe - the developer himself chooses what data about users to transfer to the company-collector and can at any time adjust their number. It is fully consistent with the GDPR, since the company does not collect personal data of users, while respecting the anonymity and security of each.
How does user data monetization work?
- The developer installs the SDK of the data collector company, where he writes what user data he sends.
- In his application, he writes user consent, which is shown to the user upon entering the application and gives a choice: whether to agree to send non-personal data or not.
- After the user's consent to the processing of non-personal data begins to earn on each user.
- If the user does not agree to transmit data, they are not used.
Important! The more DAU / MAU you have, the higher the monthly payments for each user. Here you can find the predicted profit calculator for monetizing user data.
The main advantage of data monetization is that its SDK can work perfectly in parallel with others, weighs almost nothing and does not drain the battery. It can be run with advertising and increase revenue in proportion to the number of DAU.
Rewarded video
Video advertising remains the top solution for those who do not want to take risks. An important point: video advertising will not begin to pay off immediately (as some developers still think), it takes time to implement it competently.
Limit video ads to 4-6 per day for a unique user. Remember, in rewarded videos, high CPMs directly correlate with the successful placement of the video player between the levels of the game, in the tips and in the places where it will look appropriate.
Partnerships with other applications
Thanks to collaboration with applications, you significantly expand your audience, attract new advertisers and gain additional user loyalty.
The app for grocery shopping can start with the main supermarkets of the country and load their product range. Uber & Spotify created a cool collaboration that allows you not to listen to the driver's chanson in a taxi, but to launch your playlist as soon as you get into the car.
For such a partnership, each of the owners receives an increase in users and additional profits, since each of them is in fact an affiliate for the other.
Subscriptions
App stores encourage developers to use the subscription model: they have reduced the percentage of deductions, and call it one of the most profitable business models. Subscriptions are good for users and for developers: the first pay only for the period when they actively use the application, the latter receive a constant cash flow.
But since users who are willing to pay for a quality application regularly are much less than fans of freebies, the developers make a one-year subscription the most profitable option.
In pursuit of new users, do not forget about existing users. Try new ways to get involved, give bonuses and use push notifications wisely.
Share the most effective ways to monetize the app for the holidays!