How we entered the TOP-3 of the Ukrainian App Store



    If you are an iOS developer, work for an iOS application development company, or are connected in any other way with this field, then you know the approximate number of downloads needed to get to the top. The numbers vary from category to category, each uses its own strategy, so any experience is important. Below I want to share our experience. I hope it will be useful to readers. I want to warn you, the case is not typical. We went to the top Ukrainian App Store, not Russian. You won’t find the magical “thousand leaps with zero marketing budget.” We didn’t succeed, and the budget was small, but certainly not zero.


    Day 1




    Apple checked our app and it's time to publish. We did not have an experience in getting to the top, however, many articles on this topic were read. In general, the advice is the same everywhere: a week before the release, you should prepare all the channels for attracting users to a quick launch, write to all possible sources, and if possible achieve free publications.

    Our team is very small, so a week before the release, we solved a kaleidoscope of other problems, most of which were technical. Considering the fact that checking applications in the App Store is not a fast business, we managed to forget about it and did not have a good marketing preparation. Among other things, we had neither warm contacts with editors, nor any user base from past projects (such things are usually kept silent in articles about the "top with zero budget"). What was available were some tested banner ads for the Android app.

    It's time to open the advertising valve to the full! Well, as to the full, the budget is very limited, and the emphasis is on the Ukrainian App Store, which is several times smaller than the often discussed Russian, which means less downloads. Our application is geolocation, with information about nearby establishments (you can view and download more for Android or iOS ), so we created a set of banners for each of the 5 largest cities separately.

    In total, 3 advertising platforms were used: vk, facebook (it also includes instagram), myTarget. Results: in vk - 210,000 impressions CTR- 1.9; facebook / instagram - 44,000 impressions, 400 installations; myTarget - 7,000 impressions, CTR - 2.09. There was a small problem: myTarget did not correctly calculate the effective bid, as a result, impressions almost did not go. In addition, vk and myTarget refused to track installations. Fortunately, analytics for the application can be viewed immediately in a dozen places, so the numbers are not lost. In general, on the 1st day, we scored 1,900 units at $ 0.07. Since we were only growing in the ranking, organic has not yet helped us. But by the end of the day, we were in 1st place in the Travel category. Hmm, that was pretty easy.


    Day 2




    The second day is no less responsible than the first, you can not relax the grip. Despite the 1st place in the category, an organic explosion did not follow, but this was not expected, the category is specific, not the most “rockable”.

    We wanted, therefore, to add sources of installations, perhaps even achieve free publications and reviews. But shish us! There are plenty of content with various bloggers, reviewers, groups in social networks, "nobody wants to publish our best innovative application" just like that, the price tag hangs everywhere. After evaluating several options, it became clear that the good old banner in social networks, which we brought to a good $ 0.07 for installation, will cost the most. Ah yes, the launch of the application we had on Saturday, moreover, on the eve of the May holidays. Journalists and reviewers did not produce material - they were already actively absorbing material of a completely different kind in nature, so almost no one answered letters.

    Results: in vk - 310,000 impressions CTR - 1.66; facebook / instagram - 60,000 impressions, 700 installations; myTarget - 20,000 impressions, CTR - 1.75. Yes, the CTR started to fall, so I had to give in to gas. In general, for the 2nd day we scored 2,500 units for $ 0.12. By the end of the day, we climbed to 7th place in the "Free" category, and the installation price is rising. Hmm, where is the long-awaited organics?


    Day 3




    This day we decided to make the last in our advertising campaign. The strategy was still the same, only this time we experimented with placing in the largest Apple public in vk. I will not pull with numbers.

    Bottom line: in vk - 315,000 impressions CTR - 1.44; facebook / instagram - 50,000 impressions, 630 installations; myTarget - 23,000 impressions, CTR - 1.87. On this day, the overall results are as follows: 2,400 installations for $ 0.13. CPC increased because I had to raise bids on advertising platforms to maintain a good pace. There were certainly organic leaps, but the rising cost of installation is not at all what we expected. Meanwhile, by the end of the day we were in 3rd place in the Free category.


    Morality


    Over $ 800 spent in 3 days, almost 7,000 installations were received.




    On the 4th day, the advertisement was completely turned off, 3rd place was reached, so we fasten our seat belt and get ready to catch the effect of the top.




    In the next week after the campaign, we did not score 1,000 leaps. The result, so to speak, is sobering. Of course, we knew that the numbers were different from the Russian App Store. But this ratio makes the whole event pointless: well-designed banners with a minimum bid per click / install give the same CPI as getting into the top + organics from this top, just for a longer period of time.


    Afterword


    A week after our event, we still got the positive effects of TOP-3 in the App Store. This served as an additional information guide for journalists to write an article about us. Ah, where have you been before! About us wrote ain , and ukrainianiphone reviewed the application. But this has already happened with 0 marketing costs and added a total of 1,000 - 2,000 leaps.

    This is the first article.our startupour young company. Ahead of more articles on a variety of different, including technical. I hope our experience will be useful to someone!


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