Mobile App Promotion: Lessons Learned
Anticipating the comments of the experienced on this article that all of the written has long been known and nothing new has been said in it, I hasten to say that this is not an abstract article about what are the standard techniques and methods of promotion in the mobile market. An article about how we used these methods, and what results were obtained in the end. All this is accompanied by real numbers and graphs. We are ready to share such information. I think that even experienced ones will be interested to read and compare with their experience, and perhaps even discuss it in the comments to the article.
The story is that our team of programmers, due to the lack of prospects in the main direction of development due to a sufficient number of large competitors (.NET components for reporting and data visualization) decided to go in a completely different direction - the development of mobile applications. Fortunately, there are tools to use the previous accumulated development experience, and not to start from scratch.
You can not say about the marketing department and the promotion of mobile applications. The promotion of components for developers is undoubtedly different from the marketing of mobile applications.
The flagship product in this direction has become an application for creating and managing databases for Android devices.
All articles read on this subject (and there were many), English-and Russian-speaking, unanimously claimed that it is necessary in the first days after publication (1-3 days) to catch as many visitors as possible on your page in the store and force visitors install app. The application, which showed rapid growth in the first days after publication, attracts the attention of publishers, and there is a chance that it will get into the Featured Apps list in its category or even in the store as a whole, which will undoubtedly bring even more users and, as a result, profit (you for this, we developed our mobile application). This strategy was justified when there were not so many applications in the store and new ones did not appear at the speed of light.
The result of this approach looks something like this:
The effect is short-lived, and if in 3 days you did not get into the desired list of Featured apps, consider that the efforts and costs were not justified. The number of installations will inevitably decrease significantly.
I want to talk about the promotion methods that we learned about from the articles, and how they work and whether they work.
Let's start with the most important - ASO (App Store Optimization) - Optimization for the store .
The name and description of the application is a very important part of the promotion strategy; the search results for a store depend on their quality. And this is your longest-term investment, because from external sources traffic decreases over time (as can be seen on the graph) - this is the time, most users look for the applications they need directly in the store - these are two.
Application Name
Must-have is the key word in the title. And the closer the keyword to the beginning, the better - the higher the application will be in search results. But do not forget that reality can bring a surprise. You assume that users are searching for your application or something similar by keyword. But in reality it turns out that either people need something else, or in the store the search gives applications that are far from your ideas.
So we would advise you to check the name of your application for viability and focus on the right user (who will install and buy) - just enter your keyword in the store search and look at the applications that Google will find for you. If close to your subject, then everything is okay. No - come up with a new name.
We found this out from our own experience through experiments. Our application has gone from Mobi DB to MobiDB Database Manager and subsequently to MobiDB Database Designer. After changing the name, the number of installations increased, because the application has risen in SERP and has become more targeted to the target audience. As the name implies, the keyword is “database”, but in the first version of the name it was not at all. Google indexes applications in the store as web pages: application name = Title of the web page. There is no keyword in the name - the application is not shown in the search. So it was with us. Therefore, we changed the name to MobiDB Database Manager, which also turned out to be not quite a good name, because it did not accurately convey the essence of the application (which is intended not only for managing finished databases, but for creating them, systematization of data and further maintenance of the database). And once again we decided to experiment - MobiDB Database Designer, as it seemed to us, quite clearly conveys the essence of the application. Our assumption was confirmed by an increase in the number of installations.
In about a month, the number of installations increased by almost 10 times. So go to the name of the application wisely, incomprehensible creative names do not give a commercial result.
Description of the application
Despite the permitted number of characters up to 4000 characters, Google indexes and, more importantly, shows visitors only the first 350 characters (and even less in the mobile store). In these 350 characters, you need to manage to fit the number of keywords necessary for good indexing and make it so that it remains readable for visitors and forces them to click on the "More" button, or even better, immediately on the "Install" button.
We changed the description several times (namely, its first paragraph) in order to improve the position of the application in the store.
Few people know, but the description of the application in the store can be formatted to draw attention to the most important points and opportunities. List of tags supported by the Play Store:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11071127/google-play-app-description-formatting
Be careful with the description, too high concentration of keywords in the description can be considered spam and remove the application from the store (with our two applications were exactly that, fortunately, we fixed everything on time). There is no field with tags for the application on the Play Store, and I would not recommend adding this to the application description - it can also be regarded as spam.
Application logo
The application logo is also an important part of store promotion. It is necessary that he convey the essence of the application and attract attention at the same time. After reading the articles, we came up with a character for the logo, which was supposed to be memorable. Based on the name MobiDB (from the consonance with Moby Dick), they came up with such a wonderful whale:
Cute, right? We also really liked it. But, unfortunately, it turned out to be completely unsustainable as a logo for an application designed to create databases. More like a game. Therefore, a new logo appeared:
Already better, isn't it? It looks like a sign for data entry, which is undoubtedly closer to databases than a wonderful blue whale.
We changed the logo at about the same time as the name of the application, which brought an increase in installations by 10 times in a month.
The advent of the material design era introduced some adjustments to the logo, it became more concise, but the essence remained about the same.
Remember that the logo is the first thing the user sees in the store’s search results. Try to attract the attention of the right users: if you do not have a game at all, not an entertainment application, but a business application, avoid cartoony and do not overdo it with the character if you still decide to use it. (Eh, the cute one was still a whale).
Screenshots and videos
Screenshots are also very important. This is an opportunity to show users how your application looks and what it can do (yes, that’s it). Screenshots should be "talking", Google does not limit the graphics to just screenshots. You can well add inscriptions on them, for example, name an opportunity and immediately illustrate it. Example:
There’s no need to talk about video. Almost 100% of users who visit the product page will watch your video, if there is one. Our video from the previous version of the application has about 20 thousand views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2tgEvji4n4. Not bad for a highly specialized video. For a month, a new video about the new version of the product has already gained more than 3000 views. All videos were created independently, now there are a sufficient number of applications for receiving video from the screen of a phone or tablet without the need for rooting the device. Well, in Android 5.0 and higher, this feature is built into the OS itself. So it’s not at all difficult, but it takes some time.
Localization of the application
A good way to increase the audience of the application is to localize the application itself and its description in the store. It is desirable in this order. Although Google does not insist on localizing the application itself to add a description in a language other than the language of the application.
Users, seeing the description in their own language, expect the application itself to be in the same language. And their disappointment is clear after installing and running the application, when it appears in English, and not in French, for example. And it is clear the appearance of negative reviews from non-English-speaking users.
To avoid this effect, first localize the application. The cost of professional services is quite high. You can significantly reduce costs by asking your customers for help. Users of Android devices are quite responsive, and they will be happy to help you for a paid version of your application or certificate for amazon.
We used both the services of a professional service and the services of a native speaker. After user localization, it is still better to perform proofreading in a professional service, but this is already much cheaper than ordering a translation from scratch.
Here is the effect of localization in Spanish (Spain, Mexico):
Localization in Italian:
Localization in German:
Creating satellite applications
Another way to advance is to create related applications that do not directly compete with yours, but still contain a link to it and thus promote the main application.
Our flagship application is designed to create any user database. To promote it, we have created applications targeted at a specific category of users, more specialized. The most successful of them are for inventory and project management, i.e. special cases of using databases. Applications are free, but not all functionality is available. For example, you cannot change the database structure or use synchronization. We offer to buy a flagship application to gain access to such opportunities.
Conclusion : this approach works, we regularly get new customers from such applications. The plus is that we cover a larger, more specific audience, the minus is that these applications also need to be promoted in the store so that they are good.
Out-of-store promotion Outside the store, the application needs to be promoted as well, but don't expect stunning results. According to MobileDevHQ research conducted in 2014, only 2% of the total number of smartphone users are looking for applications outside the store.
But this does not mean that they do not need to be dealt with at all. The appearance of links to your page in the store also positively affects the position of the application in the store, according to Google employees themselves. But the links must be correct - at least with an anchor in which there is a keyword, and not just "you can download the application here."
Another important point for promotion outside the store - you need to connect Google Analytics ( https://developers.google.com/analytics/?hl=en) or any other similar service to track conversions from external sources and be able to evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts. In order for Google analytics to show statistics on conversions from external sources, links must be of a certain type, otherwise they will be considered direct / none.
The special tool will help you generate the right links:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v4/campaigns#google-play-url-builder
So, we are ready to monitor the effectiveness of our campaigns. We proceed directly to the promotion.
Reviews
Today on the Internet there are many resources dedicated to the Android operating system and everything related to it (devices, accessories, applications, widgets, etc.). There are also a lot of bloggers writing on this topic. It would seem that getting a publication on such resources should be quite simple. But this is not at all true. The number of published applications is growing, and every developer wants to write about his application. Journalists and editors of online resources just drown in the stream of requests for publication of reviews. It takes a lot of effort to draw attention to your application, especially if you want it to be published for free. Some tips for writing a review request:
1. It must be personal. Write directly to the journalist so that it is clear that this is not a mass spamming. Refer to articles by this journalist on similar topics. Write that he is a real expert and his opinion would be very interesting to you (everyone loves flattery);
2. Write not only about what your application is insanely useful, but also about what benefit the application review will bring to the journalist / blogger himself (an interesting topic, will attract more subscribers, quality content, etc.);
3. Do not insert the entire application description from the store into the letter. No one will read a 2-page letter. It would be nice to explain in a couple of sentences what your application is for, how it differs from competitors + a link to the store + a concise list of main features;
4. Limit the total volume of the letter to 1000 characters - so you can increase the chance that your message will at least be read;
5. Thank the reader for taking the time to read the request.
I must say right away that our application received only a few free publications:
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/mobi-db-manage-your-mobile-data-with-a-database/
http: //ru.appszoom. com / android-app / mobidb-database-designer-lite-kfbxy.html
http://www.chriscampisi.com/2014/11/24/five-affordable-apps-for-managing-software-licenses/
http: / /www.zdnet.fr/actualites/5-applications-pour-gerer-les-licences-de-maniere-securisee-39816360.htm
The effect of the first review was noticeable:
But it did not last long. Considering all the reprints of this article, there are not so many new users in the end.
It is possible to publish paid reviews. Cost on average from 30 to 150 US dollars, depending on the credibility and promotion of the resource. Based on our own experience, we can confidently say that none of them will justify itself, not to mention the profit from such publications.
We did a paid text review ( http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/04/sponsored-app-review-mobi-db.html ) and a video review ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= ef7OFCIUd34 ). For the text review, $ 100 was paid. For all the hype and attendance of the resource, the effect was miserable.
For a video review of one of the first versions, we paid $ 150 (since the dollar was then 2 times cheaper). During the year, the video gained a little more than 2000 views.
Here we have such an effect:
A slight short-term increase in installations. There was no immediate commercial effect.
For a significant increase in the settings from reviews, you need to publish them constantly, because an article about your application will leave the main page of the resource on which it is posted in a couple of days, and the number of visitors from it will go to almost zero. There are two difficulties on the way to achieving this goal: insufficient funds for guaranteed paid reviews, and the inability to guess publications in time (constant delays and approvals).
Conclusion: you should not regard publications as a means of immediate earnings (long-term increase in traffic), consider this as an increase in the link mass of your page in the store. And spend money on it accordingly.
Paid installations
There is also such a practice - to pay resources (such as AppBrain) for the fact that they recommend your application to their users, and the latter install it. We worked with this resource, but not for long.
Here are the conclusions that can be drawn from such an advance: the number of installations is actually and significantly increasing, i.e. it seems to work.
BUT! Users are completely untargeted and therefore not convertible into purchases.
We undoubtedly received certain advantages from this promotion: an increase in the number of installations and reviews in the store, which plays an important role in determining the position of the application in the store. Which application do you, as a user, download more readily: an application that already has more than 100,000 installations and 4,000 reviews, or an application that has just 500 installations and about 10 reviews? It seems to us that the choice is obvious. A store search will also put the app with more installations and ratings to a higher position.
A campaign on AppBrain is good in that it can help overcome the critical barrier of at least 1,000 installations in a shorter time. At a price of 0.26 cents per installation - a perfectly acceptable option. With AppBrain, you can get better leads, but it will cost about $ 1.
Conclusion: Good for improving store position, but does not bring immediate commercial results.
Paid reviews
Reviews in the store are very important. Firstly, applications in the search results are displayed in accordance with the rating (ceteris paribus): higher rating - closer to the beginning of the page. Secondly, which of you will install the application with a rating just above the top three? This is possible, of course, but only if there is no alternative.
Therefore, the appearance of services offering rating cheating is understandable, but we did not dare to use them, because this is a clear contradiction to the store’s policy, the result of which will be 100% removal of the application from the store.
But I can tell you how to increase the number of positive reviews in the store legally. Ask your users to rate your application (when you exit it, or at another point in its use). We made this dialogue when exiting MobiDB:
The “I like it!” Button leads to the store, where the user can and, most likely, will deliver 4 or 5 applications. The “Needs improvement!” Button opens the email client and a new email message with a predefined subject, addressee and some information about the user's system and with a proposal to write to us about what does not work and what does not suit the application. Those. the user doesn’t go to the store, where he publicly can very unflattering respond about your application, or, even worse, just put the unit on without any explanation. He will write you a letter and in most cases, he will inform you what is wrong, and you have the opportunity, after talking with the client, to suggest how to solve the problem, or even make a worthwhile change to the application.
Thus, you will increase the total number of reviews in the store, while reducing the number of negative feedback.
It really works. Thanks to the guys from the custom mobile development department who prompted us to such a solution.
AdMob
Google Mobile Advertising Network. Shows ads on mobile apps, mobile websites, YouTube, and the Google Search Network on mobile devices. Pay for clicks on ads. Our AdMob campaign lasted about 2 months.
I’ll note that we already had previous experience in creating and running successful AdWords campaigns. Those. it’s not a lack of experience with such networks. The application just has a narrower target audience.
I’ll just give you the numbers: Over 1,600,000 ad impressions, over 4,000 clicks on ads (CTR is very low), 39 conversions (installs), each cost us about $ 2.
Conclusion : for our application, this method of promotion was ineffective. If your application is designed for entertainment or learning, this method is likely to work.
AdWords
Google Search and Content Network. You can configure campaigns to install the application. These campaigns were given to accompany a third-party company, since all advertising campaigns have been accompanied by it for some time, as well as in connection with the release of funds after the closure of other campaigns.
The campaign lasts about a year, and even with a decrease in the price for the converted click and an increase in the number of installations, we do not reach the payback period of the campaign.
Conclusion : You need to stop the campaigns if your goal is to profit from them in a short time. If in the future you plan to reach a payback (like us), you can continue, because the targeted traffic is well converted.
Social networks
Intensive promotion in social networks makes sense for games, entertainment and, perhaps, for educational applications. Because in social networks, people relax, chat and have fun. Just keep in mind that such campaigns require a lot of time to create a community and a large list of followers, because only then promotion in the social. networking makes sense.
We already had our audience of followers on facebook and twitter, and we just continued to post messages about new versions and special offers there (without forgetting about the correct hashtags). A lot of time was not spent on this, because it was clear that the costs would not be justified. We consistently receive a small number of new likes and followers. This is enough, given our time costs.
Conclusion : it’s cheap and cheerful if you already have some kind of audience on social networks.
To summarize :
The most important thing is optimization in the store (App Store Optimization), because most mobile device users look for the applications they need directly in the store. Experiment until you get to the SERP on the first page of the search.
Promotion outside the store is necessary, but do not expect an immediate and, most importantly, long-term increase in installations and sales. Consider this a way to gain critical mass for your store app. After 5000 installations with a sufficient number of reviews and a good average rating, the application starts working on its own - the number of daily installations is steadily increasing.
If you have a marketing budget, good. After reading the article, you may understand how best to spend it and what results to expect. Free promotion gives results, but usually it takes more time.
In any case, keep in mind that the article is based on the experience of promoting a business application, and not all methods have been tried. Go for it! Perhaps your application will just “shoot” and get to the top in the very first days after publication.
Do you have successful (or vice versa - unsuccessful) experience promoting applications? What worked, and what was the budget wasted?
The story is that our team of programmers, due to the lack of prospects in the main direction of development due to a sufficient number of large competitors (.NET components for reporting and data visualization) decided to go in a completely different direction - the development of mobile applications. Fortunately, there are tools to use the previous accumulated development experience, and not to start from scratch.
You can not say about the marketing department and the promotion of mobile applications. The promotion of components for developers is undoubtedly different from the marketing of mobile applications.
The flagship product in this direction has become an application for creating and managing databases for Android devices.
All articles read on this subject (and there were many), English-and Russian-speaking, unanimously claimed that it is necessary in the first days after publication (1-3 days) to catch as many visitors as possible on your page in the store and force visitors install app. The application, which showed rapid growth in the first days after publication, attracts the attention of publishers, and there is a chance that it will get into the Featured Apps list in its category or even in the store as a whole, which will undoubtedly bring even more users and, as a result, profit (you for this, we developed our mobile application). This strategy was justified when there were not so many applications in the store and new ones did not appear at the speed of light.
The result of this approach looks something like this:
The effect is short-lived, and if in 3 days you did not get into the desired list of Featured apps, consider that the efforts and costs were not justified. The number of installations will inevitably decrease significantly.
I want to talk about the promotion methods that we learned about from the articles, and how they work and whether they work.
Let's start with the most important - ASO (App Store Optimization) - Optimization for the store .
The name and description of the application is a very important part of the promotion strategy; the search results for a store depend on their quality. And this is your longest-term investment, because from external sources traffic decreases over time (as can be seen on the graph) - this is the time, most users look for the applications they need directly in the store - these are two.
Application Name
Must-have is the key word in the title. And the closer the keyword to the beginning, the better - the higher the application will be in search results. But do not forget that reality can bring a surprise. You assume that users are searching for your application or something similar by keyword. But in reality it turns out that either people need something else, or in the store the search gives applications that are far from your ideas.
So we would advise you to check the name of your application for viability and focus on the right user (who will install and buy) - just enter your keyword in the store search and look at the applications that Google will find for you. If close to your subject, then everything is okay. No - come up with a new name.
We found this out from our own experience through experiments. Our application has gone from Mobi DB to MobiDB Database Manager and subsequently to MobiDB Database Designer. After changing the name, the number of installations increased, because the application has risen in SERP and has become more targeted to the target audience. As the name implies, the keyword is “database”, but in the first version of the name it was not at all. Google indexes applications in the store as web pages: application name = Title of the web page. There is no keyword in the name - the application is not shown in the search. So it was with us. Therefore, we changed the name to MobiDB Database Manager, which also turned out to be not quite a good name, because it did not accurately convey the essence of the application (which is intended not only for managing finished databases, but for creating them, systematization of data and further maintenance of the database). And once again we decided to experiment - MobiDB Database Designer, as it seemed to us, quite clearly conveys the essence of the application. Our assumption was confirmed by an increase in the number of installations.
In about a month, the number of installations increased by almost 10 times. So go to the name of the application wisely, incomprehensible creative names do not give a commercial result.
Description of the application
Despite the permitted number of characters up to 4000 characters, Google indexes and, more importantly, shows visitors only the first 350 characters (and even less in the mobile store). In these 350 characters, you need to manage to fit the number of keywords necessary for good indexing and make it so that it remains readable for visitors and forces them to click on the "More" button, or even better, immediately on the "Install" button.
We changed the description several times (namely, its first paragraph) in order to improve the position of the application in the store.
Few people know, but the description of the application in the store can be formatted to draw attention to the most important points and opportunities. List of tags supported by the Play Store:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11071127/google-play-app-description-formatting
Be careful with the description, too high concentration of keywords in the description can be considered spam and remove the application from the store (with our two applications were exactly that, fortunately, we fixed everything on time). There is no field with tags for the application on the Play Store, and I would not recommend adding this to the application description - it can also be regarded as spam.
Application logo
The application logo is also an important part of store promotion. It is necessary that he convey the essence of the application and attract attention at the same time. After reading the articles, we came up with a character for the logo, which was supposed to be memorable. Based on the name MobiDB (from the consonance with Moby Dick), they came up with such a wonderful whale:
Cute, right? We also really liked it. But, unfortunately, it turned out to be completely unsustainable as a logo for an application designed to create databases. More like a game. Therefore, a new logo appeared:
Already better, isn't it? It looks like a sign for data entry, which is undoubtedly closer to databases than a wonderful blue whale.
We changed the logo at about the same time as the name of the application, which brought an increase in installations by 10 times in a month.
The advent of the material design era introduced some adjustments to the logo, it became more concise, but the essence remained about the same.
Remember that the logo is the first thing the user sees in the store’s search results. Try to attract the attention of the right users: if you do not have a game at all, not an entertainment application, but a business application, avoid cartoony and do not overdo it with the character if you still decide to use it. (Eh, the cute one was still a whale).
Screenshots and videos
Screenshots are also very important. This is an opportunity to show users how your application looks and what it can do (yes, that’s it). Screenshots should be "talking", Google does not limit the graphics to just screenshots. You can well add inscriptions on them, for example, name an opportunity and immediately illustrate it. Example:
There’s no need to talk about video. Almost 100% of users who visit the product page will watch your video, if there is one. Our video from the previous version of the application has about 20 thousand views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2tgEvji4n4. Not bad for a highly specialized video. For a month, a new video about the new version of the product has already gained more than 3000 views. All videos were created independently, now there are a sufficient number of applications for receiving video from the screen of a phone or tablet without the need for rooting the device. Well, in Android 5.0 and higher, this feature is built into the OS itself. So it’s not at all difficult, but it takes some time.
Localization of the application
A good way to increase the audience of the application is to localize the application itself and its description in the store. It is desirable in this order. Although Google does not insist on localizing the application itself to add a description in a language other than the language of the application.
Users, seeing the description in their own language, expect the application itself to be in the same language. And their disappointment is clear after installing and running the application, when it appears in English, and not in French, for example. And it is clear the appearance of negative reviews from non-English-speaking users.
To avoid this effect, first localize the application. The cost of professional services is quite high. You can significantly reduce costs by asking your customers for help. Users of Android devices are quite responsive, and they will be happy to help you for a paid version of your application or certificate for amazon.
We used both the services of a professional service and the services of a native speaker. After user localization, it is still better to perform proofreading in a professional service, but this is already much cheaper than ordering a translation from scratch.
Here is the effect of localization in Spanish (Spain, Mexico):
Localization in Italian:
Localization in German:
Creating satellite applications
Another way to advance is to create related applications that do not directly compete with yours, but still contain a link to it and thus promote the main application.
Our flagship application is designed to create any user database. To promote it, we have created applications targeted at a specific category of users, more specialized. The most successful of them are for inventory and project management, i.e. special cases of using databases. Applications are free, but not all functionality is available. For example, you cannot change the database structure or use synchronization. We offer to buy a flagship application to gain access to such opportunities.
Conclusion : this approach works, we regularly get new customers from such applications. The plus is that we cover a larger, more specific audience, the minus is that these applications also need to be promoted in the store so that they are good.
Out-of-store promotion Outside the store, the application needs to be promoted as well, but don't expect stunning results. According to MobileDevHQ research conducted in 2014, only 2% of the total number of smartphone users are looking for applications outside the store.
But this does not mean that they do not need to be dealt with at all. The appearance of links to your page in the store also positively affects the position of the application in the store, according to Google employees themselves. But the links must be correct - at least with an anchor in which there is a keyword, and not just "you can download the application here."
Another important point for promotion outside the store - you need to connect Google Analytics ( https://developers.google.com/analytics/?hl=en) or any other similar service to track conversions from external sources and be able to evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts. In order for Google analytics to show statistics on conversions from external sources, links must be of a certain type, otherwise they will be considered direct / none.
The special tool will help you generate the right links:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v4/campaigns#google-play-url-builder
So, we are ready to monitor the effectiveness of our campaigns. We proceed directly to the promotion.
Reviews
Today on the Internet there are many resources dedicated to the Android operating system and everything related to it (devices, accessories, applications, widgets, etc.). There are also a lot of bloggers writing on this topic. It would seem that getting a publication on such resources should be quite simple. But this is not at all true. The number of published applications is growing, and every developer wants to write about his application. Journalists and editors of online resources just drown in the stream of requests for publication of reviews. It takes a lot of effort to draw attention to your application, especially if you want it to be published for free. Some tips for writing a review request:
1. It must be personal. Write directly to the journalist so that it is clear that this is not a mass spamming. Refer to articles by this journalist on similar topics. Write that he is a real expert and his opinion would be very interesting to you (everyone loves flattery);
2. Write not only about what your application is insanely useful, but also about what benefit the application review will bring to the journalist / blogger himself (an interesting topic, will attract more subscribers, quality content, etc.);
3. Do not insert the entire application description from the store into the letter. No one will read a 2-page letter. It would be nice to explain in a couple of sentences what your application is for, how it differs from competitors + a link to the store + a concise list of main features;
4. Limit the total volume of the letter to 1000 characters - so you can increase the chance that your message will at least be read;
5. Thank the reader for taking the time to read the request.
I must say right away that our application received only a few free publications:
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/mobi-db-manage-your-mobile-data-with-a-database/
http: //ru.appszoom. com / android-app / mobidb-database-designer-lite-kfbxy.html
http://www.chriscampisi.com/2014/11/24/five-affordable-apps-for-managing-software-licenses/
http: / /www.zdnet.fr/actualites/5-applications-pour-gerer-les-licences-de-maniere-securisee-39816360.htm
The effect of the first review was noticeable:
But it did not last long. Considering all the reprints of this article, there are not so many new users in the end.
It is possible to publish paid reviews. Cost on average from 30 to 150 US dollars, depending on the credibility and promotion of the resource. Based on our own experience, we can confidently say that none of them will justify itself, not to mention the profit from such publications.
We did a paid text review ( http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/04/sponsored-app-review-mobi-db.html ) and a video review ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= ef7OFCIUd34 ). For the text review, $ 100 was paid. For all the hype and attendance of the resource, the effect was miserable.
For a video review of one of the first versions, we paid $ 150 (since the dollar was then 2 times cheaper). During the year, the video gained a little more than 2000 views.
Here we have such an effect:
A slight short-term increase in installations. There was no immediate commercial effect.
For a significant increase in the settings from reviews, you need to publish them constantly, because an article about your application will leave the main page of the resource on which it is posted in a couple of days, and the number of visitors from it will go to almost zero. There are two difficulties on the way to achieving this goal: insufficient funds for guaranteed paid reviews, and the inability to guess publications in time (constant delays and approvals).
Conclusion: you should not regard publications as a means of immediate earnings (long-term increase in traffic), consider this as an increase in the link mass of your page in the store. And spend money on it accordingly.
Paid installations
There is also such a practice - to pay resources (such as AppBrain) for the fact that they recommend your application to their users, and the latter install it. We worked with this resource, but not for long.
Here are the conclusions that can be drawn from such an advance: the number of installations is actually and significantly increasing, i.e. it seems to work.
BUT! Users are completely untargeted and therefore not convertible into purchases.
We undoubtedly received certain advantages from this promotion: an increase in the number of installations and reviews in the store, which plays an important role in determining the position of the application in the store. Which application do you, as a user, download more readily: an application that already has more than 100,000 installations and 4,000 reviews, or an application that has just 500 installations and about 10 reviews? It seems to us that the choice is obvious. A store search will also put the app with more installations and ratings to a higher position.
A campaign on AppBrain is good in that it can help overcome the critical barrier of at least 1,000 installations in a shorter time. At a price of 0.26 cents per installation - a perfectly acceptable option. With AppBrain, you can get better leads, but it will cost about $ 1.
Conclusion: Good for improving store position, but does not bring immediate commercial results.
Paid reviews
Reviews in the store are very important. Firstly, applications in the search results are displayed in accordance with the rating (ceteris paribus): higher rating - closer to the beginning of the page. Secondly, which of you will install the application with a rating just above the top three? This is possible, of course, but only if there is no alternative.
Therefore, the appearance of services offering rating cheating is understandable, but we did not dare to use them, because this is a clear contradiction to the store’s policy, the result of which will be 100% removal of the application from the store.
But I can tell you how to increase the number of positive reviews in the store legally. Ask your users to rate your application (when you exit it, or at another point in its use). We made this dialogue when exiting MobiDB:
The “I like it!” Button leads to the store, where the user can and, most likely, will deliver 4 or 5 applications. The “Needs improvement!” Button opens the email client and a new email message with a predefined subject, addressee and some information about the user's system and with a proposal to write to us about what does not work and what does not suit the application. Those. the user doesn’t go to the store, where he publicly can very unflattering respond about your application, or, even worse, just put the unit on without any explanation. He will write you a letter and in most cases, he will inform you what is wrong, and you have the opportunity, after talking with the client, to suggest how to solve the problem, or even make a worthwhile change to the application.
Thus, you will increase the total number of reviews in the store, while reducing the number of negative feedback.
It really works. Thanks to the guys from the custom mobile development department who prompted us to such a solution.
AdMob
Google Mobile Advertising Network. Shows ads on mobile apps, mobile websites, YouTube, and the Google Search Network on mobile devices. Pay for clicks on ads. Our AdMob campaign lasted about 2 months.
I’ll note that we already had previous experience in creating and running successful AdWords campaigns. Those. it’s not a lack of experience with such networks. The application just has a narrower target audience.
I’ll just give you the numbers: Over 1,600,000 ad impressions, over 4,000 clicks on ads (CTR is very low), 39 conversions (installs), each cost us about $ 2.
Conclusion : for our application, this method of promotion was ineffective. If your application is designed for entertainment or learning, this method is likely to work.
AdWords
Google Search and Content Network. You can configure campaigns to install the application. These campaigns were given to accompany a third-party company, since all advertising campaigns have been accompanied by it for some time, as well as in connection with the release of funds after the closure of other campaigns.
The campaign lasts about a year, and even with a decrease in the price for the converted click and an increase in the number of installations, we do not reach the payback period of the campaign.
Conclusion : You need to stop the campaigns if your goal is to profit from them in a short time. If in the future you plan to reach a payback (like us), you can continue, because the targeted traffic is well converted.
Social networks
Intensive promotion in social networks makes sense for games, entertainment and, perhaps, for educational applications. Because in social networks, people relax, chat and have fun. Just keep in mind that such campaigns require a lot of time to create a community and a large list of followers, because only then promotion in the social. networking makes sense.
We already had our audience of followers on facebook and twitter, and we just continued to post messages about new versions and special offers there (without forgetting about the correct hashtags). A lot of time was not spent on this, because it was clear that the costs would not be justified. We consistently receive a small number of new likes and followers. This is enough, given our time costs.
Conclusion : it’s cheap and cheerful if you already have some kind of audience on social networks.
To summarize :
The most important thing is optimization in the store (App Store Optimization), because most mobile device users look for the applications they need directly in the store. Experiment until you get to the SERP on the first page of the search.
Promotion outside the store is necessary, but do not expect an immediate and, most importantly, long-term increase in installations and sales. Consider this a way to gain critical mass for your store app. After 5000 installations with a sufficient number of reviews and a good average rating, the application starts working on its own - the number of daily installations is steadily increasing.
If you have a marketing budget, good. After reading the article, you may understand how best to spend it and what results to expect. Free promotion gives results, but usually it takes more time.
In any case, keep in mind that the article is based on the experience of promoting a business application, and not all methods have been tried. Go for it! Perhaps your application will just “shoot” and get to the top in the very first days after publication.
Do you have successful (or vice versa - unsuccessful) experience promoting applications? What worked, and what was the budget wasted?