Have built a mobile Application and looking at means to market the App? Well, you have landed at right page. This blog describes various tools and approaches to market your mobile application and our recommendations.
Foremost, you cannot ignore important of marketing in highly saturated app stores. Right strategy and actions, can help you minimize your marketing budget and maximize visibility. Users find applications on App store through various means, including searching app store for specific term, browsing top charts at App Stores, getting notification on social media and getting recommended by a friend. Some channels are more efficient than others for individual applications. We have categorized various options based on
- Visibility Marketing
- Performance Marketing
- Built in Virility
- Getting featured at App Stores
Visibility Marketing for mobile games
The term is coined based on user’s ability to search and find applications at app store. People find apps either by searching relevant applications, or browsing top charts. In order to capture user’s attention following techniques are used:
| Visibility Marketing | ||
| Technique | Cost | Recommendation |
| App Store Optimization | $ 1,000 | Prepare promo graphics, description, and name.
Must Do: Since it has impact on visibility and involves one time low cost stuff |
| Boost Ranking | $ 8,000 | Acquiring incentivised users to rank the top charts. This was effective but since Apple and Google changed their algorithm its no longer effective. |
| Social Media Marketing | ~$1 / Install | Needs to be highly effective, targeting properly and should be considered as performance marketing. |
| Blogs | ~ $ 300 | Though people claim its help, however the impact may be marginal and hence not really effective. Unless you are picked by a blog like TechCruch or Pocket Gamers. |
| Banner on Website | ~ $ 500 | People visiting web-page on mobile are highly less probable to install the application based on the link on the website. |
GenITeam recommends spending one-time effort on App Store optimization to place the product as per market needs.
Performance Marketing for mobile games
It’s complex but definitely most effective. The term is coined based on reviewing performance of each marketing dollar spent. In order to review effectiveness of this, we must measure marketing sources and their usage of the application. Performance marketing is highly dependent upon analytics. Here is price breakdown
| Performance Marketing | ||
| Source | Cost | Comments |
| Marketing Sources | ~$1-$5 / install | You buy users from various sources e.g. Flurry, TapJoy, UnityAds etc |
| Analytics | ~ 1000 / month | You need analytics, funnels and reports within your application to measure performance. However there are tools that make the process easier including HasOffers etc. |
GenITeam highly recommends using performance marketing. It requires updating app to identify ideal pricing, virtual currency, level progression, retention to optimize key matrix: ARPDAU (average revenue per daily active user).
Built in Virility for mobile games
Marketing budgets can really go high and hence its recommended to build virility features within applications to incentivize users to invite friends. Zynga and CandyCrush used social media pretty effectively, however Facebook and App stores have recently placed tighter control on aggressively using platforms to invite friends. However, the following listed elements can really enhance retention, virality and ARPDAU.
| Built In Virility Features | ||
| Features | Cost of Features | Comments |
| Social Sharing | ~$ 500 | Give users ability to share their progress with friends, invite friends to game, and compare results with friends (Ref : Candy Crush ) |
| Social Gifting | $ 1,000 | Allow users to request and share gifts with their friends. It allows users to invite other friends to game and benefit from network. ( Ref : Candy Crush ) |
| Leaderboard | $ 8,00 | Build regional and global leaderboard to build competition |
| Daily Challenge | $ 4,000 | Give daily challenges to user to keep him engaged. Higher the DAU, higher will be your rank in app store. Ref ( Kill Shot ) |
| Tournaments | $ 6,000 | Build tournaments / events for people to compete. This could be new level / new environment etc |
| Multiplayer | $ 4,000 | Highly effective in enhancing engagement and hence allowing users to play with their friends. Ref ( Scrabble : Play with Friends ) |
Getting Featured at App Store
Apple and Google have lot of power to push applications to its consumers by putting the application at Featured Sections. We have seen anywhere between 500,000-850,000 downloads within the feature week, however the Feature Section can give download burst but application must be supported by other means to keep the momentum.
There is no guarantee to get the application featured, however developers must adhere to guidelines provided by Apple and Google.
Where you can find mobile application:
https://play.google.com/
Learn more about gamification: https://blogs.geniteam.com/gamification/
