Top 4 Mistakes When Starting Paid App Marketing
It’s a guest post from the Admiral Media.
There are over 4 million apps available to download across Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store combined. This many apps floating around makes it almost impossible to stand out from the crowd, making good marketing a necessity for any app owner. Paid apps are a harder sell to mobile users. People expect apps to be included for free, once they’ve purchased an already costly smartphone. To convince audiences that your app is worth paying for, your marketing strategy needs to be airtight.
To learn how to successfully market a paid app, we think it’s important to look at the mistakes other marketers make when launching a paid ad campaign. What better way to learn than from the mistakes of others? So, let’s take a look at the top 4 mistakes people make when starting paid app marketing.
Not thinking about paid acquisition
With the multitudes of apps out there, you can’t just rely on the strength of your app to attract organic users. Paid acquisition, even with a small budget, can ensure that your app reaches a larger audience.
Some app owners make the mistake of ignoring paid advertising because they don’t want to part with the capital it takes to run an ad campaign after they’ve invested so much in the development of their app.
Paid advertising guarantees you visibility and reach. To leave out paid advertising from your strategy completely kills your chances of reaching audiences, even before you consider sales conversions.
Ignoring App Store Optimization
Search is an underutilized but extremely valuable tool for mobile marketers. A solid App Store Optimization strategy can move your app to the top of the search results page in the app store.
If users can’t find your app when searching within your market segment, how are they going to take the next steps to download and pay for your app? You can optimize your app using the name and title of your app, keywords, description, subtitle, number of downloads, and ratings and reviews. If you pay attention to each of these details, your app will climb higher up the app ladder.
Underestimating the power of reviews & ratings
Users got used to downloading apps with 5-star ratings and positive reviews. This means that the more positive feedback you get on your app, the more you look relevant to your users.
Many marketers forget to consider that in order to convince a consumer to move down the sales funnel, you have to build a foundation of trust. Ratings and reviews can build that foundation that will convince consumers that your app is worth paying for.
Many paid apps are subscription-based, or offer paid upgrades or products after the initial download payment. This means that customer retention is key to a paid app marketing strategy.
With so much focus on achieving the maximum amount of downloads, marketers often forget the value of retaining existing customers. To keep customers interested in your app over time, marketers can use an array of techniques, like individualized push notifications.
Push notifications are delivered straight to a user’s home screen and act to remind the user to engage with the app. Individualized notifications that use messaging tailored to the user’s location, preferences, and in-app behavior can be key in convincing a user to re-engage with an app.
Launching and marketing a paid app in an oversaturated market is no easy task. By avoiding these 4 common mistakes, you can improve your app’s chance of success.
About Admiral Media
Admiral Media is an award-winning & highly specialized performance and mobile app marketing agency for top brands and games. We place emphasis on ROI, creative strategy, and detailed reporting. Admiral Media was founded in 2019 by Andre Kempe, a mobile & performance marketing veteran with years of experience in the field. The company successfully manages global performance marketing campaigns across all digital marketing channels. In 2021, Admiral Media won two App Growth Awards and was recognized as one of the top agencies for its successful campaigns on TikTok and other channels by Business of Apps and Clutch.
