Mobile App Marketing Strategies & App Monetization

Here are the top 3 mobile app marketing strategies that work for the majority of Mobile Apps. Before deciding which strategy to use however, you have to analyse 3 key factors to find out which strategy is best suited to your needs.

Determine:

• Mobile app marketing budget.
• Mobile app target audience.
• The type of mobile app you have.

These 3 factors will help you decide which strategy to use.

When strategizing your app marketing efforts, you should also keep in mind what your goal is, financially or otherwise. Are you looking to break even and profit on your investment? Are you looking to create an App with corporate acquisition in mind? Or are you just testing a mobile app monetization model in anticipation of a bigger project? All these factors in when deciding on which strategy to use.

Ranking Strategy

This strategy relies on getting your App as high as possible on the App Store/Google Play, whether within a particular category or on the overall list. This strategy is ideal for universal Apps, such as a gaming, messaging or dating App. Reaching the top, however, will require a sizeable budget.

Some Apps, like dating or messaging ones, requires a large database to function properly anyway. So aggressively promote your App to ensure a large initial amount of installation within the first few days of release.

These initial installation are crucial in driving up your ratings and pushing your App to the top. You should easily recoup the amount spent on marketing through organic installation when you’ve reached the apex.

Organic installation is when someone downloads your App without going through one of your advertising channels. Research shows that top ranking apps have a 5:1 ratio of organic installs to ad click installs. This is the sweet spot where you want to be.

The Efficiency Approach

Assuming you don’t have endless mobile app marketing funds, you will need to carefully evaluate your ad sources to make sure the audience matches your target demographic

Depending on the platform, the Cost per Impressions may vary, so analyse carefully and go for the best prices and deals. Sort by cost of installation for every platform, and select the cheapest or most efficient channel. The cheapest platform might not be yielding the required sum of installation, but if the second or third cheapest can drive up installation, it’s definitely worth the slightly higher price.

Ultimately, this strategy is all about careful analysis and maximizing your ROI. It is relatively unimportant where your Mobile App stands in the rating charts, so long as you recover your expenses. Organic installation will follow if your target demographic installs the App enough to push you naturally up the ranking charts.

This strategy is most useful for developers without a large sum of cash to splash on their marketing efforts. It ensures you get the most bang for your buck and will still eventually lead to a sustainable organic growth at a later stage.

The Target Demographic Strategy

The idea here is to target a specific demographic that pertains to your Mobile App purpose. Market your medical app on sites that people in the medical industry would frequent.

For some apps, there just isn’t any suitable platform that has ad space. Some creative PR involving reviews, videos and media releases can help you reach your target demographic. A/B testing to see what works and what doesn’t will also help you narrow down where to target. Here you will want to reach the audience most likely to pay for your App as cheaply as possible.

This strategy is most useful for specialized Apps that have a niche function for a particular sector, such as the property or medical industry.

So what now?

Implementing any one of these strategies will be suitable for most mobile apps. Selecting the right one however, will require detailed analysis and consideration. The success of your app can be down to selecting the right approach to marketing.