Originally published at thinktank.personagraph.com.

One of the biggest challenges of app developers today is to acquire users. Given the enormous amount of competition on the app stores, you need to get your app noticed. Although unpaid channels can be a good way to start promoting your app, paid user acquisition channels offer a significantly bigger reach and provide a gateway to achieving massive app success. We will discuss a selection of paid channels and how they are suitable for acquiring users.

Knowing your target audience

First and foremost, you need to have a clear idea of what kind of user you want to target in order to acquire the right users. If you focus on a wide audience to get as many users as possible, you’re really not focusing at all and your campaigns will be ineffective (which is extremely costly). By identifying what segment will most likely be the most interested in your app, you can target a niche. The benefits of targeting a niche is that you can tailor your messaging to this segment which makes your campaigns highly more effective. Also, since there is generally limited competition, Cost Per Install (CPI) will be lower. In other words, you get more bang for your advertising buck. Once people start downloading your app, you can check your assumptions by using PG Analytics and adjust course if needed.

There are numerous paid channels and all have their pros and cons depending on the type of app you’re promoting.

Social Media

By far the most popular paid channel for app developers is Facebook. App install ads have quickly become a dominant component of app marketing strategies since they got introduced in the end of 2012. Over 60% of the top grossing apps on the App Store and Google Play use it, which gives an indication of its effectiveness. Facebook allows for a deep segmentation and a wide reach which makes it a very attractive platform. However, due to its popularity, ads on Facebook can be extremely pricey. Competing with these big players is often a hopeless task since they are willing to pay up to $20 per install for certain segments. Twitter and Youtube only recently introduced this type of ad and might be more appropriate for a limited budget… for now.

(Mobile) Ad Networks

Ad networks are networks where large amounts of ad space is aggregated from all its publisher members. Advertisers (who are often app publishers as well) can then buy ad inventory so that their (app install) ads are displayed over a range of different websites, apps and devices. Similar to paid search, Google’s Display Network is a prominent player in both desktop and mobile advertising. Over the past few years however, the amount of mobile ad networks – networks that exclusively offer mobile ad inventory – has grown tremendously. The sheer amount of options can make choosing a network a difficult and uncertain task. Also, ad networks have to cater to both publishers and advertisers which can cause conflicts of interests. There are services – known as marketing automation – that are able to help you choose the right networks and optimize your ads continuously.

There are many types of innovative in-app ads possible that are integrated with the UX of the app. For example, reward ads have become popular ways of promoting apps. Reward ads give users some form of a reward in an app (virtual currency, features, etc.) for downloading the advertised app. Although this works great to increase your number of downloads, a significant amount of people will delete or ignore the app as soon as the reward is cashed, thus providing little real value for you.

Ad networks allow a variety of pricing options, such as Cost-Per-Install (CPI), Cost-Per-Mille (CPM, thousand impressions) and Cost-Per-Action (CPA,CPC,etc.). It depends on your marketing goals what the best pricing model is for you. A CPI campaign is the easiest way to get a decent ROI and requires least knowledge to optimize. Cost-per-Action campaigns (usually that action is a click) require a deeper understanding of marketing and statistics to optimize and are therefore more suitable for the more experienced advertiser.

Paid Search

When you read paid search you immediately think “Google”. Although other search engines can be useful for driving traffic to (mobile) websites, so far Google is the only one that offers app install ads. Additionally, Google knows which apps their millions of Android users have installed, how frequent they use them and what sort of in-app purchases they make. Google uses these insights to identify people that might be a good fit for your app. You can choose to show your ads on mobile only, which makes an impulsive install just a few taps away for your audience.

Native advertising and sponsored content

Native advertising and sponsored content have become a popular way of advertising. These types of ads follow the same design and layout as the app (or website/paper/magazine/etc.) it’s shown on. General results are that people are more likely to click on these ads because they are perceived less intrusive and more informative. The art of this type of advertising is to be able to tell a good story that is relevant to your app. Native advertising allows you to educate a wide audience but provides generally less control over what segments you want to target. Sponsored content is usually in direct agreement with the host app or website, allowing you to choose one you think has a relevant audience. Be sure to choose wisely because most sponsored content isn’t cheap.

Video advertising

This is one of the priciest options of promoting your app since it involves creating a (professional) video ad. However, video ads can be very compelling and are more likely to go viral. Services like TubeMoguland Apptamin give a full range of options and targeting for this type of ad. Additionally, many ad networks are also able to show in-app video ads.

Offline

Even though the app world is completely digital, offline advertising can still be a powerful channel. For example, events can be a great way to meet and engage with people that are likely interested in your app. You can co-sponsor an event so your app is included on any marketing material/activities that take place. Also, you can represent yourself with a booth and speak to potential customers/influencers directly. The traditional offline advertising channel is print advertising. Make sure to add a QR code or a URL that is easy to type and remember.

All these channels can prove to be effective as standalone advertising solutions. However, a multichannel approach leverages the impact of each channel which enhances the success of your marketing strategy. This is the most comprehensive strategy but you will need to have a budget of considerable size. Your timing of advertising plays a very important role as well. An App Store Optimization (ASO) best practice is to release bursts of advertising in very short amounts of time (24–48 hours). By doing so your app can shoot up to the top of app store lists which will result in additional organic downloads. Also, avoid advertising in the holiday season and during other peaks. These periods are characterized by soaring ad demand which makes it even more expensive.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed when you’re making a decision about what channel you should choose, just try to think like your most valuable user. You can use PG Analytics to get hard facts about the characteristics of your user base to help you do that.