Good ways to promote your android app.
Five years ago, I created an app and published it in the “android market” which is now called as play store. My first version of the app was a target to Eclair. The first day of publishing, I got around 100 downloads and crossed 5000 downloads in a month. I was a graduate student and I wasn’t well aware of how to make a proper app. My first app had a lot of bugs, memory leaks and crashes too, but still I had got good number of downloads. It’s not a big deal to get a million downloads if you have published an app five years back. However, right now getting a million downloads is quite hard. Startups are spending quite money to get more downloads. Today, there are some good ways to promote your android app without spending a single penny. I have listed a few.
App indexing
Let’s user find your app from google
Although play store is a major source for downloading apps, 1 in 4 apps are discovered in the search engine.
Today, the user can launch/download straight from the Google search result. It will be useful especially when people search on Google. This is what I get when I search medium app in Google.
Over-The-Air Installs
Let’s user install the app without phone.
In case you already have a website and want to move your website users to your app. “Over the air installs” is the best choice for you. When a user signs in, they will be asked to install the app also. So your app will be installed in user’s phone directly. This picture shows how Fitbit, drive automatic installs when users sign in the web..
App invites
Lets user share your app with friends
52% of the apps are often discovered through friends, families and colleagues (“word of mouth” marketing really saves every business! :)).
Facebook App Invites:
Facebook App invites allows you to share an app with Facebook friends. FAI does not require any login. In above picture, you can see how you can use Facebook app invites to drive more installs. The best part of FAI is, if people already have that app, it won’t send a notification.
Google App Invites:
Google app Invites is also quite similar to FB app invites, but GAI allows you to share app invitation through personalized email & SMS. GAI support deep linking. So you can create personalized on boarding to the new user stating for example that “your friend recommends this app”.
Rating Dialog:
Ratings and reviews= Word of Mouth from Strangers.
Rating is the primary factor in app store optimization. The app which has good performance is likely to get more downloads. 56% apps get negative reviews due to the performance issues.
Showing the dialog at the right time is very important.
But are you showing at the right time? What if, your users clicking the rating dialog and rate as one star.
Show the rating dialog when users feel delight or achieving something beneficial from your app can be a good time. Or maybe thank you page can be an appropriate place to show the rating dialog.
For example — In a recharge app, you can show the rating dialog when the transaction is successful.
Don’t show the rating dialog at the entry point — many users find it irritating. They will go to play store and they may not come back.
Google +1:
Lets user recommends your app in playstore
Rating dialog involves heavy transition. The user has left your app to rate. It has a lot of hypotheses and a false case that they won’t rate or negative review where Google+1 become very handy. When the user opts for Google+1 it will be recommended to their friend’s homepage. The user will get recommended apps from their friends.
Promotional Badges
47 % percentage of the people says that they more are likely to download the app upon seeing the play store badges. If you don’t have one right now, put a badge on it. Please make sure that you are following badge guidelines for driving more installs.
