Mobile app technology has changed the ways in which the world functioned. People are using apps to catalyze and conduct numerous activities, both personal and commercial. Businesses are aligning themselves to this change and are not only converting their websites into apps, but also making additional efforts for total success.
However, the real game begins once the app is made and launched on the app stores. To realize the full potential of mCommerce, you must also market your app well. It is crucial to drive organic traffic and promote app installations to boost sales and conversions. Ultimately, it’s the revenue that will determine the success of your brand.
It is important that you move ahead with a holistic approach and have a strong user acquisition strategy. If you have built a quality app with a free online app maker and your app has the ability to gain the attention of the users, you should focus on organic traffic.
App install campaigns can promote organic traffic, inorganic or paid traffic, & bulk app downloads in a short time and lead to the overall growth of your business. It is more viable as the accountability of service providers increases because they get paid only when the users commit some fruitful action.
Realize your business goals and expand your user base with a strong campaign. Read further and find out how you can design and rightly place, a robust install app campaign for your brand.
What makes social media best for app install campaigns?
Numerous apps are being added to the app stores as businesses are aiming to convert their websites to app. The market is becoming more competitive with each passing minute. To ensure your space and success amidst the overwhelming competition, you will need to focus on promoting your app and ensuring high ROI (Returns on Investment).
Social media can help you in achieving this feat and catalyze your efforts towards success. It has emerged as the most powerful tool of marketing and is here to stay. As a result, it is becoming the best channel to run install app ad campaigns and cultivate returns.
Social media is a viable tool for the following reasons:
1. Social media has a strong user-strength
According to Statista, an estimated 3.78 billion people were using social media in 2021 and the number is expected to rise to almost 4.41 billion in 2025. Clearly, more traffic ensures higher potential of branding & conversions across the globe.
2. Most social media channels are business-friendly
Many social media channels have special provisions and features meant for business & marketing purposes. 90% of online marketers agreed in a survey, that social media marketing has been effective for their business growth. As you go for the cost per action or cost per install model, you end up reducing wastage and pay the network only for the number of app installs you get.
3. Placing targeted ads is absolutely easy
It is easy to create personalized and targeted ‘app install ad’ campaigns on social media due to the availability of customised tools. According to Business Insider data, revenue through mobile ‘app install’ advertising campaigns reached $7 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $7.1 billion by the end of 2020.
4. Social media is highly result driven
When used with correct planning and approach, social media can drive promising results and fetch immediate feedback. The mobile apps can register an average growth in the number of installs only in the first three days of the ap install ad campaign.
5. Social media ad campaigns are cost-effective
Social media ad campaigns are more affordable and cost less than the conventional tools but are proven to be highly beneficial. More and more businesses are relying on this strategy to attract downloads and earn maximum exposure for their brand.
Five pillars of successful app install campaigns
In order to make the most of your ‘Install Ad’ campaign, you must channelize your efforts in the right direction. We have compiled five sure-shot mantras of success to help you design a robust campaign.
This includes:
- Research: Assessing the market, goals, strengths, audience, etc.
- Planning: Measuring your requirements and resources.
- Placement: Finding the right broadcast channels and platforms.
- Promotion: Launching and promoting the campaigns.
- Analysis: Collecting and analyzing the feedback and results.
Let us now discuss these five pillars in detail:
1. Research
Research and assessment are the primitive driving keys behind the success of any endeavour. Before you actually start investing your time, effort and money in app install ad campaign you must determine your goals. Having an in-depth understanding of your purpose and targets, will help you redirect your efforts in the right direction and channelize it to draw most favourable outcomes.
You can work on certain aspects as discussed below:
a. Find your USP
Assess the type and category of your app (shopping app, blogging app, gaming app, etc.) and find your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) accordingly. This will help you to pitch ideas for your campaign content and reach your full potential.
b. Set marketing goals
You must be clear about what you wish to achieve as a business, through the campaign you are planning. Besides earning app installations, you can also use it to attract new customers, retain existing customers & re-engage lapsed customers; to populate your business app and products; to advertise new offers, updates, features, or more.
c. Define your target audience
Conducting an audience sampling will save the wastage of resources on useless commodities. It is important that you identify your target audience and classify them on the basis of location (local, state or country specific, international), age group, gender, market preferences, and more.
2. Planning
It is not advisable to make your app install ad campaign an extravagant affair. Hence, you should plan and layout the budget smartly and spend cautiously. Measure the availability of funds and resources and see if you rely on third parties for fetching some. Make efforts in this direction and see how affordable you can make it.
You can also determine the budgeting layout for your campaign and calculate the expenditure accordingly. There is a list of methods for calculating mobile app user acquisition cost, but the general formula can be:
Cost Per Install = Expenditure on advertisements / Total installs
Although, the entire expense depends on the campaign design, there are a variety of factors that primarily affect the budget, as listed below:
a. Create a list of required resources
Make a list of external or third-party resources that you will need for the campaign and measure the costing of each. For example, you may need to produce a jingle or create a video for promotion. Hence, gather adequate resources for the same.
b. Set the campaign duration
The time span for which you are willing to run your campaign will widely determine your budget and your success rate. While some campaign designers may end up charging you more for longer periods, others can offer bulk price rates for the same. You can opt for an annual, monthly or daily plan depending on your needs, your provider and your pocket.
c. Mark your targeted locations
Difference in location, time zones, nationality, and other factors can also lead to fluctuation in the rates and charges of mobile app install ad campaigns. For instance, it might be costlier to run your ad in the developed countries with higher currency values.
d. Find the platforms for broadcast
The agencies or channels you approach will affect your budget as each have their own nuances. Your budget will also vary depending upon the platform you choose. As compared to Twitter, Facebook’s cost per install runs for approximately 40% less. Hence, plan everything in advance and implement accordingly.
e. Measure the scale and scope of your brand
The scale of your app, scope of your business and the category of your apps will also determine your expenses. For instance, if your app endorses a luxury range of items and ensures higher ROI (Returns on Investment) you might get charged more, depending upon your campaign design.
3. Placement
Once you have determined your business goals & your audience and raised funds for the campaign, the next big step is to seek the right platform. Different social media platforms are developing customised options for businesses and each has its own advantages and perks. Thanks to their supportive metrics, it has become easier to run quantifiable campaigns on these platforms. All you need to do is to study various platforms and harness those having the potential to bring in the maximum number of engagements and exposure.
The various strategies that can be applied for various platforms are:
a. Facebook
It is such an easy and productive platform that more than 2 billion businesses are already using it for promoting their brand. You too can create a promotional content that blends with organic posts and attracts downloads. Use coherent themes and brand colours that are identical. Incorporate eye-catching illustrations, videos or more. Prompt the ‘Install App’ action by subtly placing it somewhere within the content.
b. Twitter
This platform has the ability to attract the sophisticated audience that loves to stay updated with the trends and talk about it. Hence, keep a track of the trending affairs and align your campaign accordingly. Instead of stating about installation explicitly, slip it in creatively and make it look like it is a part of the twitter feed. However, still make the layout distinct enough to catch the attention of the users without being pushy.
c. Instagram
It is emerging as the most popular tool for app install and influencer ad campaigns. When working for Instagram, focus on the ‘aesthetics’ and include compelling product pictures or videos depicting the charm and utility of your brand. Add a distinct ‘Install Now’ button at the below and compel people to take the action by catching their sentiment. Ensure it does not appear intrusive and craft it like you would create any normal Instagram post.
d. Others
There are many other platforms that can amplify your app installation campaign when used smartly. For instance, you can harness the potential of Google ads, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and more. Each have their own viability, structural format, reach and popularity. You can gain immense success by incorporating multiple platforms for your campaign. All you need, is to have an outlined strategy for each platform, tailored enough to suit it.
4. Promotion
After determining the platform and channel for your campaign, you can proceed towards ideating and executing it. Businesses usually follow the strategy of generating curiosity and proposing a strong question. You can follow the same lead by telling how your app is the answer and how it can address their needs.
Other than this, you must also follow the strategies discussed below:
a. Create a buzz about your campaign
Go around building a hype and creating a buzz about your campaign and harness the possibilities to the fullest. Include a story in your campaign that connects with the masses. Send push notifications to your existing customers or opt for the referral rewards technique and ask people to share the app or discuss the campaign in their circle, and incentivize them in return
b. Use creativity to design impressive campaigns
Let your creative juices flow and include a mix of creative elements in your campaign. Ensure the use of images, gifs, videos, text, and more, that have the power to hook the attention of your targeted users. You can learn from your competitors or heavyweights of the industry and then innovate. Create a compelling ad with ample use of creative tools and elements that have the ability to penetrate the market with ease.
c. Interact & engage with your audience
Talk directly to your users and make them feel that they are a part of your campaign or your brand. Engage them and measure their participation by urging them to use the hashtags, try your app, and share the campaign. You can also take help from the communication tools available online or go for SMS marketing, Email marketing, and more.
d. Promote campaign across-platforms
Experiment with various channels and cross-promote the campaign on various platforms. For instance, you could have created a video for YouTube but you can modify the content and share it with a compelling copy on Facebook. Emphasize on the details like campaign video, content, slogan, and more.
e. Include a strong Call to Action
Users often don’t commit the desired action unless asked to. You surely don’t want to minimize your chances of success by losing such customers. Hence, it becomes important that you have a strong and compelling targeted CTA (Call to Action) prompt. You can choose from the specific app-related options like Open, Install, Buy Now, or think something of your own.
Suggested Read: Call-to-Action buttons – All you need to know about high conversion CTAs
f. Build social proof with testimonials & feedback
Build your brand recall value by incorporating your logo or identical screenshots into your ad for instant recognition. Also validate the authenticity of your campaign call by including social proof like ratings and reviews, download & install statistics, testimonials, user feedback, and more. You can also encourage people to share the same with you and raise your marketing value.
5. Analysis
Even after a successful 360-degree campaign, there can be a lot of things that could fall short. On the contrary, there could be many things that suddenly start seeming viable and have future value to boost conversions. Hence, it becomes important that you analyze the result of your campaign and reinvent your marketing goals
With respect to the same, you can measure the following metrics:
a. Calculate the total number of impressions
It is the key element of the campaign that determines your success empirically. Calculate the total number of responses, impressions or installations that you earned to gauge the viability of the campaign. You can also divide the study based on factors like demography & platforms.
b. Measure the effect on the income & revenue
Ultimately, it is all about the monetary gains your campaign generates, that determines its success. Fetch the overall income data and see how much income or revenue you generated. You can also measure it based on the surge you register in your conversions, or the traffic populated on your checkout page.
c. Conduct SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis
Do not just limit this study to counting the number of impressions and installations. Instead, go for a deep understanding of your strengths and weaknesses and also identify the opportunities and threats. This, in turn, will help you discover what worked and what did not, and help you make better decisions in the future.
d. Analyze the overall impact of the campaign
You can have your very own formula or parameter for measuring the success or failure of your campaign. Apply that and gauge the overall impact of it for better insights. This will facilitate the process of devising new business & marketing ideas and setting new goals. A basic analysis or a general study can make the picture clearer and help you in achieving the new goals you set.
How to create affordable apps that inspire installs?
To achieve any business or marketing goal, one must have the right infrastructure and tools. If your app is not good enough, the users will not hesitate in uninstalling it and your campaign will fall flat. To avoid this, you must offer an unmatchable experience to your customers and get an app that has the ability to woo and retain them.
So, assemble the most fruitful tools and build a fully functional app that comes with social media integration feature and remains in sync with your website. You can make AppMySite WooCommerce mobile app builder, your trusted partner to achieve this. Just sign up for the platform, make your own app and publish it on your preferred app stores.
Proceed to implement the tips discussed above and run a successful app install ad campaign across various platforms. Getting the initial app downloads is not a cakewalk but by using the resources smartly, you can win half the battle.
Stay tuned to read more about attracting app downloads with social media marketing and get abundant information on app promotion techniques. Create a premium app and tap into the mobile market to leverage your business now!