Girl touching a screen of her smarthone

Which App Promotion Services Can Boost Your App?

Although the industy around mobile applications is quite a new one, it behaves like every other business: The product itself has to be as good as possible to be successful! When publishing your app did you think about how to market your app with the help of app promotion services to make it even more popular?

To brave the vast amount of competitors in this industry, you can choose from a variety of app promotion services. They represent different tools you can use to help you to advertise your mobile app.

Navigation

1. Paid User Acquisition Ad-Networks|Ad-Formats|Influencer
2. App Store Optimization App Name|Description|Keywords
3. App Promotion Sites Review Sites|Press Releases|Blogs
4. Building Own Channels Own Website|Social Media

What Types of App Promotion Services Are There?

We like to separate the app promotion services into 4 different categories:

  1. Paid User Acquisition
  2. App Store Optimization
  3. App Promotion Sites
  4. Building Own Channels

For each category, there are several full service providers as well as specialized companies offering only sub services of a certain categories.

Let’s elaboarte that statement by looking at an example. Taking a closer look at App Store Optimization shows that nowadays, it is crucial to create a compelling video for your app in order to improve your Play Store entry. Therefore, many companies specialize in app video creation, like wyzowl.com and makewebvideo.com.

App Store Optimization is much more than just creating a video though. You need an app description, an app icon, your app name, feature graphic, screenshots and all of that should be keyword targeted. Hence, video creation is a sub service of App Store Optimization.
If you want to know more about App Store Optimization, read this article!

Taking a Closer Look at the Different App Promotion Services

Now that we showed you a quick overview of the categories, let’s take a closer look at each service category and their sub services.

1. Paid User Acquisition

Getting as many users for your app as possible is one of the key factors in giving your app a good ranking in the app stores. It is not easy to reach the masses of mobile users, especially if you want to acquire users for free.


Paid user acquisition is an effective way of app promotion to reach out to possible users for your mobile app.

Ad Networks

When choosing an ad network to spread the word about your app, you will find a enormous amount of companies providing this app promotion service. It is important to ask yourself these questions in advance:

  1. How much money can you spend?
  2. In which format should your app be advertised?

There are many different ad formats offerd by ad networks to push your app (you will find a listing of various ad formats further down in the article).

If you’re not sure what kind of ad network you should choose as app promotion service,  don’t worry! Even big companies like Google (“Google AdWords“) and Facebook (“Facebook Ads“) act as ad networks for promoting your mobile app.

Both offer app promotion services that are based on a bidding system, meaning the more you spend for your ad, the better it will be placed. This aspect gives you the opportunity to adjust your advertising costs to your current budget, which is an important factor for app developers with a small budget.

Since the mobile market and mobile advertising have increased over the last few years (and it keeps on growing!), some ad networks set their focus on mobile advertising.

Major companies for app promotion services are e.g. ayeT-Studios, Tapjoy and Fyber.

Incent vs. Non-Incent

Another factor within app promotion services is the way you want to attract people:

When offering a reward for downloading and using your app this is called incentivized – it’s the cheaper way to generate users. They will download your app and receive e.g. virtual currency for a mobile game they’re playing in exchange.

On the other hand, if you want potential users to download your app out of genuine interest you can choose non-incentivized advertising in your app promotion service.

The costs for this kind of service are difficult to explain since you want to get ‘loyal users’ for your app. Incentivized app installs themselves are cheaper than non-incentivized, however, you need to consider the retention rate in this context to talk about the real costs for these users.

In this article, you will find more information on retention rates as well as incent and non-incent installs for mobile apps.

Ad Formats

There is a wide range of ad formats, depending on the app promotion service you pick. Before choosing an ad format, you should take your time to think about how you want to present your app to the audience: Design, text and structure of the respective ad can have a deep impact on how users react to your ad.

Here are the most common ad formats:

  1. Banner: It is the founding stone of mobile advertising and improved a lot in the past years. Banners are displayed at some part of the screen, with a standard size of 350×50 pixel. In contrast to the beginning, when users thought of banners being disruptive, they can nowadays be implemented way more effectively in the context. The prototype of web banners was developed really early. Nowadays, banners don’t have to be static anymore, they can be animated, have a sound-layer or even get the information of a livestream!
  2. Interstitial: You could also call it full-screen banner because it is displayed on the whole screen. This way, more information can be provided and users will receive an immediate impression regarding the product.
  3. Video: In recent years, mobile videos have experienced a boost. According to eMarketer, the numbers of mobile video ad budget spend in 2014 doubled in comparison to 2013 – from $720 Million to $1.5 Billion. This progress shows the huge potential mobile videos have when choosing them as app promotion service. Due to the play time of the video, there can be even more context shown to your audience. An option for using mobile video ads in an incentivized way are so-called rewarded videos where users receive a reward for watching an entire advertising video.
  4. Native: This is the modern type of banner where ad components are be displayed. When choosing the right place and structure of the ad, it can be very effective. Users won’t be disrupted and will see the ad as part of the website/app.
  5. Offerwall: This ad format describes a page in an app where different offers are shown to the users. They can choose and complete an offer and receive a reward in exchange. Offer types may vary, from downloading and using a mobile app to watching a short advertisement about a certain product to completing a quick survey. It is always a good idea to scale the size of the reward with the amount of work a user has to put in to fulfill the task.

There will be even more ad formats available for different app promotion services but these are the basic ones, which app developers and publishers should know.

No matter which ad format you choose: Always analyse your app performance and adjust the strategy of the app promotion service you’re using. A well-chosen mixture of various ad formats is the best solution to make sure that you attract many users.

Influencer Marketing

Making your app go viral is a tough task, with millions of other apps competing for new users. That’s why some app promotion companies also offer influencer marketing:

There’s no other place than social media for spreading news online as fast as possible.

A video about your app on YouTube, a post on Facebook reaching millions of fans, or a tweet that shouts out to the followers – there are plenty of people that gathered a great fanbase. So, when selecting this app promotion service you can be sure that these people hear about your app.

Here, you can find more detailed information on this topic.formats for mobile campaigns: app promotion services

These formats are used the most for mobile campaigns © ayeT-Studios

2. App Store Optimization


The first impression of a mobile app is important for new users but you can also reach a better ranking with well-designed content in the respective app store. App store optimization (ASO) is a key element when it comes to app promotion services – here are some aspects that should be considered.

App Name

Next to the icon, people will see your app name at first so make sure that it attracts users in the right way. Your app’s name should contain the main keyword and if you have a well-known app or brand,it should contain the brand name. Sometimes, you need to be creative and gather a few ideas to get the best name for your app, or you can ask app promotion services for help.

App Description

A well-written app description can convince the user that your app is just what he is looking for.

App promotion services offer professionally written app descriptions to give potential users a detailed overview of every feature that your mobile app has to offers. With the descriptions provided, it is easy to elaborate the benefits of your app, making a prospective customer in no time.

Keyword Research and Optimization

Companies for app promotion services emphasize effective keyword research and look for the best set of keywords for optimizing your app right way. Through this approach, your app will quickly get a highly optimized and highly viewed profile.

However, make sure that your app description is not overloaded with key words. Otherwise, this could lead to a worse ranking in the app store. A high-quality app promotion service finds a good mixture and makes it appealing to potential users.

App Design and Icon

Great app design and a great looking icon are the basics of app promotion. They are very powerful in convincing people to download your app. Among app promotion services, it is important to create a coherent and beautiful design as well as an engaging app icon for your app.

They are not only creating but also testing design and icons to check out their effectiveness and functionality.

Screenshots & Feature Graphic

When clicking on your app in the app store with their mobile device, the first thing users see is the so-called feature graphic. This image at the top of the page is only available on mobile devices so you need to make sure that you don’t forget this element in your app store page.

The design should match your app, and don’t forget: Mobile devices do not have a very big screen. Hence, make sure you choose an appropriate font size.

The same goes for screenshots: Make sure that they are appealing and do not contain either too little or too much content.

Video

People like watching videos more than reading a simple text because they can get the information without much effort. Take advantage of this feature in the app store and make sure that it is not too long – otherwise it can have a negative effect. App promotion services offer to create beautiful videos of your app, in a high-quality design.

To gain deeper insight regarding ASO, just click here.

new app discovery methods: app promotion services

Most of the apps are found when browsing the app store © ayeT-Studios

3. App Promotion Sites

Before purchasing a product, people check information, reviews and comments.

Well, the same goes for your mobile app: Starting on your app store page, people will leave ratings and comments about it, which will be seen by new users. There are various other websites where your app can be listed, too.

App promotion services offer to place your app on a website, give detailed information about it, and rate it or leave a comment about it. This can boost your app’s reputation and ranking, too.

App Review Sites

App review sites deal with listing and evaluating apps from the app stores. It is a hotspot for potential users who want to get to know new apps, so you can generate many new users for your app if people find it on such a website.

However, the quality and quantity of articles about apps varies a lot: From very short app descriptions, placing your app with 5 other apps of the same category in one article, to really detailed reviews, including screenshots or even a video about your app to make sure people understand the purpose of your app. App promotion services cooperate with such websites to place your app in there, too.

There are free as well as fee-based app review sites – it is up to you which format you want to use as app promotion service. Mobyaffiliates offers a short list of app review sites for both Android and iOS, paid as well as free. You should take a look at the website first and then decide if you want your app to be presented this way.

No matter what app review site you choose: By this, you will not only gain more media placement for your app but the app can also get a better ranking because of inbound linking from those websites.

Press Release

App promotion services just work online? You’re wrong!

The classical press, e.g. a printed article about your app or your company, may seem as an outdated way of app promotion. However, there are many fans and subscribers who will receive newspapers and journals automatically or buy them. These people are keenly interested in this topic. Especially the audience of professional journals will be interested in its news and articles.

If your app is mentioned in these media you can be sure that the quantity of potential users is way higher than on other channels. Moreover, most printed media is now available on the internet, too. This leads to your app going even more viral because the press release about your app can be re-posted, linked, commented, and liked.

App promotion services can help you publish some words about your app in these forms of media.

Websites and Communities for Startups

There are millions of apps in the app stores and every day new companies are launching more apps. It is hard for them to compete with the big brands for some space for advertising but among app promotion services, you will also find websites or communities only for startup companies. Like this, it is easier for you to push past the big brands and promote your mobile app with equal brand competitors.

The good thing is that people visiting such communities intend to discover brand new products, so if you have just launched your new app this is one of the places to be. You can either register on these websites on your own and pay a small fee (or, if you’re in luck, it is for free) or you can use an app promotion service to get you online.

Specialized Websites and Blogs

Nowadays, there are blogs and websites for nearly every topic, even for techies and people who love mobile devices, gadgets, and apps.

The chances that you will gain new users are high because blogs mostly have a loyal fanbase who love the same topic as the author. If your favourite author is talking about the app, it can be worth a try.

You can ask the admin or owner of the channel yourself or you can contact a company for app promotion services to do that for you.

For more information on app promotion sites, click here.

4. Building Own Channels

You can also create websites and profiles for your mobile app where you can provide basic information about your app outside the app store. Remember:

The more channels you can be found in, the more visibility you will get for your app.

Website for Your App


It is important to create and optimize the landing page of your app sites. There, people can read all information about your product and your company. If you connect the landing page with other online channels you will increase visibility on the internet.

Social Media Channels

There are plenty of social media channels available and there will probably be even more coming up in the next few years.

It is hard to predict on which channel your app will gain the most users. But make sure that your app is visible on the main social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Depending on the purpose of your app you might also place it in channels like Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and many more.

Also, here you can decide: Do you want to do this on your own or do you want to make it in the most professional way and hire an agency for app promotion services.

forecast digital advertising revenue: app promotion services

Expectations for revenue in digital advertising until 2018 © ayeT-Studios

Where Can I Get These Services

Anyone who is going to release an app should be willing to do the extra work that is necessary for their app promotion.

Almost all people who are likely to purchase your app will not ever get to know about it unless you push it out there. For some app developers, this process is more difficult than creating the app itself.

This is where app promotion services come in to help your app release to a success, no matter if it is for Android or iOS.

Let a company for app promotion services like ayeT-Studios recommend you the best combination of tools.

Below you can find information on our pricing:

Rewarded
Advertising
Android
(starting at)
iOS
(starting at)
CPI 0,07$ 0,15$
CPE 0,30$ 0,30$
CPA (Signup, Registrations) On request On request
Rewarded Video (CPV) 0,020$ 0,020$
Rewarded Video (CPM) 0,50$ 0,50$

 

Non-Rewarded
Advertising
Android/iOS/Website
(starting at)
CPC 0,02$
CPM 2,00$
CPV 0,02$
Various people brainstorming for a concept

Your Guide to Free App Promotion

After months of hard work, it is finally here: the day of your app launch. Now you want to introduce your app to the market and convince potential users to download it.

What if you don’t have a huge budget available for promotional tools? One way to avoid a big portion of the costs is free app promotion.

App Store Optimization: Free App Promotion in Google and Apple

The first important service that can be used for free app promotion is App Store Optimization (ASO).

We highly recommend for you to present your app in the app store in a visually appealing way, as well as to use keywords and a fitting description to ensure that your app will be found in the app store.

The amount of apps that float around in the different app stores is huge. In July, 2016, there were 2 million apps in the Apple App Store and 2.2 million apps in the Google Play Store – and the numbers are increasing every day.

It is extremely hard to grabthe user’s attention if you compete with that many apps, which might be interesting for the user, as well.

Therefore, app store optimization is a free app promotional tool that is vital for your success.

Free App Promotion: Number of Apps in the Appstores

Google and Apple are the leading stores regarding the amount of apps available © ayeT-Studios

5 Steps for Successful App Store Optimization

As mentioned before, a great tool to promote your app for free is ASO. There are two main factors that are crucial for successful app store optimization: the findability and the appearance of your app in the store.

Users are more likely to download your app if it is easy for them to find your app and if they like what they see and find it interesting enough to at least download your app and try it out. So, these 2 aspects are a must-do when starting with your free app promotion.

Findability

  1. App name
    The first thing that users will see in the app store is the app name. Therefore, you need to find a catchy but unique name for your app that describes its main features or the experience that the user will have with it in the best way possible. Also, you might want to include a main keyword in the name. Be careful, though: too many keywords seem like spam to users, so that they might ignore your app and it would have counter-productive effects on your free app promotion.
  2. Keywords
    When using keywords, you need to consider the following three characteristics: relevance, difficulty and traffic. How relevant is the keyword for your app? How difficult will it be for your app to rank for the keyword? How many users search for the keyword?
    Your goal should be that your app ranks in the top 10 for all its keywords. In order to do so, you need to select your keywords carefully and monitor them on a regular basis to make sure keywords support your free app promotion. If your app is not ranked in the top 10, you should look for better keywords, for example by using synonyms, searching for good keywords with a keyword tool, or using keywords that your competitors previously used. Also, you can choose words that your users used to describe their experience with the app in the app reviews. This way, you are using your user’s language.
  3. Description
    Write a description detailing all of the features of your app and the experience the user will have with it. Be realistic and avoid lying or spinning. The users will eventually realize they were fooled and payback will come in form of bad reviews. Also, describe the app in a lively and interesting way to make the user curious about it. Use some of your keywords in the description without making it appear as spam. A good way to avoid this is to use a maximum of four to five keywords. Make sure to update your description every once in a while when your app is updated and evolves, as well. By this, you will also push your free app promotion.

Appearance

  1. Icon
    Beside the app name, the icon is the first thing users will see – so make sure you create a unique and clear icon that stands out. It might help to get the user interested to the point where reads your app description, checks out your screenshots and demo video and finally downloads your app. Do not use words in the icon, just choose a nice and simple symbol that represents the app. Make it easy – the most successful apps, like Facebook, WhatsApp Messenger or Facetune just use one symbol without many details that is easy to recognize. Also, you can use the main character of your app, for example if your app is a game. A good example for that is angry birds where the app icon consists of just one bird. This has a positive effect on your free app promotion.
  2. Screenshots and Demo Video
    Screenshots or a demo video can show the user what his experience with the app will be like – a great tool you can use for your free app promotion. Therefore, make sure to include pretty screenshots and, if possible, show a quick demo video of your app. The best screenshots emphasize the app’s sales argument and its unique selling point. A good example for nice screenshots is our app GiftPanda. We show the user everything he can do with our app and guide him through the experience.

free App promotion: Screenshots for ASO

Well-designed screenshots presenting your app’s main features are inevitable © ayeT-Studios

Curious about this topic? Check out this article for more detailed information.

App Store Optimization in the Google Play Store

The Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store are the two main players in the app store world. Their interfaces may look similar but they are very different when it comes to app store optimization of the listed apps. This means, it is crucial to plan your free app promotion strategy according to which OS you will launch your app in.

In the Google Play Store, you can optimize your app’s appearance follwing these rules:

  • Use your main keyword in the app title. The titel cannot be longer than 30 characters.
  • Include keywords in the description a maximum of 5 times. The description cannot be longer than 4.000 characters.
  • Set your focus on the meta description (= the first 167 characters) since this will be visible the most.
  • The keywords are pulled from the description.
  • Provide screenshots and a short promo video.

App Store Optimization in Apple’s App Store

Here are some important factors you should keep in mind for using ASO as a free app promotion tool in the App Store:

  • Create a significant app title (you can only use your main keyword if it’s appropriate). The title cannot be longer than 50 characters, but we recommend to use a shorter title.
  • You can insert your keywords in the keyword field. Use 100 characters for your keywords, seperated by commas.
  • Not much attention is paid to the App description as it’s given in the Play Store.

So, the main difference between these app stores is the usage of keywords: direct placement (App Store) vs. embedding (Google Play). It’s an important element for your free app promotion.

However, it is important for both stores to choose the right keywords, which you want your app to rank for. A good mixture of relevance, difficulty, and traffic is crucial.

Make sure to give your app an expressive and unique app name, and create high-quality screenshots for your apps.

The distribution of smartphone platform market jshare, from 2009 to 2016

History of smartphone platform market share (2009-2016) © Statista

Building Your Own Brand

To make sure your app are well known among its (potential) users, you need to build your own brand. It is important for users to recognize your app directly and associate it with the benefit they get from downloading it. Building your own brand is part of free app promotion.

There a many ways of building your brand. Firstly, you should decide on what your brand should be like, what it should stand for, what its design and visual language should look like and how you can create a unique experience for the customers. Once you are sure of these factors, you can start communicating this to the outside world with your free app promotion.

The first way of presenting your brand to the outside should be your own website. We recommend for you to create an informative, but also clear website, which informs users about the features of your app and what they can do with it. It is also very important to include links to the app stores, so that users can easily download your app, if they like the website.

Furthermore, you should include all links to your own web presences, for example to your blog and your various social media channels. This will also have an impact on your free app promotion.

This leads us to the next two steps of building your own brand: Create an interesting blog and be active in social media.

When writing your own blog, you have the opportunity to present your brand, as well as to inform about recent changes in and news of the industry you are operating in. Keep the way you want your brand to look in mind and write the articles according to that scheme. Check the language, the pictures, graphics or colors you are using and adjust it accordingly.

Furthermore, you can create your own social media accounts. Study the different possible channels and only choose the ones that are most suitable for you. It is more important to create good content on some channels than to create bad content on many.

It is also important to know which channels your potential users are using at the moment. You need to get in touch with them in the online spaces they are using now.

If you want to acquire a broad audience with high quality, one way to promote your app is to involve an influencer, who is well known among your potential users. The influencer introduces your app to his audience in an interesting way, for example through a video or a blogpost.

Since the followers trust their influencer and are very willing to listen to him, the chances of them downloading your app are very high.

Another thing is to work together with the press: prepare a mediakit and a press release and distribute it to the most important journalists. Pitch your app to journalists and try to convince them to interview you and talk to you about your app.

Free App Promotion Sites

Free app promotion sites are almost self-explanatory: These sites place reviews and tests of your app on their site or on sites of other companies, who are willing to promote your app. The people  you reach this way are usually already interested in new applications and are therefore more likely to download your app.

But keep in mind: Not all app promotion sites offer their service for free.

Channels that are definitely for free are app promotion forums or forums that concentrate on new apps. There, you can present your app to a high quality audience.

You will find more information about free app promotion sites here.

More Tips for Your Free App Promotion

There are various ways to promote your app without paying a single penny. We offer a well-elaborated concept for app promotion – just click here.

As basics, you should keep in mind the following aspects for your free app promotion.

  • First impression
    It counts a lot. Your app needs to leave a good first impression on the user. Since there is a lot of competition in the marktet, users might choose any other app instead of yours if they are not satisfied with the first impression of your app.
  • Keep an Eye on Competitors
    Keep a tab on your competitors, check their policies and marketing strategies. Follow the ones that are most suitable for you, they give you an idea about improving your free app promotion.
  • Directly Present Your App to Potential Users
    Get in touch directly with your potential users through different blogs, websites and forums and present your app to them. Join different groups on Social Media and let the members know about your app. Make use of hashtags in an attempt to make your app go viral. You can also create your own hashtag to further boost your free app promotion.

Free App Promotion: App Discovery

Distribution of how mobile apps are discovered the most © ayeT-Studios

  • Word of Mouth through Personal Contacts
    Your family, friends, and other contacts on social media can be of great help in free app promotion. Share your app with them and ask them to download and forward it to others.
  • Loyalty Programs
    Create loyalty and referral programs. The users will market your app through word-of-mouth publicity and encourage others to download it. Even if they charge you some amount of money or demand incentive or bonus points, these costs will still be less than paid app promotion.


Below, you can find information on our pricing:

Rewarded
Advertising
Android
(starting at)
iOS
(starting at)
CPI 0,07$ 0,15$
CPE 0,30$ 0,30$
CPA (Signup, Registrations) On request On request
Rewarded Video (CPV) 0,020$ 0,020$
Rewarded Video (CPM) 0,50$ 0,50$

 

Non-Rewarded
Advertising
Android/iOS/Website
(starting at)
CPC 0,02$
CPM 2,00$
CPV 0,02$