22 Proven App Marketing Strategies That You Need In 2024

With smartphones having already reached the peak of popularity, more mobile apps are launching in the app stores every day. The surge in the number of mobile apps has made it challenging for app owners to make their app stand out of the crowd of millions.

This scenario has led to the need for the right app marketing strategy that can boost app growth faster. In this blog post, you read about the 22 best app marketing strategies that are meant to keep your app at the top of the game.

1. User acquisition campaigns

   User acquisition campaigns are marketing campaigns designed to acquire new users for a product or service. In the context of mobile apps, user acquisition campaigns are focused on driving app downloads and installations.

   User acquisition campaigns are a popular app marketing strategy and typically involve a combination of paid and organic marketing efforts across various channels, such as social media, search engines, display ads, email marketing, and influencer marketing. These campaigns are typically designed to target a specific audience and drive them to download and install the app.

   How to create a successful user acquisition campaign

   • Define your target audience.
   • Create compelling marketing messages that resonate with that audience.
   • Use effective marketing channels that reach that audience.
   • Track and measure the performance of your campaigns using metrics such as cost per acquisition (CPA), conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI), and adjust your strategies accordingly.

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2. Performance marketing

   Performance marketing is a type of digital marketing that focuses on measuring and optimizing marketing campaigns based on their performance and results. Unlike traditional marketing that focuses on building brand awareness, performance marketing campaigns focus on driving specific actions, such as clicks, leads, sales, or any other predefined goal.

   This is also an effective app marketing strategy in terms of cost for you because they are only entitled to charge from publishers if their campaign goals are met.

   Steps involved in successful performance marketing

   Performance marketing steps

   1. Define your goals
   2. Identify your target audience
   3. Choose your advertising channels
   4. Create your advertising campaigns
   5. Set your budget and bid strategy
   6. Launch your campaigns
   7. Track and measure results
   8. Optimize your campaigns
   9. Report your results to stakeholders

   Different performance marketing campaign models

   The app marketing strategy of performance marketing relies on object-specific campaigns where you pay for the ads based on specific metrics or goals. Following are the top payment models used in performance marketing:

   • Cost Per Action (CPA): In CPA, you pay for specific events like clicks, installs, registrations, subscriptions, sign-ups, etc.
   • Cost Per Mille (CPM): In CPM, you pay for every thousand impressions on your ads. For example, if you pay $100 for 1000 impressions, then one impression costs you $0.1.
   • Cost Per Click (CPC): In CPC, you pay for each click on your ad.
   • Cost Per Lead (CPL): In CPL, you pay for acquiring leads through actions such as when a user fills in a contact form and signs up for newsletters or webinars.
   • Cost Per Install (CPI): In CPI, you pay every install that your app gets through the ads.

3. Programmatic advertising

   Programmatic advertising is a digital advertising method that uses automated software and algorithms to buy and sell digital advertising inventory in real-time. This automated process allows for the targeting of specific audiences based on various parameters, such as demographics, interests, and behavior, without the need for manual intervention.

   Programmatic advertising as an app marketing strategy

   Programmatic advertising can help in app marketing in several ways:

   1. Targeting: Programmatic advertising allows app marketers to target their advertising campaigns to specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behavior. This enables app marketers to reach the right audience at the right time, resulting in higher engagement rates and increased downloads.
   2. Optimization: Programmatic advertising platforms use machine learning algorithms to optimize ad delivery and targeting in real-time. This means that app marketers can adjust their campaigns based on performance data, ensuring that their ads are always reaching the most relevant audience.
   3. Retargeting: Programmatic advertising allows app marketers to retarget users who have previously interacted with their app or website. By retargeting users, app marketers can increase brand awareness, drive engagement, and ultimately increase downloads.
   4. App Install Ads: App install ads are a specific type of programmatic advertising designed to drive app downloads. These ads are placed on various ad networks and exchanges, and users can click on them to download the app directly. App install ads can be targeted to specific audiences and optimized for performance, resulting in higher engagement rates and more downloads.

4. App Store Optimization (ASO)

   As an app marketing strategy, ASO increases the app's visibility in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. ASO is an organic method of app promotion that involves enhancing many parts of your app's online presence to improve its rating and visibility.

   Factors impacting the ASO ranking

   Below are a few things that affect the app’s ranking in the app stores.

   Keywords People use keywords when searching for your app in app stores. By focusing on the right keywords, you may position your app in the top five rankings, increasing its visibility. After choosing the keywords, add them to the on-page metadata. App titles, subtitles, and keyword lists (up to 100 characters) must all include keywords for iOS apps. For Android apps, you need to include the keywords in the long and short descriptions as well as the app name.

   Here are a few expert keyword usage tips:

   • Only use keywords that are pertinent to your application.
   • Never use both the singular and plural forms of a keyword.
   • Avoid using the word "app" or names of competing apps.

   App name The way in which users interpret your app is influenced by its name. As a result, it is a significant app marketing technique. Instead of just aiming for something fancy or catchy, pick a name that accurately describes your app. You may use up to 30 characters in the app name or title on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

   In the App Store, you can also add a subtitle with a maximum character count of 30. The Google Play Store and App Store each allow up to 50 characters for app names, while the former only permits up to 30 characters. Make the most of the character limit to explain your app. Examples of several ASO-friendly app names are: Google Maps - Transit & Food, Spotify - Music and Podcasts, and Weather Live - Local Forecasts.

   App description Focus on users in your app description. Write a succinct and persuading description of the app’s usage and benefits, enticing the user to download it right away. Incorporate relevant keywords without overloading them. In order for the user to learn about the most recent version of your app, it is also crucial to keep the description up-to-date with app updates and release notes.

   You can enter both long and short descriptions on the Play Store. The maximum character count for the lengthy description is 4000, whereas the maximum character count for the short description is 80. The App Store, on the other hand, only permits lengthy descriptions of up to 4000 characters, with special characters being strictly prohibited.

   App Store Optimization Ranking Factors

   Visual elements The visual elements of your app listing are the app icon, screenshots, and videos.

   • App icon: The app icon is a crucial component of branding and is what users see first. Additionally, the icon is displayed on several app pages, including editor's pick, category pages, and app listings. As a result, you must create one that is succinct, pertinent, and describes the app.
   • Screenshots: Screenshots provide users a glimpse into your app and, to some extent, affect their decision to install the app. Make sure the screenshots you post are eye-catching and accurately depict the functions or features of your app.
   • Preview video: You can even include your app's preview video if you keep it concise and comprehensive to express the app’s capabilities and advantages.

   Reviews and ratings Bad reviews lower your app's ASO ranking, thus they are crucial to your app marketing strategy. Moreover, they influence the user's choice to download your app because they show up in the app listings. Positive app reviews and ratings are advantageous, so make an effort to gather favorable user feedback, particularly for the most recent version of your app. Reviews function like word-of-mouth for potential app users.

   Localization Localizing the screenshots and other preview content in accordance with the geo-locations is another option. It makes it easier for you to engage and connect with local audiences.

   User experience The ASO rating is influenced by a number of UX elements, including crashes, session lengths, deletions, retention, etc. All of these factors show whether the app provides users with a satisfying experience. If not, they may delete the app or provide unfavorable reviews, which affects the ASO ranking.

   Promotional text This is an Apple App Store-specific field where you may include text describing planned upgrades. Promotional text may contain up to 170 characters and may be modified repeatedly. Although it has no effect on the rating, you may utilize it to advertise your app benefits.

   Benefits of ASO

   • Less acquisition cost owing to an organic approach.
   • Keyword-based marketing strategy for better audience targeting.
   • Improved app ranking and visibility.
   • Increased app revenue as more users contribute to monetization strategies.
   • Increased downloads because of better visibility.

5. Connected TV advertising

   Connected TV (CTV) advertising is an app marketing strategy that enables the delivery of targeted advertisements to viewers of streaming video content on internet-connected televisions. It allows advertisers to reach audiences who are watching content on smart TVs, streaming devices (such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV), and gaming consoles.

   Connected TV ads can be video, display, or interactive. Advertisers partner with CTV advertising platforms to place their ads on the appropriate CTV channels. The ads are displayed to the target audience, who can watch it while streaming TV shows and movies. The ad is served seamlessly within the content, ensuring a non-intrusive experience. How does CTV advertising work

   Connected TV Advertising Workflow

   Benefits of CTV advertising:

   • Easy access to excessive, high-quality ad inventory.
   • Smart and effective audience targeting.
   • Measurement of ad performance in real-time.
   • Precise targeting and ad performance measurement.
   • Targeting based on demographics, interests, and geographic location.
   • Tracking of views, watch time, and actions.

6. Referral marketing

   Referral marketing may be referred to as a type of word of mouth, however, the app marketing strategy involves more proactive methods of mobile app promotion. Referral marketing encourages people to use your app by incentivizing them. In most referral programs, both existing and potential customers are rewarded with incentives, benefiting both you and the users. In contrast, word of mouth gives the privilege of promoting your app to only your existing customers. Thus, referral marketing is a more powerful app marketing strategy for your app business than word of mouth. Read more about word of mouth marketing later in this article.

7. Apple Search Ads

   Apple Search Ads is an advertising platform created by Apple Inc. that allows app developers and marketers to promote their apps at the top of search results on the App Store. With Apple Search Ads, advertisers can create ads that target specific keywords related to their app, and pay only when a user taps on their ad.

   The platform offers two types of ad campaigns: Basic and Advanced. Basic campaigns use Apple's machine learning technology to automatically target relevant keywords, while Advanced campaigns give advertisers more control over their targeting and bidding strategies. Advanced campaigns allow advertisers to target specific demographics, locations, and devices, and to use more advanced features like creative sets and search match.

   Benefits of App Search Ads

   With the ability to target specific keywords and demographics, advertisers can reach users who are actively searching for apps like theirs. Additionally, because advertisers only pay when a user taps on their ad, the platform can be a cost-effective way to drive app downloads and acquire new users.

8. Google app campaign

   Google app campaign, formerly known as Universal App Campaign or UAC, is a tool that allows you to manage promotional campaigns across all Google-owned platforms, such as Google Play, Google Search, and YouTube. Using Google app campaigns, you can execute campaigns for engagement, pre-registration, and app install marketing. In order to know your cost-per-install, cost-per-action, cost-per-pre-registration, and other crucial ad campaign success indicators that constitute a core component of your app marketing strategy, this tool also offers conversion tracking.

9. Social media ads

   Social Media Monthly Active Users in 2022

   The popularity of various social media channels is rising, making them an effective platform to implement app marketing strategies for many app businesses. You can do organic and paid mobile app promotions on social media.

   In the organic method, you must create a social media presence and start following your targeted users, engaging them through relevant, timely, and well-structured content, which promotes your app. The paid method also includes app install promotions, where advertisements are targeted toward your audience to get app installs. This is also a useful app marketing strategy bound to drive results.

   When users click the call to action (CTA) in your social media ads, they will be taken to your App Store or Play Store listing. While not all apps can benefit from social media ads, you can research, evaluate your app's needs, and market it properly. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram support mobile app advertising.

10. Push notifications

    Push notifications are messages that appear on a mobile device, desktop or browser, sent by an application or website to the user. These notifications are delivered directly to the user's device and appear as an alert, badge, or banner, regardless of whether the user is using the application or website at the time. To receive push notifications, users need to give permission to the application or website to send them.

    Push notifications are a useful app marketing strategy for the following reasons:

    • They can help keep users engaged with your app, by sending them reminders or updates about new content or features.
    • They can be personalized to the user's interests or behavior, making them more relevant and targeted. This can help increase the likelihood that the user will engage with the notification and take the desired action.
    • By sending push notifications to remind users about your app and its value, you can help increase user retention and reduce churn.
    • They can be used to promote special offers or deals, encouraging users to make a purchase or take other desired actions within the app.
    • They can be sent in real-time, allowing businesses to communicate with their users instantly and keep them up-to-date with the latest news and information.

11. Content marketing

    Content marketing allows you to develop and distribute valuable and relevant content across various channels to attract and retain your target audience. This ultimately drives profitable user actions like subscriptions, registrations, installs, and more, which eventually turns your target audience into your users. This type of marketing aims to educate and engage users rather than directly promoting a product or service.

    Benefits of content marketing

    • Higher audience engagement: Making relevant and valuable content available to users allows apps to build stronger relationships with them.
    • Increased brand visibility: Effective content marketing strategies can increase brand visibility and help establish your brand as a thought leader in the industry.
    • Improved SEO: Quality content improves your search engine ranking, making it easier for potential users to find your app.
    • More leads and conversions: Any content form (images, video, text, podcast, etc.) is a productive way to educate users and increase visibility, thus improving the chances of conversions.
    • Better customer loyalty: Consistent, informative, and valuable content can help build a user’s trust on a brand, thus improving their loyalty.
    • Higher revenue: Consistent content marketing attracts users and retains them for a long time, which means the users may contribute more to the revenue.

12. Email marketing

    Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves sending promotional messages, newsletters, or other types of content to a list of subscribers via email. Email marketing is typically used to build relationships with customers, increase brand awareness, and drive sales.

    Why is email marketing an effective app marketing strategy

    • Targeted reach to specific audiences that you have identified as potential leads.
    • Measurable results of your campaigns by tracking CTRs, conversions, queries, etc..
    • Better engagement with your customers, which means stronger relationships and loyalty.
    • Personalization for specific users (customers) by including the recipient's name, location, and other relevant information.
    • Improved lead generation and better navigation through the sales funnel, leading to increased conversions and sales.
    • Cost and time-efficient with only the need for a well-thought strategy.

13. Paid advertising

    Paid advertising is a type of digital advertising in which brands, also referred to as advertisers, engage in real-time bidding to purchase desired ad slots and display their ads as banner, video, native, search engine, app store, or PPC ads.

    Benefits of paid advertising

    • Targeted reach: Paid advertising allows businesses to target the desired audience based on demographics, interests, location, and other factors to improve reach and drive conversions.
    • Immediate results: Unlike organic marketing, paid advertising delivers outcomes in hours or days.
    • Measurable results: Paid advertising provides data-driven insights and metrics on the advertising campaign's performance.
    • Cost-effectiveness: Paid advertising is more cost-effective than traditional advertising methods such as TV, radio, or print advertising.
    • Increased brand awareness: Paid advertising increases brand awareness and recognition, helping you establish your business as a leader in the industry.

14. User onboarding

    User onboarding is the process of guiding new users through your app’s value propositions. This can be done in several ways: onboarding checklists, videos, live training, webinars, demos, and client success stories. All these can be used to educate users on the app's features, functionalities, and USPs. The goal of user onboarding is to make random app visitors state with the app and become proficient in using it, thereby becoming genuine users.

    Why is user onboarding important as an app marketing strategy

    • Increased user retention: Onboarding helps users understand the app's functionality, making it easier for them to stay engaged. This leads to increased user retention.
    • Better user experience: Onboarding offers a smooth, intuitive, and personalized user experience, establishing trust between the users and the app, leading to a better overall experience.
    • Higher conversion rates: By onboarding users to the app through a guide, you help them understand how to use it, boosting higher conversion rates.
    • Better feedback: By allowing users to provide feedback and ask questions, you can identify the app’s pain points and increase app engagement.
    • Better user engagement: By understanding the app’s features and functionalities better, users can engage with the app more.

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15. Featured apps

    The Featured section in the app stores is where the recommended apps are placed. Some essential criteria must be fulfilled to get featured, which is why this app marketing strategy is not as popular as the others

    Here are some common criteria to meet to get featured in the app stores:

    • A flawless and user-friendly UI and UX.
    • Localized app experience according geographical location, culture, etc.
    • Exceptional app performance (reduced slowness, few ads, etc.)

    Learn more about other Apple and Google Play criteria.

16. Word of mouth

    Word of mouth works by finding people who are interested in your app's offerings and trusting them to spread the word about your app. For example, if five people like your app, they may tell other people, who may tell other people, and so on. This creates a spiraling word of mouth and promotes your app to a large audience at no cost at all.

    Why word of mouth works

    Trust plays a huge role in the success of this app marketing strategy. According to a report, 88% of people's buying decisions are influenced by word of mouth. Positive reviews about a product encourage people to use it. For instance, think about the times you read through Amazon reviews before ordering a product.

17. Browser version of app

    A perhaps indirect app marketing strategy is to create browser and cross-platform versions of your app for different user preferences. Doing this even increases your app’s reach and accelerates app development. A perfect example of browser versions are e-commerce websites like Nike and Puma which also have apps in the Play Store and App Store.

18. SEO-optimized content

    A good example of an indirect app marketing strategy is an SEO-optimized website. The main reasons why you should have a search engine-optimized website are:

    • Organic reach: Improving your website's SEO ranking will raise its position in the search results, which will naturally increase its traffic. More traffic means there is a bigger market to promote to.
    • Exposure: Your website may show up as a search result when people conduct a web search, attracting their attention to your app as a potential solution. Numerous consumers find your app, thanks to intent-based online searches.
    • Legitimacy: Possession of a website is a sign of legitimacy. To persuade the users that your app is a genuine solution for users, it must be highlighted on your website with sufficient information.

    How to SEO-optimize your website

    Below are ways you can optimize your website to make it a successful app marketing strategy.

    • Understanding user engagement on your website through measures like session time, bounce rate, etc., will help you collect user data and produce behavior reports. Identify the pages that perform well and make adjustments by analyzing the data.
    • Perform thorough keyword research and identify intent-based long-tail keywords. These help you identify what the users may be looking for and create pages for the same.
    • When it comes to website optimisation and widening your audience, content marketing is really effective. Create long-form content instead of short-from as it ranks higher.
    • Focus on improving both on-page and off-page SEO. On-page involves optimizing meta tags, headings, and URLs; off-page SEO is about link building, social posting, influencer marketing, etc.
    • Optimizing your website for mobile devices by making the UI mobile-friendly and improving the responsiveness.
    • Increasing the page speed also improves user experience.

19. Public Relations (PR)

    A PR or public relations effort tries to develop or improve a company's branding. It enables businesses to contact a wide audience of potential clients, competitor businesses, and investors.

    How to run a PR campaign

    There are several ways of running a PR campaign.

    • Hold a press release to announce your app launch.
    • Invite media and influencers to the launch party.
    • Get featured in newspapers and relevant blogs.
    • Write guest posts on high-quality blogging sites to gain visibility.

    Benefits of PR

    Below are a few benefits of creating and running PR campaigns as an app marketing strategy:.

    • Mass awareness: PR strategies are very effective for pre-launch advertising. Through PR, you may promote your app to potential users and increase its exposure. Additionally, PR mentions support in increasing your Google ranking.
    • Increases outreach to investors: PR campaigns can assist you in reaching more investors and generating more funding for your app if they are well planned and carried out.

20. Influencer marketing

    Influencer marketing has aided millions of brands in connecting with their intended market. To advertise your app, you need to work with the top influencers. Influencer marketing may be a successful app marketing strategy after you find the appropriate influencer with the proper audience.

    Following are the popular influencer marketing platforms:

    • PulpKey
    • Qoruz
    • Blogmint
    • Grin

    Other influencer marketing solutions

    Below are a few worldwide platforms and similar services for influencer marketing.

    • Klout
    • Buzzsumo
    • Clarity
    • Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn

21. Quora marketing

    Quora marketing is an underutilized app marketing tactic that offers many advantages. By being active on Quora, which has over 300 million unique monthly visitors, you can gain good exposure for your app. Following are some pointers for using Quora:

    • Assign a reputable person, such as the CEO or Product Manager, to answer questions.
    • Choose subjects that are really relevant to your app and respond to queries about them.
    • Answering common questions succinctly boosts your probability of being seen.
    • Focus on the structure of your answers so that they are in a readable format.
    • If you already have the content on your app or blog, repurpose it to answer the questions.

22. In-store advertising

    This method could only be effective for specific app categories. If your app is a retail business with stores at physical locations, you can advertise through pamphlets and banners, which is a more conventional strategy. You can even provide exclusive discounts and incentives to consumers who download the app, making this app marketing strategy a win-win!

So these are some most popular ways of marketing an app. Another good option is to start using a user acquisition platform to make it easy to set up campaign's details and drive results. If you're looking for a sustainable app growth solution, we're here to help with app marketing strategies personalized to your app requirements.