Welcome to Phan Van Trung Blog: Android App Marketing: dumping my experience

Introduction

The ultimate target for Android App marketing is to make your app appear in the top 5 Apps in any market list (ex: Top Free, Trending, Top New Free ...etc) and for this to happen you need your users to do the following

1- Install your app (many installs daily)
2- Review your app +rating
3- To +1 your app
4- Does not uninstall your app soon

All factors above are used by the market to decide whether to add/push up your app in a list and whether to show your app in the top search results or not

Saying so we reach the conclusion that most important part of app marketing is the App itself, is it valuable for the user, will he/she keep it installed, does it have a good UI/Icon/Name is it related to a trending topic at the moment , do you think the user would show your app to a friend ?

Also note that "Games" when are well created are easier to market than other apps

Market SEO

Choose proper catchy app name
Create a good looking icon
Write a description that is easy to read by users and in the same time contains as mush relevant words as possible, more words means more users will find your app through search
Choose proper category
Screenshots should be beautiful and convincing

Warning: adding duplicate or irrelevant words will be noticed by google and you will be warned about it

Social Networks

Add you app link in all "Relevant" facebook public pages, Groups and on your wall
Post it on twitter with "#android" included
Post it on Google+
Any other social network you have access to

All these steps will give you an initial push to be included in the "top new free" list in addition to some good feedback from your freinds, also ask them to add reviews on the market

Advertising Networks

Paid advertising is a very good way to drive installs to your app which will move your app up in the Market List

There are many many types of paid advertising CPM (Cost per mile), CPC ( Cost per click ) , CPI (Cost per Install), Incentive installs, Affiliate ...etc

CPM/CPC
Provided by networks like AdMob, JumpTap and others, the ads are shown on other mobile apps and pay for each click on the Ad, for CPM you pay for each 1000 view (regardless of clicks)

I used AdMob before, i paid 50$ (minimum) and got 1270 clicks (CPC=0.04) and 10s of installs only, so it is only effective when you have a big budget

I used JumpTap, minimum is 25$ and CPC=0.10 and gpt 242 clicks

CPI/Incentive networks
Provided by networks such as AppBrain, TapJoy and others, you pay only when the user install the app

AppBrain minimum is 25 dollars (Paypal) and the cost per install starts from 0.20$

I tried TapJoy before, they have many options to choose from and huge user base, there is no minimum and the cost for acquiring user starts from 0.10$ and is proven

the only problem with TapJoy is that it gives user incentive to install your app, so most of the users install your app to get the incentive and then uninstalls your app

Affiliate/CPA
Provided by networks such as mobpartner , you pay for a specific action , you will have many options to choose from CPL: cost per lead ex: a the user successfully filled a form that you wanted him to fill, CPS: the user did a purchase for something or CPI: cost per installing application

Unfortunately i didn't try it before

AdExchange

AdExchange networks provide you with the ability to show ads in your app and in return your app Ad will be shown in other apps in the network, this way every time a user will open your app, there will be another app promoting yours - a free win-win situation

Providers: tapfortap

Forums

There are many benefits from posting your app on the forums, first you will get both install spikes and contentious install stream in addition to feedback from people other than your friends

Add a post containing a good description and screesnhot for you app on as many forums as you can
Don't use url shortner in forums
Use the following convention in titles [APP][version] your app name
Some forums requires that you do some activity before you can add links to your posts

Best Android forums

Also don't forget to post on local forums

App Review blogs/websites

Contact all blogs and app review websites and let them know about your app, find below a list of Android blogs and review websites

PR

PR refers to Public Relation and Press Release, there are some specialized companies which have relations with Magazines, Blogs and android websites such companies could reach out and spread the word easily about your app on your behalf

Providers:
http://www.mobileprwire.com

Video

Create a video about your app and upload it on youtube and other video websites this would drive traffic from youtube search, and should convince the user to install your app if he/she watched the video on the market

Cross-app promotion

If you have other relevant apps, you could change the code to add either a splash screen, banner or a notification about your new app

Other things to do