5 Mistakes to Avoid When Marketing Your App

BY Editor

App marketers today face a number of challenges. The number of mobile apps available in marketplaces has grown year over year. According to Business Insider, the world’s five largest app stores contain more than 3 million apps and counting. This means mobile app marketers face increasing competition for screen time and installs. Furthermore, mobile users tend to utilize a handful of apps regularly while forgetting about—or even deleting—others.

In such an environment, your marketing strategy can make or break your business outcomes. Here are five mistakes to avoid when marketing your app. 

Serving Generic Ads

It’s safe to assume mobile users see many ads day in and day out. Standing out enough to grab the attention of busy users is often a matter of appealing to their demographics, interests and lifestyles. This is where dynamic ads provide an advantage over static ads.

What are dynamic ads, exactly? In simple terms, these ads are personalized based on user data. Rather than relying on fixed creative elements, like static advertisements do, dynamic ads assemble in real time to reflect the user segment or individual who will see it. Factors like age, gender, mobile device, operating system and more will affect the final look and content of the ad.

It’s no surprise that serving more personalized ads tends to boost engagement rates. So, serving generic ads in this day and age is a mistake for app marketers looking to prompt users to engage in desired actions rather than scroll past.

Targeting Any Mobile User

Similarly, casting too-wide a net in terms of user acquisition is not a cost-effective strategy. Your audience should be much more specific than “anyone with a mobile device.” Otherwise, you’ll end up paying for hordes of installs that never lead to further engagement. Marketing to a broad audience may boost your install rates, sure, but your conversion rates will stagnate. In other words, this is no way to monetize an app.

As Social Media Week advises, “App developers need to conduct thorough research into their target audience to see what makes them tick.” Demographics and behavior are key characteristics here. Once you’ve established your target audience, you can strategically target lookalike mobile users—that is, people who share these characteristics—to attract users most likely to convert. 

Focusing Solely on Installs

When you’re marketing your app, install rates are certainly important. But they’re not the be-all, end-all in terms of campaign success. Focusing more heavily on acquisition than retention is a mistake; many users fail to engage with an app beyond the initial installation. Focusing on engagement rather than installs alone requires targeting the right audience with dynamic ads demonstrating the value your app can provide them. 

Underestimating Social Proof

You’ve listed your app in a number of popular marketplaces. Now you can just sit back and wait for the installs to roll in, right? Not quite. Without user reviews to lend your app credibility, people may be hesitant to install it. As Kissmetrics writes, “Once someone finds your app in an app store, they look to reviews to see whether the app is worth downloading. If you’re not focused on getting your happy customers to leave reviews, you’re losing thousands of potential customers.”

Make it part of your marketing strategy to gently remind current users to leave an honest review. This social proof will help drive new installs. 

Designing a Lackluster Icon

Something as simple as your app icon can influence whether or not people interact with it. Your app icon represents a large part of your branding. Make sure your icon is both scalable and recognizable for the best results.

When you’re marketing an app, avoid these five mistakes. Focus instead on targeting the right users with dynamic advertisements to boost engagement.