Mobile Marketing: 50 Ways to Promote Your iPhone App
Posted on June 18, 2009 | 87 Comments
perfect mobile marketing plan and follow-up execution will fall short if the underlying app is
uninspiring, bug-ridden or unremarkable. In addition, a well-designed, compelling app thrown in the
mix of 50,000+ apps and unsupported by marketing, would likely disappoint. An integrated
approach is most effective, with all components complementing and leveraging one another. A
commitment to an integrated marketing plan and continued improvements to the app itself, will
increase your probability of a sustained advantage in the marketplace.
1. Get noticed in the App Store.
Prospective customers often browse within the top apps listed in the app store via iTunes on their
computer or via the iPhone App Store app. Your app’s ranking is affected by unit downloads and
getting into the top 100 can dramatically impact the success of your app. Choose a unique, catchy
name for your app so that yours can be found within the app store easily and within Google
searches. Include your brand name, where appropriate. Be sure to do your homework and scour the
apps store to see what your competition is doing. Your app name in the app store should include
keywords and be longer than the app name on the phone itself. If Apple continues to allow, you can
see how renaming your app or modifying your app description copy and screen shots affects your
ranking in the days that follow Apple approval.
2. Submit to app review sites. Submit your app for review. Provide a promo code so that the editorial
staff can review your app without having to pay for it. Here are some of the leading app review
sites: AppCraver, 148apps, AppVee, iPhoneAppReviews.net, iUseThis, Apple iPhone
School, AppStoreApps.com, iPhoneApplicationList, TUAWand Apps Safari. Reach out to Rob, the
host of the popular PodCast TODAY in iPhone. He’s been generous in the past with reviews of new
apps.
3. Public relations.
Establish yourself as a subject matter expert and develop mutually rewarding relationships with the
media. Odds of a feature story, pick-up or mention increases exponentially as your goals are aligned
to that of the columnist, radio host or TV producer. Developing rapport is easier than you might
think. In fact, you can respond to a daily feed of reporter requests for expert sources using HARO.
Regarding pitches and press releases, don’t be ordinary. You need to stand out from the crowd to be
remembered. Peter Shankman, one of the most respected names in PR drives this point home in his
book, “Can We Do That?” Distribute only to media contacts known to cover your topics. Online PR
distribution gives you access to newspapers, radio, TV, industry trade publications, consumer
magazines and influential blogs. Reach out to editors, journalists, news directors, producers and
industry analysts. Web syndication drives immediate exposure of press releases to web-channel
publishers internationally. Today’s technology can monitor media mentions/pickups and provide
insightful analytics about traffic sources. Be sure to bunch up your publicity when you go live to
maximize your chance of top ranking by app category.
4. Customized postage stamps.
Customize your business postage stamps using your new app’s icon design.
Photo Postage Stamps
5. Promote from ads within other apps.
Promote your app in interactive ads contained within other iPhone apps. iPhone ads offer very high
levels of engagement including click to call, click to video and click to app store. A growing number
of ad networks provide in-app advertising options with audience targeting that includes age, gender,
geography, category, carrier, device and handset. Pricing models include bid per click and per
engagement. Conversion tracking and reporting are standard offerings. Check out these
folks: Medialets, Quattro Wireless, AdMob and VideoEgg.
6. Share using AddThis.
Where ever you promote your app online, increase your traffic and page rank using
an AddThis button. It’s easy to install on your blog or website pages and it makes it easy for your
visitors to share your content with their friends and colleagues who use Facebook, MySpace, Digg,
Delicious, LinkedIn, TypePad, Blogger, WordPress, etc.
7. Select targeted advertising outlets.
Choose your advertising targets wisely. As yourself these questions: Who are my best customers?
What are their demographic and lifestyle characteristics? Where do they gather? How do they
consume media? What do they read, listen to and watch? Should my advertising be placed where
captive mobile audiences can be found (train stations, bus stops, airports, amusement parks,
checkout lanes, hotels, college campuses, cafes, within other apps, on podcasts, etc.)? And, what
analytical tools will measure the success of each? View MacWorld’s iPhone App Marketing
Program slideshow as an example of paid sponsorship and advertising. Some of the app review
websites listed in #2 above offer advertising on their sites. Your online ads can link directly to your
app within the app store. Wizzard Media provides access to sponsorship/advertising opportunities
within audio/video podcast content categories relevant to your target audience. Think differently:
Large ad display stickers are gracing the ceilings on commuter CTA trains in Chicago and oversized
floor stickers are becoming commonplace at trade shows and retail establishments. Larger budgets
can consider outdoor options that include wallscapes, train/bus wraps, transit stations, etc. Titan
Worldwide offers outdoor advertising in many of the world’s top markets.
8. Promote mobile app within current customer touch points.
Promote your new app on your store receipts, packaging, shipping flyer insertions, apparel tags,
shopping bags, invoices, monthly statements, envelopes, packing slips, POP displays,posters,
restaurant menus & place mats, shipping containers and custom imprinted packing tape. Create
attention-getting stickers for use on each, where appropriate.
9. Q&A participation.
Participate in targeted app topic-specific Q&A discussions at Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn
Answers and WikiAnswers and provide links to learn more about you and your app. Become a
trusted participant by providing answers to others.
10. Email marketing.
Send out a highly targeted email campaign to prospects. You’ll want your campaign to be CANSPAM compliant to avoid fines and/or criminal penalties. B2B and B2C email lists are available
from infoUSA.com. Filter from 2 million business email contacts by industry, SIC, size, job titles,
spending, credit rating, location and more. Filter from 15 million consumer email contacts by
geography, age, home value, wealth indicators, hobbies & interests, ethnicity, religion, household
occupant info and more. Many publications have databases of subscriber email addresses and will
send email campaigns on your behalf. They, too, allow filtered targeting of their email lists. Choose
publications whose audience matches your targeted customers. A warning about buying or renting
email lists, follow the rules and stay current on new developments. Email marketing platforms such
as the popular Constant Contact have a no tolerance spam policy which you can read here.
11. Pricing strategy.
Learn from the success of Peggle. On June 11, 2009, they dropped their price from $4.99 to $0.99
for a three day promotion. The results are in…on June 16, 2009, Peggle achieved ranking atop the
app store due to the popularity of the app during the promotion and it is selling at the original $4.99
price. Such a strategy requires effective publicity around the promotion. AppVee, an App review
site, setup a separate AppVee Twitter“Apps Now Free” account for tweets to their followers about
price drops.
12. Create presentation walk-through of mobile app.
Create and upload a SlideShare.net presentation that includes a slide show walk-through with
screenshots of your app and a description of features and benefits. Supported upload formats include
PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Apple Keynote, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, iWork Pages and
PDFs. Share publicly and optimize text content (title, description, etc.) within your posting to
optimize search engine placement.
13. App launch sponsorship.
Secure a launch sponsor and co-promote. Examples include People Magazine’s app and its launch
sponsor Unilever. Within your pre-launch marketing materials, promote and provide clear
instructions for those who might be interested in being a launch sponsor. Explain the benefits they’ll
receive in terms of publicity exposure, placement within the app and other perks. Get creative with
the extra perks. For example, let’s say you’re a celebrity speakers bureau…you can offer an
opportunity for your sponsors to enjoy an evening meeting a few celebrities.
14. Tell-a-friend in-app feature.
Within your app, include a conspicuous ”Tell a friend” feature and leverage the users’ personal
iPhone’s contacts directory for text messaging or email. Pre-populate the message with friendly
promotional copy that speaks highly of your app and provides a link where they can learn more.
15. Twitter in-app feature.
Within your app, create a Twitter update feature so that users can easily tweet about the
awesomeness of your app. Suggest a few pre-canned complimentary messages and append with a
TinyURL that links to your app in the app store.
16. Exclusive app content.
Include and promote exclusive content within your app that is unavailable elsewhere.
17. Mobile Barcoding.
Use 2D mobile barcoding in your advertisements, product packaging and other customer
touchpoints. 2D barcodes can be scanned with camera phones. To get a sense for the power of this
technology, try the following: 1) Create a QR Code here or here. 2) Download the Optiscan iPhone
app($4.99) or another QR barcode reader app. 3) Scan the code. Are you amazed? Here’s where it
gets good…the scanned barcode information can provide a link directly to your app in the iPhone
App store! The user is provided with a web link, phone number or message that’s saved directly
onto the phone. This is an emerging advertising technology in the USA but has been in use in Japan
for some time. Its permission-based format is attractive to consumers. Below notice a QR barcode
that contains my contact info. Once scanned to the iPhone, two clicks adds a new contact record that
includes my full name, phone number and email address. Note: If you use QR barcodes, better to
display larger vs. smaller. Some mobile cameras cannot focus properly to get a good read if the
barcode is too small.
18. App improvements over time.
Add new features to your app over time. Feature upgrades create new publicity opportunities and
updated ranking by Apple within the app store. Along with improvements, monitor your app’s
review feedback and act upon insightful new feature requests to keep customers coming back and
lure new ones into the fold. When your app is developed, include mobile analytics so that your can
learn about how your app is used, referring sources and app performance characteristics. Within
your app, you can include a few simple features. A “Send Feedback” button can send emails to you
privately. Another button labeled “Leave a Review on iTunes” would provide easy access to app
review submission.
19. Collaboration.
Find businesses who target similar markets to yours, but are not considered to be competitors. Reach
out to influencers that specialize in the field that relates to your app. For example public speakers,
book authors and other thought leaders are wonderful allies for collaboration. How can you get them
talking about your app to their captive audiences? What can you offer them in exchange? Don’t
forget about the media. A personal phone call or hand written note can go a long way towards
building those relationships. Enthusem offers personalized greeting cards with your images and text.
The cards are physically mailed on your behalf and include your return address. What’s interesting
is their pickup attachment feature. A pickup code is provided to the recipient to access your
uploaded file (PDF, PowerPoint, video, etc.). You are immediately notified when your recipient uses
the pickup code.
20. Social networking.
Announce to friends, associates and connections across your social networks: Twitter, LinkedIn,
Facebook, MySpace, etc. Other social networking sites are listed here.
21. Search directory registration.
Get listed in free online directories such as DMOZ. DMOZ powers core directory services for some
of the most popular portals and search engines on the Web, including AOL Search, Netscape
Search, Google, Lycos, HotBot and hundreds of others.
22. Blog promotion.
Post an announcement about your new app to your blog. Create a blog if you don’t already have
one. WordPress or Blogger are good choices and they’re free! The analytical reporting provided
reveals your referring traffic sources and an indication as to which of your blog posts are most
popular. Ask Google to consider adding your blog to Google News (complete submission form
here). Be sure to integrate your blog into LinkedIn (click on Applications) and Facebook (Simplaris
Blogcast).
23. Facebook fan page.
Setup a Facebook Fan page to showcase your new app. It’s free and easy and your page can be
found publicly in the search engines. When people join your Fan page, it’s published in their news
feed for all their friends to read. It’s a great viral marketing tool!
24. Create trial and paid app versions.
Offer a free trial version with an option to have more functionality in the paid version. [note: With
OS 3.0, Apple now offers in-App purchases. The new and better approach is to offer a free app with
an option to up-sell within the app.]
25. Content optimization for improved search engine rankings.
Using Google Adwords keyword tool or Google Insights for Search, research search terms that are
most relevant and popular with your target audience and populate your app description with those
terms. Use the highly targeted terms consistently throughout all of your promotional efforts,
including your blog and YouTube tags and app website META tags.
26. Email signature.
Add a description about your app below your signature line in all of your emails. Have others in
your organization do the same, as appropriate. Provide a URL link directly to your app within the
iPhone store (in iTunes, right click on your app name and you should see the option to “Copy
iTunes Store URL”)
27. Showcase app in new website.
Create a new website to pre-market and showcase your app. Include screen shots and describe the
features and benefits. Search optimize the website content. Reserve a custom domain name. Within
your existing website, create a section to promote your app. Link to your app within the iPhone App
store. Promote your app throughout your website with a button, “Available in the iPhone App
Store.” Add a forum feature to solicit contributions from your customers. Moderate feature requests
and customer feedback.
28. Newsletter/email campaign.
Mention your new app in your monthly newsletter and/or email blast to your database of customers
and prospects.
29. YouTube promotion.
Create a YouTube video about your new app. Set up an account for free. In your video, highlight the
ease of use, features and benefits. Your YouTube Channel can include a collection of your own
videos and a memorable URL as well. Tag each of your videos and your channel with highly
targeted terms. YouTube provides analytics insight regarding the number of views, visitors by
demographic and popularity. Visitors choose to become friends and subscribers. You can choose to
display visitor comments and attach your existing blog. Promote your YouTube app video with a
your ownsponsored ad within YouTube. Ads appear in the search results along the right side of the
page. This is managed through a standard Google AdWords account.
30. Exchange ad space within mobile apps.
Use AdMob Download Exchange. Allows new users to discover your app from inside hundreds of
other apps.
31. LinkedIn promotion.
On LinkedIn, join up to 50 of the 280,000+ groups that meet your target audience criteria. Within
those groups, click on the News tab and post a link to your press release or blog posting about your
new app. Within your LinkedIn profile “Websites” section, link to your website showcasing your
app. By choosing “Other” as the website type, you can customize the name you use to identify your
app.
32. Forum participation.
Identify forums that meet your target audience criteria. Participate in discussions and promote your
new app as appropriate. Be sure to follow each forum’s protocol.
33. Paid search marketing.
Try paid search marketing – Examples include Yahoo Search Marketing,Google AdWords and Live
Search. Your ad can point to a destination of your choice. Link to the iTunes store where the app
can be purchased. To do this, open iTunes and hold your Control key down while clicking on your
app’s icon. Then choose “Copy Link.” When you past the link code, it will look something like
this: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zagat-to-go-09/id296428490?mt=8 You can also link your ad to
your app website, SlideShare presentation or YouTube app video.
34. Leverage existing presentations and sell sheets.
Append your company’s PowerPoint presentations and sell sheets to include a mention of your new
app. Embed your PowerPoint within your LinkedIn profile (use the Applications feature).
35. Direct mail.
If you’re already sending direct mail to customers and prospects, set aside some real estate on your
next mailer to promote your new app. Consider a new direct mail campaign to targeted prospect lists
using high quality sales leads. USADATA offers access to 14 million businesses and 132 million
households. Business lists are available by industry, SIC, size, job titles, spending, credit rating,
location and more. Consumer lists can be filtered by geography, age, home value, wealth indicators,
hobbies & interests, ethnicity, religion, household occupant info and more. When making your
targeted list selections, it’s helpful to refer to a profile of your best customers within each targeted
segment.
36. Promotional items.
Create branded promotional items (T-shirts, pens, mugs, cards, etc.) for your customers and
prospects. Promote both your company and your new app. Do it yourself at CafePress.
37. Word-of-mouth.
Tell friends, relatives and colleagues. Give them a small stack of business cards whose design and
sole purpose is to specifically promote your app. Include a QR barcode as described in Tip #17
above. Send out an announcement to everyone in your address book. How can you encourage them
to share with their contacts, too? Announce at your community chamber events and within their new
announcement opportunities on their website and in email blasts to their membership, etc. Excellent
customer service with users of your app will earn their respect and recommendation.
38. Voice mail and on-hold messaging.
Change your outgoing voice mail message to include a mention of your new app. Change your
company’s “on-hold” audio message to include a mention of your new app. Encourage associates at
your company to mention the new app as they are in conversation with customers and prospects.
39. Free-standing portable banners.
Design a roll-up banner to promote your new app at your next trade show or within your
establishment.
40. SMS text messaging.
Create a highly targeted opt-in SMS campaign.
41. Digg promotion.
Submit your app article or video online at Digg.com. Your submission will immediately appear in
“Upcoming Stories,” where other members can find it and, if they like it, they’ll Digg it. Once a
submission has earned a critical mass of Diggs, it becomes “popular” and jumps to the homepage in
its category.
42. Free classifieds.
Try free classified advertising on CraigsList.
43. Host an App Launch Party.
Celebrate your launch with friends, associates, prospects and customers. Many bakeries now
offer edible photo cakes or you can make one yourself. The cake icing can include your app icon.
Order custom imprinted balloons with your app logo.
44. Create wallpapers and backgrounds.
Create wallpaper/background image made of columns and rows of your app’s icon and use on your
profile pages in MySpace, Twitter, etc.
45. Custom wrapping paper.
Create promotional gift wrapping and tissue paper made of columns and rows of your new app’s
icon. Find creative ways to use the wrapping and tissue paper.
46. Branded promotional items with a mobile theme.
Give away imprinted cell phone shaped mint tins with your company and app information.
47. Auto-responder promotion.
Append your email auto-responders to include a mention of your new app.
48. Social media apps participation.
Consider using location-based mobile social media apps that reveal people nearby with similar
interests. One such app is Loopt. Within the Mix tab of the Loopt app, setup your profile to include
“About me” text as well as Tags that represent your areas of interest. Other subscribers set up
Filters by age, gender and Search Tags. When appropriate, you can send a message to nearby Loopt
subscribers that you think might have an interest in your app.
49. Branded image projection.
Use indoor and outdoor image projection to promote your app icon.
50. Update company profile in professional directories.
Consider creating or updating your company’s profile information across online company
directories. Include a mention of your mobile app, where appropriate. Don’t forget data aggregators
like InfoUSA and individual websites where your company profile can be included such
as LinkedIn.
iPhone Development 101: Marketing:
Promoting Your App
The app store has thousands of apps, with many more added each day. When you release a new app, its visibility
on the app store will be brief. It might sit in the new releases section of its category for a day or two (if you're
lucky). Or it might start off on page 3 to begin with, if dozens of other apps were released on the same day.
Ultimately, you can't count on the App Store itself for publicizing your app. You need to promote the app
elsewhere.
Places to Announce Your App
First off, if you have a website (and you should), you'll want to set up a web page for your app and promote it
on your own site. If you have a mailing list, a blog, a twitter feed, etc., post an announcement there too.
Next, you can send announcements to iPhone app sites. There are generally two types of sites: App Store
scrapers, which are essentially just a mirror of the App Store itself, and news/review sites, which post original
content. You generally don't need to do anything for the scraper sites; your app will show up there automatically.
Review sites, however, tend to have more traffic, and don't list every app that comes out. You'll have to contact
them directly.
Mobile Orchard has published a great list of 9 Places To Publicize Your iPhone App, and Five Tips For
Getting iPhone Reviews.
Most of the "big" review sites won't bother to review your app, especially if you're new and unknown. But it
can't hurt to try. Also, if your app is a game, you might consider creating a thread about it on the Touch Arcade
Forums.
Some sites will want you to send them a promo code, so they can download your app to review it. Don't send
promo codes unless a reviewer writes you back and asks for one, though. (Otherwise it might go to waste. Some
sites get so many review requests, they may never even read your e-mail, much less use your promo code.)
Promo Codes
Apple grants you 50 promotional codes for each version of your app. The code allows the user to download your
app from the App Store free. Each code is unique, so be sure to keep track of your codes and who you sent each
code to. Also a code is only valid for 4 weeks, and only valid in the US iTunes store. Rather than requesting all
50 codes at once, just request 5 or 10 at a time - however many you need for your immediate promotions.
Promo codes can be requested in iTunes Connect.
Press Releases
A press release may get your app noticed by traditional media - newspapers, magazines, TV shows. Search
Google for tips on writing a press release. If you plan to target media in your local area, be sure to emphasize
that you're a local iPhone developer; local media likes local stories.
You can also use a service like PRWeb or prMac to distribute your press release.
Advertising
Should you pay for advertising? If you have a quality app, and you can afford to run ads, then the answer is yes.
Targeted advertising can bring in buyers. If you can make enough sales to get into the top 100 of your app's
category, the payoff can last long after the ad ends.
Web Ad Networks
Many web visitors who see your ad may not even have an iPhone... but some will, so this can be a good strategy
if you choose the right site. Look for sites whose audience is a good match for your app's features. For example,
a kid's game probably isn't a good app to advertise on a gaming site that features mainly shoot-em-up games.
Here are a few suggestions:
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Facebook. While Facebook runs general ads across the entire site, some individual Facebook apps offer
their own advertising. Look for Facebook apps that match the theme of your app, and contact the
developer to see if they offer advertising.
iPhone App Review Sites. Some of the same sites mentioned above also offer advertising.
Daring Fireball is a popular Apple-targeted weblog by John Gruber. He offers weekly sponsorship of
the site.
iPhone-Specific Ad networks
These ad networks run ads directly on the iPhone itself, embedded in other apps.
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AdMob
Medialets
Your Own Users
Once you've got several apps in the store, you should consider marketing to your existing users. You could do
this with a mailing list, but a better way would be an in-app newsline or ad that'd displayed to your users when
they launch your app. Here's a blog post about using a Newsline to communicate with users.
Web Banner Design Tips
Sponsored Links
Here are a few web banner tips that I would like to share with you all. To create a good banner you should always
look at it from the perspective of the viewer. That said, let me detail the tips for web banners.
Web Banner Tip #1 - Nothing beats a good eye-catching punch line
When thinking of the copy for a banner; you need to spend a lot of time in creating a catchy phrase, something
that will arouse the interest of the viewers and entice them to click on the banner. The punch line should be a
small phrase, just a few words and should be visually appealing (correct usage of colors and fonts).
Web Banner Tip #2 - Good copy
A successful banner has excellent copy. Be sure to spend ample time thinking about what would interest the
surfer. Another rule of thumb for good copy is to keep it short and simple. The text should support the banner
punch line and should be informative and practical, making the viewer curious or bringing out a smile. Preferably,
the copy should end with the same catchy phrase as on your web site unless the banner punch line is the same.
Web Banner Tip #3 - Relevant content in banners - not XXX
Make sure that the pictures displayed in the banner are relevant to the products/services you are offering on your
site. A woman in a skimpy bikini would surely attract the attention of male surfers and get a click but, if your site
sells electronic goods, the visitor is sure to leave your site before making a purchase. You, thus, end up with highclick thrus and negligible sales.
Web Banner Tip #4 - Including logo and web site URL in banners
If your ad campaign is a brand building exercise, it is advisable to include BOTH the logo and the web site
address in the banner. For other types of banners, you might like to include the two, but make sure that they don't
dilute the banner punch line or the copy. In such cases, it's best to keep the logo and the URL together either on
the right or the left side of the banner. The logo should be made small and the URL can be displayed in a very
small font size.
Web Banner Tip #5 - Clichés work!
Statistics show that the best call to action on a web banner is the trite phrase "Click here". Its very presence
increases the click-thru rate. The phrase should be displayed long enough (2-3 seconds), preferably in the last
frame of an animated banner and can itself be animated - made to blink or change color.
Web Banner Tip #6 - Web banner file size
Keep the banner file size to a minimum. The reason is simple. Since banners are generally displayed at the top of
web pages, they should load before the visitor has a chance to scroll down grabbing immediately. However,
decreasing the file size of banners leads to tradeoffs in animation and the number of colors used (in animated GIF
banners).
Take a look at 2 animated GIF banners I have created - Click here. Both banners have a lot of animation, as
depicted by the number of frames, but the file sizes small. This is because we have optimized the banners,
specially the number of colors used.
Banner file size depends several factors like the length of the animation (in case of Flash), the amount of
animation, physical size of the banner etc.
To know more on how to compress and optimize images click on one of the links below:
Optimizing GIFs
Optimizing JPGs
The GIF compression algorithm
The JPG compression algorithm
When to use gifs and when to use jpgs
Web Banner Tip #7 - How long should an animated banner run?
Studies have shown that a typical web surfer spends less than 10 seconds looking at the top of a web page.
Thus, a web banner has to display all its content in this time. The call to action, which would usually be in the last
frame of an animated banner, should be displayed within this time frame, else the banner loses its efficacy.
Tips for Creating Web Banners
Sponsored Links
Continuing our previous article on Web banner design tips, below are the remaining 6 tips for creating effective
web banners.
Web Banner Tip #8 - To animated or not to animated?
Animated banners generate almost 30% higher click-thru rates than static banners. The main drawback is that
animation results in larger file sizes. However, optimizing ananimated GIF banner by decreasing both the number
of colors used and vertical color change, one can bring the file size below the required value.
An important point regarding animated GIF banners is the use of photo-realistic images. GIF images can contain
only 256 colors and the image compression algorithm (LZW: Lempel-Zev-Welch) works best when the image has
large areas of single color. Since photos are complex images, the LZW compression algorithm is not able to do
full justice, resulting in large file sizes. Hence, it is advisable to either avoid the use of photos in animated GIFs or
keep the animation to a minimum if photos are employed.
Using Flash, we can embed photos as JPGs, which is the correct format to use for photographs and other
complex images. Furthermore, we can correctly control thecompression levels of JPG. With Flash, the text or
even the photo can be animated.
Take a look at the Flash banner I created for a client - Click here. This banner contains 4 photos that have been
animated and a large image of the American flag used as the background - a total of 5 photo-realistic images. The
physical dimensions of this banner are also quite large, 160x600 pixels, but the file size is 18kb!
Web Banner Tip #9 - Using Flash
Flash has thrown open a complete new area in web banner ad design. Flash animationsare much smoother
than animated GIFs and the file sizes are a lot smaller. Flash banners can also be made interactive, involving the
visitor directly. Banners developed in Flash generate higher click-thru rates than animated GIFs.
Does this mean that the days of animated GIFs are over? The answer is Yes and No! Displaying Flash banners
requires a plugin on the viewers' system. Not all surfers would have this plugin (though the percentage of such
users is decreasing by the day). Whenever you submit a Flash banner for a banner ad campaign, you are asked
for the animated GIF version as well. Animated GIFs are still standing tall!
Web Banner Tip #10 - Blue underlined text
Web surfers understand blue underlined text as links. If you know that the banner would be displayed on a web
page with white background, you should created a banner with blue underlined text, preferably not anti-aliased,
written in common fonts such as Times, New Roman, Verdana or Arial. The banner thus "merges" into the web
page looks like a part of the content. Though this might be considered tricking the surfer, it would be forgiven if
you deliver what you have promised in the banner. Click here for two examples.
Web Banner Tip #11 - Is this tricking the surfer?
Take a look at this banner - Click here. The banner has HTML form elements such as radio buttons, drop down
menu and the submit button. However, all the elements are in the form of images and do not work. You might feel
this is tricking the viewers - they click on the banner thinking the HTML form fields work. However, in my opinion,
HTML form fields are a good way to inform the viewers what they would expect when they click on the banner!
Remember, only those viewers who are interested in the services/products offered would click on a banner and
thus, this is a nice way to tell them what they would see on the web site. However, it is important that the clickthru page contents complement the banner information.
Web Banner Tip #12 - Several banners for a single ad campaign
Unless you have done thorough research on your audience preferences and behavior patterns, its highly unlikely
that a single banner would be sufficient for your ad campaign. I believe that you should start with 6-10 banners.
You should keep rotating the banners and as the ad campaign progresses and you'll come to know which
banners are generating higher click-thru rates. It is imperative that you track the success of each banner in terms
of CPMs, CTRs and CPCs.
Web Banner Tip #13 - Professional looking banners
Lastly, make sure that your banners are professional looking. The images are clear and not blurred or pixelated
and that the line art is sharp. Also make sure that your banners are displayed at the same width and height values
as their actual size. For example, if your 468x60 banner is displayed at larger or smaller dimensions (even if the
width:height ratio is kept the same), it leads to pixelation.
What is an online ad campaign?
Sponsored Links
An online advertisement campaign is like any ad campaign... only it's online - on the web.
If you have products or services to sell and are advertising them via T.V., newspapers, brochures, etc. it is time
you took your promotions online. Why? The number of net surfers is increasing at a rapid rate and studies have
shown that people are spending more and more time on the web. Buying products online is convenient, hasslefree and easy. Online market places allow buyers to see the best deals available without moving from their desks
and choose the products they want which they could not find at the local supermarket.
Do you need a web site for advertising your products or services online?
There are a few ways you can promote your products and services online - display banners on a web site (ideally
a web site which caters to your target audience), have banners displayed on ezines (online newsletters and
magazines) etc. When visitors click on the banners, they should be taken to your web site. Thus, you DO need a
web site.
Though a fully functional web site with shopping carts is very much desired if you plan to sell products or services
and project your company as a professional supplier, you can still promote your products or services if you have a
very basic web site as long as it provides details of your offerings as well as contact details.
Banner ads for online promotion
Sponsored Links
What are web banners
In simplest terms (I'll push in a few "technical" terms in the next two paragraphs), web banners are images or
animations which advertise products or services.
Banner sizes
Web banners come in different sizes and styles. The Internet Advertising Bureau, has released standard sizes for
web banners. Most web sites or ad servers accept banners which conform to the standard sizes. The standard
sizes vary from the very large vertical banners to the very small. The sizes are measured in pixels - hmmm, what
are pixels? (click to know the answer). You can find the standard banner sizes here.
Banner styles
On the basis of style, web banners can be classified as follows:
1.
2.
3.
Static banners - GIFs, JPGs or PNGs. These are simply different image formats.
Animated banners - Animated GIFs or Flash files
Interactive banners - are banners that respond to visitor actions such as mouse-overs, mouse cursor
movements or key presses. Interactive banners can be developed in Flash, Java,
or HTML and JavaScript.
These banner styles can be applied to all standard banner sizes.
Note: The JPG image format does not support animation hence you cannot have an animated JPG banner.
Let me also make one point very clear. A successful banner ad campaign entails a great deal of hard work and
determination from you. After all you cannot hand over the promotion of your products entirely to someone without
taking an active interest in what they are doing.
Remember, you would know more about your business than the person developing the ad campaign and the
banners. Hence, a proactive role from your side is essential.
Here is a checklist that I have prepared that will help you in getting started with your online banner ad campaign.
1. Knowing your business
I guess you already know this... but hold on a second. Ask yourself, does your business really need an online
advertising campaign? If your competition is promoting on the net, should you do the same?
Let us see how we can answer this question. You first need to know if people use the web to buy products or
services such as yours. And how do we do that? Here is a simple way to find out if people use the web to search
and buy products and services such as yours. Click here to get a listing of services that help you in locating
keywords for a web site. These services list search terms used by net surfers based on the keyword you supply.
Visit one of these resources and type in the keyword which relates to your products or services. You should get a
listing of keywords and key phrases which have been used by net surfers. If you don't get any listing, it means
that web users are not employing the keyword that you have entered. Try with another keyword.
What do these listings mean? Listing of keywords and key phrases from services such as Overture Keyword
Suggestion Tool, provide you with two kinds of data - The keyword or key phrase used by net surfers and the
number of times it was used. This number is important as it helps you understand how many times this keyword
was used over the last month (or the time period mentioned on the results page).
So, if you feel or come to know from the exercise above that there are enough prospects on the Internet for your
products or services, you should take your advertising online.
Also if you are looking to simply add value to your brand and get it recognized online, an online banner
advertising campaign fits the bill.
2. The purpose of your web banner ad campaign
Define a purpose for your campaign.
Your aim can be to sell products/services, to increase the number of hits to your web site (which would ultimately
bring in more leads), or to promote a brand...
Remember, the banner copy should be structured depending on your aim.
Allocate a budget for the online campaign and segregate it into:
1. Cost of getting banners created
2. Advertising costs
3. Whom do you want to target?
Knowing the audience well is of prime importance in creating a rewarding banner campaign. The audience can be
people from the same industry or a more general group. You should visit various sites that cater to your target
audience, ask them for their advertising rates. Be sure to contact the big sites as well as the smaller ones. In
addition to asking them for their advertising rates, you should ask them for web site visitor statistics esp. number
of unique visitors, number of page views, the browser and platform (Operating system) breakdown for the visitors.
What is the difference between unique visitors, page views and hits?
The number of unique visitors defines the number of different individuals who visit the site. You might ask: how
does a computer know that a particular visitor on that day is unique?Computers count to a visitor either using a
cookie or checking the IP address of the visitor.
Assuming you have 24 net connectivity (don't we all), if you visit a site in the morning and then check it again in
the evening, chances are that your second visit would NOT be counted as a unique visit as you would most
probably be using the same IP address as you had in the morning. However, if the site uses cookies, your second
visit *might* be counted as a unique visit (this depends on how the cookie was configured).
Unique visitors and page views
Let us suppose a web site gets 40 different visitors in a day and each visitor views 4 pages on an average. The
total number of page views would be 40 X 4 = 160, and the number of unique visitors would be 40.
Page views and web site hits
The Page View number is a measure of the number of pages visitors have seen during the day. A particular
visitor might just check one page on a site and leave while another might view 10 pages. A hit is very different
from a page view. Web pages have images, flash movies etc embedded in them. A transfer of an image from a
server to the client computer is a "hit". Thus, if a web page has 20 images and one flash movie the number of hits
would be 22 (20 images, one flash movie and one HTML page)
Do not be swayed if the webmaster tells you that his site gets a million hits per day - ask him or her of the number
of page views. If each page from that site has 50 embedded objects, the page views per day of that site would be
close to 50000 - much lower that the one million!
4. Your web site URL
Should your web site URL be included in the banner? I always recommend that you put it. You can have it in a
very small font size if it's the logo, text or images that you want people to pay attention to. OR you can have the
URL displayed in a large font if you want to build a brand recall value around the URL. The choice is yours, but as
I mentioned you should include the URL in your banner - after all, the URL (domain name) is how you are
recognized online!
5. Know your competition
a. List out as many competitor web sites as possible.
b. Save any web banners of the competition that you come across.
c. Note the web sites on which the competition is advertising.
A few months back, a client asked us to develop banners for their products. He pointed us to a couple of
sites where he wanted to display the banners. This was very helpful!
When I visited the pages in which the banners had to be placed, I was kind of taken aback. The page contained
more than 25 banners (of varying sizes) of the competition. So it was clear what we had to do... we needed to
create banners which would stand out from the crowd. On brainstorming, we realized that most banners on the
competition had photographs of "sexy" women (though the product had nothing to do with the pictures) and all
banners were rectangular (the shape of images on the web). So we created banners that contained cartoon
characters and line drawings, choosing colors that were bright and attractive and changing the shape of the
banners from rectangular to ovals, circles or with jagged edges.
Note: all images are rectangular but if one creates a border which is a circle or an oval and make the areas
outside the border transparent (or the same color as the background on which the banner would be displayed),
we get an "irregular" shaped banner.
The cartoons and line-drawing complemented with the bright colors and smart animation helped us stand out from
the lot... our client sales increased 6 folds!!!
In continuation to the previous article on Advertising online using web banners, here are the remaining tips for
successful and effective online advertising using web banners.
6. Number of banners
This depends on the budget you have allocated for the campaign. For more details, please read the 13 banner
tips - especially the Several banners for a single ad campaign tip.
7. Banner style guide
The web site or banner service (Link Exchanges etc.) you plan to use for serving the banners would provide you
with a banner style guide. These guides would dictate the different aspects of the banners such as the banner
size, length of the animation, number of loops for the animation, border attributes etc. Send the Banner Style to
the banner designers so that your banners adhere to the policies of the ad service.
8. Banner type
What kind of banner is the best for your campaign? There can be no definite answer. It depends on several
factors such as the place (web site) would want to display the banners, the aim of your online campaign, etc. In
my opinion you should test out several banners and see which ones are outperforming the others. This helps you
in creating better banners in future.
Studies have shown that animated flash banners with good copy get 2-3 times more click-thrus than static
banners.
9. Size of the Banners - Dimensions
The physical dimensions in pixels - 468 X 60, 234 X 60, 120 X 90 etc.
It's likely, you've already chosen the size/s as dictated by the banner space you plan to purchase on the web
page that will ultimately display the banner.
You can find the standard banner sizes here. However, you are not limited to these sizes and can get the banners
in any size that you want.
10. Maximum file size of the banners
Generally, you would be informed of the maximum file size of the banner by the site on which you plan to display
the banner.
Banner file size depends on the type of banner you have chosen - Flash, animated gif or static/interactive
banners. The size also depends on the physical dimensions and the length and amount of animation in an
animated banner.
You can read the tip on banner file size here.
11. Using animated or static banners
Animated banner are created either as Flash movies or GIF files (Gif89a format). If you plan to use Flash
banners, it's likely you would probably need the animated gif versions too. You can check it out with the ad
service if the style guide does not state this explicitly.
Please also read the web banner tip on animation.
Note: JPG banners cannot be animated.
12. How long should the animation run?
For animated banners, we need to know how long should the animation run and for how many loops. You can
read our tip on this - click here.
Animated banner can be made to run for a stipulated number of loops or might loop infinitely.
13. Banner colors preferences
Should the banner carry the same colors as your web site to help in brand recognition? Again this depends on the
colors of the site on which you plan to advertise your banner. Usually, a banner should look like a part of the web
site design unless you are competing with tons of banners on a web page in which case your banner should stand
out.
You can also pick one from more than 100 color combinations we have put online for you.
14. Banner design preferences
If you come across some visually appealing web banners, save them and pass these to the designer. Obviously,
you should tell the designer not to "copy" the style. This helps your designer in understanding your design tastes
much more quickly that a whole page of text!
15. Where would the banners be used?
Where would the web banner be displayed? Link Exchanges, Affiliate programs, or on your web site...
It would be tremendously helpful to the designer if you know the exact web page/web site on which the banner
would be displayed.
Note: banners that looks a part of the web site get more hits. However, if the page you are advertising on has tons
of other (competitive) banners, your banners should stands out.
For details, please read the 13 banner tips we have put for you.
16. Images preference
Try to use images which complement the product. Don't try to fool the visitor into clicking by displaying something
entirely different from your product or service. Attractive pictures (like those of "sexy women") might get you a
click but will not lead to a sale.
Please note: images from other web sites might be copyrighted. Your designer can help you in locating similar
images from a clipart collection.
17. Click-thru URL
For Flash banners, you need to inform the designer the click-thru URL so that they can embed it in the banner.
Also specify if on clicking the banner, a new browser window should open or should the same window be
refreshed. You can get the details from the site on which you plan to advertise.
18. Copy (text) in the banners
Good copy is the hallmark of a successful banner - please read the Nothing beats a good eye-catching punch
line and Good copy banner tips.
For animated banners, talk to the designer and discuss the story broad of the animation.
Note from Manish Sharma - SimplyGraphix
We guarantee banners that are distinctive in delineating their message, wh'ether its a brand building exercise or a
more direct sales pitch. We feel that all elements in a banner should accentuate the particular product/service
being promoted and hence we lay a lot of emphasis on the colors, fonts and special effects used in the banner.
Category: Home - Internet Marketing > Banner Advertising
Where To Place Your Banner Ads
Increasing web site traffic can be done effectively and somewhat inexpensively through online
marketing methods like banner advertising.
The key to successful banner advertising is to learn and understand the most effective methods
and track what produces the best results and directs the most useful web site traffic to your web
site. In this article we will discuss banner ad placement.
There are probably websites out there in cyberspace with a demographic that appeals greatly to
you. You may ask yourself exactly how you can tap into the demo market of a particular web site
and bring some of their web site traffic to your site. Banner advertising is the way to do this.
Concentrate your search on sites that focus on a similar niche to your site without being a direct
competitor. Review their pricing for banner advertising to see if buying their ad space is within your
budget. You may even want to contact the site administrator or Webmaster to ask about the
possibility of a banner exchange program between your two sites with the idea that both sites
could generate increased web site traffic.
A free banner swap with a similar niche site may save you some dollars by avoiding the need to
buy high priced ad spots. It's important to remember that banner placement is crucial to the
success of your banner advertising actually increasing web site traffic. This is especially important
if you are spending a lot of money for your banner advertising.
Many popular high traffic websites are not one bit shy about charging a good penny for ad space on
their site - so know where your banner is getting placed to ensure that the money you are throwing
out will actually increase your web site traffic!
It was once believed that the most effective placement for banner advertising on any website was
the very top of the page. This made sense since the banner ad is immediately visible at the very
beginning of the page load and requires no scrolling. Most web visitors are likely to ignore a banner
that is near the bottom of the page that requires scrolling down.
Banner advertising is still a hundred times more effective with a banner advert placed at the top of
the page rather than the bottom of the page, however, there is also evidence that suggests that
banner advertising is most effective in increasing web site traffic when ads are placed next to the
right scroll bar, usually in the lower right-hand corner of the homepage or at least 1/3 down the
page.
This placement may generate a higher click-through rate and increased web site traffic than ads at
the top of the page. This news should be particularly good for Webmasters on a tight budget when
it comes to advertising because the ads on the right-side of the page are typically smaller
dimensions than ads running at the top, which typically means cheaper banner advertising rates.
So don't feel like you have to purchase the highest priced ad, with the largest size dimensions,
placed at the very top of the page, to benefit from increased web site traffic.
Mobile Applications:
Mobile Applications: What is the best way to promote a mobile app?
4 Answers
Kevin Blackman, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android development
8 votes by Cam Dumesny, Patrick Cushing, Shara Karasic, (more)
First listen to Apple, you will find some great tips here:
http://tuvix.apple.com/news/ios/... such as: Showcase Your App with Engaging Screen Shots, Naming
your App, Just Right "Lite", The Art of Using Key Words Successfully, The importance of App Name
and Icon Consistency, Creating a Great Presence on the App Store, and others.
Then here are some ideas in no particular order of importance:
1) Make a Fantastic App - #1! It should be really cool and useful.
2) App Name should say it all - the app name should say what it does. This is really important.
3) Offer a Free or Lite version - gives people the chance to test, touch, feel the app!
4) Create an Amazing App Icon - give them a reason to click on it! Sales banner when you lower the
price.
5) Your iTunes Submission - complete it, describe to sell, be concise direct, quote from reviews, use
top keywords
6) Great Web Site - you must have it, and let it be great too
7) Publish press releases - this ain't expensive, their are lots of places where you can put your PR
for free. And it generates tons of traffic to your website, and iTunes submission. Great to couple this
with a a short free app window to generate community, reviews, etc.
8) Video - says it all! This can be done on the cheap, screen cast from the simulator.
9) App Reviews - get your app reviewed, submit, submit submit!
10) Write relevant articles - find community makers, blogs with high traffic and try and contribute an
article.
11) Use promo codes - give apps a way to key influencers in the app community, reviewers etc. and
create a buzz
12) Encourage reviews
13) Use Analytics - iTunes store analytics, web analytics, user feedback 14) Run Sales Often - this
is one of the coolest techniques. Many app junkies monitor when apps fall in price, or go free for brief
periods. Don't be afraid to give your app away free for a couple days to build momentum!
14) Use different distro channels - many different distro channels are appearing, investigate them
15) Social presence - build your social presence prior to the launch, and let people know its coming.
Ensure that your app is linked into to your social presence, and that you build a community following.
16) Make a HUGE launch - sync it all together with a bang launch!
17) Advertise - use Google Adwords, AdMob, etc.
18) Try to get into the “What’s Hot” or “Staff Favorites” lists at the Apple App Store.
19) Research - research ways to promote your app! There are lots of tips out there, and you should
build your personalised list of what works for you.
20) Be persistent, and consistent - it ain't going to happen overnight, sustained quality effort is
necessary
Mobile App Business and Marketing:
Marketing
Mobile Applications
Mobile Software Development
Web Marketing
Mobile App Business and Marketing: What are the best ways to
promote a new mobile app with no budget?
1 Comment
6 Answers
Daniel Greenspan, IT Specialist & Entrepreneur
1 vote by Ahmed Abdulrahman
Send your app to one of the hundreds of websites that review mobile applications (Google "mobile
application reviews" to identify these sites) If it's decent they may review it and open it up to
subscribers to review as well, giving you free access to a motivated community of mobile app
consumers. Learn more about marketing your mobile apps in the ITCareerFinder.com blog by mobile
expert Mark Lassoff -http://www.itcareerfinder.com/br....
Comment • Post • Embed • 20 Aug, 2011
Hugh Kimura, Cubicle Escape Strategist, Zahlm dot com
I am interested in developing mobile apps too and the big guys are saying that you don't really have to
spend money promoting it outside of the app network. It is all about the network like Android
marketplace or iTunes. If you have something good, then people will find out.
I guess it doesn't hurt to do a few blog posts about it either.
Sign up for free to read this answer.
Quora is a knowledge-sharing club. In exchange for reading people's answers, you need an
account so that you can help out if you know the answer to someone else's question.
Sign up for free
to read these answers.
Comment • Post • Embed • 19 Jul, 2011
Anon User
1 vote by Ahmed Abdulrahman

Start with making a Twitter Profile and promote your app in Twitter-sp

Start with making a Twitter Profile and promote your app in Twitter-sphere.

I agree with Moiz Ismail to give the app to early adopters. Also, if you could give promotional
codes to influential users (that have significant followers). They'll review your app and spread the
word.

Depending on the app's target audience, start spreading words to that audience.

I really recommend this webinar (http://www.brighttalk.com/webcas...) talking about Top 10 tips to
promote an app.
Comment • Post • Embed • 19 Jul, 2011
David Bell, Mobile applications since 1999 - BREW...
1 vote by Chris Jones
Generally promotions help, however without a budget you need to at least get some reviews and
generate some SEO buzz on Google. Submit your apps to review sites
like toucharcade.com or www.gnomeescape.com to get some extra exposure if you get a featured
review.
Comment • Post • Embed • 19 Jun
Aakrit Vaish, Flurry India
1 vote by Natalia Matveeva
While there may be "organic" or free ways to get users for your app, relying on that is a recipe for
failure IMHO. You need to treat your mobile application just like any other business. Lets say you
make a shirt: wouldn't you think about spending something on marketing so users know about your
brand and buy it?
While organic app marketing is good, I'd say consider that more of a back up and have a paid
marketing plan in mind - even if its a small budget.
Comment • Post • Embed • 2h ago
Mobile Applications
Promotion
iPhone
iPhone Applications
What are the best recommended ways to promote an iPhone app nowadays?
Given that the app store now has hundreds of thousands of apps, how does
a decent new app get visibility?
Oren Todoros, Multi Passionate CEO of AppsMarketing...
8 votes by Lior Yekoutieli, Harel Shattenstein, Tamar Weinberg, (more)
The bottom line is that it's about identifying your audience. Whether it's a game, social, education or
photography app. Begin by finding out where your intended users interact online and introduce your
app to them. Of course there are dozens of communities and services you can leverage to build
awareness for your app, but if you have limited time and resources, creating a YouTube video and
linking it back to your app's download page will help significantly.
Here's a full post to read in detail with many other ideas on how to promote your mobile app:The 10
Commandments of Successful App Marketing -http://blog.appsmarketing.mobi/2...
Via Lior Yekoutieli.
Comment • Post • Embed • 7 Jan, 2011
6 Ways to Promote Your Mobile App!
Posted by Li-at Karpel Gurwicz | December 27, 2011
Conduit Mobile provides a simple platform for the creation of FREE custom mobile apps, enabling
you to promote your content and engage your users – anytime, anywhere.
Once your mobile app has been created, perfected, and submitted to the mobile marketplaces,
it’s time to start promoting your app in order to get more users!
Conduit Mobile offers a variety of useful tools and tips to help you attract more users and get
more downloads.
Here’s how to get started:
1. Leverage your website
Get your website users to download your mobile app. Add a catchy banner on your website’s
homepage, including links to install your mobile app in the relevant mobile marketplaces.
For example, take a look at what some of our other publishers are doing on their websites:


DJ Celteric: http://www.djcelteric.com/
MiddleEasy: http://middleeasy.com/
2. Increase downloads with a QR code
Make it easy for your users to download your app or go to your web-based app by simply
scanning a QR code with their mobile phone’s camera. This unique code, generated for you by
Conduit Mobile, can be found on the “App home” page.
To make it even easier for your users, you can place the QR code image anywhere, including
your website, blog, email signature, Facebook page, or even printed materials.
3. Spread the word via social networks
Use your social networks to attract more users.
Post updates about your mobile app on your Facebook and Twitter profile pages, providing your
QR code or links to your mobile app in the relevant mobile marketplaces.
4. Promote on your SoundCloud profile
Let your SoundCloud listeners know that they can take your music with them on their mobile
device. Include a link to your mobile app in the relevant marketplaces on your SoundCloud
profile.
5. Generate buzz
Get people talking about you. Contact bloggers or other websites and encourage them to write a
review for your mobile app.
6. Redirect traffic from your website to your mobile app
Get the Conduit Mobile-generated redirect code for your mobile app from the “App home” page
and simply embed it in your website’s code. Using this code will give users arriving at your
website via their mobile devices the option to be redirected to your mobile app or proceed with
their regular browsing.
For more tools and tips on how to best spread the word about your mobile app, check out
our Promoting Your Mobile Apptutorial in our How-to Videos.
Best of luck in your promotional efforts!
How To: Promote Your iOS and Android
Mobile Apps
With over 600k apps in the iPhone App Store, and approaching another 500k in Google Play, the
name of the game for mobile app and games publishers is getting noticed. With the Apple and
Google appstores being the main channel to mobile consumers, this means building a good
ranking in their respective stores. However, back in April 2011, Apple changed its approach to
incentivized app download networks, rejecting any apps that offer rewards for downloads, and
cracking down on app promotion services that guarantee top 10 placement in App Store rankings.
Although incentivized downloads are still permissible in Google Play, the app promotion industry
was rather shaken by Apple’s decision. So now the dust has settled, what options are there for
developers to promote their apps across both the App Store and Google Play, and how have the
wrist-slapped promotion networks changed their game? For more about app promotion dont’
forget to check our Mobile App Marketing Guide and our list of Mobile App Promotion Networks,
Agencies and Tools
App promotion networks: a quick recap
Firstly, if you’re new to the world of app promotion you might be wondering what incentivized
downloads are all about and why Apple decided to ban them. Incentivized downloads are offered
by app promotion networks, which help developers generate new users by cross-promoting apps
between different publishers.
A typical incentivized app offer might be an reward of virtual currency within a mobile game for
downloading a promoted app (sometimes the user also has to also achieve something within the
promoted app to receive the reward). Or it could be a voucher-style reward, which allows a user
to download a paid app for free or access some other kind of offer. Typically, mobile games are
best positioned to host these incentivized downloads, as they have much more scope to offer
enhanced in-app features.
So why did Apple ban the practice of incentivized mobile app downloads? Well the argument is
download incentives, such as those offered by the likes of TapJoy and Flurry, allowed developers
to essentially game the system, rewarding whoever spends the most money by pushing their
apps up the rankings to gain visibility.
The other problem was that many users had no intention of actually using the promoted apps.
They simply downloaded them and accessed them once to get the reward, before hitting the
delete button. The other app promotion issue that raised Apple’s ire, was slightly more dishonest
(well a lot more). Back in February it was revealed that some app promotion agencies were
increasing client downloads by creating thousands of fake iTunes accounts. Many developers
and journalists suspected this practice was taking place for some time, but it was never proved.
Apple has warned developers to stay away from agencies guaranteeing chart placements, though
that’s not to say all agencies that do promise to boost placements are doing so fraudulently.
So what are the new ways that app promotion networks are using to get around Apple’s ban and
generate downloads? Here’s a few stats concerning app promotion, followed by a quick rundown
of what services the main app promotion networks and agencies currently offer:
What does it cost to promote an app?
You can spend as much or as little as you like on promoting your app. Typically, app promotion
networks will price their services on a cost per install (CPI) or cost per download (CPD) basis.
Here’s a few numbers to give you an idea of the costs involved:

TapJoy charges around 50-75% of a paid app’s price per install, and between $0.35-0.75 for free
app installations

To get into the top 10 apps in the App Store, it is rumoured to cost around $20,000-$30,000.
Agencies such as ComboApp say it can get your app into a top 100 category for $4,900


Research from Fiksu, a leading app promotion company, claims the cost of acquiring loyal users
(user who use your app more than 3 times)has risen from $1.10 in May 2011 (before the ban) to
$1.31 in February 2011
Fiksu says its own platform delivers loyal users typically for less than $1 and some as low as
$0.45
App promotion networks
If you want to promote your app then there’s a number of specialist app promotion networks you
can approach. Following the shift away from incentivized installs these networks are using a
number of different approaches to drive app downloads ranging from moving incentives outside of
iOS SDKs, using video promoting an app instead of actual app downloads and developing more
non-incentivized formats such as interstitials and rich media. Here’s a list of some of the most
prominent mobile app promotion networks:
TapJoy
TapJoy was arguably the biggest provider of incentivized downloads, and its business was hit
hard by Apple’s ban. The company has since migrated its incentive network outside of the app
store and onto the web. The principle is exactly the same as TapJoy’s previous offering, but
because developers don’t install the SDK into their apps, Apple cannot really interfere in the
process (though the platform is in a beta phase and Apple’s response remains to be seen). In
order to bolster its incentivized service on Android, TapJoy has created a $5 million fund to help
developers port their iOS app over to Google’s OS. So if you already have an iOS app, then it
may be worth your while to get in touch with TapJoy.
Fiksu
Fiksu has gone down a similar route to TapJoy. The company has developed an incentivized
network that circumvents the App Store, letting users sign-up to a web-based platform. It works
by giving users credits every time they download a promoted app, these credits are then turned
into iTunes gift codes, which can be used to purchase paid apps.
W3i
W3i has now shifted to a non-incentivized model, where developers have access to a crosspromotion platform dedicated to mobile games. While W3i’s platform doesn’t reward users for
downloading apps, it does provide limited offers and gives developers a variety of ad display
options – think of it as a premium ad network dedicated to mobile games.
Flurry
Flurry offers its AppCircle service to developers, which is similar to W3i’s platform, offering nonincentivized downloads. Flurry claims its network is able to increase downloads by using its
detailed analytics to recommend relevant apps within other apps the consumer is using.
Applifier
Applifier offers a non-incentivized platform for iOS and Android users, focused entirely on games.
Developers can promote other publishers games via banner ads embedded into their pause
screen, or via interstitial ads. Applifier’s USP is that developers do not pay for users. When a
publisher sends a user to someone else’s app, that publisher will receive a new user – for free.
Applifier makes its money by serving paid ads next to the cross promotion ads.
AppBrain
AppBrain offers two Android-focuses services, one is a offer-wall platform that delivers nonincentivised app promotions, the other is AppBrain’s own app store (which is downloadable from
Google Play). The app store provides regular app recommendations of the best apps in Google
Play. AppBrain says its lack of an incentive-driven approach results in more valuable users, as
they will only install the app if they are interested in it.
ChartBoost
ChartBoost offers three non-incentivised ways to promote your app. The first is a platform that
allows you cross promote apps within your own network (obviously, this only makes sense if you
have more than one app), the second allows you to form direct deals with other publishers (letting
you set the cost per install, or arrange an install exchange model) and the third is paid advertising
on ChartBoost’s network, where you’ll pay either on cost per click or cost per install. ChartBoost
lets developers set-up internal cross promotions and direct deals with publishers for free.
G6pay
G6Pay used to be a big player in incentivized downloads, but has now gone down a similar route
to W3i , offering a non-incentivized app promotion platform, where iOS developers can crosspromote apps via interstitial ads and pay per download.
App promotion agencies
App promotion agencies are essentially marketing agencies that focus exclusively on promoting
apps, usually by combining a number of mobile marketing strategies, PR and media relation
services, SEO and social media services. There are plenty of agencies out there, but you may
want to check out the ones below:
ComboApp – App promotion agency based in Vancouver, Canada with offices in Chicago. Offers
social media promotion, PR and more.
AppPromo – Full service marketing agency that focuses on app promotion. Based in Toronto,
Canada.
ProAppMarketing - App promotion agency that handles PR, social media development,
monetisation and research and analysis. Based in London.
Apps Marketing Mobi - Full-service app promotion agency based in Israel. Offers monetisation,
app marketing and app store optimisation.
What services do app promotion agencies typically offer?
Social media: Social media is a powerful marketing tool for nearly every sector but given the
amount of crossover between people using social media and those using smartphone apps, it is
particularly important for app developers. Promoting your app via social media can involve
anything from running ad campaigns in Facebook, to simply rolling out a Twitter feed and building
a list of followers. However, the most successful use of social media for app promotion is where
it is embedded within the app or game itself. For example, Draw Something by OMGPOP has
used social media to great effect by making it easy to find friends to play on Facebook. Other
apps including Foursquare and Run Keeper have also been effective in using Twitter to broadcast
in-app activity. A good app promotion agency will advise on how to develop this type of viral
effect.
SEO/ASO: If your app targets a particularly searchable niche, then you may want to deploy n
search engine optimised website, targeting relevant keywords, to capture search traffic. Another
aspect of SEO, perhaps even more important, is SEO for app stores (sometimes called ASO).
This is an area still very much in its infancy, but most app promotion agencies will be able to
keyword optimise your app store page to ensure the right users find you. The days when you
could easily use tactics such as keyword stuffing in the appstores are gone, but it is fair to say
that mobile appstore search is still fairly unsophisticated so agencies who know a bit about ASO
can be very useful. MobileDevHQ offers an ASO tool that you can download and try out for free.
Appcod.eshas also recently launched a tool to help with appstore SEO. Just remember, unlike
Google keyword information, ASO search volumes are estimate from third parties and may not be
completely reliable. The presentation below from Appcod.es is worth a read to get an overview of
appstore SEO.
AppCod.es – app store marketing toolbox
View more presentations from Tomasz Kolinko
Media coverage: App promotion agencies will conduct typical PR activities, such as drafting
press releases, coming-up with relevant media lists of journos and bloggers to contact, and trying
to generate coverage through news. Many app promotion agencies will make guarantees such as
ensuring your app gets reviewed X number of times by the press, though take such services with
a pinch of salt because anyone can set-up a blog and review apps – the only publications that are
worth targeting are the ones that are actually trusted by their readership. There are a huge range
of app review blogs around these days however, and a good agency may have established
relationships or a long list of blogs to contact which should help with getting coverage.
App placement guarantees: Some agencies will guarantee you a placement in the Top Apps
categories on app stores. Agencies will likely use a combination of the above strategies, along
with app promotion networks, to achieve this. However, as we mentioned at the top of the article,
the practice of guaranteeing chart placements came under some scrutiny last year, after it was
revealed that companies were using fake iTunes accounts to generate downloads. So proceed
with some caution
Mobile ad networks
Premium and blind mobile ad networks remain one of the most popular ways to promote apps.
It’s generally thought that, while generating users via mobile ads is more expensive than
incentivized networks, the value of the user (the ARPDAU) via mobile ads is higher. There’s a
multitude of networks out there that provide everything from simple banner ads, right the way
through to video ads and rich interactive ads, displayed in mobile sites and apps. Some mobile
ad networks are very well set up for promoting apps, and will allow developers to cross-promote
apps or games within the network in exchange for running ads. Check out our guide to mobile ad
networks for more information.
Mobile Marketing and Media Buying
Agencies
There are also a number of mobile marketing agencies focusing on mobile app promotion to
some extent. For example, Fetch Media in the UK and US carries out app promotion for a
number of leading brands and games developers. Other specialist mobile ad buying agencies
includeMobiclicks in South Africa, and Mobile Shakers in the US. An agency will benefit from
economies of scale in buying mobile advertising, and will also have close relationships with the
ad networks. A good agency will also be able to manage the complex process of running and
optimizing mobile ad campaigns more effectively. This is particularly useful following Apple’s
depreciation of the UDID that was used to track mobile app downloads, an agency will be able to
help track mobile app downloads using alternative methods. Typically a mobile agency will
require a certain level of minimum spend, this is typically $10k per month at least, and more
generally, closer to $30k per month. However, for developers with an established app or
successful game this is well within reach. You can find more agencies in our list of mobile
marketing and advertising agencies.
To sum up…
There is still a big problem when it comes to discoverability on the App Store and Google Play.
Nevertheless, despite Apple’s decision to ban incentivized downloads, the app promotion industry
is back on its feet and much more diversified, with different networks approaching the problem
with different solutions. It could also be argued that the industry is more healthy given the fact that
incentivized downloads generally produces low value users. It’s not perfect, but with the right
combination of traditional promotion techniques and more specialised solutions, any budding app
developer should be able to get his or her app noticed. What happens after that is down to how
good your app is!
If you want to find out more take a look at our Mobile App Marketing Guide and our list of Mobile
App Promotion Networks, Agencies and Tools