How to Promote Android App
Promotion of applications and games on the mobile market is no easy task – it's already known that major marketing efforts are taken to make sure that the app performs well, and still – only a small percentage of developers and publishers have managed to profit from their hard work. This means that you need to put extra effort into your marketing campaign. But there is one point you're probably aware of – the majority of smaller developers don't have a dedicated marketing budget that would afford them to keep an in-house marketer or use services provided by a professional mobile marketing agency.
Therefore, one needs to start looking into marketing of mobile applications and games on Google Play on their own. There are ways to attract the audience, however you need to keep in mind that they will require dedication and responsible approach to the task. If you're persistent and ready for challenges ahead, then you should be able to stay afloat – just keep in mind that it will take a lot of effort to reach that.
Let's take a look at the Android app promotion methods available to you.
Quality should be the top priority
Remember – you shouldn't slack off when it comes to the quality of your application or game. Users don't like buggy and/or unfinished apps and games. When it comes to the quality, the users tend to pick the best one and stick with it, and it's up to you to be the best one in this case. Consider taking some extra time to make sure that your application or game is in the best state possible.
Test your app on as many different devices as possible and look for every potential glitch, bug or issue. Read about various devices and their specifications, and also model-related issues that one has to keep in mind all the time. Sure, it may seem like a hassle, but trust me – by covering as many Android users as possible you can spend less time trying to fix a device-specific bug and instead learning how to promote Android apps and games.
Expanding the target audience through localization
Did you know that the majority of mobile users come from regions outside of USA and UK? It's important to remember that as a mobile developer if you want to reach the widest possible audience and maximize the market potential of your application or game. Every self-respecting developer has already established contacts with the professional translators and started investing into localization, because today it's very affordable to do (unless your application or game has an enormous amounts of text, which is rather unlikely considering the medium) with huge potential returns.
Sure, there are statistics out there which suggest that the majority of the Earth population speaks English, but they don't provide the most important information – how many people speak English fluently. If you take some time to do some research, you will find out that the numbers aren't as big as one would have hoped. Even if the user from the foreign region speaks English, they prefer to use applications and play games in their mother tongue.
If you're not sure about which languages you should consider supporting, here is a short list of most popular languages used in app localization today: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Portuguese. You can use freelance translation services to get good quality on a tight budget. However, if you're planning to use them, consider following these guidelines to get the best out of the translation work:
- Pay extra attention to the feedback from the previous customers, it may highlight both positive and negative sides of working with this particular translator;
- Pay extra attention to the pricing – too low may show the lack of experience, too much may hit your budget. The key is finding the balance in this case;
- If your app is specialized (e.g. medical app), you need to find people with experience in translation related to this field, otherwise you may end up with poor quality;
- Consider hiring a proofreader to double-check the work for errors – there are chances that a small typo or two can get past the translator. Don't sweat over it too much, but double-checking should be taken into consideration for the best possible quality.
App search optimization can make your app easier to find
Research the relevant keywords and use them in the app description to make sure that your application ranks higher in the search results and gets more traffic. There are various platforms for keyword research that you can use to find out what users are searching for and which combinations of words give the best possible outcome.
Update the keywords once in a while and consider picking a keyword that you can use in the app title organically to increase the potential effect of this method.
Social media can connect you to the audience
You can create a page on every major social network and use it as the hub for the news of your application or game. You should consider updating it regularly to make sure that the users are engaged and the page doesn't appear abandoned. Consider also using the tools provided by the specific social network sites (such as polls, for example) to keep the audience engaged and do various researches (for example, what users are interested in, what features they expect the most, etc). Also clean up the spam once in a while to make sure that the page is clean and pleasant for your audience.
If none of these methods help
If the methods provided above don't help much, then you need to look into professional ways you can use to promote app on Google Play. Contact a marketing agency and see if you can afford their services for your application or game.
Remember – if marketing of mobile applications and games on Google Play is too tough to pull of on your own, then it's a good idea to give your application or game the last, great push to make sure it doesn't disappear into obscurity soon after the release.
As for iOS app marketing, there are almost the same methods of Apple's App Store promotion as the promotion of Android apps.