User Acquisition – How to Get Users for Your App

As of the primary quarter of 2021, there are greater than 3.48 million Android apps worldwide, and Apple’s app retailer has 2.22 million apps. Clearly, the app market is rising at an exponential fee. Because the competitors for consumer consideration turns into extra intense, utility builders and entrepreneurs face the problem of building a very efficient consumer acquisition technique and bringing utility installations (ideally with an affordable return on funding).

What’s Consumer Acquisition

Consumer acquisition (UA) is a course of geared toward gaining new customers for a services or products. On the planet of cellular, consumer acquisition is a method or a set of methods which might be targeted on growing app’s discoverability and producing extra downloads.

How does Consumer Acquisition work?

There are a number of methods to drive extra customers to your app. A number of the most typical varieties of consumer acquisition actions embody paid media advertising, owned media advertising, ASO (app retailer optimization), retargeting, and re-engagement campaigns.

• Paid media advertising is a promotional approach that entails an organization paying a 3rd social gathering to promote its product. Probably the most common varieties of paid media advertising is cellular app set up adverts, which assist entrepreneurs promote and drive downloads for his or her apps.
• Owned media advertising refers to any kind of consumer acquisition exercise the place an app or service makes use of its personal assets (as an alternative, not spending cash on it) as a way to purchase customers. The first objective right here is often branding – getting extra individuals conversant in your model title so finally, they’ll grow to be clients.
• ASO stands for “App Retailer Optimization” and consists of optimizing key phrases & screenshots, writing compelling descriptions, and so on., all geared toward boosting discoverability inside App Shops like Google Play or Apple’s App Retailer.
• Retargeting & re-engagement campaigns are all about getting again customers who’ve put in your app earlier than however haven’t been lively not too long ago. The objective is to reconnect with them by sending personalised push notifications or emails that may deliver them again into the fold – hopefully as loyal clients!

Why is Consumer Acquisition necessary?

The objective of any app targeted on progress just isn’t revenue, however buyer satisfaction. Earnings, in flip, is dependent upon the variety of attracted customers. And the extra customers belief you, the higher your enterprise will really feel in the long term. Thus, lively consumer engagement improves the extent of belief, high quality of communication, understanding of the consumer’s wants, and their loyalty to the model. Loyal clients are now not simply random individuals who come and go. These are individuals who advocate your organization to their buddies, “pull” them to your retailer or give a referral hyperlink to your app. A rising enterprise must develop its consumer base, so the extra customers your app may have, the extra profitable will probably be.

What are the widespread challenges of Consumer Acquisition?

The world of expertise doesn’t stand nonetheless, and, sadly, such fast growth also can negatively impression consumer acquisition. Trendy UA now faces the next challenges:

• Cellular advert fraud. On account of fraud, all visitors that’s pushed to your app can really be faux.
• Ambiguous promoting prices. Advert networks present publishers solely with aggregated knowledge, which doesn’t include any particulars or transparency concerning the advert marketing campaign.
• World markets. It could be troublesome to accumulate and interact customers throughout totally different international locations and cultures across the globe. Every of them has its personal options, to which you need to modify the campaigns.
• Natural visitors. Customers come to your app from totally different channels, together with the paid ones, however essentially the most precious customers are natural – those that have found your app as it’s, with none adverts. The problem right here is to drive as a lot natural visitors as potential.

How you can purchase new customers?

Earlier than we flip to the query of how do you improve consumer acquisition, it’s extremely necessary that you just do the next:

• Nail your app’s message. You would possibly really feel like you could have created an app that serves an necessary goal within the consumer’s life. However until your message is correct, the consumer isn’t going to know what you do. Let’s face it, the very first thing you see in an app is its tagline! That is particularly necessary for these apps and video games which have simply launched out there.

• Drill down and outline your goal market. A number of apps and video games make the error of launching on app shops and focusing on customers the world over. Whereas this would possibly result in initially getting plenty of app downloads, it additionally leads to a better churn in lower than 3 months. The reason is, most app customers don’t see worth in what you provide. That’s why you might want to outline and frequently optimize your goal market. As an example, begin with the fundamental demographics like location, consumer age group, pursuits, and customary considerations. This helps you align your cellular consumer acquisition technique with the appropriate options and pitch your app with out sounding too pushy.

Listed below are all of the fundamentals to outline a consumer persona successfully:

• Get to know your opponents. To find out your competitor apps, you need to know your area of interest properly. It’s additionally necessary to opponents what your rivals provide customers and what are their weaknesses that your app can compensate for. The best method to discover your opponents is to look Google and app shops for the key phrases of your utility. To do that, use the “key phrase + app” queries. After that, go a bit deeper and get extra particulars concerning the competitor app, such because the variety of installs.

So the right way to get customers in your app? We’ll look into the 8 consumer acquisition methods to realize new customers:

1. Concentrate on app retailer optimization

The one cellular consumer acquisition technique that has all the time labored like magic, is app retailer optimization (ASO). Nearly 90% of smartphone customers make the most of the app retailer searches to discover apps or flick thru the choices they’ve. If that is the search consequence that you just wish to be listed in, it’s time to optimize all elements of your app retailer description. This contains your app title, subtitle, description, key phrases, rankings and critiques, utilization metrics, and extra. Listed below are some ideas that will assist your app grow to be top-rated within the app retailer and keep away from the commonest ASO errors:

• Learn critiques below opponents’ merchandise. This can assist you discover fascinating variations of key phrases in your app. By the best way, Google Play considers key phrases in feedback within the rating.
• A video uploaded to the app retailer can assist you rank greater.
• Change the app description relying on the season of the 12 months.
• Replace your app – this may activate present customers and appeal to new ones.
• Select the proper class in your app. It’s fairly potential to take the next place in an adjoining area of interest than in the principle one.
• Don’t forget to trace the ASO KPIs, equivalent to visibility, conversion fee, cellular progress, consumer suggestions, and monetization.

2. Ask your most loyal customers for critiques

If you would like your app to be downloaded many occasions, it wants optimistic rankings and critiques. That is particularly necessary as a result of the key phrases in critiques can impression the app’s ASO. Nonetheless, not every consumer would go away a optimistic ranking. If they’ve good expertise with the app, they’d slightly not assessment it in any respect. But when one thing goes improper, the feelings will overwhelm the consumer, scary a want to write a destructive assessment. It’s simply human nature.

One of many best app assessment acquisition methods is asking the customers to fee the app. It consists of the next elements:

Presentation of the assessment request

The primary and most necessary rule is to by no means interrupt the consumer. Nobody likes being distracted throughout an necessary or thrilling exercise. Clearly establish the place the place you may ask the consumer to assessment the app. For instance, within the case of a taxi ordering app, it’s greatest to ask to fee the app upon arrival on the vacation spot. The time and place of the assessment is necessary, however no much less necessary is the presentation, which might take one of many following varieties:

• A pop-up window. The principle downside with this strategy is that the consumer wants to pick one of many choices on this window as a way to proceed utilizing the app. This forces the consumer to take pointless actions, and most of them will select “Don’t ask me once more”.
• A request embedded within the app display. This strategy works a lot better – the consumer can skip it and never be distracted in the event that they don’t wish to fee the app in the mean time. An appropriate place is chosen relying on the app specifics. You’ll be able to combine it into lists which might be in nearly any app: information, images, merchandise, retailer addresses, and so on. If you should purchase one thing via the app, you may ask for a assessment on the display that notifies a couple of profitable buy.

Content material of the assessment request

You’ll be able to straight ask the consumer to assessment the app. A disadvantage of this strategy is that the consumer can go away both a optimistic or a destructive assessment. The strategy works higher when the consumer is first requested in the event that they just like the app. In such a manner, you get precious suggestions. If the consumer likes the app, recommend that they fee it. If not, ask what went improper and what might be modified.

For instance, Uber asks customers to fee UberPool after they full a number of rides. For rankings decrease than 5 stars, the app asks to decide on a purpose for giving this ranking.

3. Use paid promoting

Paid adverts might be fairly an environment friendly method to promote your app. Relying in your product’s target market, you should utilize the next instruments to purchase adverts:

• Fb Adverts: helps you attain the utmost variety of related audiences via the world’s hottest social media platform.
• Cross-Promotion Networks: probably the most efficient methods to advertise sport apps, which entails utilizing one app to advertise the opposite.
• Promoted Tweets: useful when essentially the most a part of your viewers is lively on Twitter.
• App Retailer Search Adverts: primarily based on the app retailer searches.

4. Faucet into the phrase of mouth promotion – referral advertising

In line with Nielsen, 92% of customers belief suggestions from their family and friends, over 67% that belief adverts or some other content material format. That’s why referral advertising is without doubt one of the most used and reliable advertising ways.

However to leverage the facility of phrase of mouth, you might want to construct a viral loop of referrals into your sport or app. Right here’s what you might want to have in place:

• Supply one thing precious in lieu of referrals
• Allow simple invite sharing on social media and chat apps
• Reward energy customers for lively participation
• Guarantee extra worth with each session
• Make it part of the consumer’s onboarding and in-app journey

Some good methods to include a referral program into your app or sport design is to allow milestone sharing, provide unique content material, create a multiplayer gamification situation, and others.

Instance: In 2010, the Evernote app launched a referral program that offers factors to clients each time they make a referral. It’s potential to redeem these factors totally free entry to the software program’s premium options. Moreover, every time a buyer’s referee upgrades to Evernote Premium, the shopper receives additional factors.

5. Leverage social media and influencer advertising to the fullest

A cellular consumer acquisition technique is incomplete with out social media. When 90% of your customers are current on a minimum of 2 or extra social media channels for private {and professional} functions, why not attain out to them the place they’re essentially the most lively each day?

For instance, right here’s a put up by the Conflict of Clans sport – they use social media to share glimpses from the sport, tackle widespread questions, and even ask for suggestions.

One other highly effective instrument associated to social media is influencer advertising. This entails the promotion of a product via the interplay of a model with an influencer – an individual whose opinion is taken severely by a selected target market. Most frequently they work together with this viewers via social networks equivalent to Instagram, Fb, or YouTube.

Relying on the social media platform, there are the next varieties of influencers:

• Networker – such an influencer might be discovered on nearly all present social platforms. They’re recognizable and have an enormous contact checklist.
• A specialist (opinion chief) is authoritative in a specific discipline. The viewers trusts their selection and opinion and shares data with different customers of social content material. Such an influencer is ideal as a consultant of a company, firm, or model.
• Distributor (sharer) – the principle perform of such an influencer is to unfold data from varied fascinating bloggers and journalists.
• Consumer – represents the common patrons and clients. If we examine the Consumer with the Networker, then the latter actually have many extra contacts, however this doesn’t make the Customers much less influential.

Instance: In 2016, Taco Bell partnered with YouTube prankster BigDawsTV to promote their particular provide – customers of the Taco Bell app would obtain a 50% low cost on their orders in the event that they used Visa Checkout.

6. Supply a demo or freemium mannequin 

One hack that all the time works for each apps and video games, is to supply a freemium mannequin. Sure, you wish to monetize out of your app – however what’s an app with out an lively group of customers?

When the dedication is nearly putting in an app, the consumer is extra more likely to convert. This permits them to experiment with what your app has to supply earlier than they really pay for it. Equally, a ‘play earlier than pay’ mannequin for video games can provide the consumer a sneak peek into the sport and allow them to determine in the event that they’d wish to go for a paid subscription.

What’s extra?

Nicely, free apps even have the next acceptance fee when really helpful to family and friends. A number of apps like Dropbox, CandyCrush, and others have used related fashions that allow the consumer first concentrate on experiencing the app after which nudge them to the following step.

7. Don’t neglect about e mail advertising

A number of app builders underestimate the facility of e mail advertising campaigns in relation to getting extra app installs. However as a channel the place you may attain your goal customers on a 1:1 foundation, it’s the place you may get a substantial variety of customers from.

With as much as 70% of emails opened on cellular units, you should utilize Sensible Hyperlinks to redirect individuals to the appropriate app shops. Deep-linked emails don’t simply create a seamless channel of consumer acquisition, but additionally set the appropriate first impression in your model.

Instance: FreshDirect, a grocery supply service, promotes their app through the use of emails that introduce the cellular model and have direct hyperlinks to the app shops.

8. Convert net customers to cellular app customers

When you’ve got an internet site, it’s potential to redirect visitors from desktop to cellular and thus purchase extra customers in your app. Trendy options equivalent to GetSocial’s Sensible Banner and Sensible Widget can assist you seamlessly combine app conversion into the desktop expertise.

Making a excessive changing consumer acquisition technique

It doesn’t matter what channel or technique you make use of to accumulate extra customers, you all the time want to make use of the “measure and optimize” mannequin. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all in relation to making a cellular consumer acquisition technique for an app or sport. It is advisable experiment, measure, and optimize on the go!

Nonetheless, don’t know the right way to hit virality?

We advocate trying out our case research with Kolibri Video games, which sought to extend consumer acquisition for his or her sport Idle Miner Tycoon. Over your entire journey, from the primary implementation to the enhancements applied, Kolibri Video games noticed a carry of 306% in invitations despatched and 364% in installs generated.