There is a decent number of ways to market your mobile app on app stores. I think by now we all know them so well - App Store Optimization to drive native traffic, paid user acquisition via Apple Search Ads or Google Ads, acquiring users via paid ad platforms from Meta, TikTok, Alphabet and some more.

But at some point - for savvy app marketers this point comes pretty early in their app marketing journey - you realize that it is not the end of the story. As much as it makes sense to connect your app via built-in search on app stores or use paid ad platforms, there are more ways to build your app’s user base when you think out of the box, specifically out of the app store :-)

In this episode, we’re going to cover with Jakub a few app marketing techniques to grow your app outside of the app stores.

Today’s Topics Include:

• Jokub's background
• What is HER app and its competition
• Ways to market an app outside of app stores
• Affiliate marketing or referrals as an app marketing channel
• Using Generative AI for content marketing: pros and cons
• How Viral marketing works for mobile apps
• Most overhyped app marketing channel
• Takeaways
• What Jokub's would like to change about app marketing the most
• Android or iOS?
• Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Jokub miss most?
• What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

• Jokub Chour on LinkedIn
• HER app website
• Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"Well, I'll stick with the rule that says that if everyone else is doing it, it's not worth doing it. I've seen a lot of outcomes from generative AI and I wasn't impressed in general for our niche. I mean like it's great to write an email, or, I don't know, a PR release, but it's it hasn't been great in the niches like ours."

"I wouldn't say channel, but definitely like Multimedia Modeling or Incrementality measurement are something that are like talked about a lot but I don't think that we are at a point to fully utilize that as I've seen some tools that are going this way. It's like telling a fairy tale. At this point you can have it generating numbers, but for me, it is hard to trust it fully."

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

• NYC – 27 Jun 2024
• San Francisco – 26 Sep 2024
• Berlin – 5 Dec 2024

Let’s state the obvious - people love playing games, especially on their smartphones, and they do love brands.

Now, if you ask a mobile marketer what does it imply she would tell you that it’s a great opportunity on one side to let brands reach more potential customers and on the other - for mobile game developers to generate revenue.

So far so good, right? But what if I tell you that there is a report that actually reveals specifically what brand categories people prefer who play games in various types of games such as Puzzle, Card, Word, and Action? Sounds even better, right?

Well, today Ravi will be talking about Digital Turbine’s BRAG INDEX IV report that brings up precisely this information.

• Ravi's background
• What is Digital Turbine today and its mission
• The BRAG Index report and its methodology
• The biggest highlights from the report
• The mobile games landscape today
• The report insights for Word / Word Search game category
• The report insights for Puzzle game category
• The report insights for Card game category
• The report insights for Action game category
• Android or iOS?
• Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Ravi miss most?
• What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

• Ravi Pimplaskar on LinkedIn
• Digital Turbine company
• BRAG Index IV report
• Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"What we did is we sort of indexed the people who play Word games against certain brands. And we really found that they had an affinity for fitness and travel. Some of their top brands included, you know, Red bull, Delta Airlines, Panera Bread. But one of the things, Word gamers, which isn't surprising, are avid readers."

"Puzzle gamers - what we really found about their interest is they gravitate towards beauty and adventure. Their favorite brand is beauty products like Aveeno. They're into Travelocity, Lululemon's brands. One of the things that we did find about puzzle gamers - they really into traveling. So, you know, that Sudoku player sitting next to you on flight he may be more typical than you think."

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

• NYC – 27 Jun 2024
• San Francisco – 26 Sep 2024
• Berlin – 5 Dec 2024

One of the topics, that has been permeating this podcast over the years, is mobile app growth. And in general - year after year, conference after conference, countless webinars, white papers, and podcasts have been dedicated to this topic.

And it’s all for a good reason - if your app’s user base doesn’t grow you can not build a sustainable app business and because the app landscape has been changing you always needs to be in the know of what works now and what doesn’t.

And this is exactly what we’re going to cover on this episode with Gilad.

• Gilad's background
• What is Moburst
• App marketing recent evolution
• App growth marketing essential strategies
• Mobile app growth common challenges
• Influence of tech on app marketing
• Trends that will dominate mobile app marketing
• Advice to young app marketers
• What would Gilad like to change about app marketing
• Android or iOS?
• Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Gilad miss most?
• What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

• Gilad Bechar on LinkedIn
• Moburst
• Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"I think that from the get-go apps optimization was always pretty big on app growth. And when you're thinking about app optimization, you think about how users might find the app. The app optimization, I think it became much more sophisticated in the past few years, where you have the ability to impact users with so many different gateways to the app.

So it's no longer five screenshots you're telling the story and that's it, like you used to have. Now you have 35 different gateways in the App Store on the, on iOS and 50 different gateways on custom product pages on Android."

" I think that AI is a massive improvement and advancement. And that's something that will impact the world for now and onwards. But I think that the ability to be data-driven and seeing what works and what doesn't work, which means at the end of the day, there are users. You're trying to bridge your message to the user and getting them to a very positive experience about whatever you're trying to sell.

I think that being data-driven and understanding which customers to approach with which type of messaging that will resonate with them and will get them to one step closer to the action that you want them to take. That's the key element that is with all of the tech technology advancements and with all of the new tools that are available and all of the better programs of TikTok and Meta and Google."

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

• NYC – 27 Jun 2024
• San Francisco – 26 Sep 2024
• Berlin – 5 Dec 2024

Ok, a bit of a mental gymnastics - imaging you’re holding a smartphone in your hand and you’ve just purchased it. You’ve unpacked it, turned on and now browsing through its default apps and checking out its features. You’re consciously taking mental notes on features that tick off boxes for you - that is the rational part. Right, but don’t you notice that holding that phone in your hand makes you feel good?

We, human beings, are driven by emotions, even on occasions when you feel like you are strictly rational, your decisions are still influenced by your emotions.

Now, this episode stands out the rest, because with the exception of the episode with Joe Schaeppi, CEO of Solsten, where we talked about the psychology of app user acquisition, we haven’t touched emotions in app marketing.

But we’re going to change it now today by having Naksha and talking about driving app engagement with empathy.

• Naksha''s background
• What is UserTesting
• What is empathy and how it is different from sympathy
• Connecting with brands - how it works and why it's important
• How to assess how well or bad your app connects with its users
• Customer Experience First approach
• Takeaways
• Android or iOS?
• Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Naksha miss most?
• What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

• Naksha Ruiz (Ghirardelli) on LinkedIn
• UserTesting
• Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"Yeah, I think that's a very, very good point, especially now in the digital age that we were talking about how technology brings brands more closely. I guess that would be the best way to say it. I think, at this point, consumers have endless options and it's very important to create genuine connection, to build a difference, to be a differentiator from all of the brand offerings. So ultimately, when we think about brands, brands sell, experience or sell, sell, sell you those feelings that then you can empathize with."

"I think from a business perspective, sympathy is what you will have the whole time. You're trying to keep it in mind, and the empathy will be something that you will connect to every now and then."

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

• NYC – 27 Jun 2024
• San Francisco – 26 Sep 2024
• Berlin – 5 Dec 2024

Today, of all business models the subscription model is the one that rules the world of mobile apps. Long gone the times when you hear the word subscription in a conversation about mobile apps you could only think of apps for content streaming or online media. Today subscription apps are everywhere.

On this episode, Léa will share with you best practices for subscription apps monetization. She will cover things like product-market fit, language-market fit, framing the prices, and more.

• Léa's background
• Monetization benefits for subscription apps
• Product-market fit: what it is an how to achieve it
• Language-market fit
• Framing the prices
• Building trust
• How to prevent users churn for subscription apps
• Takeaways
• Android or iOS?
• Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Léa miss most?
• What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

• Léa Samrani on LinkedIn
• Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"So, you know, it's not enough to have an amazing idea and an amazing product. You also need enough people that think this is a great idea and a great product. So you need enough of the market as well for it to work. So those are the three things that I think are very much like minimal at least that you really need to start getting some level of product market fit and start building traction. And then there's how you measure that, which is some decent activation and engagement metric, you know, around activation and maybe retention. And if your product have some sort of habituation into it, you can also look at things like stickiness."

"In a way before subscription app, one of the best way to get new customer was a referral. It was the word of mouth. You trust a lot more when a brand or a product, when it's endorsed by someone you trust. The exact same principle applied to subscription app."

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

• London – 25 Apr 2024
• NYC – 27 Jun 2024
• San Francisco – 26 Sep 2024
• Berlin – 5 Dec 2024

We passed the Equinox a couple of weeks ago - the spring is here and, in kind of celebrating spirit, I want us to take a look back at 2023, a bird-view on the app industry via the one and only State of Mobile report from Data.ai.

The app industry is on scale of millions of apps used by billions of people, apps permeate the entire world economy. By now, you just can’t find an industry that hasn’t been influenced by mobile.

Competition is high, new technologies emerge and from time to time we all need to take a step back and take a holistic view on the industry to check out on the trends and understand how well we fit into this picture.

• Lexi Sydow's background
• Big data points from the State of Mobile 2024 report
• How much time people spent in mobile apps in 2023
• How much money people spent in mobile apps in 2023
• Apps vs. games - where do people spend more time?
• Mobile advertising growth year over year
• AI & Mobile - the increasing popularity of ChatGPT4
• The influence of Generative AI on top apps growth
• Top Apps & Games of 2023

• Lexi Sydow on LinkedIn
• The State of Mobile 2024 report
• Data.ai
• SensorTower
• Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"We saw 257 billion app downloads in 2023 alone, which is a roughly flat year on year. And that's sort of what we'd expect to see given more maturity in the market. These are completely net new installs. And it equates to about almost half a million downloads every minute is what that equates to you globally"

"$171 billion being spent across iOS, Google Play and third party Android stores in China. So the top five markets are China at $52 billion being spent alone. That actually is down 10% year on year. Number two is the U S, up $45 billion, and that's up 6%. Japan at 18 billion is our number three kind of market on mobile, up a modest 1%. "

"And in 2023, we saw $64 billion annually being spent in the non game sector, and that has grown roughly 6.5 X from 2016, where it was only $10.3 billion. So just a huge growth in like the last seven or eight years there. "

Business Of Apps – connecting the app industry since 2012

• London – 25 Apr 2024
• NYC – 27 Jun 2024
• San Francisco – 26 Sep 2024
• Berlin – 5 Dec 2024

It’s 2024 and we are all suppose to talk about Generative AI 24/7 but remember what was at the center of attention for so many app marketers before the ChatGPT arrival? Right - TikTok and marketing your apps on TikTok. Well, the platform, despite a number of looming threats for it to be banned, most notably in the US, is there and thriving.

Today, I have Inna to share her best practices for doing app marketing on TikTok.

This episode is sponsored by Perform[cb], leading outcome-based marketing company. Perform[kb] targets marketers' ideal audience and promotes brands with AI-powered, high-value placements on a pay for performance model. Get in touch with their user acquisition team today!

• Inna's background
• What is Hily and how it is different from other dating apps
• Hily's framework to work with TikTok as an app marketing channel
• Work with Creators on TikTok to run influencer marketing campaigns and TikTok Ads
• Targeting on TikTok Ads
• Hily's approach to ad creatives for app marketing on TikTok
• Android or iOS?
• Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Inna miss most?
• What features she would like to see added to her smartphone?

• Inna Sumovska on LinkedIn
• Hily website
• Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"So I would say, first of all, before I start to answer the question, you need to understand that there is still a difference between TikTok and other social media. Because Tiktok is not like a regular social media. You don't go to TikTok to check TikTok. You go to TikTok to have fun, to entertain, to educate yourself. So that's why TikTok, this is like the world leading entertainment platform for short videos. And this is all about the community. So that's why to be the part of this community is to collaborate with those guys, with the Creators."

"From my point of view, there is still a difference when it comes to influencers and creators, because influencers they like influence and creators they create. So and this is actually a difference because when we began working with creators on TikTok, we wanted to adjust our experience of working with influencers on Instagram, and we were focusing on, for example, on those guys who have like some number of followers or something like this. But then we understood that TikTok it's like it's not really matter how many followers you have, since your content is entertaining. So that's why we were thinking maybe, like, the number of followers is not really important. Maybe we need to focus on those guys who can create something that our audience will pay their attention to."

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

• London – 25 Apr 2024
• NYC – 27 Jun 2024
• San Francisco – 26 Sep 2024
• Berlin – 5 Dec 2024

This week we have another bonus episode for you, this time it’s the recording of our recent webinar with Colin Contreary, Head of Content at Embrace, app performance analytics platform.

Right now we use and rely on so many apps in our daily life, we don’t even register when you use all those apps - it’s just how you connect with your family, do your banking, getting around in a city, shop for a variety of things and so on. When all those apps do work we are happy, when they crash they drive us nuts.

This episode is sponsored by Perform[cb], leading outcome-based marketing company. Perform[kb] targets marketers' ideal audience and promotes brands with AI-powered, high-value placements on a pay for performance model. Get in touch with their user acquisition team today!

✅ Identifying pain points ✅ The battle against app crashes and ANRs (stands for Application Not Responding) ✅ Case studies

• Colin Contreary on LinkedIn
• Embrace website
• The 2024 Mobile Developer Pain Points Report
• Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"And so once they were started using Embrace, when they got user complaints, they were able to immediately look up the full user experience and see what exactly the issue was."

"They're able to put out a hotfix for deep linking issues and hotfixes if they surface new crash patterns, which understandably happen when you have such a surge in interest during that big event. And so the end result of being able to immediately dive into those user experiences is that they were able to maintain 99.99% crash free rating, which is already incredible outside of a big event like Black Friday."

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

• London – 25 Apr 2024
• NYC – 27 Jun 2024
• San Francisco – 26 Sep 2024
• Berlin – 5 Dec 2024