Mobile App development is a slightly costly process and it requires great skills, time, and efforts to achieve a real good and competitive mobile app. Developers work diligently to build quality apps , and marketers work harder and smarter every day to get the best visibility and large number of downloads for the app. Having a good app that actually solves your user’s problem or offers a great amount of utility is the first step towards success, though in this intense competitive App ecosystem it is not easy to stand out from crowd. Not every app is like Google Tez either that can get more than 0.4 million user within a day of launch. So, the question arises out of many possible activities which one do you chose to bring your app standing tall in front of maximum number of users in shortest amount of time? So based on various surveys we conducted online on App marketers/ App publishers/ App developers we figured out that App coverage on famous review sites and blogs has been termed as the second best marketing tactic after News Coverage. And now, we’ve to answer the question How to get your App reviewed on App review sites, so let’s start.

And before we come to discussing the precise tactics on how to get your app reviewed, I want you to consider that it is not only so called “pro-reviewer” websites on which you can get your app covered, but can also pitch your app to professional blogs (related or unrelated to mobile or tech), Social media influencers and news journalists for this purpose. You just have to identify the right people and right platforms to target, and start the process with a simple tool of compelling email. The process to get your app featured on review sites isn’t an easy one, and totally depends on website/blogger preferences, uniqueness of your app, and how you pitch that to the writer. The success rate is between 5 to 10 %, and that only shall be fulfilling to your goal if it is done right. Let’s discuss some simple tips on How to get your app reviewed. Bonus for you, check this if you want to access our app cost calculator, this calculator will exactly let you know how much does it cost to build an app.

1. Pro App Reviewing Websites:-

There are many app review sites on the internet that write exclusively about the apps they think are useful for their visitors. Now, it is understandable that they will write about the latest trending apps for free to stay ahead of the competition. So, in most cases, if your app isn’t unique, then you should pitch the app reviewing websites with an offering that may not necessarily be the money only, but can also be a barter. But first of all, it is important to identify a list of such websites and then send them personalized pitch to request the app coverage. Some of the most popular mobile app review sites are AndroidTapp and AppsZoom. And you can find more by simple google search.

It is advisable that you consider following factors before shortlisting an App review website:-

– Make sure that website has a good readership, and you can figure this out using Alexa traffic tool easily.
Check the demographics of the traffic they are receiving.

– See if readers are engaging by taking a look at blog comments, number of social shares, and other factors.

Now start contacting owners of these sites, with a compelling email pitch while taking care of these pointers:-

– Personalize your E-mail, it should sound as if ou’re familiar with their blog/ site already. Make sure the pitch tone is neither cold nor aggressive. Simply write why your app is worth covering on their website and how the app will provide value to their readers. It is advisable to share other places where you’ve got your app covered before.

– Include the App name, its core USP, logo and a short description along with links to the landing page of the app and app store, screenshots, and video demonstrations (not more than a minute), you can pack all these in a google drive and just share the link.

– After sending the pitch, do not annoy the webmaster by following up so frequently, just wait and move ahead.

2. Professional bloggers (Related to Mobile app, startups, tech news):-

Similar to how you pitch website owners, you should be contacting professional bloggers who write mostly around mobile apps and related topics (like new tech, startups, next gen technologies etc). Professional app reviewers have their own blogs and they do write sponsored or free app reviews. One major part of their blog’s revenue comes from the contextual advertisement, therefore you should emphasize on that “context” of your app which can bring them more traffic, they’d love it for sure.

3. Contact Cross-bloggers (Bloggers writing for other domains also):-

You can also send app review pitch emails to bloggers of other niches, and sometimes it works like wonders. Like, if you have an exercise app then it is quite obvious that you will contact fitness or lifestyle bloggers but you could also ping food or even sports bloggers or even lifestyle bloggers to write about your app and that can bring some solid and kind of “unique” audience to your app. The idea is, even a blogger of different domain, but with large number of readership and some kind of trustworthy reputation, is as good App reviewer for you as a pro app reviewer.

4. Reach out to social media influencers:-

You can also get your app covered on social media platforms by reaching out to social media influencers. Social media influencers have a large fan following and thus they can help promoting your app by introducing it to their regular audience. Usually, Social media celebs that get most loyal readership are journos, food and diet specialists, self healers, and fitness coaches etc. So figure out the ones that engage well with the same demographics that you want to target and then pitch them an offering to share your app and ask their followers to download your app. In most cases, they will take some money in lieu of writing about your app, but it can be worth a deal if they agree to write atleast 5-6 times over a month, so that you get the app promotion along with some brand-registry in the minds of target market.

5. Press coverage:-

Last but definitely not the least (in fact, the first and most important app promotion tactic), Press coverage works the best. Now, News reporters will cover your app voluntarily either if it serves a social cause or is innovative enough or is a unique one in any manner. But most apps aren’t as unique as Uber (when it was launched as first taxi aggregating platform) or Paytm therefore it is comparatively easier to associate your App with some social cause and get some traction and if you can’t associate your App with a social cause then try to get your marketing campaign aligned towards any such social aspect, the goal is to get the traction.

Let’s understand this with an example. Suppose you recently developed a ride-sharing app like Bla-Bla Car and you are sending an email pitch to journos to cover your app as just another ride sharing app. Do you think it would be enough for the journo to consider covering your app?  I guess, not. Why?, Because there are many other ride sharing apps already struggling in market. But, you can be a smart ass and pitch it as if it is an app that is targeted to reduce traffic jams, pollution, fuel consumption in your first target city, and you’re seeking cooperation from media houses to help spread the idea then there are chances of you being heard. You can do so by pitching with an effective video or animation highlighting that cause.

Also, even if your app doesn’t get a news coverage, you can still earn it by being innovative in your marketing campaign. Considering the same example of the ride sharing app, if you fail to get journos’ attention to your app with a simple pitch, you can think of creating a promotional campaign like giving free rides to people on your own car having your app’s logo, on weekends, take their quick interview and selfie, all in lieu of them publishing their experiences on their FB or twitter with a trendy hashtag and there would be strong chances of now media coming to you asking about the app, and whole campaign and then you can capitalize on the same. It’s ofcourse easier said than done, but its worth a try, isn’t it?

These are some tips and tricks that I learned during my research on this topic of How to get your app reviewed on app reviewing sites, I considered first hand experience of app publishers and marketers, my own experience with our recent apps (including Pregmo that got covered by Huffpost), and also leveraged some old time experience in marketing with BTL activities. I’d be glad if this article helps you even a bit, feel free to send your suggestions or more tricks on How to get your app reviewd to sales@agicent.com.

The post How to get your App reviewed by App Review Sites? appeared first on Agicent.

Before discussing some of the tricks to get more app reviews, let’s first understand why they are important?

Why are quality app reviews important?

– More positive reviews indicate app stores how good is your app. App stores then automatically improve the search rankings of your app.

– New users are more likely to download your app only if they find positive reviews and high star ratings. Positive reviews also improve user penetration rate.

– More quality reviews will help your app to stay on top of the charts in the app store which will automatically boost your app downloads. Your app will also gain a competitive edge over others due to improved search rankings.

– Do not worry if your app gets a negative review. Consider this as an opportunity to build a strong relationship with your customers. Send a positive reply to the review and promise to fix the issue soon. You can even ask him to improve the app ratings after the issue is resolved.

– Even negative reviews are useful as they can notify developers about some serious bugs in the app.

In a good ASO strategy, mobile app reviews should be given a top priority as it helps app stores to decide which app is more useful. Even if your app star ratings drop by 0.1 points, it affects its app store rankings and your app business. Do you know that apps in the top charts have an average rating of 4.5 stars? In order to survive the competition and grow your app business, you should put some efforts to get more quality reviews.

Let’s now see some useful tricks to get more app reviews.

1. Ask users to write a review

One of the best ways to get more mobile app reviews is to ask your app users to leave a review itself. In order to get reviews from them, send push notifications, in-app reminders, or pop. The only downside of this strategy is that if you target more pop-ups to get a review, then it will degrade the overall user experience. Most users don’t like frequent pop-ups while interacting with the app and they usually tend to ignore it. Instead of bombarding users with annoying pop-ups, reduce their frequency and pitch them only at the right time. Send app review reminders only when users feel satisfied or happy with your app. Your app users are most likely to feel happy when they complete complex tasks, clear difficult stages, or get some extra coins. So, target these events, and display app review pop-ups just right after them. It increases the chances of getting more positive reviews.

2. Use app review plugin tools

Many times you want users to leave an app review after specific conditions like when they have used your app for a certain number of times or when they clear a difficult stage. In such complex use case scenarios, you can integrate app review plugins within into your app to get the job done. Our mobile app developers can even add this functionality to your app without using any fancy app review plugin. Some standard app review plugins: Appirater (open source) for iOS apps, Helpshift, and Cordova/Phonegap (open source) for both iOS and Android apps.

3. Ask reviews from engaged users only

A user who has just downloaded your app is less likely to leave a review as compared to a user who is highly engaged with your app. Furthermore, it can even annoy new users if they keep on getting app review pop-ups every time they open your app. Frustratingly, they can react by writing a negative review or give poor star ratings to your app. Agicent recommends targeting engaged users to get an app review. You can do this by analyzing the behavior of your app users and then prompt the engaged ones to leave a review.

4. Reward users for reviewing your app

If you own a game app, then offer virtual currency, powers, special characters, etc. to the users and encourage them to leave a good app review in the app store. For non-game apps, you can offer some premium content for free. You can also think of other innovative ideas to incentivize users. We are quite sure that this strategy will work positively as happy users tend to leave compelling app reviews. However, iOS app publishers should note that Apple has been banning apps which incentivize mobile app reviews.

5. Conduct contests

Another way to bring in more app reviews is to run contests on various forums. Ask the forum members to write a review of your app and share their Google Play or iTunes user name in the thread. When the contest is over, pick up a random member as the winner and give him the prize.

6. Update your app regularly for organic app reviews

Updating an app regularly helps in two scenarios. In the first case, the updated version helps you to convert all the negative reviews associated with your app to positive, as it generally resolves the bugs and issues identified in the previous version. In the second case, the new updated features can make existing users happy and tempt them to leave reviews organically.

After some extensive second-hand research, we came up with these super useful tricks to get more app reviews and improve overall app ratings. If you have got some tricks under your sleeve, then do share them via comments or ping us at sales@agicent.com.

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The post 6 tricks to get more app reviews and improve ratings appeared first on Agicent.

Before getting started, you should first understand how Facebook App Installs ads campaign can help you.

– Advance audience targeting.

– Huge user base and you can target your future potential customers based on their interests.

– Complete conversion tracking and send users to a specific screen of your app.

– Cost-effective as compared to other paid user acquisition channels.

– Advertise your app on Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network at the same time.

Now, that you know why you should use Facebook ads campaign, let’s begin.

What you should do before starting the Facebook ads campaign to drive app installs:

To make a marketing campaign successful, you need to try a lot of variations and analyze their results before deciding which works for you or not. Similarly, in case of Facebook App Install ads campaign, you have to do the same thing in order to get the best ROI. You can use App events to keep track of your conversions related to Facebook ads and in order to use this feature, your app must use Facebook SDK. If you belong to the non-technical world, then leave the job to us. We can integrate your existing app or develop a new one with Facebook SDK integrated from ground up as per your business requirements.

Additionally, you also need to link your Facebook ads account to your app to optimize the app for installs and engagement. Otherwise, Facebook will optimize your campaign for link clicks instead. Read this article to know how you can link your ads account to your app.

Let’s now see how to set up a Facebook App Installs ad campaign:

1. Create Facebook ads manager account:

Visit Facebook Ads manager and create an account. After that, choose to create an ad from the Facebook Ads manager dashboard. After that, you have to choose an objective for your ad. As you want to drive more app installs, you must select App Installs from the list of options, as shown below.

2. Define Ad Set:

Next, you have to specify the ad set name and an app from the app store (Google Play, iTunes, iTunes for iPad, Facebook Canvas, and Amazon Appstore) which you want to promote.

As we mentioned, to optimize your ad delivery for app installs you need to connect your ad account to your app.

Now, you have to define the targeted audience, total budget, ads placements, and schedule.

The best part of campaigning with Facebook is that it allows platform and device-based user targeting. App marketers can use this feature to optimize the ads delivery. Based on the type of your app, you can choose to show your ad only to selected mobile platform (operating system) users and device types based on brands.

In addition to that, you can also choose to display your app install advertisement only when users are connected to WiFi. Nowadays, you can also check for Facebook reels.

Device and OS are just a few examples of Facebook’s detailed targeting feature. You can broadly target users based on demography, behavior, and interests. These targeting features allow marketers to narrow down the audience and reach only to potential customers. So if you know your audience, then half the battle is already won.

More advanced user targeting:

In Facebook ads campaign, you can set up 2 different types of audiences to target i.e., custom and lookalike.

– Custom audiences: If you have customer’s email, then you can simply upload them to retarget them via Facebook App Install Ads.

– Lookalike audiences: Based on your customer’s data, Facebook can show ads of your app to people who are just similar to your existing customers and based on the fact that Facebook knows a lot about us, you can’t doubt its targeting efficiency.

– Connections targetting: It allows you to exclude people who have already installed your app. You can also exclude people who have already liked your page or followed your business profile on Instagram.

Now, that you have defined your targeted audience, let’s now see about the ads placements.

Ads placement: Choose the placements where you want to display the ad of your app. By default, it is automatically decided by Facebook based on old data and we recommend not to play with it. If you choose manual placements, then delivery of your ad may get reduced. For best results, let Facebook decide where to show your ads to its 3.07 billion monthly active users.

You can place Facebook ads at following places: Feeds, Instant Articles, In-Stream videos, Right Column, and Suggested Videos. If you want you can also promote your app on Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network of Facebook.

Daily budget and schedule: Specify your marketing campaign budget and when you would like to run the ads.

3. Optimization for app installs Ad delivery:

Use app events to monitor the key metrics of your app promotion campaign on Facebook. The recorded data will help you keep track of conversions related to your ads in Facebook Analytics. To add an app event, go to app installs, and choose Add events to display your ads only to people most likely to take an action.

After all these steps, here is the most interesting one i.e., designing a creative for your Facebook ad campaign. The steps seemed quite a bit like ASO (App Store Optimization) to us. Nonetheless, let’s begin the fun part.

4. Creating Facebook Ad creative:

– Start with connecting your Facebook page and Instagram accounts, if you want to connect them with the ad.

– Format: Choose how would you like to display your add. You can select any one of these formats: Carousel, Single image, Single video, and Slideshow.

– Media: Upload or import image, images, or video you want to add to your app. Use HQ images (1200 x 628) of 1.9:1 ratio. And as said above follow image guidelines to avoid any penalization.

– Text (100 characters): Define your ad headline and text, as shown in the screenshot above. Make sure your text is catchy but don’t include false claims (your app might get a low relevance score).

– Deep link URL: Use deep link URL to direct users to a specific part of your app, after they install it.

– Specify CTA: There are many Call To Action (CTAs) available but the one you need to choose is Install Now.

– Pixel Tracking: Use Facebook pixel to drive your ad engagement to your website as well.

– Ad Review: Review all your ad configurations and ensure Facebook ad tracking is set up correctly before placing your order.

Facebook App Install ads best practices:

Here are some tips and best practices from our side to make your Facebook App Install ads campaign successful.

1. Use your budget wisely. Divide it into smaller chunks and A/B tests different versions of Ads creative and then see which one performs better. You can always scale your campaign, therefore, be cautious in the beginning.

2. Don’t test more than 2 versions of app install ads at the same time.

3. Ads that run on Instagram, Facebook, and Audience Network are subjected to an examination process which sees the amount of text used in your image. Don’t put more than 20% text in your image. If you don’t follow these guidelines, then your ad delivery will not be optimized. Use this Facebook tool to check the percentage of overlay text in your image.

4. Text in images is allowed if you are promoting a gaming app or app which displays multiple products, books, etc.

5. Follow image guidelines: Your app screenshots shouldn’t include any adult or sexually explicit content. Even photos of zoomed body parts are not allowed. Let’s say, you want to promote your fitness app. In that case, you should use a full body image and avoid images which are zoomed in to show abs, shoulders, etc. Instead of relying on dirty tricks to fool user and Facebook, you should try to play fair and include quality screenshots of your app which demonstrates its functionality.

We hope that this article with help you to drive app installs by Facebook ads campaign. In case, you have some queries, then post them in the comments section below, and we will be happy to assist you. You can also share your Facebook Ads campaign story with us, and we will cover it in detail if it suits our reader’s interests. If you have an app and want to integrate Facebook SDK in it, then you can hire our developers to do the job for you.

Send us your project queries at sales@agicent.com.

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The post Complete guide to drive app installs by Facebook ads campaign appeared first on Agicent.

Before you start developing an app, you should first understand the demography and tastes of your targeted audience as it helps you to plan better marketing strategies. We’ve noticed that that some App publishers usually ignore this important aspect of app promotions and don’t create a list of Tips to promote Apps beforehand. The more you’re prepared to execute those Tips to promote apps even before an app is launched, the more would be chances of great results right from the beginning.

Our first tip out of the Tips to promote apps, is that you can promote your app majorly in 3 phases as follows:-

– Pre-launch promotional activities.

– Post-launch promotional activities.

– Mature promotional activities.

If an app is still in the development phase, you can start with Pre-launch promotional tactics. After the app gets published, you can market it using Post-launch promotional activities. Basically, these 2 app promotion techniques are used to acquire users and generate leads. After your app hits the maturity level, you can apply Mature promotional activities to keep existing users engaged and attract others.

Let’s now discuss different tips to promote apps involved in each of these app promotional phases:

Pre-launch promotional activities:

1. App Store Optimization:

App Store Optimization is one of the best and initial tips to promote apps. It can totally boost organic downloads of your app and that too without any cost. Various app publishers around the world have termed it to be one of the best app promotional methods. Jozsef Mash Trencsenyi of Fairy Mahjong says, “I had 3x-5x more installs after ASO. FB ads ROI depends on app monetization and LTV.” Another iOS App Development Company publisher, Jason Chang- an app publisher of OysertX says “ASO and FB paid ads too. But when App just launch I think most quickly is press coverage”

Basically, in ASO, you have to optimize the app info so that it ranks higher in the app store search results.

You have to take care of the following elements:

• App name: Write a relevant title of your app based on its core functionality.
• App icon: Design a relevant app icon.
• App description: Add an informative app description with high search volume keywords.
• App category: Pick up a correct category of the app.

2. Landing Page:

If you have a website then you can utilize its web traffic to promote your app. Design a landing page and add it to your website and if you can add a blog to the same. A landing page act as an introductory page for your website visitors and must include following elements:

– App name, icon, and brand logo.

– Informative app description.

– High-quality media content related to the app like screenshots and videos demonstrating app in action.

– All social media platforms where your app marks its presence like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

– Highlighted distinctive features which make your app unique from others.

After adding the landing page, bring visitors to the landing page of your app and then after 10-15 seconds prompt them to install the app. Also, make sure that a QR code of the app is included in the pop-up box.

3. Word of Mouth:

We at Agicent believe that “Word of Mouth” is one of the best app marketing strategies and therefore included this in our Tips to promote apps list. It can help you to build user trust and onboard loyal customers to your app. In this app promotion tactic, you can ask your friends, peers, and family members to share your app with others. As people trust recommendations from friends more, they will surely check out your app. If your app fits in their shoes then these users are going to stay longer as compared to other sources.

4. Local Meetups:

Local Meetups is another app promotion method to make an app popular in a local region. Join any website to find local gatherings near your area and then attend those meetings to talk about your app. Go out there and try to sell your concept to others. Meetup is one of the popular websites that you can use to find local gatherings nearby an area.

Post-launch promotional activities:

5. Press coverage:

If your app is just launched, then press coverage is one of the best marketing tips to promote app. We totally recommend it if you have enough budget. Otherwise, you can send press releases to local newspapers to get a local limelight for your app. If you have an unlimited budget then contact with national and global news channels to target a large user base.

6. Submit app to review and download sites:

If you submit your app to download and review sites that it will help you to get some publicity within their visitors. “Product Hunt” is a very popular platform that you can target to promote your app. Submit your app to Product Hunt and then kick off a conversation and start interacting with people about your app. If your app gets more upvotes and shares from users then it can also be featured on their homepage. Similarly, there are many other sites which allow users to submit their apps and post to their portals, one such popular example is “AppCrawlr”.

7. App store advertisements:

If you can invest in some paid app promotion tips then “App store advertisements” should be considered the first option as it can bring in the most number of paid app installs. This mobile app marketing strategy is also be termed as “Cost Per Install (CPI)”. That implies you have to pay app stores a specific amount of money every time a user downloads your app. To promote an Android app create an AdWords campaign and for iOS app, you can use Search Ads. One of the main limitations of this promotional activity is that it’s ROI is not pretty good. If budget is a concern then you can totally skip this activity.

8. Social media marketing:

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are some popular social media platforms with millions of daily active users that you can target to promote your app. Being active on social media platforms is one the most important tips to promote apps and shouldn’t’ be ignored at all. As per the app publishers quotes mentioned above, Facebook ads can’t be neglected as it nearly doubled or tripled downloads of their apps. Also, note that Facebook pages don’t perform very well as compared to Groups. So, we highly recommend you to set up a Facebook Group for your app. Groups are more interactive and your app users will be to interact directly with each other.

9. Blogging:

One of the most low cost but effective tips to promote apps is blogging. Tips to promote appBlogging can help you to promote your app in a long run. You can start a blog based on your app idea. Let’s say it is a music app then you can write SEO optimized articles on different topics related to the music industry and post them regularly to your blog. Writing SEO optimized articles will generate organic traffic to your website. You can improve this app promotion tactic by redirecting your visitor to the landing page of your app and then show them a pop-up dialog box to install the app. For better conversions, we will recommend you to optimize the design of your landing page.

10. Traditional marketing techniques:

Old-school marketing tactics like distributing pamphlets, flyers, posting banners, etc. can also be used as tips to promote app. The important point to note here is that these printed media channels should have a QR code to download your app. As this will let users to quickly download the app by scanning the QR code and they won’t have to search on the internet to find your app. If you miss this part then results might not be as expected. If you have more budget in your wallet then also consider advertising on TVs and radios. You can easily create a QR code for your app using a reliable QR code generator .

11. Mature promotional activities:

Once your app enters into the mature state, then you can use these promotional Tips to promote app, and gain more engaging daily active users. However, these strategies require a large amount of money to be conducted. If you have a big pocket to invest then consider following mature marketing tactics:

– Sponsor a local or global event like Paytm promoted a cricket series.

– Offer incentives to existing users and new users like cashbacks, recharge, discounts, coupons, etc.

– Participate in social responsibility events.

Before summing up our discussion, we would like to add that, you don’t need to use all the mentioned app marketing tactics to promote your app. Based on your business, some strategies will work best and some might not perform at all. So, try these instead of trying all these tips to promote apps, use a combination of some and see the results and repeat, and only continue using the ones which provide best ROIs.

Feel free to send us your project inquiries at sales@agicent.com and we will help you to create a marketing plan to boost your app promotions.

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