Ultimate guide to Google Play user acquisition in 2023

Today developing a world-class app doesn’t assure success if the users don’t know the product exists. As of the first quarter of 2021, Android users could choose between 3.48 million apps in the Google play store and roughly 2.22 million apps in the Apple store.

With the increasing number of apps available for download from app stores, app developers & publishers need a meticulous marketing strategy to stand out in today’s app market.

This article will help you learn the necessary actions to improve your mobile user acquisition strategy using paid and organic marketing.

What is Mobile App Marketing?

Mobile App Marketing is about interacting with your users throughout the lifecycle- from when they first hear about your app to installing and becoming an active user. To have an effective mobile app marketing strategy, you must first understand what to communicate or what they want from your app.

Marketing Funnel for Mobile App

Mobile app marketing, when simplified, has three stages:

Awareness This stage is meant for building brand awareness and app visibility. Discovering who your target users are and how your target users find your mobile app. Below is a list of steps or strategies you can use during the awareness stage of your mobile app:

• Awareness begins by identifying the key users specific to your app category. Developing your user persona helps you understand their values, demographics, background, mobile preferences, interests, and more.

• Identify and reach your target users through various channels where they frequently visit you. Doing so will help you reach and acquire users.

Acquisition is the first step in a user’s interaction with your app. How do you get them to download and install your app in the first place? The more rapidly your app gets downloaded, the higher it will rank in the App Store search results. Below is a list of strategies that can increase your app user acquisition.

• App Store Optimization (ASO) - Implement App Store optimization to improve your app store page to rank higher in search & explore results and convert at a higher rate. ASO depends on an array of factors, including title, description, keywords, and more.

• Paid Marketing- Run performance base user acquisition campaigns to boost your number of installs and install rate. The primary objective is to promote your app to the most valuable users.

Retention means turning your app into a regular destination for your user. For keeping users engaged with your app, the user retention strategy acts as a secret ingredient. Mobile App retention also helps calculate the lifetime value of customers, which helps you gauge your marketing efforts. Below is a list of steps or strategies you can use to increase retention:

• Use Push Notifications to increase your app retention rate. Statistics show that push notifications can improve your retention from 56% to 180%.

• Giving users an incentive to use your app can also go a long way. Mobile-specific rewards, coupons, special promotions, and other offers will help drive conversions and encourage engagement.

Steps to App Marketing using ASO

App Store Optimization, also known as Mobile App SEO, is a technique to get your app to the top of app store search results.

The fundamental objective of ASO is to improve the visibility of your apps inside an app store search engine such as Google Play or Apple App Store. Your other goals, such as traffic to your app and downloads, can also be met by increasing impressions.

Here’s how you can implement ASO in 3 simple steps:

1. Optimize Your Title & Description
2. Include Compelling Icons & Screenshots
3. Use Relevant Keywords

1. Optimize Your Title & Description

Your App title and description reflect the core value of your app and act as a differentiating factor. These areas must reflect the highest value keywords and user search behaviour.

Your app title needs to be unique and creative. In Apple App Store, your app title can be a maximum of 30 characters, while the Google Play store allows 50 characters.

Next is your app description. For both Apple and Android apps, your app description is like your website’s landing page. Therefore, your app’s description and page within the app store become a vital part of your App store optimization strategy.

When writing your app description, you should answer the following questions:

• What does your app do?

• What problem does it solve?

• How will it make the buyer’s life easier?

• Why is it worth the price?

  

As you write your app description, pay extra attention to keywords. It should include as many relevant keywords as possible (without stuffing) in the first 250 characters. Anything after this initial description requires a “read more” click from the potential customer.

2. Include Engaging Icons & Screenshots

The app icon serves as the first visual impression to your users. Therefore your app icon design plays a significant role in attracting your target audience and getting more downloads.

It is observed that people only spend 7 seconds deciding if they're going to download an app or not. And using a high-quality screenshot makes a significant impact on their decision-making process. App screenshots are the second most influential factor when it comes to convincing someone to download your app (second only to your App Rating).

Your app screenshot should be the exact representation of your app content. These screenshots should focus on your app's key benefits, including visual features that show how your app is more valuable than its competitors.

3. Use of Relevant Keywords

Just like in SEO, keywords also place an important role in ASO. Using the right keywords will help your customers to find your app on the app store more efficiently. Therefore researching the right keywords for your app is an essential step in ASO.

The app description is the best place to use your keywords wisely. However, there's a fine line between optimizing your app description and stuffing it with keywords – the key is to make sure it reads well and makes sense for a person reading it, not just for the App Store algorithm. You can also optimize your package name with relevant keywords.

Use keywords with high traffic and a low to moderate number of apps will be best for your ASO. Analyze the top apps for each keyword to understand what people are looking for when searching for that term.

Steps to App Marketing using Universal App Campaigns (UAC)

Universal App Campaigns (UAC) is an ad type in Google Ads that automates user targeting and bidding process. Using UAC, you can advertise your app on some of Google's ad networks, including search, display, YouTube, and the Google Play Store.

User App Campaigns generate more app installs and or drive in-app conversions. Google uses machine learning to identify your best-performing ads and show them to the most relevant users. Below is the list of steps to set up your UAC campaign:

1. Sign-up into Google Adwords. Under the "Create New Campaigns," select "App Promotion" as your goal for the UAC ad.
2. Create a campaign by selecting the app you’d like to promote.
3. Choose your marketing objectives under “Campaign Optimization”.
   • Get more installs: Google Ads will optimize your bids and targeting to help you get the maximum number of new users for your app. Install volume ads use a cost-per-install (CPI) pricing model.
   • Drive in-app actions: If you want to find more valuable users, Google Ads will focus on people who are most likely to engage with the specific in-app actions you've set up and selected for this campaign. In-app action uses a cost-per-action (CPA) model.
4. Based on your potential users, select the target location and language.
5. Set your budget and target bid.
6. Provide text and digital assets for your campaign.
   • Up to five different headlines of a maximum of 30 characters in length.
   • Up to 20 image files as .jpg, .gif, or .png, with a maximum size of 150KB each.
   • Google recommends landscape images for native ads and portrait images for interstitial content.
   • Up to 20 videos and HTML5 files.

Best Mobile App Marketing Strategies

1. Use videos on your app page to increase downloads by 35%. Since most people prefer to watch videos over reading your app description, uploading a video that showcases your app's most valuable feature increases your conversion rate and app ranking.
2. Do not ignore App store ratings and reviews. They are the core factors to gain user credibility and app store ranking. The review section can also be used to add relevant keywords to improve your ASO.
3. Perform A/B testing for each of your app store fields to improve your click-through rate continuously and in-app conversion.
4. Optimize your UAC ads by testing different variations of keywords, images, or videos. Track your Ad assets performance and optimize low-performing assets.

Over the past few years, the necessity and value of app marketing have been paramount for a successful app.

Mobile app marketing for user acquisition is a continuous process that can gradually result in long-term success.

The user acquisition process can be intimidating. We can make this process a piece of cake for you. GreedyGame has worked with 1500+ apps, and we know what works best for each app category. Using our years of experience, we have helped app developers scale their user acquisition strategies.

Start your free consultation now!

For more information:

• Optimize your App growth strategy
• GreedyGame Success Stories on App Growth
• Optimize your Ad revenue with SDK-X

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