What is mobile app advertising?

Anyone interested in marketing will quickly learn that a recommendation from a satisfied customer is one of the most effective methods of advertising. However, if your app is new or hasn't gained many users yet, it may be difficult to take advantage of this type of method. In this case (or if you simply want to increase your sales), it is worthwhile to learn about other mobile app advertising methods as well.

Why is mobile advertising so important?

With ads, new customers will learn about your product, and if you encourage them enough, they'll buy it (or download it for free if you choose a different monetization strategy), start using it and maybe recommend it further. That is why it’s worth knowing what ways there are to promote your product or service. In this article we’ll focus on advertising mobile apps themselves, but it can also be a good reference to any products you can promote with mobile advertising. So let’s introduce you some methods to advertise your mobile app. 

Creating user personas for better mobile ads

In the initial phase of building an app, it is really helpful (or some say: necessary) to create the user persona. An avatar of your ideal user/client will not only help you specify the features of the app, but will also be useful when the app is released – for mobile app advertising. In-app ads, as well as any other activities related to mobile ads can be based on user personas, because that’s exactly who you’re creating the ads for. 

Use our user persona template to determine your target audience and focus your mobile advertising on them to get the most out of it.  

Mobile, web and traditional promotion methods

There are standard promotion methods, commonly known by business owners who have decided to create an app for their company. Some of them are free to do. 

You can use standard promotion methods such as:

• Running social media profiles – it’s perhaps an underrated but very useful way to reach a large number of users. If you are visible on social media, you will gain a lot of publicity and be able to encourage new users to visit your page and then use your product. Target your content to both existing customers and the audience you want to attract.
• Creating a website – this is probably the basis of any new business. A website is supposed to showcase not only the benefits of your product, but also your company and the services it provides. Remember to make it mobile friendly.
• Conducting content marketing activities – apart from those in social media, it is worth creating content on your website (e.g. on a blog) and on other portals such as YouTube or websites visited by your target audience. A customer who notices that the content you share is valuable might become interested in your company, services and product.
• Outdoor campaigns and events – these are long known advertisements which may appear, for example, on banners, in the subway, during events etc. If you decide to use this type of advertising, try to work out where it would be the best to place them so that the customers you want to attract notice it.

Other mobile app advertising methods

In addition to standard advertising, you could consider reaching users directly through mobile advertising. Why is it a good idea? People using mobile devices are only one click away from downloading and installing your app when they see the ad there. All you have to do is show up with your message at the right time.

In-app advertising 

In-app advertising can be placed in any mobile app that offers ad space. Taking advantage of this option is possible through an ad network platform (such as AdMob from Google) that allows you to buy and display ads for your product. There are several formats to choose from, such as banner ads, video ads, native, full screen, playable and reward ads. So if you want to take advantage of in-app mobile ads, make sure you have attractive creatives. Just like in case of any ads, you should make sure that your promotional content appears at the right place, at the right time. 

Advantages of in-app advertising 

Large audience of mobile ads

Most people who own at least one mobile device use a lot of mobile apps. In fact, you could say that using a smartphone is all about using different kinds of apps. They are becoming more and more popular, so thanks to in-app advertising you can reach a huge audience. You can become visible to as many users as needed.

Easy access to your app

Mobile advertising enables users to get more information about the advertised app with one click. Regardless of what type of ad it is, it should direct the user straight to the place where the app can be downloaded. It can be a mobile app store or a webpage with all the information about the mobile app you’re promoting.

Selectable target groups

If you choose the right apps to promote your product, it will be effective. For example, if one customer is using an e-commerce app, they may be interested in doing shopping from another e-commerce app, and if the user likes social apps where they post photos, they’ll probably be keen on photo editing apps. All you need to do is consider what other apps your customers could potentially be using.

Attractive rewards

Users can be rewarded for viewing or clicking on ads from other apps, which helps attract attention and build awareness for your app. This method is particularly popular among mobile games.

Search ads on Google Play and App Store 

Search mobile ads on Google Play and App Store help people discover your app when they browse the mobile app store, matching customers with your app right when they're looking for products similar to yours. This works by choosing the keywords you want to show up for. For example, if you have a new meditation app you can choose to appear with your product ad in the search results for the word "meditation".

Apple Search Ads

Apple Search Ads is a platform that enables the ads to appear in the Apple App Store. What’s great about them?

1. They appear right at the top of search tab and search results
2. Users are very likely to download these apps because it’s exactly what they were looking for (if you use the right keywords).

To make your app appear in Apple Search Ads, you need to configure the campaign. Find more details here. 

Search Ads for Google Play

You can create these search ads directly from Google Ads. In this case, you have to focus more on the target group and budget because matching keywords and hints for the description will be automatically given by Google.

Where can these ads appear?

1. Just like in case of Apple Search Ads, above other search results 
2. In the “Similar Apps” section
3. In the “Recommendations” section on Google Play Home Page. 

App Store Optimization

Statistics show that most of the app downloads are executed through search engines in mobile app stores. So if you want to get more installs of your app, you definitely need to take care of increasing its visibility and making it appear higher in the App Store and/or Google Play search results. 

How to do it? Try App Store Optimization (ASO). It’s a process that will improve the visibility of your app in the store on selected keywords that your potential users use to search for a product like yours, for free. If it’s helpful, think of it as a SEO for mobile app stores. 

Some of the factors you should take into account when setting up your app's page in the app stores are: the app name, description, keywords, ratings, number of downloads for a specific keywords, the app icon and screenshot/videos presenting the app. They are all important in terms of increasing the number of users for your mobile app. 

Mobile marketing done right

Don't show false things in ads. For example, if you encourage users with a feature that doesn't exist in your mobile app, all you'll achieve is their anger and annoyance. A deceived customer may write a negative review and never come back to your product. 

The best way to promote your app is to highlight its core and best features, and to clearly mark the audience, i.e. indicate for whom it will be useful. 

Try answering these questions in your ads targeted at a particular user: 

• Why would this app be useful for them?
• How will the app help this user with their problem?
• Is the app free? Or maybe is the price reasonable? For what reasons?
• Where is this app available?
• What’s the value proposition? 

Conclusion

The truth is, you’ll only know what promotion methods are best for your app when you test different ways and ad formats. Remember though not to include all actions at once, because then you will not know which ways worked most effectively. What is crucial in getting to know which ones best impact the metrics that are important to you, is to track various metrics after implementing each promotion method. Here you’ll find an article describing top 17 mobile app metrics to track.

Good luck!