How to increase app downloads in three easy steps

You’ve developed an app and now you want to promote it. Or, your job is to market a particular app. Regardless of which category you fall into, with millions of apps available across various platforms, making your app stand out from the crowd can be a daunting task. However, with a well-executed strategy and a thoughtful approach from the beginning, you can increase app installs and begin to scale your app. Let’s walk through how this looks in three simple steps.

Make sure you have a well-established organic presence, from your app’s website and social media platforms to your app store listings. After all, if someone is interested in your app and can find it organically, you shouldn’t be paying for these otherwise free users. Plus, once you’re putting money behind campaigns that drive users to download from an app store, your listing there should be as tip-top as possible to convert them.

We’ve put together the ultimate guide to app store optimization for just this purpose, but here are a few key takeaways to get you started.

• Understand what your competitors are doing well. This doesn’t mean you need to copy their strategy like for like; it will simply point you in a direction to start and might help in the brainstorming process for your own strategy. During your analysis, you’ll also pick up on some areas they are not leading in, which you can make note of so that you improve upon these aspects on your own app store listings.
• Cater your ASO to platform and region. The iOS App Store and Android Google Play Store have different ranking factors and different users, and will therefore need a different treatment for your listings. This same concept applies to the regions your app is available in. For example, if you are targeting a region (say, Southeast Asia), you should have market insights for Singapore, Thailand, and Cambodia which will naturally have overlapping commonalities as well as differences. Think of a Venn diagram. It’s the points of differentiation that you want to focus on to localize these regional listings.
• Prioritize your keywords. This is truly where you can benefit from organic app downloads. Make your app as easy to find as possible for those who know what they’re looking for. This includes your website, your app store listings, and in-app events for more niche and/or seasonal keywords.
• Don’t cut corners on assets. The human brain is hard-wired to prioritize visual processing, so your static and video assets need to be top-notch. They should accurately represent the in-app journey (as although you are looking to increase app installs, you don’t want to end up with a high churn rate) and should be ordered thoughtfully based on your app’s highest selling points. This can be determined with testing via a focus group, survey, or whittled down through A/B testing.

App store optimization is an art in and of itself, so check out our guide for a more comprehensive collection of considerations.

You’ll see the payoff of better bang for your buck and improved campaign results with tactical KPIs and well-targeted campaigns. Rather than only putting out brand campaigns to the masses, think about which features of your app provide the most value for different users, and match those values with a persona or cohort. Then, dig deeper and get as customized as you can with messaging. Let each potential user know what problem your app can solve for them.

Here are a few examples to get the ideas flowing. In these examples, the theoretical target audience would represent a data-backed cohort of high-value users, such as individuals who spend the most money in-app, those who are the most engaged, or those who have the longest sessions.

Sleep app: Targeting female lawyers aged 35-50

• Balance your legal prowess with a good night's sleep.
• You deserve quality sleep to fuel your legal brilliance.
• The sleep app designed for ambitious female lawyers like you.

Food delivery app: Targeting single dads of toddler-aged children, employed full-time.

• Savor family moments effortlessly with a wide range of kid-friendly meal options and quick delivery.
• Conquer mealtime chaos with hassle-free meal planning and flexible delivery options to fit your busy schedule.
• Explore a wide range of delicious, kid-friendly meals, time-saving recipes, and special surprises for your toddler.

Payment app: Targeting college students aged 18-24 who are interested in music.

• Whether it's buying concert tickets, streaming subscriptions, or purchasing tour merch, App has you covered.
• The payment app for college students who can't get enough of live music. From quick ticket purchases to seamless in-venue payments, App ensures a hassle-free experience.
• Don't miss a beat. Download App now for exclusive deals, pre-sale access to concert tickets in your area, and seamless transactions.

Get our top five tips for hyper-personalization.

Most importantly, you’ll need to learn how to track app downloads accurately. More than just download volumes, you’ll want to understand which channels these users are coming from–both organic and paid–so that you can optimize your marketing budget accordingly. This will also help you as you start to test different campaign creatives and messaging, as you’ll be able to leverage your data insights to adjust your marketing efforts and create higher-converting campaigns.

To track app downloads accurately, you’ll need a mobile measurement partner (MMP) like Adjust for mobile attribution. We also compile all of your data across channels into one seamless dashboard, let you export raw data reports to dig deeper into the data, build audiences for more tailored campaigns, and automate your bid and budget optimization, freeing your resources up to focus on advertising creatives. Basically, everything you need to increase app downloads in one neat package!

Learn more about the value an MMP provides to mobile marketers.

In summary, if you are wondering how to get people to download your app, you must:

1. Establish a strong organic baseline.
2. Personalize campaigns as much as your data will allow.
3. Test, analyze the resulting data, optimize, and repeat.

Learn how to drive app downloads with your new mobile marketing superpower–Adjust’s comprehensive suite of tools.