Is Marketing Key to Mobile App Store Sales?

Apple’s App Store has been described as “a virtual gold mine,” in which crafty garage developers can get rich hawking everything from a birdwatching offering to a flatulence simulator to a faux fogged-up screen for your iPhone. But as the shelves get increasingly crowded, coders are finding that a little marketing muscle may be necessary to move their products.

AdMob last week released data indicating that only 19 percent of the 50,000 iPhone apps in its ad network (the majority of which are free, according to the company) had more than 10,000 users in May. A mere 5 percent had more than 100,000 users, and more than half the apps in the AdMob network had fewer than 1,000.

Those figures mirror a recent informal survey from a UK-based online game consultant, which found that more than half of responding iPhone developers earned more than $15,000 through the App Store; a full third of respondents made less than $250.

There are plenty of possible reasons so many apps see low uptake — how many different fart apps can the market sustain, really? — but a lack of discoverability is the primary stumbling block. It’s difficult for even the most compelling apps to attract attention in an ever-expanding library where unknown publishers must compete with major brands, and the constraints of mobile devices (yes, even the iPhone) make searching for good apps that much tougher. And, as AdMob noted, the App Store ranking system favors a few top apps at the expense of lesser-known — and perhaps more innovative — offerings.

The lack of discoverability is primarily an iPhone App Store problem today in the hot mobile-app space. (Of course, carrier decks continue to provide a nightmarish shopping experience for feature-phone users, but that’s on an entirely different level). The issue is sure to become a stumbling block for Android Market, BlackBerry App World, Palm’s Pre and other platforms as developers stock the shelves with mobile applications.

Which is why it’s increasingly incumbent on developers and publishers to market the stuff once it’s fully baked; as MobHappy points out, “an app store is not a marketing strategy.” What, then, does a marketing strategy look like? Here are a few of my own suggestions:

  • Consider offering a free, stripped-down of a premium app to showcase the product before asking users to fork over a few dollars for the entire thing.
  • Brand the app wisely and back it with targeted advertising, if possible, as well as virally through social networking sites and other channels, and post a video demo on YouTube.
  • Make sure the bloggers and media types — you know, the people who create all those “top 10″ lists — get a chance to play with (and write about) your app.
  • Move quickly to fix bugs or other hangups. Engage with users online, through message boards, and install in-app “tell-a-friend” features.

Then, cross your fingers, and hope you get picked for Apple’s next “there’s an app for that” commercial.

Question of the week

What are the best ways to market mobile applications?
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Colin Gibbs

Colin Gibbs

Founder and Principal Peak Mobile Insights

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23 Comments Subscribers to comment
  1. At least the way it works now, Ping recommends only based on your iTunes Store music purchases, not your whole library. Most of my and my friends’ music libraries are not from Apple’s store, but all of my iPhone apps are. So Ping would probably recommend apps more effectively than songs.

  2. Celeste LeCompte Wednesday, September 8, 2010

    If Ping expands beyond music, could it be another way to attack the discoverability puzzle for apps?

    1. That’s a good question, Celeste. I think it’s a better fit for music than for apps because there’s a huge overlap between music and social — most of my close friends like the same kinds of music I do, but we typically use very different mobile apps. That said, no single bullet will kill the discoverability problem, and I can see Ping (or others like it) playing a role — especially when it comes to community-focused apps.

  3. bobgallagheruk Sunday, September 5, 2010

    Discoverability is certainly the key gripe of app developers. Therefore it is good to see some interesting businesses being started to try and tackle this issue.

    Free App a Day is one such company, providing a platform for developers to promote their applications to a significant user base via web as well as an iPhone app. You only have to check the top free apps in the US App Store to see how many have rocketed into the charts thanks to FAAD.

    Another company is Chomp, who is positioning itself to be the leader of search within the apps niche. Rather than purely matching words found in the app title or description as the app stores’ own search functions do currently, Chomp is working to make its engine perform more semantically, as well as using social recommendations to prioritise results.

    I have just written a blog post considering how the continued growth and gradual maturation of the app market will impact developers and brands. One conclusion is that high sales figures are going to become more and more dependent on effective marketing. ^^^As more big brands enter the market it is going to create more noise and stiffer competition. Thus it will become harder to achieve the same levels of success that many indie developers have done previously without a significant budget.^^^ My article is available here: http://su.pr/2VGigZ

  4. Colin Gibbs Monday, July 20, 2009

    Thanks for the comments, Sal. Two responses:

    1) By branding the app wisely, I mean that developers/publishers should try to give users an indication of what the app does, especially when the app addresses a specific use case. Bento, for instance, appears to be a solid productivity app (I haven’t tried it), but the name doesn’t give me a clue what it does or who it’s designed for. Bond YTM, on the other hand, explicitly informs its target audience (financial types) of its purpose. (The fact that the name means nothing to me is OK, because I can’t balance a checkbook, much less calculate bond yield to maturity. YTM. Who knew?)

    2) Every time I talk to one of my contacts in mobile advertising, I’m more amazed at how effectively they can target ads to very narrow segments of the population. I know that developers usually aren’t marketing wizards (those seem like very different skill sets to me), but I think it’s important to identify the audience specific apps are built for. A first-person shooter, then, could be advertised on a mobile site for hardcore gamers who own a handset that supports the game, while Bond YTM ads could be delivered to users with high-end, business-type handsets visiting Bloomberg.com.

  5. Colin, very good points. ^^^Discoverability is key and getting harder. Seems like the top 25 apps list is fairly static with perhaps a few new break-ins mainly in games, etc. for non-game apps its hard to break in.^^^

    BTW what did you mean by “Brand the app wisely and back it with targeted advertising”

  6. Michael Wolf Monday, June 29, 2009

    I would guess most people are like me and simply look at top 25 lists to see what apps are being adopted before downloading. ^^^I think the long-tail is great in theory, but there needs to be a better way to sort through the clutter.^^^ I think this will be Apple’s biggest challenge going forward, trying to figure out how to keep developers interested in a market where the vast majority aren’t really recouping the costs to make a app.

    1. I agree that this is the biggest challenge for Apple, Michael, and for all the other app stores coming to market. ^^^The first to effectively address the discoverability problem will have a substantial edge on the competition — and will likely be copied by the others post haste.^^^

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