APP promotion: How to seize the free channel resources of the app store

CPs! Let’s talk about the app store

The group leader said: From the earliest application market where CPDs were placed at a few cents or a dollar, to the current single download cost of several dollars, dozens of dollars or even hundreds of dollars. During this period of time, what changes have taken place between CP and the app store? Let’s start with two major aspects:

1. App Store

Let’s first take a look at the homepages of some mainstream application markets in China:

Xiaomi Store:

The homepage features four advertising pages, two recommendations, one event, and one Golden Rice Award. I don’t know how much a recommendation costs because the group owner hasn’t set a price. I guess it would take at least tens of thousands of dollars to get there. The traffic threshold for the month-end gift is 30,000 to sign up for this event. Specifically, you can get free mobile data when you download the app. Motivate Xiaomi users to download the app at one time. You will have one chance to enter the prize draw every time you download an app.

The Golden Rice Award is a popular topic on the Xiaomi App Store . Every week, editors will select one of the most popular apps and games of the week and recommend them to everyone as the Golden Rice Award app. You can weigh the chances of choosing from tens or millions of apps yourself. Further down is the application list page, the first two are Xiaomi's paid promotion areas. All the apps that you can see at first glance below are not exposed randomly. Since the mobile Internet boom, the concept of chart manipulation has been born. Prices are also increasing.

Huawei Store:

In the opinion of the group owner, Huawei Store has the most user-friendly design. The four pictures above are called Huawei Four-Leaf Clover. Click on the game center to enter the game download interface. The Huawei special topic recommends Huawei's own app collection. This is as it should be. Prize downloads also use various prizes such as mobile phones and cameras as incentives to attract users to download the app and participate in the lottery. The most beautiful apps are the ones with better designs that are recommended for free by Huawei Market. Sometimes it's "See you on Monday", but many CPs complain about "See you on Monday", as if it is something that is always out of reach and has never succeeded. If you scroll down, you will see the free special collections and first-release applications (collections) recommended by Huawei, followed by applications that have been ranked by brushing the charts.

App treasure :

The above sections are almost all paid promotions. The display in sequence also relies on paid promotion of App Store and some APP advertising pages.

Pea Pods :

Wandoujia classification: various APP categories, under which paid advertising can be done. Ranking list: every CP is brushing to make their app stand out and get exposure. Special topic: Wandoujia's free resources (selected by Wandoujia editors) Design Award: Wandoujia will select some apps with better design and interaction for recommendation. Gift package: CPs can apply for gift package activities. Use various prizes to attract users to download.

Baidu Mobile Assistant :

Baidu Mobile Assistant is a market that has always been complained by CPs. We have to admit that Baidu Mobile Assistant has a huge user base. But that's why. Because you will find that every position you can see requires money, but you can also apply for the first release.

360 Mobile Assistant :

Same as any other market. It’s still spending money. It’s spending money again. I have to complain that even the earliest application qualification for downloading and scratching lottery tickets with a prize of 5,000 yuan has been raised to 15,000 yuan, but the download entrance is not more intuitive but instead deeper.

Some markets are not analyzed. CPs! See it. The promotion model of these application markets. Someone asked this question in the group before: how to do ASO optimization in the Android market . It's just burning money. Simple and crude.

All CPs are complaining about how to promote the Android market. They only care about money. Does the company have that much budget? There are so few free resources, and I finally applied for one but there is no quantity! Let’s look at it from another dimension:

2. Company

Today's Internet companies all have a unified model: burning money! Everyone is aware of the current entrepreneurial model of Internet companies. There is a startup team and a project. We can attract investors from outside. Not to mention whether this project can succeed. Once the financing is successful, large-scale promotion will be carried out. O2O is inevitable, but some niche products are helpless, because all Internet companies are scrambling to spend money to get exposure, especially in the app store. Almost all app store exposure resources are paid. This results in increasing download costs for each app store. Not all companies can burn out like Didi.

Let’s talk about free resources in the App Store:

When it comes to free resources in the app store, almost all CPs say it is difficult. In addition to some commercial resources, the app store will still reserve some free resources for excellent applications. After all, the app store also needs to accumulate users and provide user experience. It cannot all be charged, as that will affect the user experience. However, whether you can get these resources depends on your methods. However, although the App Store has always had free resources, you will see special topics such as Sogou, Meizu, Huawei 360 App Store on Monday. How many times have you successfully applied? How many exposure opportunities can millions of free app resources give you? If you successfully apply for the first launch of App Store, what position advantage will it give you? How much can it bring to you? Too little. We have previously pushed out an article about [Contacts of major Android app markets]. Everyone can hook up on their own.

What are the free promotion channels?

In addition to the free resources such as the first release topics in the application market, there are actually many free resources that can be utilized.

Mutual traffic between APPs: Since the establishment of the APP promotion ASO official account, we are very grateful for the support of many friends. We have also met many CPs because of this. We also welcome more CPs to join and exchange experiences with us. This is actually resource aggregation, which can make full use of cooperation between products with similar APP user dimensions.

• Self-media: Because the cost for users to download an app is much higher than the threshold for following a QQ or WeChat Weibo account. In the early stage, you may wish to use self-media for marketing . The cost is much lower than promoting in the application market . After accumulating a certain number of users, you can start to divert traffic.
• Media platforms: some app recommendation platforms, such as Qinggua Media, Operation Uncle, and the Most Beautiful Application. However, this requires higher quality of the app. Your app may have a small audience, but if your interaction design is good, it may be recommended. [APP Promotion ASO] The public platform will also recommend some fun and trial APPs from time to time. If you want to get recommendations, you can contact us on the public account.
• Soft article submission: a marketing method denied by many people, soft articles require quality. The second is your publishing audience. The best marketing is to be sincere. How to write a product that you really want users to try.
• Social platforms: Be active on major social platforms, as well as forums and other websites in the vertical field of your product. QQ group, WeChat group , etc.
• User dissemination: Find ways to enable users to spread more through spontaneous sharing.

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Summarize:

What CPs need to do is to seize more free channel resources around them.

The application market is constantly increasing the amount of prizes and discounts, constantly incentivizing and stimulating users to achieve download goals and provide distribution volume. Users see such tempting prizes and have a chance of winning after downloading them. With the current good Internet environment and good mobile phone configurations, it doesn't matter if you download a few apps. If you don't win, just download them to your phone. If you don't win, just uninstall them. This vicious cycle results in the CP bringing in good volume when running a high-value event, but now each company’s conversion rate in the later stage of the market is decreasing, and the quality of users is becoming increasingly unreal.