How to promote App with low cost and very good results on AppStrore hot search - Sina Weibo

Starting from December last year, you can often see some entrepreneurial apps often on the app store hot search list, such as MengMark. I have seen it on the list three times. I believe at this time, you all know without me saying anything that you can only be on the hot search list when you spend money to get on the list. At other times, unless there is major news that allows users to see it and actively search and download it, it is possible to be on the hot search list . But at that stage last year, in addition to spending money to get on the list, there was another channel that cost very little but had a very good effect, which was a secret that was little known to the public.

That’s Weibo!

1. Why can Weibo posts become a hot topic?

So the question is, what should Weibo do? Why is it a hot search? Is it still too late to do it now? First of all, let me explain why it became a hot topic! Weibo was born in 2009 and became popular in 2010. It accumulated a real user base of at least several hundred million that year, and its impact on society at that time was very large. It is a very real weak-relationship social platform (so I think). Many of the friends on it need you to follow and have in-depth chats with them, and the content you post must be able to attract people, only then can you become a big V and get high reposts and comments.

Of course, simply relying on chatting is definitely not enough. It is possible to attract a large number of people through some unconventional means, such as making fans yourself (brushing) and reposting yourself (brushing). Through some superficial data, many users who are unaware of the truth can take the initiative to pay attention and search. Of course, this is off-topic. A more important reason is that the playability of Weibo has attracted a large number of users to download and use it.

Although WeChat has been severely suppressed in recent years, and it takes a long time to play with weak relationships, the authenticity needs a long time to be examined, and long-term individual users do not receive attention, resulting in many users going from being able to talk and do things to just watching without talking or doing anything.

However, these only affect the usage rate of Weibo. There is not much fundamental change in the usage time and retention of the Weibo app itself. As long as good things appear, the number of Weibo users who forward them on their own is still very exaggerated.

2. How to use Weibo to become a trending search topic?

Okay, without further ado, let’s get straight to the next topic. What to do on Weibo? I believe that friends who have paid attention to some Weibo entertainment accounts such as "Funny Ranking List", "Inner Cousin", "I Was Shocked at That Time" and so on will find that since December last year, they have seen a nine-square grid picture promotion consisting of 9 app introductions every day. And by March of this year, friends who knew about the CPs were basically frantically refreshing the Weibo accounts of these studios every day. The format is the one above. Those who know it should be able to see it often. Those who don’t know it can also go and have a look. There are still a lot of them recently. As far as I know, the most can reach about 10 groups during the peak period from 8 to 10 o’clock every night. Nearly 50 CPs promote together, and select 9 forwarding accounts each time, and each pays an average price to forward.

3. Does this really work?

So the question is, does this really work? The answer is yes. At least I have seen products of no less than 10 CP partners on hot searches.

His principle is actually very simple! In the early days, users were not very clear that this was an advertisement with "intentions". They just thought it might be an advertisement. However, some apps seemed really good, so they went to download them and try. During this period of Weibo promotion, the number of fans of 9 accounts each time could reach 20-50 million. Let's take an average value. With a fan base of about 30 million, as long as 0.1% of users download it, there will be nearly 30,000 search exposures and downloads every day. In the early days, there was basically a 30% conversion rate for 10,000, and there were nearly 3,000 download activations every day. Compared with the current average of 3-4 iOS A, it basically costs 3,000-4,000 yuan to make 3,000 activations, and one A is only 1 yuan. Moreover, I heard that the earliest batch was cheap at 30-5 cents per A. How exaggerated is this! ! ! ! How comfortable! ! ! What a bargain! ! Right, this also caused those friends who knew about it at the time to keep their mouths shut and not tell anyone. Everyone has KPIs, and once more people know about it. Then your own will decline. Right.

So now, I know that there are nearly 300 CP partners doing this, with nearly 10 groups every day, and the number of big Weibo accounts forwarding is about 100, and these partners have been working in teams for a long time. Brush very hard.

4. Is it too late to do it now?

Now let’s move on to the last question of this article: Is it too late to do it now?

Regarding this issue, I actually think it's not too late to do anything about it as long as we've discovered it. But one thing we need to note is that now that users have understood that this is an advertisement, and the early batch have basically downloaded it and are tired of it, the download activation rate has dropped very quickly. But I think this problem needs to be looked at in this way. Although the download activation rate has dropped now, from what I've learned, as soon as many companies stop doing this nine-square grid, the data for the period when they don't do it is basically terrible.

Here I have to talk about the Echo app. They also know that the data growth in recent period is particularly bad, but they haven't said anything. Instead, they have increased the intensity of forming teams every day. I won't disclose how many groups there are every day. So when the effect was not good during this period, I particularly agreed with Echo's approach, which was to increase exposure and increase the number of readings each time. When the number of readings increases, we can always catch some fish that slip through the net, right? It’s better than doing nothing!

I estimate that they started doing this last year, and have spent about 1 million yuan so far. The download activations they brought should be around 2-3 million, because the previous results were so good, and their products are really good! (Of course this is just my estimate)

5. Final words

So, to sum up, I think you can still consider doing it now for a while. Maybe by next month, the effect will not be there, but it is better to try than not to try at all. Spend a little money and maybe you can get an unexpected surprise, right? And I recommend the current rule for choosing accounts: the new one brings the old one, the old account is used to ensure exposure and forwarding fans, etc., and the new account finds some good accounts and can do it continuously for a long time. You don't have to change it in a hurry, you can change it when it is worn out. This is the best effect known so far.