Full experience of APP promotion channels, conversion rate is the first

The rise of mobile Internet is inseparable from the rise of various types of apps. However, few people know that the promotion and operation costs of apps are actually much higher than the development costs. Just in terms of promotion, readers can understand the current mainstream app promotion methods (social SNS, third-party application distribution channels) and basic rules.

Why write this article ? Because I have been promoting APP for 2 months, and I feel that I have failed, so I would like to make some anonymous complaints. Please help analyze and see where I did not do well!

Before that, I was mainly engaged in website SEO and Weibo promotion. In April, a friend made an APP and invited me to join the business, mainly responsible for the promotion of the APP. But I don’t have any experience in promoting APPs, so I’m very unsure and don’t know how to promote this thing. But due to my friendship and the desire to learn, I finally agreed to help. This APP was tested and launched in April and officially launched in mid-May. In less than two months, it has accumulated 100,000 real download users. Every time I open various technology media websites, I see news that a certain application has 1 million users in 3 months, 2 million users in half a year, 5 million users in one year, etc. I am scared to death.

Looking back on the promotion work over the past two months, we conducted test promotions on six channels - Weibo, Douban, WeChat, Android App Store, APP STORE and news media websites, without spending almost any money on promotion. The general situation is as follows:

1. Weibo Promotion

My personal Weibo and several of my friends' Weibo accounts have a total of 300,000 real fans. In the past two months, I have frequently advertised this APP. There have been three Weibo posts with over 10,000 reposts and 60 Weibo posts with over 100 reposts. The conversion rate of downloads brought by Weibo is around 10%. A Weibo post that is reposted 10,000 times brings around 1,000 APP downloads, which is a huge gap from the disappointment I feel. Later I asked many fans, since most of them were students. Some of them answered that there was no WIFI, and some answered that there was no strong demand. Later I concentrated on posting on Weibo after 9 o'clock in the evening. The effect was better and the download volume was immediate, but the conversion rate was only about 20%.

2. Douban Promotion

I have written several shameless novels on Douban. The most replies to one of my soft articles exceeded 10,000, and several others exceeded 3,000 replies. The conversion rate was poor, with about 500 more downloads than usual. Then I did a survey on those who replied to the post. Many people replied that the soft copy was too long. After reading the name of the APP, they didn’t think this was the key point, so they didn’t download it. At most, they just remembered the name. It seems that my embedded soft copy was too poorly written. Later, I directly posted screenshots of the APP in the soft article, and the number of downloads increased a little, but only a little.

3. WeChat Promotion

I did not open a WeChat public account because I didn’t follow many WeChat public accounts and felt that this promotion was unreliable. However, I did have a private WeChat account with 8,000 friends. Later, due to changes in WeChat policies, I could no longer add friends. I mainly promoted it on WeChat Moments. One advertisement could increase the number of APP downloads by about 500 within an hour, so I insisted on posting it every day. After 2 months, almost all 8,000 people downloaded the APP. It seems that you still have to persist in selling to a user more than three times before the user will accept it.

4. Android App Market

1. First release

I saw App Store say that a certain app had 600,000 downloads when it was first released there, so I jumped up and applied for an App Store debut. I spent the whole day in front of Umeng on the day of the launch. After watching Umeng for a whole day, I found that the number of Android downloads was more than the usual day... 300... I really didn't lie, it was just 300 more, not a single more. I would die if I don't brag. I was so disappointed. With disappointment in Tencent, I applied for the first release on Xiaomi App Store. This was a little more reliable. I was given 4 days of advertising space for the first release. The total number of Android downloads in 4 days was 8,000. Later, I applied for the first release on 360 and Lenovo Le Store. The results were no different from those on App Store. It was terrible. I will never believe in the first release again. I have made a list of the first releases on the app market for your reference:

2. Gift package lottery. You have to spend money to buy prizes for this. I finally convinced the company to spend 15,000 to sell prizes, and held a lottery with three app stores. But the result was almost the same as the free first release. I guess the company will never give me money for promotion again. The following is a list of App Store gift pack draws for your reference.

3. Inflating the volume. Open each Android app market, and you will see that the top-ranked apps have tens of millions or millions of downloads. These are basically inflating the volume. Except for Xiaomi and UC App Store, all domestic app markets can inflate the volume. The current price for inflating the volume is basically 40 yuan for 10,000 apps. At least 1 million apps must be inflated to have a ranking in the category. Of course, there are also chart manipulations on Android, 400 yuan per day, with a minimum of 7 days. As long as you are not included in the overall ranking, it will count as the popular list or the soaring list. Both volume and ranking manipulation require payment. I paid 500 yuan myself to increase the number of downloads in Baidu App to 200,000... Haha... I guess it can deceive many laymen.

4. Add a suffix. At first, my application name was just two words, without even a suffix. Later, I added a suffix word after the name. Of course, this word must be a popular keyword. After adding the suffix, the number of downloads increased rapidly by 50% starting from the next day. From then until now, I have been studying suffixes, but the four app markets, 360, Baidu, Wandoujia, and App Store, do not allow the addition of suffixes, so they can only be added in other app markets.

5. APP STORE Promotion

1. Find the category

At first, I put the APP in the social category and promoted it hard on Weibo and Douban for a few days. It finally stabilized at around 160 in the category. Later, Apple's category only showed the top 150. I worked on it for a few more days and months but still couldn't stabilize it at 150. So I simply changed it to the travel category, and it immediately stabilized in the top 150. It is currently firmly in the top 120 in the travel category. It is estimated that it can bring a little bit of downloads every day. If it can get into the top 50, it should bring a lot of downloads.

2. Naming

I studied the top 100 social networking apps and found that many of the top-ranked apps have one thing in common: there is a string of vulgar words after the app names, such as: loneliness, single, dating, stranger, marriage, love, sexy, passion, blind date, girls, beauties and other words that stimulate male hormones. So I also added "picking up girls" after the app name, and the ranking immediately rose by 20 places. You know what, it really works.

3. Apple’s chart manipulation

Because the company's budget is tight, I have never paid to manipulate the rankings. I just took a look at it and found that the top 20 in the three categories of games, social networking, and travel are almost all inflated by manipulating the rankings. Once you're on the list, you need to maintain it. The cost to get into the top 20 of the category list is at least 50,000 yuan, and the cost of maintaining the list is at least 20,000 yuan per day. To get into the top 100 on the free list, the fees will increase several times. Nowadays, points walls are used to manipulate and maintain the rankings. I think Duomeng and Youmi are making a fortune in silence.

6. Media Promotion

My eyes fill with tears when I talk about this. I searched all the technology blogs, such as 36Kr, Chuangyebang, Kuailiyu, etc., seeking coverage. Each website had two big buttons [Request Coverage] and [Submit Article]. I applied for coverage and submitted an article, but after three days, there was no response. Then I continued to apply, but after another three days, there was still no response. Later, I complained in an investment-related QQ group, and the group leader said, "How come you have seen a project reporting on their website that raised 1 million? Others who raised 1 million advertised it as 5 million. After a few days, when they have forgotten about it, they will say that they raised 5 million, and they will definitely report it to you." Well, okay, I'll wait a few days until they forget about it and then ask for the report. It seems that we have to do without bragging and empty talk.

After these two months, I personally feel that the best promotion method is to focus on application market promotion. Weibo, Douban and WeChat are good for brand promotion, but the download conversion rate is too low. My biggest personal realization is that you must make a good product and let users actively share the product on Weibo and WeChat Moments. Then it will be easy to promote it. This is also the real way to bring in free and long-term downloads. I also think that a promoter who doesn’t brag or manipulate the rankings is definitely not a good employee.