Advertising techniques for iPhone apps has experienced a radical change over the past couple of years. In the beginning, an app idea was all that was required. From there, all you had to do was place it in an app store and wait for the customers to roll in. However, this simple method no longer holds merit.
Nowadays with so much competition, app marketing has turned from something useful to a bare necessity. You need to market your iPhone app if you want any chance of being found. But exactly where should you marketing your product? Are there ways to promote your iPhone app for free? Finally, does marketing for apps really work? Sit tight because we are going to cover all of these questions- and more.
Ad Networks
Ad networks are great place to start in terms of marketing for you app. Examples of these iPhone ad networks include sites like iAds, Millennial Media, and Admob. Basically, their services work like this: you pay the network for every customer they bring into your app store. This number can range from a nickel to twenty-five cents depending on the ad network you are dealing with.
Anyways, the network keeps track of how many downloads they are responsible by using special tracking software. This helps you because now you have a way of determining which ad network campaigns are bringing in the most customers. From there, you can start putting all of your eggs in the basket which is working.
Here are the major benefits to ad networks:
- Simple to set up
- You don’t have to spend a lot of money
- There isn’t a huge commitment involved
Ad Network Cons
IPhone ad networks do have downfalls though. For one, you won’t always get the results you are searching for. Also, just because you are getting a lot of traffic from your ad network doesn’t mean that it’s paying dividends. It’s more important to have a few, interested customers than many, so-so ones. The first group is where the money is.
The second reason why ad networks aren’t perfect is because some of them make you commit in some form or fashion. For example, some make you pay a minimum of money ($50) and you may never make a single app sale as a result.
Using Promotional Companies
Promotional companies use a variety of unique (but effective) ways to promote your iPhone app. What these companies do is very simple: they offer a product which they feel with grab the attention of their customers and then use that product’s popularity to attract attention to a developer’s app. Two very popular and effective promotional companies are App Circle and Free App a Day. Both have potential to reach thousands of developers and really increase the popularity of an app.
Conclusion
IPhone marketing is an overlooked strategy among developers. Understand that with competition booming, this is going to be one of the only ways that you are going to get your app seen among the thousands of competitors.