One of the best ways to get instant exposure for your app is to reach a position on the “Top New” lists in the iTunes and Google Play App Stores. Increasing the amount of exposure your app gets in the first month after launch can do wonders for establishing your Monthly Active User (MAU) base and can also assist in kick starting your monetisation plan. While we all know that ranking in the App Stores is a good thing for any new app, it’s often easier said than done, as the mobile gaming market provides an immensely competitive environment. More than 35, 000 new games are released into the Google Play Store each month, while the iTunes App Store is currently home to approximately 1.2 billion apps.
An important factor to consider when creating a strategy to get featured in the Top New lists is that these particular rankings are only for apps that have been launched within the last 30 days. Basically, this means that you only have a 30 day window to capitalise on this opportunity – but what are the best strategies to use when trying to reach a position in the Top New lists?
Source: https://play.google.com/store/apps/new?hl=en
Incentivised Campaigns
The “Top New” lists are ranked purely by the number of installs you get, so a good strategy is to launch an incent campaign for maximum volume of downloads the day you launch your campaign. If you’re new to the mobile marketing world, you should familiarize yourself with the benefits surrounding an incentivised campaign. Implementing reward based advertising can greatly assist in helping to engage, increase, and ultimately monetise your users. Whether you’re planning to release a game or a shopping app on iOS or Android devices, an incentivised campaign can easily become your best friend.
Virtual Currency and Incentivised Campaigns
The first thing you need to understand about incentivised campaigns, is that there a number of different ways to drive incent traffic for your app. Infamous game developer Zynga cashed in on the use of “virtual currency” in Farmville, proving that a freemium game can really generate revenue. Virtual currency in games is often used to level up or purchase in-game goodies. By watching a short video advertisement, often advertising another app or product, players can earn virtual currency – providing a great incentive to many gamers.
Source: https://play.google.com/store/apps/new?hl=en
Social Incentives
The social media and marketing era is truly upon us and smart mobile developers are making the most of this prime opportunity, by implementing further incentivised strategies into their campaigns. Social Incentives often provide a great platform for monetisation, as they offer a medium that most users are already familiar with, making players more likely to participate in whatever it is you are offering. If you aren’t familiar with the concept of social incentives, don’t stress, as the process is quite straight forward. As with all other incentivised campaigns, users are rewarded for participating in some kind of way. While virtual currency often requires users to watch video ads to be rewarded, social incentives regularly ask players to leave a review or provide a testimonial to receive their reward.
Offer Walls & App Walls
Users are more likely to engage in your marketing efforts if they are not constantly annoyed by intrusive advertising ploys. Research has shown that both Offer Walls and App Walls provide a good happy-medium that will please both users and developers. These two styles of advertising often provide impressive conversion rates, as the user is faced with a number of different apps to choose from, rather than just being given one that is often unappealing to them. By downloading an app featured in an App Wall, players are often rewarded with more in-game currency or extra lives.
Incentivised Campaigns can be an invaluable resource when it comes to gaining maximum downloads to reach a Top New list ranking. Once you are happy with the incentivised campaign you have developed with your marketing team, consider the implementation of a combination of incent and non-incent strategies, in order to maintain your download numbers for a longer shelf life.
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