How much does it cost to market an app - The ultimate guide

In this guide, we have discussed the steps to market your app along with the costs involved in various stages of app marketing. So, without further ado, let’s begin with the article.

Apps are crucial for daily life, from cab booking to fixing a doctor’s appointment. Given this influence on our daily lives, most people who create apps think their brilliant concept will be enough to turn it into a hugely successful app. There have undoubtedly been apps that become popular overnight. But these are just a few. You need a solid app marketing plan and budget if you want your app to be on this side of the road! 

If you are thinking about marketing an app, then you must have a rough idea of how much it costs to market it. 

In this article, we will be answering this question in great detail. Let's begin with how to market your app. Then we will discuss how much it costs to market an app, and lastly, we will talk about the importance of an app marketing budget. Let's begin!

How to market your app?

If you are deep into marketing your app, you must know about these strategies or tips to market an app effectively. The following advice can be used to create a successful app marketing plan.

1. Put a Search Engine Optimization plan into action

Potential users can find your website through search engine results, thanks to search engine optimization (SEO). There are many factors to consider when creating an SEO plan, but one of the finest things you can do is include pertinent keywords on the landing page of your website. 

Post a conspicuous link allowing visitors to download your app to their preferred device on the same landing page. You can improve your SEO by using your web hosting platform or hiring a third-party vendor specializing in increasing website traffic and conversion rates. Additionally, consider the benefits of reliable and efficient hosting solutions such as shared web hosting to enhance the performance of your website and app downloads.

2. Buy search advertising

Some app marketing tactics concentrate on paid search because SEO requires much work and ongoing maintenance. Most frequently, this entails purchasing visibility from several search engines. You can frequently adapt your advertising campaign for mobile marketing.

3. Implement a strategy for app store optimization

Reach app consumers who download new apps by utilizing online webpage SEO and investing in app store optimization (ASO). Encourage active customers to leave app reviews to maximize your app store visibility. Send push alerts encouraging users to create reviews and upload numerous photos and videos documenting their interactions with your app in the app store. Update the app's icon, name, and description as needed.

4. Set up paid advertisements in app stores

Enhancing positioning in an app store is one of the most clever app advertising methods. You can improve your app store page by investing in paid marketing in these markets. You can quickly gather new users by doing this. You can cease paying for app store placement once you have a sizable user base and concentrate more on customer retention and organic user acquisition.

5. Put social media marketing to use

Consider running sponsored advertisements on social media networks as an alternative to search engine marketing. Social media platforms frequently contain a wealth of data about their users, such as their whereabouts, demographics, and interests. Due to this, some marketers believe social media marketing to be more accurate than paid search ads. Maintain the professional and current appearance of all your pertinent pages when you promote your app on social media.

6. Make a plan for your content marketing

Making valuable material for your potential user base to attract people to your website is known as content marketing. Articles, infographics, videos (like webinars or how-to films), and even guest posts that convey important information can all be valuable content. You can tell them about your awesome new app once they're on your website. Guest posts are written by someone outside of your company and can provide a fresh perspective on a topic related to your business. By offering high-quality content, you can establish your website as a go-to resource for information and demonstrate your expertise in your field. Once visitors are on your website, you can then tell them about your awesome new app or other products and services.

7. Hire influencers 

The use of social influencer marketing might help your app become more visible to potential users. As you update your app or are ready to launch a new app, get in touch with bloggers and industry influencers to create buzz. Influencers can be compensated either with a fixed fee or a percentage of all referrals generated through their social media accounts.

8. Engage a PR team or marketing strategists

Public relations specialists do market research, produce press releases, and launch email marketing campaigns to promote the launch of your new app. The benefits of your new app can be promoted on the radio, TV, podcasts, or even a well-known YouTube show with the help of an effective PR agent. You can submit for app awards, which attract the interest of tech aficionados, with the assistance of some PR and marketing agencies.

9. Join online discussion forums

Maintaining ties with current users and developing rapport with prospective users can both benefit from your availability and willingness to answer queries. Teams that create apps frequently participate in forum discussions so they may immediately address user questions. They also respond to reviews left on websites or in app stores.

10. Introducing new features 

You may increase your user base and keep your current clients by delivering new app features that cater to their demands. Check your app's usage statistics and ask frequent users' opinions to come up with fresh concepts that will keep them interested.

11. Offer time-limited advertising programs

Offer time-limited promotions to entice cautious potential customers to sign up. These might include discounts on premium apps or bonuses for quick app installation. Although clients motivated by promotions aren't the best for customer retention, they can increase your user base.

12. Promote word-of-mouth

While user reviews are highly regarded, people tend to view paid advertising with some mistrust. App users either directly inform their friends and followers on their social media channels or publish reviews of the apps they use on websites, online forums, and app stores. To improve your chances of receiving a free organic promotion, strive to offer a top-notch user experience and customer support services.

How much does it cost to market an app?

The cost of mobile app advertising as a whole considers several essential components that can span its three lifecycle phases (pre-launch, launch, and post-launch). Therefore, we are considering every aspect of the app marketing strategy, which comprises all three phases.

Pre-Launch phase and cost

The pre-launch phase consists of all the elements that prepare an app for the market and also raises awareness of the app before it is released so that users may quickly download it from the app store after it is made available. The following is the list of pre-Launch components and app advertising costs:

• Market research

Pre-launch is when many mobile app marketing campaigns begin. Market research is arguably one of the most crucial pre-launch marketing elements. Before taking action, market research is done to ascertain the requirements for the app we intend to create to address a certain group of users' needs.

This is not the same as attempting to determine whether or not potential consumers believe that your program is necessary. That is a step in the creation of an app. Evaluating the marketing funnel and recommended internet channels where you can contact potential app users in this situation is part of market research. Here is a straightforward illustration of what we mean by this. Imagine you created a health app to aid in weight loss for people over 55. Most likely, you won't promote your app on sites like Snapchat.

Instead, you need to identify the websites, forums, online communities, or other hubs where your target audience congregates. You would categorize this procedure under your market research sector. The typical price of marketing research might range from $5,000 to $15,000.

• App beta testing

An often-overlooked component of the cost of mobile app advertising is beta testing. App beta testing ensures an app is ready for market release and won't introduce flaws after release. But it's essential for your app's operation and long-term success. When actual app users are utilizing your iOS and Android app, you want to know how they feel about it. According to research, the price of beta testing an app might reach $5,000. The price to promote an app is a necessary component of it.

• App store optimization

You must spend money as part of your mobile app advertising costs on ASO to get organic installs for your software on the app stores. By adjusting the keywords, title, icon, description, screenshots, and other elements of the mobile app, app store optimization ensures that an app will attract the attention of its potential customers and encourage them to download and use it afterward. 

When users type in a relevant keyword in the Google Play Store or Apple's App Store, this will help them stand out from other apps in your app category. You should be aware that your ASO strategy will alter slightly depending on whether your app is for Android or iOS. This is because each platform's app ranking algorithm and methodology are slightly different.

The ASO tool's average monthly cost ranges from $25 to $1,500, based on the number of keywords examined and specific features. ASO service, a component of app marketing packages, can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $25,000 per app.

• App PR outreach costs 

Through a media release or other direct communication, app PR outreach increases the likelihood that an app will be featured in particular publications. An application developer or business may pay a PR agency or an app marketing agency between $100 and $300 per hour for media engagement. This is a significant component of mobile app advertising costs. 

• Influencer marketing costs

In recent years, this marketing tactic has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity. You can pay social media influencers to promote your app on their network. This will also be included in your app marketing cost budget. 

You could ask a PR agency for help if you're having problems locating the ideal influencers to meet your niche and price range. It may be as straightforward as a Facebook Live advertisement featuring your app or an Instagram post. You might employ this as a one-time tactic or cultivate continuing connections with various influencers. Just be mindful that in addition to the expenditures associated with influencer marketing, you will need to account for the fees associated with app PR outreach in your budget.

A mobile app receives endorsement through influencer marketing. An Influencer Marketing agency may charge a management fee that ranges from $10,000 to $18,000 per month.

• Viral marketing costs

Going "viral" can be affordable to get people to notice your software. This is not always simple or certain to occur. However, when it works, viral marketing is expensive. This generally wouldn't have a monetary value linked to it by definition. However, you should consider the expenses connected with any efforts that could potentially go viral. Imagine you're making a provocative commercial film that could be seen by thousands of people online.

How will you produce the video? Will you spend money on advertisements to increase the number of people who see it and the likelihood that they will spread it? These issues will be looked after by a professional viral marketing agency. The viral marketing costs for an app are not fixed. 

• App promotion assets costs

Regardless of the kind of software you have, you must build digital marketing materials for it. These would be the images utilized in your marketing initiatives. Who, for instance, will design the unique graphics for your app's home page? How will you make promotional films for Facebook or YouTube? How about the graphics and promotional materials for your app store page? These things are expensive unless you work as a designer and content producer.

You can either use an online website builder that charges about $18 per month for a quality website, or you can take the help of a web design studio which usually has a fee that runs from $5,000 to $25,000 to establish a website. It is the most crucial asset because it covers the price of app marketing.

Launch & post-launch phase and cost

When an app is ready to hit the market, mobile app promotion encourages people to download it and take certain activities within it, such as creating an account, signing up for a service, making an in-app purchase, making a reservation, and so on. The two most important costs of marketing an app are cost-per-install (CPI), and cost-per-action (CPA).

• App user actions cost

As it covers specific and initial actions that app marketers anticipate mobile users will take, cost-per-install is a key component of app marketing. Another crucial factor is cost-per-action, which considers how to persuade app users to download, sign up, make a reservation, make an in-app purchase, purchase a physical good or service, or repeatedly subscribe to a service.

Apart from an app install, the cheapest action achieved is the registration which costs about $7.6 on iOS and $2.2 on Android. The most popular monetization method, in-app purchases, costs marketers roughly $77.5 on iOS and $86.7 on Android. In contrast with previous years when a subscription was the most expensive action app marketers had to pay for, now it costs only $33 for iOS and $46 for Android apps. Action brands and independent developers are responsible for covering these costs.

• Push Notifications Platforms Cost

To maintain their users' loyalty and prevent them from transferring to another app, push notification platforms are one of the most popular and effective methods for mobile marketing apps. Depending on the number of users, additional features, and API access, monthly fees for Push Notification services can range from $30 to $250.

Conclusion

Setting up a budget is the only real way to succeed with your overall app marketing plan. You must take the time to budget for your app marketing expenses before launching an app marketing campaign. Otherwise, you'll probably spend a lot of time and money on ineffective campaigns. Even worse, you can waste marketing funds when they should go into app development, testing, or maintenance. You can even get your product reviewed with that money. This article will help businesses/entrepreneurs to keep aside marketing costs for a small business.