Six New Year’s Resolutions for App Marketers

It’s that time of the year when many of us commit to a series of promises to ourselves for the year ahead. These are usually based on making improvements in our lives – either personally or professionally. App marketers are no different and while we would never be presumptuous enough to put words in their mouths, we’ve worked with enough truly great marketers to know that many of the following resolutions will be at the top of the list as we enter 2020.How many of these will ring true for you as we ring in the New Year?

1. I want to take control of my app marketing: When you surrender your app to the marketplace environment of the Google Play Store (other app marketplaces are available) you lose an incredible amount of control over how your app is discovered. We all know that quality doesn’t always rise to the top of any app marketplace and your app may find itself the victim of editors (algorithmic or human) that fail to see the beauty of your app. It can be heartbreaking to see your app floating around with the flotsam and jetsam of apps that have very little in common with your creation other than the category they have somehow wound up in. Of course, there are tried and tested optimization strategies that you should be on top of but at the end of the day so is everyone else. Keeping on top of app store optimization is a full-time job and this costs money. To make matters worse, the moment you stop optimizing is the moment you completely disappear from view. You can forget the needle in a haystack idiom, with more than 2.9 million apps in the Google Play Store — that needle suddenly looks very easy to find in comparison.
2. I want to take control of my earnings: It’s difficult enough to secure downloads from the Play Store but when they want to take a percentage of all my future earnings that really takes the biscuit. 30% might seem like a reasonable fee if the marketplace initiated the download but when a user has been referred to the Play Store via our own website or a social media campaign — that 30% cut really stings.
3. I want to enable users to download my apps with a single tap: As an app marketer with a deep inventory of apps and other online resources, I want to be able to completely bypass the Google Play Store and quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively promote my own apps from my own digital eco-system.
4. I want to reduce my risk of fraud: As app marketers, we've come to expect fraud as an occupational hazard. It's been suggested that upwards of 21% of app advertising budgets in the United States are lost to fraudulent activities. This figure increases dramatically when you look towards international markets. I also want my users to feel completely reassured that the apps they are using are 100% safe and secure and pass the rigorous approval processes required by both the major smartphone manufacturers and mobile networks.
5. I want to target users who don’t download apps: Impossible right? Wrong. Actually, this is a big problem. The majority of smartphone users (51%) download zero apps every month. If I could place my app in front of those unadventurous smartphone users on their devices from the moment of unboxing – I’d own their engagement and my competitors wouldn’t have a look in.
6. I want to target users geographically: While the app eco-system might be global, many apps have business models that are limited by geography. I want to be able to roll out my app-based business at scale city by city, state-by-state, and with minimum wastage. While we are ambitious for our growth we know there is little point in attracting downloads from users who are unable to use our service until it is fully available to them.

We’ve Got Your Back in 2020The good news is, unlike virtually every other New Year’s resolution you ever make, the six aforementioned pledges will be incredibly easy to keep in 2020. If you want to include any of these suggestions in your list of New Year’s resolutions, just pick up the phone or send us an email and ask to speak with one of Digital Turbine’s app marketing exports. We’ve got your back in 2020.Happy New Year.