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Acquisition Channel Opportunities: App Stores, TikTok, Streaming

Want to get more paying users? I've analyzed over 3200 marketing articles over the past week and identified the top 3 acquisition channel opportunities that can help you do just that.

1. The government wants to split App Stores, creating new opportunities for indie founders

Thanks to a new bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate and the House, dramatic changes may soon be impacting App Stores. As an app developer, this bill would place limits on Google's Play Store (3.1M apps) and the Apple App Store (2.1M app) and allow you to:

  • Use your own payment system to charge for apps, in addition to Google and Apple’s.
  • Communicate with app users about “legitimate business offers”.
  • Place your app in third-party stores that Google and Apple will be forced to allow.
  • Promote price reductions on payment systems not owned by Google and Apple.

The opportunity: If this law passes, it will open up a lot of new gaps for indie founders to fill. You could create new app stores, app-store-friendly external payment integrations, SaaS for price promotions and so on.

2. TikTok is crushing Facebook and Instagram in download numbers

The news: According to SenorTower, the leading source of performance metrics in the mobile app ecosystem, TikTok was the most downloaded app in July for the 6th month in a row with 63M installs. Also, according to AppAnnie, the first company to offer a mobile performance suite that provides app market & advertising analytics, TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2020. The app is crushing Instagram, Facebook (53M installs) and others in download numbers.

All social media apps are trying to be TIkTok-like: The latest on the list is Reddit. The social network has quitely rolled out a TikTok-like video feed for iOS users.

The opportunity: Short video as a format is becoming extremely popular. The nice thing about it is reusability; you could make a vertical video and then re-use on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Reddit in order to gain more organic reach.

Can you demonstraate your app value on a video, in 15 seconds or less? Think about before-and-after i.e. the beginning of the vieo would be the before (unideal) state and the after (the end of the video) would be the perfect state of the user.

3. Can you use Twitch to promote your SaaS?

Apparently, online gambling companies like Stake and Roobet are doing this. This practice has gotten so widespread to a point where Twitch announced they're forbidding streamers from posting referral links to gambling sites.

If you're creative enough, however, you can also use Twitch to promote a SaaS product.

How to use Twitch for promoting SaaS: Find a way to turn your SaaS into a game and get Twitch streamers to play it.

For example, if you have a tool for scheduling social media posts, you could make a wheel-of-fortune-like game which will showcase viral social media posts from the past month. After the wheel stops on a post, it could show more details about it, like the number of likes, comments and why it got popular.

The opportunity: Take simple gaming mechanics (like wheel-of-fortune, slots and other casino-like games) and replace the content with something relevant to your niche. Then partner up with relevant streamers and get them to play it, giving them an affiliate or sponsorship revenue in the process.

  1. 1

    So many interesting market place options opening up with that App Store bill.

    Security options as well.

    Review aggregation.

    SaaS to submit to all the app stores at once.

    Lots of existing solutions applied to a new market.

  2. 1

    Wow, wasn't aware TikTok was growing that fast. I wonder if it's because people are tired of being fake/perfect-like on Instagram. TikTok is a more authentic platform, and in general when I spend 10 mins on TikTok I feel way better after vs. spending 10 mins on Instagram.

    1. 1

      I think it's a combination of factors. The one you mentioned is definitely a major one.

  3. 1

    The Twitch idea sounds cool if you're into B2C. Not sure about B2B though.

    1. 1

      To be honest I'm not that familiar with Twitch. But I agree, not the first channel you would like to start with if you're into B2B.

  4. 1

    Interesting idea on Twitch; a lot of slot machines use the same simple game mechanics, just change the content (fruits, pirates, etc.) You can take these mechanisms and just replace the content with something relevant for your market.

    1. 1

      That was my idea basically. Yeah.

  5. 1

    Can you use TikTok for B2B?

      1. 1

        That's pretty interesting, it seems they're targeting mostly small business owners.

        1. 1

          For enterprises, partnerships/outreach are the top 2 channels I've seen working.

  6. 1

    Each major event creates opportunities for indie founders, if the app store bill passes, there will be interesting times..

    1. 2

      Definitely, decentralization for app stores is something we've all been waiting for.

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