Working Backwards for a more Marketable App Idea
Over the last 3 years I've built and launched 3 iOS apps. They haven't been financially successful yet. The hardest and most frustrating part has been finding new users.
I can usually find my early users and beta testers through sharing on social media, but this is hard to sustain and doesn't scale very well.
It seems there are a couple of scalable methods for marketing apps that other people have had success with.
- Paid Ads
- (ASO) App Store Optimization
Paid Ads
As an indie with a small marketing budget, paid advertising is hard. Most larger companies spend lots and don't expect to break even for 1-2 years. I cannot afford to wait that long.
If I could break even after 1 month, I could slowly ramp up my spend over time. I've heard stories from other developers who have done this. However my apps so far just haven't been good enough to make this work.
I spent a few months playing with Facebook ads last year. I had a couple of good weeks, where I was able to recoup my investment, but over the long run I only made back about 70% of my spend.
I may continue to use a small advertising budget to get some initial users, but I can't rely on ads to grow my apps right now.
ASO
According to Apple, 60-70% of users find their apps through search. ASO is a free channel, but there is a lot to learn and optimize. Luckily there are lots of tools that help with this.
I usually save ASO until I've already finished and launched my app. Unfortunately by this point there's not much I can do. If my app isn't something people are looking for, I can only optimize so much.
My last app, Burpee Hero is a fitness gamification app. Burpees aren't a very popular search term, nor is "fitness gamification", so I tried targeting some more popular search terms like "pushups", "squats" or "HIIT Workouts". These are all things that the app includes.
However, people who are searching for those terms usually have a certain type of app in mind and do not convert very well into downloads for mine. This causes my conversion rate to go down. The App Store algorithm uses conversion rates as one of the key factors for determining how to rank an app.
Plan for Next App
I'm going to do my ASO research before I decide which app to build. There are 2 keyword metrics I'm looking at:
- Popularity - how many people are searching for this term
- Competitiveness - how hard will it be to rank for
I can use ASO tools to track these metrics across a variety of keywords.
I will be looking for keywords that have a high popularity, but lower competitiveness. Finding the right balance will be a bit of trick. As keywords rise in popularity, the competitiveness also tends to go up.
I'm hopeful that if I can find a good keyword and work backwards from there, I will have an easier time acquiring new users with ASO.
Hey Ben - a bit belated, but I found this post very interesting since I am working on a somewhat parallel path. I'd love to connect and chat soon to gather some more of what you learned on your journey.