Promoting mobile apps can either be just another marketing effort or a game-changing traffic booster — if done correctly. And we’ve got you covered. Our expert guide is packed with valuable tips and strategies to help you succeed. Dive in and discover how to maximize your mobile app advertising with Adsterra’s help!
With years of experience in mobile app promotion, I've mastered the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, perfecting strategies that boost user acquisition. In this guide, I'll share key insights on launching a successful ad campaign with a trusted traffic source — Adsterra.
From selecting the right tracking tools to creating captivating ad creatives, I'll guide you through every vital step. Whether you're just starting out or aiming to fine-tune your approach, this guide is tailored to help you maximize your campaign's performance. Let’s explore the essentials and lead the way for your app’s success!
What is mobile app advertising?
In this article, we’ll explore the strategies behind promoting smartphone apps. By "apps," we mean any software that can be installed on your phone, from food delivery services to utility tools like flashlights. Currently, some of the most popular niches in our network include VPNs, antivirus software, and video apps, so we’ll focus on these categories to help you optimize your app advertising efforts.
Difference between mobile app advertising and in-app ads?
It’s important to clarify that we’re not discussing in-app ads, which are ads shown inside mobile apps. Instead, Adsterra focuses on delivering web traffic from our direct publishers, and in-app ads are not part of our inventory.
In this article, we’ll dive into the details of attracting new users, optimizing traffic, and creating effective ad creatives. We’ll also cover strategies to help you make your campaigns as profitable as possible.
Adsterra provides a wide range of ad formats for nearly any type of monetized advertising, with mobile apps being one of the most popular options. We’d love to have you join our network — we have the tools and strategies to help your app thrive!
Closer Look at Mobile App Advertising
Mobile apps represent a massive and fast-growing niche. With the vast potential and sheer volume of data available, it's possible to identify key trends and best-performing strategies for optimizing your campaigns. Let’s dive into the specifics and explore what makes mobile app advertising so impactful.
Devices
Applications can be categorized into two primary types based on their operating systems: iOS and Android. Typically, your landing page will link directly to the app in the respective stores — App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android. Additionally, for Android users, there’s the option to distribute apps via direct downloads of the .apk file.
GEOs
Applications are widely popular across the globe. However, it’s important to focus on the following key markets, as they are currently the most sought after in our network:
Android: US, IN, BR, ID, MX, SA, GB, NG, PK, ZA
iOS: US, GB, CA, MX, AU, SA, JP, BR, DE, TH
For iOS VPN applications, the US stands out as the top target, characterized by high competition. Meanwhile, video apps like TikTok are gaining significant traction on Android and are heavily promoted in various Asian markets.
Creatives
When promoting through advertising networks like Adsterra, we suggest creating prelanders and ad creatives specifically designed for formats like Social Bar (In-Page Push). These elements will help enhance your campaign's effectiveness.
Prelanders
Prelanders are intermediary pages that users encounter before being redirected to the app store. They serve to generate interest in your product and increase engagement.
Based on extensive experience with various launches, campaigns that direct users straight to the app store tend to have significantly lower conversion rates (CR) than those that utilize prelanders. Therefore, we recommend investing time in creating multiple prelanders and conducting A/B testing. If your tracking system allows it, you can set up a rotation of prelanders to optimize performance. This way, you can disable those with the lowest CR from impression to install, leaving only the most effective creatives.
Creatives for Social Bar Format
You'll also need creatives to effectively launch your campaigns in the Social Bar format. This format offers a range of customization options, from simple In-Page Push to Interstitial ads. To create these advertising campaigns, you’ll require images of various sizes, along with accompanying text and icons.
You can easily launch Social Bar ads on our Self-Serve Platform (SSP), where you'll find numerous templates to help you design the most effective creatives for your campaigns.
- In-Page Push creatives — OS templates, as well as Custom Widgets, — Icon, work especially well for applications.
- Interstitial shows the highest CR, and it can also be launched in SSP for CPM and CPA.
Promoting Mobile Apps with Adsterra
Every campaign, even the simplest ones, needs a solid strategy. If you're new to this niche, we highly recommend conducting thorough research. This will allow you to learn from the experiences of others and make your initial efforts much more effective.
Begin by analyzing your competitors: your app likely has successful counterparts. It’s wise to observe their target audience through available resources and investigate their pre-promotion strategies. This foundational work is essential for understanding the market and will prepare you for the next steps in your promotional journey.
Adsterra Options for Mobile App Advertising
We recommend utilizing CPI or CPT models for your app advertising campaigns. The first and perhaps most crucial step in launching any CPA campaign is implementing S2S integration.
Tokens, Pixels, SUBIDs, Click IDs, and other similar terms refer to a unique set of identifiers we provide to advertisers via URL, which they return to us upon conversion. These identifiers act as unique "labels" for each visitor, allowing us to track their activity through our system. Each token contains encrypted information about the user, such as their country, operating system, and browser.
To set up postback correctly, you can use our conversion tracking page, where you can also test conversions. Alternatively, you can reach out to our support team for assistance.
Adsterra has established integrations with numerous platforms, making postback setup much easier for app owners. We currently collaborate with popular platforms like AppsFlyer, Adjust, Kochava, Singular, and Branch, streamlining the process for you.
Short Actions
Next, you need to determine your conversion flow (CPI or CPT) and set prices for your desired actions. We recommend focusing on short actions because installing an app or starting a free trial is relatively straightforward for users and happens frequently. This leads to campaigns that generate a stable and consistent eCPM.
Our system operates on an eCPM-based auction model: the higher and more stable your eCPM, the more traffic you will receive. If the target action is completed too infrequently, there’s a significant chance that your sources will have a 0 eCPM and will be removed from the campaign.
Choose the action that works best for you. In general, the simpler the action in the conversion funnel, the higher your conversion rate (CR) is likely to be, which in turn leads to a lower cost per conversion.
For more information on competitive rates, feel free to reach out to support team. It's crucial to enter the auction with strategically chosen rates. Avoid overbidding to prevent losses, but also refrain from bidding too low, as this can negatively impact your eCPM, as well as the quality and volume of traffic you receive.
Choosing Ad Formats for Mobile App Promotion
We suggest beginning your app testing with the Popunder format, as it generates the most traffic within our system and is highly effective across various apps and regions.
After your testing phase, assess how your app is performing by comparing the eCPM of your campaign with the CPM recommended by our system for Popunder campaigns. The closer your eCPM is to this benchmark (ideally, even exceeding it), the better your campaign ranks within our platform.
Additionally, the Social Bar format is an excellent option for driving more traffic to your app. We recommend testing a wide range of creatives and, similar to prelander optimization, discontinuing those that underperform while scaling up on the ones that yield better results.
Successful CPA campaigns initiated with Popunder ads can be expanded to other advertising formats. The Adsterra team continually reviews the ad inventory for high-performing campaigns. With your consent, we can replicate any campaign with an above-average eCPM into other ad formats. Therefore, it's a good idea to stay in close contact with our support team.
Maximizing the Effectiveness of Mobile App Promotion
Effective promotion is an ongoing endeavor. If you’re looking for sustainable results, be prepared for continuous effort. The encouraging part is that the positive outcomes you achieve will motivate you to keep pushing forward.
Optimization
Optimizing your campaigns is essential for success. It’s normal to see a lower ROI during the testing phase, so it's wise to allocate a specific budget for this purpose. This testing period will help you identify which traffic segments and targets are most profitable and which ones may need to be paused.
Placement ID Tracking
A key aspect of campaign optimization is tracking Placement IDs.
Your campaign URL should include a Placement ID macro, which sends the site ID to the tracker. With Adsterra partnering with over 35,000 publishers worldwide, the list of Placement IDs is extensive and continuously updated as new publishers join the network.
By analyzing Placement ID statistics, you can assess user behavior based on the originating sites. For instance, if a particular site drives a high number of installs and free trials but also leads to a significant rate of trial cancellations and very few purchases, it raises a red flag.
What can you learn about this source?
It’s likely that users from this site aren’t genuinely interested in your app. In such cases, you should consider excluding this source from your campaign and adding it to your blacklist.
Important Tip: Consider launching a separate whitelist campaign for that source, but reduce the bidding rate and set a spending cap. This approach allows you to protect your ROI while giving the source another opportunity. With a lower rate, it may turn out to be profitable after all.
Sorting
For sources that demonstrate a high rate of purchases (or other key actions in your app's conversion funnel), we suggest establishing whitelist campaigns with a higher bid or utilizing the Custom Bid feature within your existing campaign. To streamline this process, use the macro ##COST_CPA## to send the pricing directly to your tracker. Be sure to discuss with your account manager to identify the optimal eCPM needed to secure the first impression on your preferred source. With this eCPM data, you can effectively determine the CPA required to succeed in the auction—this illustrates the relationship between CPA and eCPM clearly.
Operating Systems & Browsers
An essential part of optimization involves analyzing which operating systems and browser versions perform best.
It’s crucial to disable any OS versions that your application does not support, as users on those platforms won’t be able to install it. Additionally, consider turning off OS versions that demonstrate minimal interest in your app.
The same principle applies to browsers and their specific versions: eliminate those that underperform, retain the effective ones, and scale up the top performers. When promoting Android applications, we suggest focusing on the Facebook and Chrome browsers. For iOS apps, the Facebook browser and Safari (the default iOS browser) tend to yield excellent results.
Creatives
Remember to regularly optimize your creatives and experiment with new designs. It’s also beneficial to create specific creatives for major global events, such as sporting competitions. Additionally, if your app features seasonal promotions, like Christmas sales or Black Friday deals, tailor your creatives to reflect these themes for maximum impact.
GEOs
If your app works on multiple GEOs, it's important to track their performance individually. A best practice is to create separate campaigns for each GEO and optimize them separately. While this approach can be time-consuming, it often shows the best results.
Moreover, for certain GEOs, optimizing by region or state can be profitable. For instance, this method is frequently used for campaigns aimed at India.
Media buying requires a lot of effort, and significant time should be invested in optimizing your campaigns. However, trust us — it’s definitely worth it!
Conclusion
Mobile apps, like any other product, are fully marketable and offer significant promotional potential. However, achieving the best results requires a unique approach. At Adsterra, we have the expertise to help your app succeed, expand its user base, and attract substantial traffic. All you need to do is reffer to our expert guidance: conduct thorough research and prioritize ongoing optimization. If you have any questions or need assistance getting started with your advertising, don’t hesitate to reach out!
