Hey guys, I'm a mobile app marketer in South Korea and I was interested in your tips and experiences about the South Korean and Asian markets. I'll start off by sharing some of my experiences in these markets.
Here's how I gained 5,000,000+ installs with one application in the Asian market.
Most of the installs occurred in South Korea.
The reason for our success was because we used a special marketing strategy suited only to the Korean market.I'll describe few of my strategies below:
1) Buy traffic from a Local ad-networkInstead of buying traffic from global ad-networks such as InMobi, Admob, Tapjoy, etc, I bought traffic directly from local ad-networks.
There is huge difference in performance between Global ad-networks and Local ad-networks. (This does not go for all local ad-networks; I’m talking about the most effective networks among thousands of ad-networks in the region)
For example, let me compare actual performance with CPI in the South Korea market,a. Global ad-networks
Cost : $0.5-$1.0
Delivery Speed : 10,000 - 50,000 Installs per weekb. Local ad-network
Cost : $0.2-$0.25
Delivery Speed : 150,000-200,000 Installs per week
However, it's not easy to find the most effective ad-network out of thousands of networks in the region.
This becomes especially difficult when it concerns non-English speaking countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and other countries in (South East) Asia.Fortunately, there are upcoming tools like, for example, Jungggle, that help you find and compare the performance of ad-networks in each country.
Marketers use this tool in a similar way as they use for example Appannie.
2) Acquire core seed users. What do you think to be most effective to make your app go viral?
it's not posting reviews on mobile forums or blogs
Most of viral marketing (buzz marketing) done by marketing agencies doesn’t go viral at all.
The most effective way to make an app go viral is acquiring core users who come to love the app before it is launched. In my experience this works tremendously.
In Korea, you can make a teaser page and collect the phone numbers from users and give them some rewards (such as items or other benefits on the app). This is called a Pre-launch event.
For example, in Korea there’s a huge mobile gamer's forum that allows developers to promote their Pre-launch event and acquire seed users for free. It's Hungryapp.
I set up a Pre-launch event through various channels and I acquired 100,000+ seed users even before launching the app.
The users downloaded my app right after launching it on Google Play and the App Store. It made my app get into the Top chart with a lot of reviews on blogs and forums. It was a real viral success.
3) Consider to use a local platform. In Korea, there are two leading mobile platforms, Kakao Talk and NAVER.
Kakao is a dominant mobile messenger and NAVER is a dominant search engine in Korea.
Each platform has some interesting features.
a. Kakao
Through Kakao messenger, you can expose your app to a potential 100,000,000+ kakao users.
What is nice is you can set up so called “Emoticon Advertisements”.
Special emoticons can be made with your own character or other’s which will be used in Kakao messenger.
Many Asian users will then download your app for the purpose of receiving such an Emoticon. If an Emoticon looks fancy, it’s not uncommon to receive 200,000+ installs within a week.
These are kind of incentivized installs, but the quality of users is much better than of general incentivized installs and this amount of installs can also put your app at the Top of the charts.b. NAVER
NAVER also has their own individual market which is called N-Store.
The biggest advantage of using NAVER as a partner is that you can expose your app extensively through NAVER if you are selected by them.
Every month, you can apply to NAVER to receive extensive marketing exposure. It's not easy to be picked, but it’s definitely worth a try.
Using these and other strategies, we managed to gain over 5,000,000 Installs and $3,000,000+ revenue within 6 months.
Here's how I gained 5,000,000+ installs with one application in the Asian market.
Most of the installs occurred in South Korea.
The reason for our success was because we used a special marketing strategy suited only to the Korean market.I'll describe few of my strategies below:
1) Buy traffic from a Local ad-networkInstead of buying traffic from global ad-networks such as InMobi, Admob, Tapjoy, etc, I bought traffic directly from local ad-networks.
There is huge difference in performance between Global ad-networks and Local ad-networks. (This does not go for all local ad-networks; I’m talking about the most effective networks among thousands of ad-networks in the region)
For example, let me compare actual performance with CPI in the South Korea market,a. Global ad-networks
Cost : $0.5-$1.0
Delivery Speed : 10,000 - 50,000 Installs per weekb. Local ad-network
Cost : $0.2-$0.25
Delivery Speed : 150,000-200,000 Installs per week
However, it's not easy to find the most effective ad-network out of thousands of networks in the region.
This becomes especially difficult when it concerns non-English speaking countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and other countries in (South East) Asia.Fortunately, there are upcoming tools like, for example, Jungggle, that help you find and compare the performance of ad-networks in each country.
Marketers use this tool in a similar way as they use for example Appannie.
2) Acquire core seed users. What do you think to be most effective to make your app go viral?
it's not posting reviews on mobile forums or blogs
Most of viral marketing (buzz marketing) done by marketing agencies doesn’t go viral at all.
The most effective way to make an app go viral is acquiring core users who come to love the app before it is launched. In my experience this works tremendously.
In Korea, you can make a teaser page and collect the phone numbers from users and give them some rewards (such as items or other benefits on the app). This is called a Pre-launch event.
For example, in Korea there’s a huge mobile gamer's forum that allows developers to promote their Pre-launch event and acquire seed users for free. It's Hungryapp.
I set up a Pre-launch event through various channels and I acquired 100,000+ seed users even before launching the app.
The users downloaded my app right after launching it on Google Play and the App Store. It made my app get into the Top chart with a lot of reviews on blogs and forums. It was a real viral success.
3) Consider to use a local platform. In Korea, there are two leading mobile platforms, Kakao Talk and NAVER.
Kakao is a dominant mobile messenger and NAVER is a dominant search engine in Korea.
Each platform has some interesting features.
a. Kakao
Through Kakao messenger, you can expose your app to a potential 100,000,000+ kakao users.
What is nice is you can set up so called “Emoticon Advertisements”.
Special emoticons can be made with your own character or other’s which will be used in Kakao messenger.
Many Asian users will then download your app for the purpose of receiving such an Emoticon. If an Emoticon looks fancy, it’s not uncommon to receive 200,000+ installs within a week.
These are kind of incentivized installs, but the quality of users is much better than of general incentivized installs and this amount of installs can also put your app at the Top of the charts.b. NAVER
NAVER also has their own individual market which is called N-Store.
The biggest advantage of using NAVER as a partner is that you can expose your app extensively through NAVER if you are selected by them.
Every month, you can apply to NAVER to receive extensive marketing exposure. It's not easy to be picked, but it’s definitely worth a try.
Using these and other strategies, we managed to gain over 5,000,000 Installs and $3,000,000+ revenue within 6 months.
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