An app marketing agency creates effective marketing strategies to ensure their clients’ mobile applications are actually seen by their target audience.

They help businesses navigate their way through this ever-growing and highly-competitive market by developing creative marketing campaigns aimed to cut through the noise and convert target audiences into active users.

Ideally, this process starts simultaneously with app development, not the launch mind you, so that every aspect of the app can be clearly communicated to the audience.

According to Bank My Cell, Nowadays, more than two-thirds of the globe own a smartphone and 88% of mobile time is spent on apps. [eMarketer]

Clearly, at the center stage of this mobile revolution is the mobile app. It’s only natural that more and more brands are jumping on this trend - building seamless and intuitive mobile software products to cater to their audience.

Apps are a powerful tool when it comes to engaging with consumers, providing content and/or resources, discounts, etc. But for said apps to start generating user attention, they must be marketed.

This is handled professionally by app marketing companies.

These specialized agencies offer an array of services.

Simply put, an app marketing agency ultimately targets consumers via their devices across different platforms. These outreaches may include:

• Mobile-formatted ads
• SMS messages
• Push notifications
• Email marketing
• Traditional advertising
• And more

Mobile app marketing companies can also assist businesses in adapting to the aforementioned mobile-centric environment.

They devise a marketing plan that consists of:

• Analyzing your app’s marketing potential analysis
• Identifying the proper channels to use
• Making adjustments to your app’s marketing copy
• Accompanying creatives
• Creating ingenious campaigns

Mobile app marketing consists of many different elements. Depending on your business goals and needs, there is a range of distinct types of app marketing services that can help you with your campaign:

• The specialist mobile agency can serve your app’s marketing needs through marketing channels like Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, Instagram Ads, App Store Optimization (ASO), PR and so on.
• A general marketing agency (employing a dedicated mobile app marketing team) can use conventional advertising channels to promote your app.
• A mobile advertising agency is focused on mobile media buying. Media buyers negotiate and purchase audience-targeted time and advertising space to convey established marketing messages.

Some app marketing agencies focus entirely on App Store Optimization and are capable of driving mobile app user acquisition via Apple’s App Store, Google Play or both. Others focus on mobile campaign strategy, user in-app analytics and behavior, traffic attribution and more.

Bottom line, app marketing companies identify your target customers and market your app to them in the best way possible.

Top-rated mobile app companies will also help in creating goals for your investment so you can witness your ROI from the app firsthand. So, not only do they market and bring customers to your product, but they also help you analyze whether your investment was worth it in the end.

While mobile app marketing doesn’t differ wildly from product/service marketing, it does require a few extra steps. In addition to social media, SEO and paid advertising, mobile app marketing also needs:

• App store optimization (ASO) so the app gets in front of people who are searching for its particular set of features.
• Onboarding support so buyers can download and learn to use the app quickly, efficiently and as intended.
• Ongoing customer marketing to ensure that buyers are actively using the app.

More often than not, app marketing requires specialized expertise that most in-house teams simply aren’t prepared for. An app marketing agency helps fill in the knowledge gaps so that in-house teams are more likely to lead conversions.

There are literally millions of apps in online stores and that number is growing every day. In fact, 3,739 apps are added daily to Google’s Play store alone! [Appinventive]

When you develop your mobile app, the first base to cover is - standing out above the crowd.

To do this you need to prepare a detailed launch and growth plan. Enter app marketing agencies!

As previously mentioned, the ideal time to hire an app marketing agency is during the initial, early stages of app development. This way, both the client and app marketing provider can develop a marketing strategy together, from the beginning.

How does this work and what does this cooperation entail?

While the client company focuses on the initial vision, quality of their app and clearly outlining the benefits it will deliver, an app marketing firm can help guide said vision as the app develops, assess the genuine benefits to customers and define its selling points.

An app marketing agency must:

• Know the service and/or product ins and outs.
• Employ a team of creative professionals and specialists in digital advertising, graphic design, content writers, etc.
• Create strategies that guarantee the success of the client company. Knowing different strategies and/or different app categories/types is a plus.

Mobile app marketing is a long process. It starts right when people hear about your app for the first time to when they become loyal customers.

In order to complete the process, you need to research who will use your app, what value do they derive from it, what are their triggers and so on.

Besides creating a foolproof marketing strategy and working on your typical funnel stages (awareness, consideration, conversion, acquisition, activation and retention), your chosen app marketing agency will be beneficial in a couple of different ways:

1. It Offers Outstanding Community Management

Mobile app marketing companies work hard to develop a relevant social community for the app. They will introduce relevant content and marketing material to keep the community ever-engaged and ever-growing.

2. It Works Beyond App Store

An ideal app marketing firm will craft an appealing, dedicated app page with relevant content and an SEO-optimized app description.

This is essential for customers looking for a specific app in your industry. They want to find your app easily, without diving into different online app stores.

3. It Performs Overall App Audits

Regular, or semi-regular app audits can help you identify potential glitches with the app.

App marketing companies will conduct app audits to ensure seamless functionality, update content and maintain the value of the app in the eyes of the customers.

4. Post Launch Marketing

The right mobile app marketing services provider knows that marketing efforts don’t end after the app launch. The app launch is rather used as a jumping-off point after which the hard work of realizing marketing goals truly starts.

It entails everything, from post-app launch review generation, social media marketing campaigns to in-app offers to induce purchase.

Developing an app is an expensive prospect, but if by any chance you think you’d stop draining your budget after the app is live, we’ve got news for you.

The truth is that at least one-third of your app-building budget goes for marketing. Sometimes even more.

Of course, calculating the exact cost of app marketing depends on a number of different factors, and you’ll likely find that you need to make constant adjustments to how much you want to spend over time.

However, as a rule of thumb, you can anticipate that you need somewhere between $25,000 to $50,000 to market your app, as most app marketing companies offer a project-based rate.

Sounds expensive, yet if you choose not to market it, there’s a good chance it is going to remain largely unseen, unused and definitely not worth the money that you invested initially.

To estimate the correct budget for your specific app, consider the following expenses:

• Market research ($5,000-$15,000)
• Market testing ($1,000 -$5,000)
• Social media promotion/ads ($1,000-$10,000)
• App Store Optimization (ASO) strategies (Up to $2,000)

To the uninitiated, finding the best fit mobile app marketing agency can be more challenging than developing the app itself.

However, there are a number of steps you can take when looking for one that will be a good match with your business and by extension, with your app.

These steps include:

• Referrals from your peer companies/competitors
• Google and social media searches for “best mobile app marketing agencies”
• Online review sites that offer vetted reviews on top app marketing companies

You should always review the agencies’ websites to get a solid grasp of their services, pricing and work done for past clients. When you find an agency that seems promising, the next step is to see whether it is a good fit for your company specifically.

What should you look for?

There are three major factors that point towards a prosperous partnership:

1. Communication

Always be on the lookout for agencies that are strong at communicating.

You need to see if the prospective agency is responsive to questions and potential concerns you may have. Are they able to communicate with the right person in charge of your project in a timely manner? Are they good listeners?

Communication is key when it comes to mobile app marketing as it showcases the stance and approach your provider will utilize for app promotion and customer communication.

Reading through client reviews and testimonials is good but the first-hand experience can offer loads of helpful insights into internal processes.

So, pay close attention to how the agency:

• Explains their methodology
• Answers questions
• How long they take to answer them

2. Reliability

Building trust is crucial to your collaboration so make sure your agency follows through on their word. ”The devil’s in the details” so figure out if your chosen app marketing agency:

• Does it run a tight schedule?
• Does it work with multiple clients at the same time?
• Are they consistent with their approach?

Although, when it comes to app marketing, there is no “one solution fits all”, you should invest time into a thorough search for online reviews and past client experiences.

Always aim to work with a provider that treats your project as if it were their own. Finding the right one lets you dedicate yourself fully to your business.

3. Results-Driven Approach

Let’s face it, the deciding factor is always whether the marketing agency has the ability to deliver the right (monetary) results.

Again, looking into app marketing companies’ history and customer reviews is important but you need to dig deeper to find whether the selected provider offers the right technology, resources, level of creativity and data-based intelligence required for your app.

Top-rated app marketing agencies often showcase their recent accomplishments prominently and display every step they took using data-based results.

1. Are you a full-service mobile app marketing agency or do you specialize in a specific field?
2. What are your fields of expertise?
3. Who will be in charge of my account?
4. Will we be owners of the Ad account?
5. What will the KPIs be and how often will I get reports on how the campaigns are running?
6. What ad networks would you recommend we buy on?
7. What platforms do you use for analytics and attribution?
8. Do you have a client reference and/or case study we can review?
9. What can we expect from our mobile advertising budget? (how many app installs, etc.)
10. What makes you different from other app marketing companies?