Market your iPhone app

DDMA iLounge Mobile Marketing – 22 September 2009

Martin Voorzanger – Head of Internet Marketing

Marketing your iPhone app

Today’s topics:①iPhone (and iPod touch) for Dummies (are there any?)②App Store marketing strategies③Promoting our app in the App-o-system④(Mobile) advertising⑤Measuring sales

Brought to you in 25 minutes…

Source: AdMob Mobile metrics

Source: AdMob mobile metrics

Note: 1,500,000,000 / 65,000 = 23 downloads/app

② AppStore marketing strategies

‘The majority of app discovery happens through browsing and search on the mobile device’ – AdMob Mobile Metrics, aug-09

So:• How to get into the “Top 25” or “What’s Hot” list?• How to ensure app discoverability?

Ranking in the App Store

• Each app has primary and secondary category (Weather, Finance, Travel, Navigation, Sports, ..)

• Various rankings: overall (per App Store), per category, paid vs. free – rank changes at least daily. So choose your category wisely!

• My formula (unverified): Ranking = sales per day (units) * rating * Apple factor

Apple factor = €€€ * coolness * spotlight theme

Discoverability in the App Store

Search result set based on:• Company name• App name• App keywords (max. 100 chars/12 keywords) – can’t be

changed

Search result ranking:• App Store Ranking• Ratings/reviews – don’t matter (for search), but do for

conversion

Strategy

Get your app to a top position by (rank/search):• Create a killer app• Submit your app wisely (mainly app name and keywords) • Synchronize all your marketing efforts• Drive App Store traffic and sales• Monitor the position and optimize

③ Promoting our app in the App-o-system

Create buzz and synchronize marketing efforts:• Traditional and social media coverage• Online presence• Advertising• Affiliation• The good, bad and ugly SEO• And a little help from a friend

TomTom app for iPhone

• TomTom app = TomTom turn-by-turn navigation software + specific map-cut (for instance Benelux or Western-Europe) for iPhone 3G/3GS

• Sold in 11 App Stores (line-up varies per App Store)• Size varies from 85 Mb to 1.44 Gb• Price range €62,99 - €99,99• Supplementary TomTom car kit coming soon

Start spreading the news..

Source: Google News

Media coverage

Microsite web & mobile

• Make sure you properly support Safari (50% browser share) and iPhone (>10% OS share)

• Optimize for SEO (page title, localization, sitemap.xml)• Build your own database as iTunes ‘owns’ the customers

Microsite - some tips

Microsite – social media links

Social Media

Source: O’Reilly Radar / Hashtags.org

Twitter

WWDC App in StoreTwitter.com/TomTom

reclaimedSource: Twittercounter.com

YouTube

Affiliation

• Join the iTunes affiliate programme at Tradedoubler, LinkShare and DGM

• Normal split: 70%-30% per sale• Via affiliation: 74-26%!• … and provides additional stats:

– Clicks– Unique Visitors– Sales per medium/source (when links ‘smartly’ encoded)– Keywords

The good ‘ol SEO

iTunes Search Optimization.. all about tags

The new SEO…. Oeps!

A little help from Apple…

④ (Mobile) Advertising

• Search – Google AdWords (web + mobile)• Display – AdMob (in-app + mobile websites)• Targeting (device/version, connection speed)

Requirement: approval for using Apple Trademarks

Search (web and mobile)

Mobile display

• Mobile display advertising: in-app and on sites• Largest CPC mobile display advertising networks:

– AdMob– Quattro wireless– DeckTrade

Targetting – simple and advanced

⑤ Measuring sales… is hard

• iTunes App Store reports – daily marketing/sales report• Hard to understand advertising RoAS – affiliation helps• Hard to understand top/underperforming creatives and

keywords

What comes on top:• Batch interface between iTunes and affiliate networks• User switches between mobile and web• Creating tracking URL that work and both web and mobile

3 tips to take away

① Create your (first) app now – for branding, traffic, money (sales or advertising), database or just for experimenting.

② Submit your app wisely to ensure discoverability – focus on keyword research and copywriting

③ Measure the success thru affiliation – to increase sales and get insights