James has over 15 years of B2B and B2C marketing experience, 10 of which has been spent working at an international level within the mobile sector. Most recently, James worked as Acting Head of Mobile for the Daily Mirror as well as a consultant for mobile companies such as Flurry, Exent and Scoreloop. Prior to working as a consultant, James was Head of Campaigns for Muzicall, Europe’s leading provider of managed ringback tone services. Prior to joining Muzicall in 2008, James was Director of Marketing at leading global mobile publisher Connect2Media, managing high profile marketing campaigns and strategic relationships with leading brands including Marvel, Hasbro, Activision, World Poker Tour, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Manchester United. Before joining Connect2Media in 2004, James was Head of Marketing for mobile platform specialist Unipier and also worked as Games Product Manager for UK operator Orange, where he was responsible for the full product line.

1. top 10 tips for app
store success
James Kaye, director, dimoso

2. blimey! that’s a lot of apps
• Apple’s App Store hit 900k apps in June 2013 (375k of which are for iPad),
Android is also around that number
• 50 billion apps have been downloaded so far on iOS and 48 billion on
Android
• Juniper Research projects a sharp rise in app downloads from 80 billion on
2013 to 160 billion in 2017- due to developing countries moving to
smartphones & more freemium apps. 40% of downloads expected to be
games

3. how many downloads do I need?
a free iPhone app in the
US needs 70k+ downloads
a day to reach the top 10.
Paid-for app needs 4k
downloads (distimo)

4. how many downloads do I need?

5. app marketing – where’s the love?
• AppFlood’s June 2013 survey of over 1000 small, medium and
large developers found that over 78% had allocated $5,000 or
less for marketing
• only 9% of small developers had used a specialist PR agency
versus 18% of medium/large developers

6. what are the main challenges?
• the odds are against you
• marketing still an afterthought
• the barrier to entry continually rising
• consumers are fickle
• small developers lacking core skills
• lack of app marketing expertise
• large companies need internal facilitators
• huge amount of apps appearing all the time
• no magic bullet
“Hope is not a strategy” Rudolph Giuliani

7. tip 1 - quality & more quality
• the number 1 rule of app
success
• benchmark!
• be unique/different
• test and get feedback
• stand out to secure reviews
• customers can smell a rat
• Apple and Google love
quality and polish

8. tip 2 – have a strategy
What formats
will I launch
on ?
What’s my
marketing
plan?
What’s my launchstrategy?
What is my
app for ?
Is my app anygood ? Will itcreate buzz? How will Iposition myapp?
Why is my app
better than the
competition?
What does my
app do?
What ‘s my testingand user feedbackplan?
What’s mypost-launchplan?
What’s my
business
model?
Self publish orpublisher?

9. tip 3 – the app store funnel
• user
reads
a
review
or
hears
about
your
app
• searches
for
app
on
the
store
• ASO
(app
store
op9misa9on)
• your
app
appears
in
search
•
user
evaluates
your
app
name,
icon
and
ra9ng
• Interested
-­‐
clicks
on
your
app
for
more
• Reads
descrip9on,
browses
screenshots
and
reviews
• download!

10. tip 4 – first impressions count
• consumers make snap decisions
• select good screenshots and video
• the icon should be eye catching
• the name should be clear and relate to what the
app does. Think about embedding a keyword in
the name
It s unfortunate, but I don t have time to download and test every app that comes
out…. A video takes just seconds to watch and can be the difference in whether an app
gets a longer look. Barbara Holbrook, Editor in Chief, at Appcraver.
“The bottom line: imperfect app names force shoppers to work harder, and that will
mean fewer downloads. For all of the time you put into developing the app, isn’t the
name worth the added effort?” Interbrand

11. tip 5 – understanding the app store owners
• each has different motivations
• Apple sells hardware
• Apple are kingmakers
• Apple likes accessibility
• Google don’t want to see lazy iOS ports
• Google are more measured
• Amazon is new and emerging but their devices are not as
powerful
• don’t forget Samsung!

12. tip 6 - get to grips with ASO
• ASO- App Store
Optimisation
• discovery is largely through
browsing the app stores
• invest in an ASO tools for
iOS – Searchman,
Appcodes
• factor in language variants
• use someone who knows
what they are doing !

13. tip 7 - spread the word
• have a media plan
• get your timing right
• be clear, concise and to the point
• build a comprehensive list of your target media
verticals
• understand the media
• zero guarantees with the media
• post news on key forums such as Touch
Arcade
• brands – utilise available touchpoints
• app store editorial support is the holy grail but
few people can get it or promise it

14. tip 7 - spread the word
• websites still matter! Great for SEO
• integrate with video, social media and
links to reviews
• video is essential and YouTube is the 2nd
biggest search engine in the world!
• build hype on Facebook and Twitter. Use
it for feedback and build community.
engage passionate advocates on a
deeper level

15. tip 8- get to grips with mobile advertising
• there’s a myriad of networks and acquisition methods – CPA,
CPD, RTB, social, blind, premium, install exchanges etc
• it only really works for freemium apps of you want an ROI
• don’t try this at home – specialist planning agencies are the best
route
• your product needs to be good!
• Prepare to spend…BIG
• be in it for the long game – testing, tweaking and testing are key
• understand your numbers – in-app analytics and customer
insight/metrics are key. knowing your ARPU, ARPPU, LTV is key
to effective CPA’s…

16. tip 9 – get cross promoting
• cross promote across all your apps
• use updates as a cross promotion tool (iOS7 may
remove this)

17. tip 10 – knowledge is power
• tracking your app performance and how it is being used is crucial for
insight and driving later versions
• undertake deeper insight into your app and how people engage with
it
• use free tools such as Flurry Analytics
• track your app store performance with sites such as App Annie.
Distimo and App Figures
• set up free Google Alerts to track media coverage

18. so what does all this mean?
• It all boils down to quality - customers know good from bad
• the bar is rising
• app promotion is an ever evolving art
• first impressions count
• brands have the advantage of existing channels that should
be utilised
• be in it for the long haul
• work with experts – PR, media buying, ASO
• there is no one solution for success

19. if you’re hungry for more…..

20. get in touch
dimoso
+44 20 7033 2660
www.dimoso.com
@dimosoagency