User acquisition for mobile apps has become a real challenge. People love to use apps and discover new ones, research says. As you can see below, 90% of the time on mobile is spent in apps! Expected number of app downloads in 2017 is 268.697 billion! What do these numbers mean? It is simple, actually. People download apps, and they will continue to do that!
This consumption brings together an app mass in app stores. This means, to get a slice of the cake, tens of thousands of apps are continuing to be developed in every category. And this means competition.
Paid user acquisition is a solution to exclude these risks and get to be found by your potential users in app stores. Competition is not the only reason to benefit from paid user acquisition. Here are some convincing reasons to use mobile ad models.
Decrease User Acquisition Cost
Acquiring a new user is highly relevant with the lifetime value of a single user. LTV (lifetime value) is about how much a single user costs. If your user acquisition cost exceeds the lifetime value, it indicates something went wrong with your profitability. If the lifetime value of a single user exceeds the user acquisition cost, now it is time to breathe a sigh of relief!
Paid campaigns help you decrease your user acquisition cost, thanks to paid downloads. You can bring organic and engaged users with the help of paid users, which increases your category ranking and your downloads!
Increase Category Ranking & Organic Downloads
One of the most important aims in mobile ad campaigns is to increase your organic downloads by increasing your visibility in your app category via paid downloads. As you take paid downloads to your app, your visibility increases, and organic users download your app.
Above, you can find the results for an ecommerce app. After an ad campaign, the customer ranked Top 5 in Shop category and acquired 5X the new users during the campaign. These improvements increased the revenue by 3X!
h2>Meaningful Data Before Localization Investment
Localization is a powerful tool to get more downloads by expanding your potential users, globally. However, for implementation, it is a time consuming job, and this makes it risky to decide whether to localize your app. Paid user acquisition is an effective way to test to see the potential in your target countries. Create a campaign in these countries and see the tendency of your potential users to use your app, according to the number of organic downloads coming from the campaign.
Viral Growth
Fueling app growth is nearly impossible if you are waiting for your app to go viral, with no marketing effort. According to Gartner, through 2018, only 0.01% of mobile apps will be financially successful! This means 99.9% of mobile apps will not reach success, because they are not visible in their category. Being in this 0.01% needs a smart effort, besides time allocation. Paid user acquisition is an amazing way to let your app go viral, thanks to increase in category ranking.
Possibility to Test the App with Real Users After Launch
User feedback is crucial for the future of an app. An app owner or an app developer must test the app with real users to get effective and constructive feedback. Friends and families are a good start to test the app, but not always enough. This is why you should see what your real target thinks about it. Reviews are precious to see results, and if you do not get enough downloads and rank higher in your category, it is almost impossible to reach this aim. With paid user acquisition, you can rank your app higher and see what others think about your app. After launch, it gives you an opportunity to make your app visible to your target audience and listen to their real feedback, before your first update.
Key Metrics for Prospective Investors
Your app as a smart enterprise will most probably be like one of the competitors’. If you want to persuade investors to invest in your app, your starting point should show them the potential of your app. Paid user acquisition helps you find the key metrics to present. These metrics might be return on investment (ROI), retention rate, organic downloads estimation, and positions in critical keywords, during and after the campaign.
Finding the Right Growth Formulas Before Big Ad Investments
Even if you have a budget for ad investment, it might be a disappointment if you don’t get the ROI you imagine. To avoid this risk, you can consider creating a campaign with a small budget to see the results before a big investment. This also shows you the reactions and feedback of your customers to make your app lovable to potential users, before promoting it with a big budget.
CONCLUSION
Paid user acquisition provides 3 opportunities in brief: Budget Management, Growth Hacking, and Loyal Users.
- Localization test, pre-investment projection, and decreasing user acquisition costs help you to manage and use your budget smartly. You can also find the key metrics, like ROI, for prospective investors.
- Viral growth and increase in category ranking and organic downloads help your app reach the target audience.
- Because you give a chance to your app to be found in app stores, your new organic users become an amazing source to improve your app, and this brings loyal users with higher retention rate.
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…your app needs to stand out in a sea of competition, and that’s where paid user acquisition comes to the rescue. Think of it as giving your app a megaphone in a crowded room—it ensures your target audience not only hears about your app but also gets excited to download it. With millions of apps vying for attention, relying solely on organic reach is like whispering in a stadium. Paid campaigns, on the other hand, let you strategically target the right users at the right time, driving installs, boosting engagement, and accelerating growth. In short, it’s not just about being in the app store; it’s about being noticed—and paid user acquisition is your ticket to the spotlight.
…fierce competition! With millions of apps vying for attention, simply launching your app into the wild isn’t enough anymore. Organic growth, while valuable, can be painfully slow and unpredictable in such a crowded marketplace. This is where paid user acquisition swoops in like a superhero, giving your app the visibility it needs to stand out. By strategically investing in ads, you can reach your target audience directly, bypassing the guesswork of hoping users stumble across your app. Think of it as cutting in line at a crowded concert—paid acquisition gets your app front and center, exactly where it deserves to be.
…this means the competition is fiercer than ever. With millions of apps vying for attention, relying solely on organic growth can feel like shouting into a void. That’s where paid user acquisition swoops in as your secret weapon. It’s not just about throwing money at ads; it’s about strategically placing your app in front of the right audience, at the right time, in the right context. Whether it’s through social media campaigns, search ads, or influencer partnerships, investing in paid acquisition helps your app cut through the noise and claim its rightful spot on users’ home screens. After all, why wait around for users to stumble upon your app when you can take the reins and lead them straight to it?
Another compelling reason to embrace paid user acquisition is the precision it offers in reaching your target audience. Unlike organic methods, which often rely on guesswork and a stroke of luck, paid campaigns give you the ability to laser-focus your efforts on the users who are most likely to download and engage with your app. Whether you’re targeting by demographics, interests, behaviors, or even specific app usage habits, paid strategies ensure your message lands in front of the right eyeballs at the right time. This not only increases your chances of conversions but also helps build a loyal user base that aligns with your app’s purpose and value. In a world where every download counts, why cast a wide net when you can fish exactly where your ideal users are swimming?