By launching an app, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the customers would come, there is this highly significant need of exposing the app to potential customers and most important of all is engaging them. So how can one spread the word about the newly launched app, an app that launched a while ago or on-demand apps? The answer is digital marketing – or in other words, running Ad campaigns.
Why Run Ad Campaigns
There are millions of apps on our beloved App Store and the numbers are increasing with each passing day. This directly means that launching an app without deploying any marketing strategy is exactly like hoping to win a lottery ticket. Even if the app is ‘amazing and mind-blowing,’ it won’t get the response that it deserves simply due to its limited exposure to the audience. The potential users won’t discover it and there are slight chances that they’ll discover it on their own. This is where running ad campaigns come into play since they’ll expose your app in the market to the potential users. Hence, Ad campaigns have the tendency of enhancing the success chances of your app.
Steps to Running an Ad Campaign
Before you start running an Ad campaign, you need to focus on KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). It is because KPIs will help you in setting up your goals that you want to achieve through an Ad campaign. This means that your goals have to be realistic, measurable, specific etc. In your case, the KPIs have to be:
Certain Objective(s)
Analyzing
Strategizing
Measurement
Optimization
Performance
Evaluation
Success
Creating a Search Ad Campaign
You need to have an Apple ID or you need to have an already published app on App store. Creating an Apple ID is not difficult, and already paid Apple developers receive promo codes via emails. The ID or the promo code will assist you in the configuration of your campaign. It is the initial phase that needs to be done.
Log in with your Apple ID and start a new search ad by clicking on the button “Create Campaign.” Simply click the dialog box and choose the app that you want to thrive with the help of Ad campaign. Choose any of the listed countries that are available in the dialog box.
Campaign Settings and tweaking it
In this important area, you have to pay close attention to every little detail. It is not a complex process, but it needs attention. Give a unique and intriguing name to your campaign. The next step revolves around the allocation of your budget. Your campaign budget can be anything that you are comfortable with. Let’s just suppose you set your budget to US$50. There is a “Daily Cap” button that is used to specify the daily maximum budget. Let’s suppose that you set it to US$10, and this means that your ad campaign will run for 5 days. Leave the “Campaign Negative Keyword” section and move to next step.
Ad Group Settings
The Ad group configuration comes next. You can name it anything and try to be creative here as well. After naming your group, you will arrive at the next section “Devices,” and here you have to choose whether you want your ad campaign to run on iPhone, iPad or both.
In the Ad group setting, you will come across section “Ad scheduling.” It is not compulsory for you to start a campaign on the day you created it, and this means that you can run the ad campaign on any specified day. Click on the Ad scheduling and set the “start date.” The campaign starting date defaults to the start on the day you created the campaign, but feel free to change it according to your convenience. The “End Date” needs to set according to your schedule and planning.
The “Dayparting” section is something that can be highly useful to you. It is because you can target the potential customers on times when they are not busy. This means that you can adjust the timing of your ad appearance according to the time zones. For example, if you have a game about surfing, you can promote your ad campaign during ‘after work hours’ on weekdays and full days on weekends.
At the end of the Ad Group setting, comes “Default Max CPT Bid.” In this section, setting maximum Cost-Per-Tap (CPT) takes place. CPT is something that you are willing to pay; therefore you can set it according to your budget and convenience. Therefore make sure you set CPT bid to an extent that you can afford to spend. The “CPA Goal” section is best to leave blank for some time. It is best that you monitor the performance of your ad campaign for some time and then make changes in that.
Turning on the Search Match Feature
This feature makes your ad automatically match the relevant searches. By using this feature, Apple is enabled to give preference to your ad (s) to people who are looking for similar apps like yours. On the other hand, it will not show your ad to people who are not looking for apps like yours.
You have to comprehend the fact that Search Match works on the basis of the metadata of your App Store information, listing, similar app genre, and various related search data. This directly means that if you have a distinctive name, enticing description, and best-used related keywords then you can easily take a lead over your competitors from the moment you step into the market.
Deploying Keywords
Just like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), there is App Store Optimization (ASO). It is not a complicated process and all it involves around is the process of enhancing your app store listing and becoming more prominent in search results. In order to enhance your rank, you need to focus on the tried-and-effective formula of using keywords. This means that you can add keywords in your app title, description, Meta description etc.
Now, the keyword section that comes in front of you enables you to choose those words that are mostly used by the consumers to search for apps. For your convenience, Apple offers you “recommended keywords.” Just select the keyword according to your app and add it to your ‘Ad Group Keywords.’
In the ‘Ad Group Keywords’ section, there are those keywords that you selected. By typing in the textbox, you can even add your desired keywords. Apple assists you by showing the popularity of each keyword that you select.
There are two options under the Ad Group Keywords section:
Broad Match: It is a default match type that makes it certain that your ad runs on close variants of a keyword (singular, plurals, synonyms, misspellings, phrases and related searches). It is a smart way in which Apple automatically displays your ad on keywords that are related.
Exact Match: by choosing this option, you’ll have a complete control over any keyword that you select. There is less ad-impression in Exact Match since you are targeting a much-specified audience.
Choosing the Audience
To select the demographics and customer type, the audience section enables us to target precise customer types. There are four options and you can choose “All users” since it also includes those who have downloaded your other apps. When it comes to demographics, you can choose locations and set age and gender range e.g. within 16-65+.
Starting the Ad Campaign
After the completion of every step, you just have to click the button that states “Start Campaign.” For first time users, you will be directed to a page that titles “Account Payment details.” Simply fill in all the payment details and embark on a marketing journey of your app.
This is how you can easily run ad campaigns on App Store for on-demand apps. Running an ad quite is simple and all it takes is your attentive attitude and patience. Embracing Ad campaigns can play a pivotal role in the success of apps that are highly in demand, but are less visible.