How to monetize an app with the help of incentive installs

And choose a reliable partner who will not allow pointless use of promoting means
Incentive install – is one of the core means of mobile app monetization. It can be utilized as an independent instrument as well as in complex with the other means. Its purpose is to guide a game or an app into the top of App Store and Google Play, to provide a further inflow of the organic traffic.

As well as any other promotion instrument, the motive at the amateurs’ disposal almost never gives the required efficiency and does not allow achieving any planned result. There are plenty of examples of unsuccessful means investments into such installs – some of them haven’t received any organic traffic after hitting the top, and the others haven’t even succeeded to reach it.

The head of the traffic department at PushApp company, Vadim Belov, puts the possible failures while using this promoting instrument down to only 3 capacious factors:

1. The work with the client was poor and less than required. The developers don’t have to go deep into work details of different mobile app monetization models. They have to achieve the result which is the promotion of the top and access to the organic traffic. And the service work at the number of the necessary installs just begins there.
2. If the app was failed to promote to the top by the specified number of incentive installs, the service carried out insufficient work on market appraisal in general or in the specific App Store or Google Play category in particular.
3. There also happen failures to meet schedule times of the number of installs provision – in this case, the problem is in the insufficient user base or incorrect cooperation with it.
   There are five ways to get maximum benefit out of incentive installs.

The appeal to the wider audience

It is not desirable to promote single-minded mobile apps with the help of incentive installs as an independent tool. They can be only a part of a complex at the maximum.
In the overwhelming majority of cases, the motive is used for mass decisions which cover as wide audience as possible. They can be games, social services or their apps and so on. It is just them which get the highest organic traffic possible when they get to the top.

Decision category, its quality and uniqueness

Vitaly Fedorov, CEO of PushApp, notes an enormous competition rate at the mobile app market. And it seems App Store and Google Play have solutions to fit any taste. But this is not very true – nowadays all the Tops are only busy with games and all the popular categories of applications.

Here is the list of areas which still stand empty (according to statista.com):

• Internet commerce
• Online education
• Offline business
• Children’s apps
• Interactive books
• Lifestyle
• Online handbooks
• Efficiency
• Sport
• Medicine

The promotion of such categories requires much fewer resources. But in this case, a problem appears – it’s necessary to focus on general Tops or ratings in certain areas. There is no universal remedy.

But only the unprecedented quality of realization and uniqueness of idea can give the mass solution a chance of commercial success. Such apps are not only sportingly installed, but also create a virus effect.

At the same time, everybody wants to share with their friends an exciting user experience. And the theme mass media see the app as a potential traffic; that’s why they share their thoughts about it with the audience. And this is just a small number of examples.

Usage of some ASO-optimization principles

Games and apps which use at least basic principles of ASO-optimization benefit at most from incentive installs and reaching the top in general. Here are these basic principles:

• An allusive name which instantly catches the eye of a potential user. It’s a real brand which determines the target group and further perception of the app.

• A significant and remarkable description can not only attract and arouse potential users’ interest but can also be an excellent tool for the other promotion methods.

• The selection of intriguing and of the highest quality visual materials – it especially concerns an icon and the 1st screenshot, which are always in sight. It’s one more bait for the organic traffic.

• References and estimates. The practice has shown that all the Top apps with a large number of positive references and having 4 to 5 stars are being installed 20% more often.

The game or app size – less means better

Specialists’ know-how repeatedly proves that success is not a lucky chance but cold logic, where all the possible trifles are taken into account. And the size of a game or an app plays quite a considerable part in this case.

Experts note that the apps with the size up to 100 MB attract more organic traffic.
The explanation for it is very simple. People usually use mobile apps on the way somewhere, in a queue or any other restricted conditions which are rarely provided with Wi-Fi. That’s why the downloading takes place employing mobile networks, which is not always fast and often rather expensive.

Compound expert promotion approach

Even if the incentive installs are seen only as an individual mobile app promotion tool, its usage provides us with the whole number of measures from the general or precise Top choice to the appointing of the number of downloads necessary for some task or other.

For example: to reach the public free apps rating in Apple Store is guaranteed by 20 000 installs for the past twenty-four hours, and Lifestyle category can be done with the help of just 5 000 installs. But these data are always changing, and it’s rather difficult to keep up without assistance.

We recommend an elaborate promotion approach which gives the whole number of arrangements:

• App Store and Google Play ASO-optimization for better organic traffic through the search engines of the stores
• Placement at the alternative platforms (Samsung Apps, Yandex Store, etc.) to increase the number of users
• Using the social networks already during the development stage to attract the interest of the target group and the detection of project’s bottlenecks
• Publication of the Reviews in the theme mass media, using the target groups of celebrities and bloggers
• Purchasing the paid search through Google and Yandex
• The subject of the material – incentive installs

Virus effect and the other prospects of the top

If the incentive installs are used skillfully, the promoting app receives a significant amount of organic traffic. If it is really of a high quality and stands out against the others as having a unique usage experience, the commercial success is guaranteed.

They say that only the motive plays a considerable part while getting such best sellers as Prisma, MSQRD and many other apps to the Top. All these apps were later bought at a fabulous price by the leading IT-giants. And what do you think?