A Marketing Platform is an online spectrum of social media and search ads services that enable app vendors to decentralize their user acquisition techniques. Ad campaigns on ideal platforms garner a strong brand presence by convincing the target group through product-led content- blog articles, social media posts, promotional emails, free trials of attractive in-app features, and more.
Most platforms come with analytics to gather better performance insights into ad campaigns. Brands in 2022 are opting for the strategy of running ad campaigns from the initial app development phase itself. It eases their bug rectifications and product delivery. We have curated some best-performing marketing platforms and strategies to help you pick the one resonating with your application.
Marketing Platforms for Subscription Apps
Recent studies cite that app subscription revenues will increase by 13.5% by 2025. Now is the right time to utilize these techniques and tap into the profit share. If an initial investment seems risky, there are excellent free versions to exploit!
Free Marketing Platforms
Startups or small businesses with minimal industry knowledge and experience hesitate to take financial risks. At the same time, they cannot compromise on competitive advertisement strategies to reap a positive Return on Investment. So, free marketing solutions are the only means to tackle several vulnerabilities concerning small businesses and make them evolve as ground-breakers.
Reddit is the powerhouse of breaking news and popular memes. It comprises subreddit communities of moderators and active users who contribute quality news about a subject matter. The algorithm works by constantly pushing fresh content to the top through user upvotes.
You may think it is as simple as promoting the app immediately after opening an account. You are sure to destroy the promotion without a strategic campaign. If done right, subscription apps can gain phenomenal user visits, feedback, and loyal members.
Reddit Strategy:
- Keep sharing news tailor-made for the platform.
- At the perfect juncture, launch a promotional ad campaign using Reddit Ads, which may be visible to all Redditors or relevant communities alone.
- Host the popular Ask Me Anything series and plug contests with Reddit Platinum awards into the campaign to make it enjoyable.
- Analyze and tweak the methodology to catalyze subscription purchases.
- Check out these insightful subreddits for understanding how Reddit really works!
1. r/marketing
2. r/dataisbeautiful
3. r/askmarketing
4. r/internetisbeautiful
5. r/content_marketing
6. r/webmarketing
7. r/ppc
8. r/seo
9. r/digital_marketing
10. r/EntrepreneurRideAlong
Product Hunt
Product Hunt is another community-based marketing platform for launching and promoting products directly to real users. Unlike Reddit, which uses organic growth, Product Hunt jumps straight into promotion aimed at target groups that gather as communities.
Community members review app subscriptions for a free trial period and upvote the best ones. They are actively waiting to test exciting developments firsthand. Hence, the beta version can compromise on bugs, and developers will achieve a full-fledged application for release.
Product Hunt Strategy
- Join Product Hunt, and offer a free trial of premium features and easy explainer videos to inspire users.
- Also, sneak peeks into unique features as screenshots spark more curiosity to buy the subscription.
- Prepare innovative social media ad campaigns and shout-outs on the launch day!
- After extracting a distinct community from Product Hunt, launch the application, re-invented from user feedback as promised, and win big!
AppSumo (Saas Discount Platform)
It can be intimidating when you are new to AppSumo for app promotion. It is a risky step for startups, but the outcomes are insane!
AppSumo creates a space for digital products to be visible to potential buyers, the Sumo-lings, by offering exclusive daily deals/discounts. They sell super low to boost popularity, purchases, and ratings. How can developers even imagine losing high-quality feedback from qualified buyers when launching tricky features?
AppSumo Strategy
- As the first step, nail the subscription app features if you want cash flooding in.
- AppSumo is with you in highlighting every deal as they write the ad copy, beta test the product, and add genuine reviews. But not to forget, they only feature first-rate applications.
- Deals are live for around two weeks. AppSumo keeps updating them to benefit both partners.
Instagram
Instagram is the go-to platform if brands need a visual presence and cannot miss out on the conversions from its 500 million daily users. It is not a mere feed of fashionable posts and dancing reels. Since over 200 million businesses have opted for Instagram marketing, it is the ideal pick.
Organic marketing using a free Instagram business account is a profitable start for your subscription app!
Instagram Organic Strategy
- Create an optimized business account and up your aesthetics through eye-catchy posts scheduled on an editorial calendar.
- Choose an Instagram voice and start sharing niched educational posts, in-app images, behind-the-scenes shots, reposts from management or employees, and anything out of the world to attract a loyal follower base.
- Experiment with every feature of the platform - reels, story tools, IGTV lives, and crazy engagement by replying to DMs and comments to give that human touch.
- Don’t forget to tweak the strategy from a regular Instagram audit report because organic advertising needs innovation and patience!
Paid Marketing Platforms
Now that you have seen overwhelming results from organic methods, it is time to invest in paid ad campaigns and compete with industry giants. Users engaging with targeted ads are 50% more likely to purchase your subscription app than through organic means because personalization is the key. Let’s check out some trending paid ad platforms and their strategies here!
Meta Ads
Meta Ads, formerly Facebook Ads, run campaigns targeting users using app-specific features like location, demographics, age, gender, interests, and other profile insights. The right marketer can design the right Meta ad campaign and set a convertible advertisement budget.
Marketers choose Meta Ads because nearly 2 billion users spend at least 50 minutes daily on Facebook. With just $5 each day, you can get outstanding results.
Meta Ads Strategy
- You can run campaigns from the Meta Ads account, and the ads manager will take over everything else.
- They are traceable and give immediate traffic and RoI. Optimize your advertising and targets simultaneously to raise the CTR (Click Through Rate.)
- The concept of retargeting ads on Meta allows for nurturing a familiar audience.
- Ensure the landing page is appealing; otherwise, app subscription revenue will fall into nothingness!
Apple Search Ads
Apple Search Ads should be your first platform if you have an iOS app. As statistics show that search accounts for 65% of all Apple Store downloads and the average conversion rate is over 50%.
Marketers should bid their apps to the highest-ranking keywords for featuring on top recommendations. They can easily track performance metrics like subscription revenues, issues, and cohorts to strategize their search outcomes. Have you checked the Appflow.ai dashboard? It enables tracking of all performance metrics to improve the Apple Search Ads RoI. After learning from these parameters, vendors can balance their investment and user subscription revenue.
Apple Search Ads Strategy
- Again, strategy speaks: a Basic Plan offers simply powerful results for tight-budget developments having clear goals; the Advanced Plan monitors the entire lead funnel.
- If you want more control over ad campaigns, the advanced plan permits placing ads on the search and at the top of search results.
Google Ads
Google Ads is an advertising platform for creating online marketing campaigns. What makes it attractive is its CPC which ranges from $1 to $2 for Search Ads and even lesser for Display Ads.
Small businesses starting paid advertising can try it because Google Ads fine-tunes your automated campaigns with smart bidding and ad placements. Focus on other brand assets while potential customers keep purchasing your subscriptions.
Google Ads Strategy
- The campaigns run as Search Ads, banners and images on Display Ads, lively Video Ads, and inventory-showcasing Shopping Ads.
- You can leverage its machine learning technology, tools, and dashboards to process enormous data and complex UX signals.
- Create ads automatically using pre-installed app information. Set your tCPI (target Cost Per Install) and daily/monthly budget cap.
- Decide user actions like subscription purchases, and all set to generate leads and a recurrent income flow.
Instagram Ads
As a paid platform, Instagram ads drives huge app subscriptions because of its comfortable UI/UX and sleek one-column feed for potential leads to make purchases seamlessly. Studies show an increase of 179% RoI within 60 days and a highly profitable 219% increase in product purchase rates.
Jumping to the strategy, you should promote at least 2-3 ad campaigns, each containing three or more goal-oriented ads for attaining solid profits.
Instagram Ads Strategy
- Start simple by boosting posts with great impressions, a small budget for a short duration, and narrowing to a small audience.
- When ready to invest big, launch a full-fledged Instagram ad campaign from Meta Business Suite.
- Automated ads that auto-adjust target groups and bidding strategy are good initially. Dedicating marketers to design, run and tweak campaigns is the best option.
Product Placement on Video Platforms
Product Placement is a type of advertising that promotes a product by featuring in content creators' media to their consumers. The 'media' can be blogs, podcasts, books, and videos. Some popular product promotion platforms like TikTok, Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram. One of the benefits of product placement is unlike ads, the product in the video is permanent, and new users will be exposed to the product as the video grows.
Product Placement Strategy:
- Fix the budget before starting your research.
- Research your application's target audience & their interests for contents.
- Find the right social media influencers. Finding influencers with a closely matching audience can impact your subscription app promotion tremendously.
Airnow
Airnow is the one-stop platform for mobile applications as they are experts in user acquisition, growth marketing, and retargeting. Every ad campaign is cost-effective and personalized using the KPIs distinct to your product.
Airnow Strategy
Ad solutions are highly scalable through a comprehensive approach using conventional ads, audio, and video formats.
A creative marketer can achieve over 6 billion impressions and remarkable user retention rates if they use the available customizable templates alone.
The data-driven campaigns can track the highest-ranking keywords from over 55 countries and help hit milestones. Try Airnow if you are looking to beat your competitors intelligently!
Use Funnel Analysis to Track the Performance
Appflow.ai
Funnel analysis is leveraging best practices to analyze user conversions as they progress through each stage of the funnel. These insights help marketers identify the ROI of each marketing channel and optimize customer journeys at the exact spot of bouncing.
Once the prospect discovers your subscription app, they click through, redeem the free trial, and convert to a paid membership. Marketers can make informed decisions for distractions or unappealing elements anywhere after funnel exploration through analysis metrics.
Now the question is, where can we find this innovative feature? Appflow.ai has developed this new feature Funnel Analysis to track performance insights from user acquisition to conversion of each acquisition channel, which covers:
- User installs of each channel
- SKU performance by channels
- User conversions by channels
Conclusion
Now that you have seen the 'Top 10 Marketing Platforms for Subscription Apps', you can choose the platforms that suit your interests and requirements. Understanding your audience is the key to a successful marketing strategy. Appflow.ai provides useful resources for researching and analyzing your existing users.
Once you have chosen the marketing platform and started your promotions, it is important to know which platform worked and which did not. Funnel Analysis helps you to understand the user acquisition rate and user conversion rate for different marketing platforms. Appflow.ai has developed this feature Funnel Analysis to track performance insights from user acquisition to conversion in each acquisition channel. Hope you found this article useful.
10 Marketing Platforms for Subscription Apps
