Description
Coming up is a coaching call with a first time app creator of a gift management app. You will discover how to monetize apps without using ads, how to increase downloads cost effectively and deciding between a paid vs free app.
Sonal Gir is the creator of GiftLog.
Show Notes
Increasing Downloads Cost Effectively
The easiest and most affordable way to drive growth is through ASO. Put yourself in your users’ shoes and ponder on what key words they might type in to look for an app like yours. For GiftLog, most probably they would search for phrases such as ‘thank you notes’ or ‘gift list manager’so go for an app name which might say: GiftLog – Gift List Manager.
Also, look for apps which are closest to yours, or basically your competitors, and load them in AppAnnie to see which key words they are ranking for. Upon learning these key words, load them in tools such as Sensor Tower or Mobile Action to get data on them in terms of traffic and competition.
Ads and Monetization
Because target users of this app might be those who are attentive to details or power users, I would advise to charge per usage. Give the 1st or the 2nd use free but charge from the 3rd onwards, like the Dropbox model, for example. If your app is useful, this should not be an issue for your users.
Sonal was also concerned which ads to use as she is careful for them not to cheapen the app so I advised that the best one should be banner ads as they are not as intrusive and also consider video ads as they will be your best channel for monetization.