How to Use Affiliate Marketing for Mobile Apps

Affiliate marketing, as part of mobile app marketing, might not be at the top of your mind as an app publisher. But it’s an incredibly powerful tool to encourage more users to download or engage with your app. 

While it can help to leverage more app downloads, affiliate marketing is also complex. To help you better understand it, we’ve outlined a guide on what affiliate marketing is and how it can grow your app’s user acquisition rate. 

What is affiliate marketing? 

Affiliate marketing is a form of marketing that consists of an online business paying a commission or rates to an affiliate website in exchange for traffic or sales generated from it. 

As an app owner, your chosen affiliate earns a commission each time your mobile app is downloaded through the unique link associated with their endorsement. Your affiliate earns a commission while you get more users and/or downloads for your app, which benefits both parties. 

Unfortunately, while affiliate marketing is a powerful marketing tool, it is much more complicated than that. There are many factors to consider when it comes to what kind of affiliate marketing strategy you choose to adopt for your app.

How to use affiliate marketing for your mobile app

The world of affiliate marketing is a vastly complex one. Let’s break down the process of affiliate marketing for mobile apps into steps. 

Step One: Finding the right affiliate 

The first and most important step is to find a compatible affiliate marketer for your mobile app. These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself before you reach a decision: 

• Does this person’s brand identity complement my mobile app? 
• Am I happy to have this person associated with my app? Reputation is essential, as it will reflect on your app’s brand image.
• What is this person’s outreach strategy - how do they acquire leads? Is their strategy going to help spread the word about my app? 
• What is the nature of their audience and platform? Is the strength of their traffic going to generate more leads to my app? 

If things go well, your chosen affiliate will leverage their own ecosystem of traffic (which includes potential users for you) to endorse your app using social media, websites, blogs, videos, and more. 

Partnering with the right affiliate marketer can give a major boost to your app subscriptions and downloads. However, choosing the right affiliate with the right platform is essential. It’s important to do in-depth research about potential affiliates you’re considering partnering with before signing any agreements with them.

Step Two: Set out a realistic business plan 

Once you’ve identified a compatible affiliate, it’s time to design an actionable business plan. Start with realistic business goals. Do you want to attract more app downloads? Are you looking to generate more leads, traffic, and engagement? Perhaps you want to boost conversion rates and earn more revenue. All of the above? There’s a lot to consider. 

You’re also going to have to perform some market research, which includes

• Conducting a thorough competitor analysis
• Identifying your niche 
• Deciding on your long-term goals

You are, of course, going to have to work with your affiliate to determine who your target audience is. You may also want to do more comprehensive research to segment and categorize your audience. This can help you geo-target the right leads and customize your affiliate marketing campaigns. 

Step Three: Apply a strategic eye 

The work is not over yet! It’s time to optimize your campaign. One of the best ways to do this is to be intentional about where you place your links and your calls to action. This will depend on the nature of your mobile app, and your affiliate marketer. 

This will greatly depend on the nature of your target audience and the platform that they are using to engage with your affiliate’s content. 

You also need to keep a close eye on affiliate conversions. If you aren’t tracking these properly, you won’t get the crucial insights that you need to drive more conversions and get people to download your app. This information will also help you scale your campaigns in size and reach. 

Let Appic handle your affiliate marketing 

Affiliate marketing is a highly effective marketing tool, but it’s also complicated and time-consuming and relies on negotiating effectively with third parties. Appic has the experience and expertise necessary to launch a successful affiliate marketing campaign for your mobile app. 

We partner with you to help your app grow in users, revenue and scale. If you’re looking to sell, we offer a clear exit strategy negotiated on your terms. We’re here to step in, eliminate distractions and help you grow your app. 

Chat to us about how we can leverage affiliate marketing to scale your app’s user reach and visibility.

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