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From 50k downloads to 1 million downloads - Need help in creating a Marketing Plan (14)

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Hey Guys,

I am in a situation where I need to present a brief marketing plan for increasing downloads of an App for a startup from 50k to 1 million+ . The app is almost similar to this one : https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....finance&hl=en .

Now as an affiliate I've never done this - creating a marketing plan, to be honest, i've never tried app download offers too. and this is a real genuine startup/company and not like an affiliate offer with some CPA rate.

So I am a little bit confused on how to structure this marketing plan. I mean I know all strategies (thanks to STM), but to present it as a plan, that's something new for me.
Should I just mention all different traffic sources which we can use. is that it?

I really need help. Any pointers/tips would help me a lot. I am sure there would be many people here who work for such companies/startups either as marketing managers or consultants. I would really appreciate their point of view on how to go about it.

I don't need templates of some kind, i just want to know according to you what would an investor/employer would want to look in that marketing plan.

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From someone whose company kind of specializes in this type of thing,, and based on what you've indicated about your own experience level... this is the most likely road that is in front of you if you were to pursue this seriously and were to hypothetically succeed in every single step:

1. Go from "never trying app download offers before" and rocketing to the top 1% of the top 1% of all performance marketers in the app install market despite the fact that most public CPI offers are so low payout wise that you will lose money even with the largest economies of scale.
2. Start with being able to promote mass appeal offers like utility apps and then evolve your marketing and targeting to such a degree where you're able to also able to crush highly niche apps like your finance app that you linked -- and gain a track record of being able to take 70% of most apps you get and getting traction
3. After succeeding at #2, come to grips with the fact that even though you have actually succeeded and can deliver value in the User Acquisition market to both Broad and Niche audiences... no one will believe you because a million other User Acquisition companies and CPA networks are promising a billion installs a day to everyone who has a pulse
4. Undeterred, you use your experience-hardened knowledge to turn those "steps" you learned as an affiliate and package it into a formalized marketing plan and system that is completely devoid of affiliate marketing references or mentality so that independent resources in the company you're presenting it to can execute it with braindead simplicity as long as the chain of dependencies is followed closely
5. Walk into the meeting and present your marketing plan, and then awaken to the nightmare of trying to reconcile performance marketing and the branding/aesthetic route the rest of the world takes. Spend 70% of your days educating clients on why the type of ads they expect that look really pleasing to the eye perform like garbage if their goal is specific user acquisition. At the end of the day, watch your efforts get flushed down the drain by companies too chicken to try to run your "ugly" creatives for fear of damaging their brand. On top of this, they tell you their goal is something utterly ridiculous like 1 million installs for this niche product targeting people in the US while spending less than a million dollars and running pretty branding ads.
5. Realize that you actually have to develop B2B sales skills in order to succeed in this area and hire more salespeople and get training for your whole company.
6. Come full circle and realize that those "highly prized" AM skills and methodology don't transfer over very well to the corporate side where the big money is

TL;DR -- don't try to go from being an affiliate to being a sensation in the corporate world overnight

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I'd start with the basics

1. User persona, who buys this and why? How do they use it? We create a fictional person and give them a name and build them. That's who we sell to.
2. What's the big benefits to that users? Benefits = features that make their lives better.
3. What's their big objections? Why would they say this isn't for me? How do you overcome and address those things?
4. Where is the easiest most reasonable place to find these people?
5. Build a direct buying marketing model, cost, assumed conversion, etc. See what you think it would cost to acquire a user.
6. Build a social and viral marketing model,

This is a good article about marketing stacks for products. https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/saas-marketing-stack/

Then tell the client what it's going to cost for you to build and manage that.

Feel free to ask questions and I'll be happy to help more. But this should give you the basics to start from.

Success,
Jason

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Hangman, I've ran some finance apps - and in my IMHO I'd stay away from them.

Unless you really think you can do it, this sounds a lot like you're nailing yourself to a cross by sinking all your eggs into one "app" offer/basket.

I'm not trying to discourage you, but it sounds like a really really rough road. Just my 10 cents.

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As i said, it's not an affiliate offer. But just a marketing plan for a startup who owns a finance app and looking to acquire more users. Payout won't be based on performance. Budget will be theirs, I am just trying to be a guy who'll plan and execute user acquisition for them.

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Thanks Jason. That will surely help me. One thing I am confused is point no 4. How could i come up with costs, and conversion if i don't have access to any data? These things can be projected only after making some tests, right?

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You can't. Unless your company already has experience with similar types of apps and a track record for that, any type of numbers you come up with will be purely vaporware. Not only do you have the inability to ballpark the acquisition costs for their specific demographic of users -- if you have no experience at all: you will be unable to provide a ballpark estimate of really any type of install. This doesn't exactly inspire any confidence in your marketing plan.

To put it in real world terms -- imagine your buddy who told you that you have an "in" with this company gave you the opportunity to custom-build a skyscraper for a company. The company needs you to demo a plan for the design, specs, usability, sustainability, and everything else. You have no architectural experience. You haven't even built a porch before much less an entire house or a skyscraper. Simple nuances like the physics of putting together a tall building made of steel, glass, and concrete would simply be beyond the scope of what you know and in the real world would usually take years of actual experience to master.

At this point, the correct question to ask yourself isn't "How do I put together a proposal to build this skyscraper", it's more like: "Am I seriously prepared to devote the months/years of time, energy, capital that is required to be able to competently fulfill the client's requirements?"

Personally, I would spend some time finding some sick architecture firms, pawn the brokered opportunity to build the skyscraper to them, and perhaps negotiate a small percentage for being the middleman. Minimal time invested, you can go back to working on whatever niche you know best, and everyone wins.

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Well, if you price the affiliate commission high enough, then yes as long as the app doesn't get banned from the App/Play stores, you can get it to 1 million downloads.

Pay out $25 per download, do a private deal with any of the top guys on STM, and I am sure they can deliver you a million downloads in a few days, LOL.

Your client will probably be broke well before then however.

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I totally get what you are trying to say here timtetra. Both of your posts are very inspiring.

But lets just bring this down to a level of a small startup with very tight budgets, which don't want to really spend high amounts in hiring a sick firm or a very experienced person, because they know those things will cost them a lot.
In your words, they need a guy straight out of architecture college who is smart enough to start building a porch or a small house for them.

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Great plan bro. But the thing is they have to be stupid enough to go with this.

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The point is that getting 1,000,000 downloads is not easy.

You need to be either incredibly skilled, incredibly lucky or incredibly rich, or often times all three in order to achieve this.

If all that was required to achieve 1,000,000 downloads was a marketing plan, then everyone would have a million downloads.

I am good friends with a number of successful app developers. Our VC is the same VC that invested in a number of the Nordic massive gaming companies as well as companies like Two Dots. I know Stackman quite well whose game was #1 on the App Store in about 20 countries as well as Tim Tetra, as per his LinkedIn description https://www.linkedin.com/in/timtetra, delivers truly massive download numbers for his clients.

I don't think any of them, however, would trivialise the challenge of an unknown app developer getting to 1 million downloads.

You can certainly put together a plan. Just Google as many articles as possible on successful independent app developers or "app marketing strategies" and try to incorporate whatever tactics that you find mentioned. All of this will be good research.

But then make sure you get paid for putting the plan together, and that you do not get paid only on the condition that you deliver the results.

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Hangman I will outline a few key points for you to start with, outside of that, IM me or hit me on Skype and we can dig deeper if you would like.

- What road blocks did they hit with out you in the picture, growth hurdles that they faced up to this point and all the variables. This will give you an idea of their approach and how you can circumvent the future.
- What is their end goal? Rank the app and exit, user acquisition and retention with in app purchase as their focus, you have to find a basis for the start up or at least get an idea of their direction.

I like to keep things simple personally, if you are resourceful and have a knack for project management this endeavor is doable. Conceptualize the project and everything it will entail from A to Z, create a scope, deliverables and a timeline. From there your R & D begins "Research & Development" you have to make sure this start up is realistic with their expectations also. If they think this project can get off the ground with a $10,000 budget I would run and not waste your time... Good luck

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That is a winning Linkedin profile right there!

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An investor will want to see current revenue & profit streams over the last 24 months and based on that will extrapolate your numbers and see what can be achieved over the next 1-3 years. No one will invest in you if you are still at a pre-revenue stage.

Its important you specify what you need the money for (user acquisition?), what your revenues & cost per user/unit is, what the upscaling possibilities are in the geo's you are in + abroad, and how long it will take the investor to claim his money back + take a good margin.

Don't forget that taking an investor on board of your company is a very expensive way to finance your business. Its a lot cheaper to take a bank loan or credit line.

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