5 Holiday Mobile Advertising Tips For App Developers

When are apps ever not a big deal? If you’re an app developer, you should be licking your chops right now. The holiday season is here, and demand for apps always increases during the holiday season, as people receive new smartphones and tablets along with their app store gift cards. Now is the time to start thinking about ramping up your app promotion on mobile devices. Here are five tips to help you make the push:

Identify Your Customer Segment And Their Holiday Behavior

One of your most important campaign planning tasks will be to figure out your customer segment for the holidays. Your pre-campaign planning should start with identifying who your app resonates with the most. A good way to find this out is to look at Mixpanel to identify which devices, operating systems, times of days, and days of the week your customers access your app. Knowing how your customer segment behaves during this time of the year is crucial as well. For example, teens and pre-teens tend to download more apps during the holiday season and people tend to do more mobile shopping. In fact, 91% of people in a recent survey indicated that they intend to make purchases through a mobile app this holiday season.

Target By Device

Know which mobile operating system performs best for your app and keep in mind what the popular devices are during the holiday season. According to Business Insider, Apple is on track to sell a record number of iPhones this holiday quarter. These sales will obviously be driven by iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales. This is a golden opportunity for your app. However, the iPhone isn’t the only player in town during the holiday season. There are a slew of other deals for hot smartphones, including the new Nexus 6. You have many options to put your app in front of people’s eyes.

Holiday Themed Apps And Incentives

It’s time to have a little fun with this whole holiday season thing. If you’re planning a new version of your app for the holidays (which you should release as soon as possible), consider including holiday-themed in-app purchases or levels. This shows that you are an active and up-to-date developer. Furthermore, consumers will be expecting deals and discounts for the holidays. If your app is a paid app, consider cutting the price to appeal to those who may not regularly purchase apps. A holiday discount will increase your app’s chances of being featured.

Shorten The Download Process

To increase the chances of a conversion, shorten the amount of clicks it takes for a user to download your app. Complicated landing pages and sign up forms will discourage users from taking any further actions. People want apps and they want them now, so make it as easy and simple as possible for them to download your app. Linking to your app’s app store page is sufficient. Make sure you avoid spammy practices, such as direct linking to an .apk file download.

Post-Holiday Advertising

Holiday advertising shouldn’t stop at Christmas. People who have received new devices will be on a quest to download more and more apps. The few weeks after Christmas is the best time to be even more aggressive with your holiday mobile advertising.

P.S. Be aware of the iTunes App Store freeze. Get those submissions in!

Want more tips and strategies for the holidays? Download this 2014 Holiday Mobile Advertising Mini-Guide.

This post originally appeared on Decisive Blog.

5 Holiday Mobile Advertising Tips For App Developers