When advertising an app of any kind, one of the most effective marketing tools available is influencer marketing. This channel is becoming increasingly popular among app owners and developers, along with many other types of businesses that want to expand their reach. According to one survey of 5,000 professionals, 90% of respondents found influencer marketing to be effective. It’s only going to increase in its effectiveness over time.

To give you a better understanding of influencer marketing and how it can help app advertisers, the following is a complete guide to this channel and its advantages.

What Exactly Is Influencer Marketing for App Advertising?

Influencer marketing involves connecting with social media influencers to advertise or market a particular product, service, or brand. There are influencers of nearly every level, including smaller influencers known as micro-influencers to celebrity influencers with millions of followers. The fact is that every influencer with any kind of following can bring real value to a brand, including a mobile app brand.

Influencers often fall under specific niches that attract particular audiences. For instance, some influencers are known for live-streaming video gaming sessions that appeal to audiences into gaming. Meanwhile, another influencer might review food items that resonate with foodies. There’s a niche for just about every type of business and app to benefit from when it comes to influencer marketing.

You can communicate and build relationships with influencers on many channels, depending on your audience and the type of app you want to promote. Some popular platforms include YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It all depends on who you’re trying to convert to loyal users.

How Does Mobile App Influencer Marketing Work?

When engaging in influencer marketing, the process is relatively simple. While it can require some work to find and connect with the right influencer, the results will be rewarding when you have a strong strategy in place.

Generally, the process of influencer marketing is as follows:

1. App owners and advertisers look for influencers in their niche.
2. The brand connects with these influencers and establishes a partnership with them.
3. The influencer then uses their channel to promote the app.
4. The influencer’s audience may then click on a corresponding link to download the app.
5. For eCommerce apps, influencers could offer a unique promo code that links back to them.
6. The influencer receives a portion of every purchase a user makes.
7. Based on the unique link or the promo code, app owners can then gauge the success of these campaigns based on the traffic they receive.
8. If successful, apps benefit from increased downloads and sales, along with loyal users.

Ultimately, influencer marketing has the chance to drive both downloads and user retention, with the chance to see high ROI.

The Benefits of Influencer Marketing for App Advertisers

Compared to other forms of app advertising, influencer marketing is more effective in a number of ways. Your app can benefit from influencer marketing with the following advantages.

Advertise Through People Your Audience Trusts

While broad advertising campaigns can still yield results, people prefer recommendations from the people they trust. As such, data from Shopify shows that 61% of consumers are more likely to trust recommendations from influencers. People often turn to their favorite influencers for everything from advice to recommendations, and apps are no exception.

Influencers, as their title would suggest, are often good at gaining people’s confidence and convincing them to use certain products or services. They do so in a way that feels more organic than a typical ad from the brand itself.

Influencer Marketing Tells a More Personal Story

Narratives are among the most powerful marketing tools for all types of brands. People love a good story, and influencers can give it to them as it relates to your app. For example, an influencer may download and use your app. When promoting the app to their audiences, the influencer can detail their personal experience, including all of the benefits of using the app. This will be in their own voice and using their familiar storytelling technique. Because of this, your app is more likely to connect with audiences as they relate to the story that the influencer tells.

Keep in mind that not all influencers are great at storytelling, which means you’ll want to look around for one that’s known for crafting compelling narratives.

Connect With Audiences of All Types

Today, there’s an influencer in just about every niche, which allows app owners to target nearly any audience or audience segment imaginable. Regardless of the type of audience you want to target, there’s an influencer for every business. While your instincts may be to target well-established influencers with large followings to maximize exposure, you can get even better results and save more money by targeting micro-influencers.

Micro-influencers often have smaller but loyal followings. By connecting with multiple micro-influencers in one or more relevant niches, you can make the most of your budget while reaching wider audiences.

How Influencer Marketing Can Complement an App Ad Strategy

As mentioned, you still need other forms of app advertising to experience long-term success with your app. However, influencer marketing can play a key role in boosting brand awareness, increasing download and install rates, and retaining users. There are a few ways in which influencer marketing can complement your ad strategy, including:

Build Brand Awareness

Other mobile marketing methods can get your brand in front of many audiences, but you can appear in front of even more with influencer marketing. When you reach out to the right influencer in your niche, you’ll have the chance to gain and hold the attention of people who might not find you otherwise.

Even smaller influencers can expose your brand to hundreds or thousands of potential users. These users are also likely to be more interested in your app than general audiences. This is because influencers in your niche will share the same interests as their audience, encouraging them to try apps that they themselves would use.

If the influencer doesn’t manage to get audiences to download your app based solely on their recommendation and promotion, they’ll at least become aware of you. They’ll also look at you in a more positive light if they encounter your brand and app in the future. For example, a prospective user might not be interested in downloading your app when watching an influencer’s recommendation, but they may recognize you later if they see an ad on social media or another website. Based on this exposure and recognition, they may wind up trying the app when it’s convenient for them.

Increase Traffic Volume

People often don’t pay attention to generic ads or other marketing methods that don’t establish a more personal connection. On the other hand, if they hear and see a personality they like and trust to make a recommendation, audiences are much more inclined to give brand attention. As a result, they’re also more likely to take action based on this recommendation.

This is why influencer marketing often leads to more traffic for your app store page and the app itself. People will see that their favorite personalities are engaged with your app, which will get them to give it a try or at least investigate it further. This can go much farther than simply bombarding audiences with ads or attempting to reach out on social media on your own.

These advantages make influencer mobile marketing so critical for apps if you want to dramatically increase your app’s overall exposure and volume.
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by akbar
source: AppSamurai