A Complete Guide on How to Promote a Mobile App in Russia in 2020

In 2019, Russians downloaded more than 5 million apps and Russia became the sixth country in the world by this rate. Experts note the attractiveness of the Russian market, especially for foreign developers. In this regard, the question that has to be answered is how to bring your app to the top of the Russian market. In this article, you will find a step-by-step guide on app promotion.

What’s the point of mobile app promotion?

An opportunity to monetize an app directly depends on the number of users who installed it and launch it regularly. This relates to apps of all types, paid, free, and freemium.

To make users install an app, it must be visible in major shops such as Google Play and App Store. More than half of users install mobile programs after seeing them at first positions of categories or search in the shop.

Google Play and App Store show different apps at first positions for residents of different regions and countries. This is explained by different preferences of regional audiences.

If you believe that you do not need a marketing budget and a good app can sell itself, you make a fine mistake. We will just tell from our experience that in the very beginning, you should budget the same amount for promotion as for development of the app itself.

App promotion check list in Russia

1. ASO (App Store Optimization). An app must be optimized before the release in the Russian market (ideally, translated into Russian). Normally, ASO includes the same basic components as SEO: keyword selection, description optimization, selection of an optimal title, visual format (icon for search and nice screenshots in the description).

2. Work on reviews and rating. More than 90% people check a mobile app rating before installation, 77% read at least one review, and another 13% read no fewer than seven reviews before making a decision. At that, a bad rating also affects search results, lowering your position. That is why it is important to handle reviews: reply to negative comments, correct technical faults, and tell users about that; do not disregard positive reviews either.

3. Ensure online presence of the project. Choose a way of online presence based on the product theme and audience preferences. For example, if you created an app for shopping in your online store via mobile gadgets, describe it in one of your site sections. Public pages in social media will be appreciated by the audience of gaming apps. Moreover, you can create a separate website devoted to the program and describing its capacity. Besides, you can create a landing page of the app on the existing website.

4. Publish your app in alternative stores, for example, Yandex.Store. NB: alternative stores and other platforms can provide you with an additional reach of audience and more profitable product publication terms as compared with Google Play or App Store. At the same time, you will lose a certain number of downloads in Apple and Google stores, which will have a negative impact on the app rating.

5. Tell about the app. Make sure to inform editors of specialized publications about the release. If you released an app oriented at the Russian market, write to editors of such platforms as AppleInsider, Ferra.ru, 4pda.ru, Lifehacker, AppStudio, Planet iPhone, as well as to information portals with wider audiences, for instance, vc.ru and cossa.ru.

6. Publish reviews on thematic resources. A choice of a platform for paid publication is determined by the app theme, promotion budget, and market geography. If you created a program for Russian-speaking users, pay for a review publication on на 4pda.ru, Macdigger.ru, iPhones.ru and other websites and blogs that the potential audience of your product reads.

7. Targeted ads. Use Yandex and Google context ad systems, advertise your app in social media and messengers, and show banners to visitors of themed platforms.

8. Mobile programmatic allows a maximum and accurate coverage of the target audience on mobile devices via placement in mobile versions of websites and in applications with cost per install (CPI).

9. Place ads in popular public pages in social media. In the Russian market, we recommend paying special attention to publics in VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.

10. Promote your app with the help of opinion leaders. This is the channel that surpassed all our expectations last year for TikTok promotion.

11. Give a QR code to your app. Use it actively for offline ads: OOH, printed products, goods package, presentation slides etc.

12. Stimulate installations by emailing. If you have a mailing list, tell people about the app after adding it to the stores. Devote a separate email to the app: tell about its capabilities and refer to the program in Google Play and App Store. Remind users about its existence from time to time. Be sure to add a link to the app into the mail template.

13. Track user activities in the app, make conclusions, and hypothesize for the sake of development on the basis of tracking system data and analytics that must be installed beforehand. You can use both free solutions (Google Analytics, AppMetrika by Yandex, Flurry by Yahoo) and paid platforms that can provide advanced analytics data and more integration opportunities.

Universal hint how to promote an app in Russia

Address professionals! RMAA experts will elaborate an individual plan to promote your app depending on its specifics, audience, and marketing objectives.

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