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App Marketing Tips for the Holidays
November 3rd, 2018
by David Quinn
VP of Strategy & Partnerships at Gummicube, Inc.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, especially if you’re trying to sell something. This is equally true for a wide range of app developers, whether their apps are for shopping, mobile games or anything else. So how can an app take advantage of the holiday spirit? With App Store Optimization, of course.
Festive Creatives
The creative set is typically the first thing users see when searching for an app. If your app is going to include some holiday spirit, that’s the place to start. Adding seasonal imagery to the creative set can attract users by capitalizing on the festive mood. While the screenshots must still display features and uses for the app, it is easy to include screenshots featuring holiday-related imagery. A shopping app can show off its Black Friday deals or holiday-related gift ideas, a photo app can include pictures of a family at the Thanksgiving table or around a Christmas tree, while even a mobile game can include screenshots from special holiday events. The visual element is key to adding seasonal appeal to an app, so the screenshots and icon are great places to start preparing your app for the holidays.
Merry Metadata
If an app is offering holiday deals or events, or even just wants to capitalize on the holiday spirit, developers will want it to show up in relevant searches. That’s where app metadata optimization comes in. Developers should update their apps to include keywords relevant to holiday searches, including winter deals and Black Friday sales. It’s also important to remember that keywords will perform differently in different territories. Localization for each region is key to targeting the terms and trends of all the different locations your app is available in. In America, for instance, Thanksgiving is celebrated near the end of November, whereas Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated the second Monday of October; including a Thanksgiving keyword for an app in Canada at the same time as its American counterpart would do little good. Once the keywords have been updated, the description should also be updated to integrate them. The descriptions can call out any seasonal deals or talk about how it can be used during the holiday season. If there are special holiday events, the description should call them out too. Integrating the keywords will improve the app’s relevance for them, which is important for App Store Optimization.
Holiday Specials
For shopping apps especially, the holiday season means one thing: sales. Starting with Black Friday and going up until New Year’s Day, consumers are looking to buy. Consumers are spending combined billions in a single day, so any shopping apps should take advantage of this. Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials are nothing new, but apps should call out their sales and deals in every facet of their app. While this may be primarily for shopping apps, any apps with subscription services or in-app purchases can take advantage of the shopping season as well. Subscription apps can offer discounted subscriptions or bundles for the season. Similarly, mobile games can have holiday bundles or limited-time in-app purchases such as skins or weapons with a festive twist. Apps without purchases can still include limited time holiday options. Photo apps, for instance, can include new frames or filters for the season, such as adding snow effects or a Christmas wreath frame. Augmented reality apps may have features to add Santa Claus to the AR view. However the app includes the holiday spirit, it should be clear to users.
Wrap it Up
Updating an app for the holiday season serves many benefits. It helps the app index for searches for holiday terms, including shopping or Black Friday deals while appealing to users with seasonal imagery and descriptions that call out the limited time events, offers or features. Whether it’s a mobile game with a Christmas-themed character skin or a shopping app with a big Cyber Monday sale, including it in the app’s store listing can be a boon. Additionally, by making an app relevant to the holiday or season, the App Store is more likely to include it in seasonal sections such as “Apps for the Holidays” or “Christmas gifts.” This would place the app in a highly visible location on the app store, helping it reach even more users. Thanksgiving is approaching, followed by a month of shopping and sales leading up to the holiday festivities. Adding a seasonal touch to your app can help it thrive during the holidays.
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