Burst campaigns, also known as boost or hype campaigns, are a great way to release an app and make the world aware of it. Not to mention they are also the quickest, most impressive and coolest way to do it. These campaigns create a lot of expectation and incentivize users to download and try your app.
Users often uninstall apps coming from burst campaigns after a short while, but there is nothing to worry about it since all those previous downloads will make your app rank pretty high on the stores and drive lots of organic and high qualified installs.
There is a lot of controversy on whether this is a good user acquisition method or not, and if advertisers around the world get long lasting benefits from promoting these types of campaigns.
This is how your user acquisition campaign is going to look like
When
The best time to release a burst campaign is the App Launch: This will allow your app to rank shortly, as well as to boost its performance (CTR + CVR). In my opinion, holiday periods are a great time to launch an app, since users spend more time on their devices browsing for new content and new tools. Based on our experience, organic traffic and installs increase drastically during these holiday periods and time lag decreases. However, be aware that your competitors adapt their strategy and therefore install costs tent to go up.
Finally, if your app it’s heading down and you need fresh new users… you shouldn’t hesitate to push things a bit with one of these highly effective campaigns.
“I wish I found an addictive app to not think about life these holidays”
Where
Boost campaigns are highly effective for iTunes Store, but not as much for Google Play. This has to do a lot with Google’s algorithm to position apps in the rankings, making it very hard to do an appearance based only in numbers.
Burst campaigns for your iOS app, if done right, can boost your rank up to #1 in the general store, within hours. This, because the store considers only the number of installations and the frequency they’re made. Google Play is a little bit more complicated. Their algorithm contains various elements, such as number and frequency of installations, actual usage, quality of the app, performance issues, SEO status (Google’s general web search), reviews, ratio of uninstalls, quality of all the apps by the same publisher and so forth. The conclusion is: for Android campaigns, you need to do more than a burst.
Once you have reached the top, you can expect to stay there for the rest of the day, even two. But keep in mind that you’re now on a downward path. Try and do some other activities to maintain yourself in there.
Why
Your main goal is climbing the store’s ranks. These campaigns will (if made right) boost your app all the way to the top, in order for it to be discovered by the whole world (which will get us juicy, great organic installations).
Why won’t you get great quality users? Well, because these types of promotions are made with an incentivized technique. The ad-network you hire for this job will allow all their users to give rewards in exchange for the installations. Say: if your app ends up being promoted in-app, it will be worth 2 lives on Gardenscapes or Candy Crush. If it is promoted by social media, it will probably be worth a follow back or a shout-out. If it ends up on a content locker, it will be worth 30 minutes of free wi-fi, etc.
For whom
Burst campaigns make your app available for everybody. Make no mistake, don’t believe when a certain ad-network tells you you’ll only get female users or kids under 10. All ages, demographics, and interests will be able to see and download your app. It can be good for you if your app is relevant or appealing for all kinds of users, but if your app is targeting a niche you may want to stop and think again about spending your budget on burst campaigns.
Bottom Line
Burst campaigns have turned out to be very useful for advertisers worldwide, to acquire visibility, to complete their ASO strategy and in the pursuit of organic and quality users. However, these types of campaign have to be carefully created and executed in order to achieve the desired results instead of big chaos. Interested in learning more about how you can boost your app store rankings using burst campaigns? Find here tips for having a successful boost campaign, or contact us and ask all your questions!
