App Masters · Mar 30Chad Mureta's App Marketing Strategy (App Empire)
Chad builds every company with a sale in mind and says his eighth million-dollar company has just sold. He runs apps as real businesses, updating every five to seven days, and says he earns more now than ever using the 2009 fundamentals.
Tips
- Delay monetization until you have stacked up ratings first▶ 5:39Chad says he updates his apps every five to seven days and front loads ratings before monetizing, and credits this for algorithm favor.
- Decide when to monetize by download volume, not a fixed date▶ 7:57Waiting could be two weeks, a month or two months. At 10,000 to 20,000 downloads a day it can happen much faster.
- Deliver the aha moment in the first minute, then ask▶ 9:59Chad applies this to a photo and video app that he sold for seven figures.
- Stack value in breadcrumbs with rising resistance, like game levels▶ 10:43
- Add tutorials and small games to raise time in app▶ 4:52Chad says the emoji game increased engagement time.
- Spend the first 30 days collecting data before optimizing▶ 9:26
- Run apps as a business by knowing CAC, retention and LTV▶ 3:32Chad says keyword optimization is still important but no longer a huge growth driver, and that Apple is catching on to the old ranking tricks.
- Use subscriptions to make app revenue predictable and sellable▶ 15:18Chad says subscriptions let him triple, quadruple and 10X his past success, and add another zero to company valuations. Prices he cites: about 50 dollars a year, 10 dollars a month, five dollars a week.
- Build utility apps that will still matter in ten years▶ 12:24A tornado or storm tracker app did not work early because the market was small, and now it is big.
- Keep the app simple and solve one primary problem▶ 21:41Chad knows friends making $80,000 a month with very crappy UIs, and says students of his course make surprising money with simple apps.
- Launch with several traffic sources and feed Facebook data▶ 18:00Until about six months before the episode, Chad ran zero outside ads, all organic.
- Study competitors daily and model what works before tweaking▶ 7:19
- Wear the analytical business hat, not only the artist hat▶ 30:40
