App Masters · Feb 3Influencer Marketing for Mobile App Downloads as an Indie Dev
Grew through niche influencers paid by affiliate revenue share, built with PhD-level relationship experts and strong design. Hit 10,000 downloads in its first month, then grew into a media company with an email list, newsletter and podcast.
Tips
- Find influencers inside your niche's existing communities, not generic big accounts▶ 0:47Marriage ministries, date night blogs and authors and speakers all became effective partner groups.
- Treat influencer outreach as networking and find what they need first▶ 3:14Influencers are excited to share once they like the app and can earn a revenue share on downloads that convert.
- Make the product genuinely excellent before asking anyone to review it▶ 3:35Because of that investment, reviews are usually very positive.
- Offer influencers a revenue share on installs that convert to paid▶ 4:25A small custom script handles the monthly payout calculation for all affiliates.
- Pay for reviews with high-fit audiences, and add small cash even for micro creators▶ 5:16A couple of thousand dollars for a writeup on a 1.3 million visitors per month blog was judged worth it.
- Give every user their own share link to track referral generations▶ 8:08Referral tracking goes multiple generations deep through the custom backend.
- Require account creation if you need to attribute installs and upgrades to sources▶ 6:45Attribution is stored per account in the database and checked at upgrade time.
- Collect user emails and use the list as a marketing channel▶ 11:02The newsletter has become another income stream through affiliate commissions.
- Hire marketing help from your own email list of users▶ 10:32Over a hundred applicants applied within 24 hours from his own user base.
- Start a podcast to get access to influencers who ignore cold emails▶ 13:28Podcasting made it far more likely that high-traffic creators in his industry responded.
- Pick a niche you care about so outreach fits into your normal interests▶ 9:28He ran this alongside an app development agency and a media company.
- Start with a modest goal and let the business evolve from demand▶ 12:0510,000 downloads in the first month showed there was a need.
