Influencer Marketing for Mobile App Downloads as an Indie Dev

What is up app nation. It is Steve P. Young founder of appmasters.com. She go, when you want action packed content relating to growing your app downloads, and obviously your revenues to help you build a sustainable sustainable app business. Today, I've got phenomenal guests. I talked to him and I was like, Dan, you got to come on and share your story with us. And he was on one of our previous app audits and got to talk.

And I was like, Ooh, these numbers are juicy. And he's got a great business that he's. Built. And so I said, Hey, let's talk, we're going to talk all about social media influencer, how podcasting has actually changed it, and also how you can implement an affiliate marketing system. So without further ado, let me introduce guests. His name is Dan Purcell. He is the co-founder of. Get Joe, Mary Joan, get it. Check out the app and website, go buy, go.

Do get your marriage on.com. Dan. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Happy to be here. Let's talk about your launch. So you decided to go through the influencer affiliate marketing route launch marketing route. Was that your initial plan? All along the affiliate social media influencer route? It was my plan all along. Okay. Mostly because my product is really niche. We're really going after. Um, married couples it's it's um, any couple of any, um, uh, orientation benefits from this app, but it's, it's, it's designed to resonate well with people that have like a more conservative or religious upbringing that now that they're married are facing a lot of anxiety around sexuality.

Into their marriage. So they have this, a lot of baggage coming in. That's really hurting their ability to be really close and intimate with their spouse. How did you go about finding these influencers? Oh, they're everywhere. So, um, in the Christian world there, we found a lot of, they call them marriage ministries. So those are usually lay, uh, like a husband, wife that want to help their local congregation. Or whatever with marriage stuff.

So they'll start a blog or an Instagram account, so, and then they'll start gaining some traction. So we work with them. There's another, uh, popular group, um, all about keeping the sparks alive after you're married. So there's like date nights, subscription boxes. There's um, blogs dedicated to date ideas after you're married. And, uh, so working with them has been really effective. And then there's authors speakers that talk a lot about sex and marriage and how to make a great.

And so, uh, we, we work with them and, and we have a novel product, like an app. So they, they like that idea. And so it's a, it's a really easy, uh, thing for them to share with our audience, make them look like. You know, they're in the know, like here's something to help, help you guys get it on. So what's the business relationship like with that? Cause you, I think now you're talking into a blend of social media and correct me if I'm wrong, Dan, but like influence working with influencers through an affiliate marketing like relationship, right?

Yes. So what does that business relationship look like? Uh, like, uh, it is an affiliate relationship to me. It feels a lot more like just good old fashioned networking. Trying to build a relationship with people, finding what their needs are and see if you can meet them. I'm talking about the influencer specifically. And, um, uh, then we ask, Hey, we have this app, will you please review it and tell me what you think, and then they'll go through it.

And I think step zero of all of this is to have a really good product. So we've put a lot of effort and a lot of research into our product. We've worked with smarty pants, PhD, marriage, relationship, expert type people to help, you know, with the content and the flow of the app and invested a lot in graphic design. Just, just make the app really good. So when we asked them to review it, usually it's very positive and then they like it.

And then they're excited to share their audience when it comes to the affiliate thing. Um, we asked if, you know, if they're interested in affiliate program, they're all looking for affiliate programs. That's a lot how the influencer world works. They might, it might be a book or some other products. So this like is one more thing that they can do to have another stream of income for them. So they're very excited about that.

And, uh, we work out a revenue share for apps that we, that app downloads that convert from, uh, those that they recommend. Okay. I want to talk about how you go about tracking all that stuff, but like, are you paying for the reviews, those initial reviews? Uh, it's case by case? Like, if they've got, like, for example, we worked with one blogger that gets 1.3 million visitors a month to her blog. And she blogs a lot about, uh, sex and marriage, so right in line with our audience.

And, uh, she charged us, um, you know, a couple of grand to do a big writeup for that, and it was worth it. So sometimes it's a play to a pay to play model. And one thing I've learned about this industry, at least in my line of work is a little bit of money goes a long way. Uh, if you're always asking things for free. But that you'll only get so far, but yeah, just a little it's might only be 50 bucks, but you add a little bit of cash and it really greases the wheels and things go along.

So true. So true. I mean, we get these questions two weeks in a row. I've got the same question. It's like, what do you guys think about app review exchange sites? You're familiar with those they're super popular, like five, six years ago, but like, Like, that's just backwards thinking, like, it's not going to scale. Like, I'm just so sick of this question because it's like, it's just, you're thinking too small at a micro level.

You can't control it and it's just not going to scale up. So I totally agree with you, like spend a little bit of money, pay for it or bring them search ads. Okay. How did you go about tracking when you got that relationship with them? Did you, with that blogger, this she's at one blogger example where you've actually paid for the review. Did you go about tracking it? Were you able to track all the downloads that came through that blog post.

Yeah. Yeah. Cause I want to know, did I get a return on my investment from this promotion? Um, so the way I do it is I use, uh, branch IO for their, uh, their deep linking and I create a deep link. I give my affiliates, my, that. The influencer, a customized deep link. And then inside the app, I check for the presence of a certain pattern of deep links, uh, at, after the app is installed. And I tag it, um, with that user and the way my app works is you have to create an account, uh, to use it because after you create an account, you can invite your spouse and then you can sync together.

So you can do the work together. And, uh, anyway, so I. So I kind of have, I attribute that account. I tie that account to, uh, the source it's tagged in the database. And then when they upgrade, I can, uh, look at, uh, who's paid and what was the source for that? Okay. And they're paying through Apple. Right. But you still have that data. It's just some system, the damn built.

I switched to branch and I've been really happy with that. Did you do any fancy stuff with branch? Cause you're a developer too, where you can be like, okay, this blogger reviewed it. So Hey, welcome. You know, Dan blog readers that you do, any of that fancy stuff? I, I haven't yet, but I could, but I did do one more fancy thing I think is fancy is after you create an account, you're it gives you an option to share with friends or invite your spouse and it gives each user their own custom link.

So I can track like the second generation and the third generation down of people sharing the app with others all through ranch. Uh, well all through my own backend. Okay. Nancy, Nancy, like it deem the other thing. So is that all for the influencers you're using, everybody gets a deep link from branch and then you kind of track it all on your own. Right. And I'm using my own custom domain name with branch. So it looks like it's.

My app and my brand and everything. And they are you just paying them out through PayPal or whatever system you have. So you're running your own affiliate marketing system on your backend. I have a little script around once a month and it calculates everything. That's awesome. I wish I had somebody like, you'd just be like, Hey, I do this all the time, Dan. Like there has to be software that like, I can automate this.

Steve thought about that. Yeah, exactly. Just be behind me and watch me work. I was like, just watch me work and help me automate, automate this thing. Is that all I'm doing? All right. Well, the other thing I want to talk to you about is this outreach to influencer marketing is, feels like a full-time job. Dan, like you are running a successful app development agency. You've got this business, that's now turned into a media company.

Like how are you, if it feels like reaching out to influencers in full-time job. So how were you able to manage that? That's tough. It does take a lot of time. There's no two ways about it. And I think it helps that I'm passionate about the topic. So it'd be something that I'd be doing anyway. Um, like if I heard a really good podcast from some expert, I think like what she said was amazing. I'd want to reach out to her anyway and I'd say, Hey, I really liked what you said.

I have questions, whatever, whatever. But now I, I can do that. And also say by the way, I also have an app I want to tell you about, so it kinda, I guess it's it's stuff I'm already interested anyway, so that helps a little bit, there, there is. I did hire help. So, um, after we gained some traction with the app and I want to do more micro influencer outreach, I just ran out of time. I needed to hire help. So I, uh, when people sign up, they're part of the, part of the terms of uses they're added to my mailing list.

So I'm accumulating quite a few, really good contacts through my mailing list. I sent out a email to the mailing list saying, Hey, we're hiring if, uh, for an online marketing position kind of gives, uh, specifics and within 24 hours ahead over a hundred applicants. Wow. From my own user base, which is really cool place to kind of. Start from, and from there we chose two people and they've been excellent to work with.

You know, all the online marketing guys say the same thing, like build an email list, right? That's fundamental. Got to have that. It's going to be key. And then obviously if you need to hire, hire from your own email list, so that's the best way of doing it. And that's another thing I want to mention about marketing is if there's a legitimate way to collect your user's email addresses, it becomes a very good source of continued marketing.

Yes, they have your app and they use it. But if it makes sense to build a brand, if you're more about building a brand in a community than just the app, then, so now we're, now we have a weekly educational yeah. Newsletter. It's not some sort of marriage related topic that we're also sending. And once in a while, we'll have come across a really good product that we, or a really good sale on something that, or some other like seminar or something that we think our users really benefit from.

And so w we can like email them that. And a lot of those also have an affiliate commission back to us. It becomes another stream of income from us completely, completely. I love, I love the way you've approached this app. Did you always have that in your mind? I mean, obviously people have visions and then you have to take the right steps to get there, but was that a part of your vision? Like, Hey, let's build this app and let's turn it into to be part of a media company that we ended up building out.

Uh, no, it's, it's evolved into that. That's cool. First is like, let's make an app and then who knows? We might get 10,000 downloads and then, you know, you hit 10,000 downloads after a month. They're like, okay. I wasn't really low goal. Nice. There's a need for this. So yeah, you keep, keep going. What about podcasting? I want to talk about the media, but let's talk about podcasting first. How has that helped? Great.

First of all, I've had to overcome a lot of my own insecurities with podcasting because I wouldn't consider myself the most articulate public speaker, but podcasting, uh, isn't a very effective way for marketing or networking with. So let's say there's an affiliate like that. Uh, For example, like another blogger, she might have, you know, a million visitors on a month and she's right in line with my industry. If I were to just email her and say, you know, I want you to, or I want to connect it's.

She probably gets 50 of those emails a day. But if it was like, I had this podcast, I had this kind of an audience and I really like what you teach about this topic. Would you be willing to come on to my podcast as a guest and teach about that topic and then very much more likely to say, yeah. So it also gives me FaceTime with someone that had otherwise not be able to connect with. So it's become a very effective networking tool.

And then my audience benefits from their wisdom and their teaching. So it's, it's. It's a, it's a win-win. Thanks for listening to the app masters podcast for show notes and amazing app marketing content. Check out appmasters.com