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Reddit Marketing: How to Get Your First 1,000 Downloads

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App Masters10:34Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Giving your app away free to relevant Reddit communities, with moderator permission, can bring your first 1,000 downloads without ad spend. Free offers get past moderators and turn early downloads into ratings.

Key takeaways

  • A free lifetime offer brings in downloads without paid ads. 0:48
    • Setting the iOS version to zero price brought over 1,000 downloads in two days.
    • The same free lifetime offer on another app drew 12,000 downloads, 150 new ratings and about $1,000 in yearly subscriptions.
  • Moderators allow promotion only when the app is free and helps the community. 1:42
    • App Hookup mods refused promo-code giveaways, so making the app free was the only option.
    • Help-depression mods said a free app that doesn't harm members is fine, but paid versions are not allowed.
  • You earn karma and build your own subreddit before you promote. 2:56
    • Reposting all-time top posts from big subreddits such as Get Motivated earns karma.
    • Your own subreddit needs no permission for giveaways, and cross-posting sends traffic to it. Reels drew more members than images.
  • A personal story and fast replies turn downloads into loyal users. 6:55
    • A good post tells why you built the app, and the best example gave only the app name and a promo code, with no link.
    • Replying to comments and DMing users gave about 50% retention, roughly 500 of 1,000 users.
  • Posting too often gets you banned. 9:18
    • Posting the same promotion in several subreddits in one day looks like spam to moderators, who check your profile and may suspend you.
    • Wait two to three months between posts in one subreddit. Only about 1% of new users leave a review.

The initial attraction is the most important thing. You can spend as much money as possible and still not get enough traffic.

The indie developer

Chapter summaries

0:00 Free giveaways as a traffic source

Early downloads come from free lifetime giveaways placed in the right communities, not from ad budgets.

  • Early traffic matters most, and money does not guarantee it. 0:16
    • Downloads are possible without any spend.
    • He built a list of blogs and subreddits that run promo-code giveaways before launch.
    • His app is a meditation and motivation app.
  • The giveaway runs in three kinds of places. 0:49
    • Topic subreddits, a local meditation community and his own subreddit.
    • Developer subreddits let only developers post deals.
    • His top three were Help Depression, App Hookup and Google Play Deals.

1:42 Ratings and the right subreddit

Free downloads can be traded for social proof, if the subreddit fits the app and the moderator agrees.

  • Free downloads turn into ratings. 2:24
    • A new app gets a burst of downloads, then trades them for ratings.
    • A response prompt after the paywall brought the ratings.
    • Some users missed the free lifetime option and bought the yearly plan.
  • Pick a subreddit that fits the app and ask the moderator first. 2:37
    • A motivation app fits depression and similar communities.

2:56 Own subreddit and platform details

A subreddit you own gives a direct audience, and small choices like device and format change who sees the post.

  • Copied top posts earn only a little karma. 3:11
    • He reposted a Get Motivated post, a 20 million member subreddit, with the same subtitle.
    • It earned about one or two karma.
  • Your own subreddit gives a direct audience. 3:33
    • Giveaways there bring a sudden jump in downloads.
    • He cross-posted from it into other subreddits to send traffic back.
  • The posting device sets the audience. 4:19
    • Posting from an iOS device targets mostly iOS users.
    • Posting from the web reaches fewer iOS and Android users.
  • Nonprofit communities accept only free offers. 4:44
    • Heartfulness is a meditation NGO, so any giveaway there must be free.

5:17 When and where to post

Timing and a well-chosen subreddit decide how far a post travels.

  • Post on Thursday or Friday during Western daytime. 5:41
    • The weekend holiday follows right after.
    • Most of the audience targeted is Western.
    • Gym and motivation subreddits showed the same content to people who then followed the poster's own subreddit.
    • Post time is set to the audience's daytime, not the developer's own.
  • App Hookup is the one subreddit that suits any kind of app. 6:06
    • Reply to as many comments as possible so others see you are active.
    • Other niches depend on the app type, such as meditation.
    • The poster of a meditation app says the best pick depends on your app.
    • In a no-fap community the story is "I was depressed" and the app helped.

8:17 Post rules and why free wins

Moderators vet developers closely, and free offers outperform discounts.

  • Self-promotion posts must follow a strict format. 8:21
    • Use platform, app name, what's free, a short description and one app link.
    • Any other link gets deleted fast.
    • Moderators check your account, so delete older posts about the app.
    • Otherwise they may delete the post or suspend you.
  • Free beats a discount, and a lifetime giveaway sounds best. 8:55
    • On Android, free versions worked far better than discounted ones.
    • The lifetime offer was worth $150.
    • A tip from a commenter: give real value first, then slide in soft promotion.
    • Asking moderators directly before a giveaway is what got approval.

In the growth library

Neel (indie developer) with host Steve P. Young, Indie developer of a meditation and motivation app; host of App Masters. An indie developer explains how he got his first 1,000 downloads on Reddit by running free lifetime giveaways, earning karma, and running his own subreddit. The payoff: over 1,000 downloads in two days and about 50 percent retention of the roughly 500 users who stayed.

Lessons that draw on this:

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript255 lines
0:00

how do you leverage Reddit to build a community and then also help promote your app here to break it all down is an indie developer you've seen success on Reddit he's going to break down those strategies so let's bring in relay actually the initial attraction is the most important thing like you can spend as much money as possible and still not get enough traffic and there are certain ways through which we can get downloads without in even investing money so the first thing what I did was give away I started giving away a lifetime subscription of my app in different subreddit I have made a list of all the blog posts those who do the giveaway of promo code also so from that way I have a list when I publish the app my app is a meditation motivation app in my city they have a bigger audience of those who practice meditation so got in touch with them and shared my app with them and the third set is you I used was promoting my

1:01

app in subreddit like creating our own subreddit then there are specific subreddit through which we can do giveaway and they are also subredded for developers through which we can do giveaway but on those upgraded they only allow for developers to do the deal of it which subreddits are you promoting this giveaway in there was one help depression then app hookup then Google Play deals these are the top three was it easy to do the lifetime giveaway on app hookup first thing first is to contact the moderator as the applicant moderator team is really great so I got in touch with them and I discussed with them that whether I can do promotion or not they are strict about not doing any promo code giveaway so only thing possible was making the lifetime subscription free so I did zero pricing for iOS version of my app and within two days I got like 1000 plus downloads so what we did for one of our apps we did

2:00

the same lifetime offer away for free we got 12 000 downloads I added the response after the paywall we got 150 new ratings and then we were able to make one thousand dollars because some people I'm imagining that's what happened didn't actually scroll down enough to see that the lifetime offer was free and ended up just purchasing our yearly subscription I love this lifetime offer giveaway especially as a new app because you can inject new downloads and then if you've been following the channel you can sort of exchange those downloads for Ratings to have more social proof so one you're like hey app hookup generic for everybody to find the right subreddit that is relevant to your type of app yours is motivation so you went under depression and things like that and then promote the app and reach out to the moderator first one more thing for Reddit is like you cannot just simply start posting about your app and read it

2:56

you need to earn Karma also go to separate like get motivated or memes and um search search it via all time top rated and then you can repost those posts here let's give an example get motivated yeah it's a 20 million subscribers go to top top and then go all time yeah and I posted the same post with the same subtitle and I got around one or two Karma through this post only and were you giving that away in the same subreddit or a different subreddit no what I did was like I created subrator of my own okay and uh I did post in that subreddit and through that subreddit I cross posted in this updated so I get um more traffic into my own subreddit what's the motivation behind creating your own subreddit so it creates an audience uh through which I can communicate directly and I can do giveaway of my app also have you seen any benefits to this I mean when I do giveaway of my app and all then there is

4:09

a sudden jump in the downloads also love it okay so if you just do a giveaway within your own subreddit yeah so I don't have to take permissions when we post from Android device and add iOS device it is targeting if you post from iOS device it targets most of the iOS audience um I see what about web I've always just posted it on the web like this does it matter at all so it matters but it will give you lesser audience of IOS and Android let's get into the heartfulness community side of things too yeah so heartfulness is a meditation Community which focuses more mainly on a hard part while meditating so I got in touch with them it's a NGO so they don't charge us anything so if you want to give away something it should be free one thing I noticed was like if we post on a post about images and only images the people were not much attracted to the images as compared to Reels I took some reels from

5:16

Instagram and just started posting it and it got me decent number of member in my subreddit and when we shared these things in gym subreddit or some others upgraded that is related to motivation they get a they can see the see the good content and they can follow us have you figured out like in terms of when to post when is the best time to post niele yeah so um during Friday uh or on Thursday is the best time because in during this period there will be Saturday and Sunday which will be holiday for everyone and mo if uh I mostly target for the Western audience so my post timing is as per their daytime if you had to pick just one is there one subreddit that you would focus in on it completely depends on what kind of app we have like I have a app for motivation meditation but if you want to go for any separate that supports all kind of app it should be app hookup for sure and we should not post it regularly

6:24

like if they have a rule for around if we post once next post should be after two months or three months like that when you're live on app hookup do you do anything to just be like okay that first hour I'm gonna pay attention to the post reply to any comments because that helps the algorithm at all what I do is like I I try to reply as many comments as possible so that other can also see that I am actively replying for them and I'm not about is there anything that you've learned what makes a great app hookup post if you are trying to promote our app we should tell a story behind it if you want to promote the app in nofap community we should say that I was depressed and all those things and then we can put it like it helped this kind of app helped me a lot like I saw one app that was for time table and all those things so what he did was like he said that we all have gone through covet and I was not able to put a timetable

7:24

properly so I make this app and he didn't put any link to the app he just said the app name and you can use this promo code and you can use this promo code by going to sitting rasi says regarding app hookup sub I feel like most of the posters on there are more of app developers is the retention rate also good from Reddit traffic compared to say premium ads actually I got 1000 plus download in the first two days of the app and they are like until now I have like 500 users written so like around 50 retention I got from that that's awesome man great the main thing was I was communicating with them and they saw that I'm directly communicating and I was I tried to go to personal DM also to get their feedback if someone tries to um say that app is not working properly or something like that they they don't like yeah that's a great idea did you have to do self-promotion here is that what you had to tag it yeah yeah

8:21

yeah so if you're a developer and it's your own app the moderator will most likely go to I'm going to see your account also I prefer that you should delete the other posts that you have done for the app otherwise they will simply going to delete or suspend you from App it has to follow a certain format it's usually platform app name what's going free and then anything else you want to add to it like the a short description and then a link to the app and that's pretty much it and if you try to do any type of like other links it's just gonna get deleted really fast have you tried it on Android your Android version I started Android also but I saw that the free ones work way better than the less price version discount I just have a feeling that a lifetime giveaway sounds so much better and it's 150 right my lifetime was 150 so it's like people are like yeah let's do that I'm all on board doll says how many posts should we

9:17

do in a single day that should not be considered a spam in other subreddits if you're self-promoting your app then you should not promote multiple posts in a single day like if you are promoting it in subredded a b and c then their moderator will go to your profile and see that you are posting the same thing over and over you will be suspended or banned from that separated Costa says Steve what do you think is a good retention rate for download to review and percentage out of 100 new users how many tend to leave a review on average about one percent custom yeah about one percent and if you communicate with them the percentage can be increased Romaine says on one good technique I learned on Reddit is to go to the relevant community and provide actual value in your post then slide in soft promotion usually moderators will let it slide I went to the help depression this upgrade and I did it directly after some

10:10

moderator if whether I can do a giveaway or not and they say that if the app is free and it doesn't harm the people in the subreddit then you can do it and most of us are built are like this that only if you are going for the paid version of the app they will not allow it at all but if you're going for doing it for free and help the community then they will allow it