Marketing tips to launch đ a mobile app successfully?
Built an online dating app. No, not a Tinder-clone or Bumble-clone. No swipes. No âinstant matchesâ. Focusing on more meaningful connections. The app is ready for a beta launch. Talked to a few marketing agencies. They are telling me I would need around $500,000 for them to get my app take off đ successfully â with brand building, target ads and more. Spent around $100K on the app but donât havw half million dollars more to spend on marketing. Does it really take that much to launch an app successfully in the US market? I could consider pitching to investors to raise but they would need see tractions and revenue first. To get traction and revenue i would need a good marketing. đ and đ„. So any founders, entrepreneurs, marketers out there who can share some insights and advice? Thank you in advance đ Left Twitter but TC was around $350, YOE 10 #Startup #Entrepreneur #Investment #Marketing
Will you monitize the app our of the gate? If so you can scale your marketing spend as a function of rev. But thats usually difficult with dating app since you usually need to reach a critical mass of users before premium features have any value.
Freemium model. But yeah exactly your point about reaching critical mass of users before they would want to try the premium features.
What have you tried so far?
Marketing-wise nothing much. Just starting to talk to marketing agencies and people with experience to seek advice and guidance so I can actually try things.
The irony since you worked at Twitter. Try twitter campaigns to promote your app. If you personally know anyone who is popular on twitter, then ask them to promote your app. That might help you get a big boost if your app is good.
500k is a lot of money, assuming itâs all for media spend and not inclusive of agency fees, but hard to gauge if that is unreasonable without understanding how you (and they) define âsuccessfulâ. Especially in the dating app space, which has heavy competition in brands like Bumble. A few variables I would recommend considering to help arrive at the right number: - an acceptable cost per install (CPI) for you (think of a blended number across efforts, i.e. Twitter might be more expensive than AppleAds but the average is ok) - your target active users (not installs) in y1 (spending 500k for 1 user is a lot, not so much for 1mm users; installs are not active users) - estimated churn (how many installs will turn to active users and how many months / years do you estimate theyâll use the app) - whatâs your target audience / market (the more niche and / or local the audience, the more expensive it can be to reach them) A lot of nuance to consider but if itâs helpful, maybe think of 12-20% of what your revenue target is for a budget, with 80% going to working media, and break-even on acquiring a customs in months 2-3 (1 month would be amazing but that may be very difficult until your app has a large enough user base). The above isnât comprehensive or definitive advice but hopefully gives some things to think about and research further!
My suggestion would be to get some strong marketing leaders on board at your company and do a soft launch to test market fit.
Spending 500k just to see if it will take off is insane.