This week we have a guest post about cross-promotion from our friends at Tappx. Kinga Kruzmanowska is Supply Director at Tappx. She and her team take care about the supply side of Tappx’ business by optimising client revenue performance and educating publishers on how to get the most of their app inventory. In her free time she loves sailing

For new apps, it is very difficult to gain traction in the marketplaces. What is an app without a user-base? First, you have to fight it out in the app stores, which have more than 8+ million competitors (App Store & Google Play), to gain a respectable ranking in the search results.

The budget for startups is pulled in a thousand different directions. Imagine your budget priorities are devoted to designing the perfect app, logo, app name, and customized ASO techniques. With the help of designers, smart keywords and ASO gurus, you fortunately manage to position yourself well in the app market. Unfortunately, your advertising budget is just barely existent.

Mobile Apps Cross-Promotion

With all the necessary startup costs in mind, it is important to consider where you can save in your budget. Luckily, there are many ways to market your app without opening your wallet. Cross promotion is a method of ad exchange that lets you advertise your app in exchange for showing quality, ready-made ads in your in-app advertising space. Use credits, not dollars, to show your app promotion campaigns to your choice audience.

1. Cross-Promotion is FREE

Publicizing your app through a cross-promotional platform will maximize your investment money by saving on advertising cost. This advertising method works by ad exchange, so by showing other ads, you gain credit to use to promote your app on other platforms. This method of ad exchange allows you to display ready-made, tailored ads to your curated target audience. Finding the right viewer for your ads will be the least of your worries. Meanwhile, you’ll save on your advertising budget and see how effectively your user base is growing.

2. Compatible with 3rd party monetization services

If you’re using 3rd party companies like Google AdMob or Mopub to monetize apps or mobile games, it’s likely that you’re experiencing minimal cCPMs because of lower fill rates. You can turn this negative situation into a positive scenario by utilizing cross promotion companies to fill in additional impressions, which are not served for by paid ads.

Even when there isn’t a paid for ad campaign in action, deploying cross promotional ad banners will always be more productive than simply leaving blank spaces in your apps. The benefits for filling void spaces is great opportunity to increase user acquisition for your apps and games.

3. Quality Inventory Space for Your Mobile Ads

Cross-promotion goes around the idea of being shortchanged for being the new guy. When starting off, many well-known brands could reject your campaign or charge exorbitant prices to run your ad because of your lack of brand recognition. Be sure to select blind ad exchanges to get equal opportunity to have your ads be seen by targeted potential users.

4. Share the popularity with Cross Promotion

If you aren’t launching your first app, but rather another within a group, you can take advantage of your own, already-existent client base. This advantage is especially appealing if your newest app fits in with the same app genre or user profile. Let’s say your company produces a To-Do list app. Promoting your new Goal Tracker app on your well-established app is likely to attract new users with higher return rates than average because you are appealing to an audience that already fancies utilizing productivity apps.

5. Boost user retention among your Apps

In the same way, you are more likely to improve user retention rate for your app by cross-promoting with your own game community. The average person spends more than 120 minutes on their smartphone per day and uses more than 10 apps per day, according to Techcrunch,US statistics. Imagine you are the producer of successful game apps. You want those minutes to be spent switching between your various apps rather than the apps of your competitors. If your company is a gaming company, advertising your games within your other game apps increases the retention of your clients as they are reminded of your other product as they switch from game app to game app. Cross-promoting apps is a classic technique to improve user return rates.

6. Marketing Collateral Acquisition

Cross promotion is compatible with collateral acquisition actions. This approach provides added benefit to your primary marketing tactics without interference or extra cost. Using cross promotion does not affect other live campaigns or promotions, but rather augments your promotional efforts by appealing to your viewers with a second, third, or fourth impression. Imagine your paid advertisement campaign reaches your audience through social media, then through an indie website. In the same evening, that same audience sees your brand for the third time through a mobile app. Widening the scope of your marketing collateral with free and easy promotional services strengthens your marketing portfolio, widens brand recognition, and increases user acquisition growth ratio.

7. Smooth transition to Monetization

Later, as your app picks up business, you can augment your cross-promotional tactics with monetization through companies like Tappx that allow this special customization. This technique allows your app to continue promotional efforts and generate profit simultaneously. The goal of every company is to eventually turn a profit. The transition from solely advertising to monetizing your business can be as simple as the click of a button with Tappx.

Conclusion about Cross-Promotion

Do not underestimate the scope of starting a cross-promotion strategy for your mobile games and apps as the benefits covered in this article are widely proven by many top names in the industry.

Are you using cross-promotion tactics to promote your app? Tell us in the comments!