Guide

How to promote a mobile app

Published April 22, 2026 by ChannelScout

The honest answer to "how do I promote my app" depends on three things: how much time you have per week, how much money you can lose before you need return, and which skills you already own. The playbooks that work at $0 look nothing like the ones that work at $500 a month. Pick the tier that matches reality, then focus.

Zero budget, 5 to 10 hours a week

Two levers: App Store Optimization and one community channel. ASO is the only always-on install source you can run for free. A community channel is where you build trust and earn organic mentions.

Pick the community by where your users actually are. Reddit for dev tools, hobbies, niche content. Discord for creators, gaming, AI tools. TikTok if your app demos in 15 seconds and you can post daily. Do not try to run all three. At 5 to 10 hours a week you can sustain one.

Zero budget, 15 to 20 hours a week

Add content that ranks. One long-form guide or demo video per week. Optimize for a specific search query people are actually typing. The AEO path (answer a specific question so well ChatGPT and Perplexity cite you) is underrated and new. Domain authority does not matter for AEO, quality of answer does.

With 15 to 20 hours, you can run ASO, one community channel, and one content channel in parallel. Do not add a fourth. Depth beats breadth for the first 500 installs.

$50 to $200 per month

Do not spray this across Meta, Google, and TikTok ads. That is how indie founders spend six weeks losing money and learning nothing. At this tier, pick one of two plays:

• Apple Search Ads on two to three high-intent keywords. Conversion rates of 30 to 50 percent on well-matched keywords make the math work even at small scale.
• Boost one well-performing organic post. A $50 Reddit promoted post on your best-performing thread outperforms a fresh ad to strangers.

$500+ per month

At this tier you can run a real paid channel and still have organic going. Pick Meta, Google App Campaigns, or a niche influencer partnership. Track cost per install and cost per activated user, not cost per click. If cost per activated user is not below your lifetime value by week three, stop and re-pick targeting before spending more.

Common promotion mistakes

• Trying five channels at once. Nothing gets enough attention to work.
• Copying a channel mix that worked for a different app. Their constraints are not yours.
• Judging a channel in the first week. Most community channels take three to six weeks to show real signal.
• Measuring installs without activation. High installs with no activation means the channel is targeting the wrong users.