The hardest part of launching successful apps isn’t building them anymore. It’s getting new users who actually want to use your app. User acquisition and retention are the real challenges.

This guide explores five of the best user acquisition strategies for mobile apps. In addition, you get to see challenges that come along.

Best Strategies to Get New Users on Your Mobile App

User acquisition takes more than one strategy. We’ve mentioned five of the best strategies for your mobile app here.

1. App store optimization

App store optimization (ASO) is an optimization strategy for mobile apps to help them rank higher and gain visibility on app stores. It is a must for anyone who wants to scale their app and acquire new users.

Let’s explore app store optimization best practices:

Optimize with keywords: Find the keywords your potential users search for in the app stores and optimize your app store listing with them. Include the keyword in your app title and description.

Use high-quality images: Show your app’s best features in clear and compelling screenshots to entice potential users to download the app.

Pick the right category: You must ensure to add your app to the category that best defines it. It helps users who browse through categories find your app.

Make sure that your app is optimized based on the app store’s guidelines. If not, you could get penalized for violating any rules.

2. Build in public

The concept of “building in public” can help you build an audience even before your app gets ready for launch. Like many others, you can also use this strategy to draw attention.

But, what does it mean to build in public?

When you build in public, it means to share consistent, honest updates around your work online. It also includes sharing the challenges you face, solutions you find, and learnings you earn in the process.

Here are a few ideas that you can start with:

How you came up with your mobile app idea
Your goals for the current week
Early glimpses of what you’re building
Ask your community about your challenges

And similar to these, you can more ideas in the tech community. The key is to show up consistently to engage, deliver value, and share awareness about your app with your audience.

3. Incentivize referrals

Word-of-mouth is one of the most effective and sustainable growth strategies for any product. The reason: People trust people.

A 2021 survey showed that 88% of consumers trust people’s recommendations more than any other marketing channel. Four years later, word-of-mouth referrals are still the best marketing strategy.

Here’s the problem though: Generating referrals isn’t as easy as it sounds. That’s when incentivizing referrals leads the key.

Several examples of incentivizing referrals are:

Offering future discounts to referrers and referrals via unique referral codes.
Giving rewards and app benefits to those who bring a certain number of referrals.
Creating a contest that needs users to refer your app to enter.

You need to offer something to your users to get referred. If you can use a good strategy, it can get you more users with one-time efforts.

4. Content marketing

Content marketing on social media platforms is an effective way to onboard new users — even before your app’s complete launch.

Similar to the idea of “build in public”, content marketing helps you build a brand that users remember. The only difference is that content marketing is more about the users.

There are many forms of content marketing, such as:

Content marketing: It helps you establish authority with blog posts, videos, and detailed guides that showcase your app’s use cases. The strategy is excellent for SaaS tools, enterprise apps, and niche products.
Social media marketing: On social media, you can connect with your audience directly by showing them how ‘cool’ your product is. This way, you can also get user feedback, new feature ideas, and find testers for your app.
Email marketing: With the growth of platforms like Substack and Beehiv, email marketing has become one of the frontiers. You can leverage it with clever content to include brand elements and CTAs.

5. Paid ads

While organic marketing is ideal for long-term growth, paid user acquisition is a good tactic for quick momentum. It’s especially great to attract new users and support your organic marketing efforts.

There are several kinds of paid ads that you can run, such as:

Social media ads: You can run ads on platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
Video ads: Short video ads on YouTube are another great way to get user traction.
Google ads: In search, paid ads allow you to rank at the top of search results for relevant keywords. It can give you more visibility than your competitors.

Depending on where your audience hangs out the most, choose the kind you want to go with. In addition, ensure that you don’t fully rely on only on paid ads. Use the strategy to boost your organic efforts, not replace them.

Common Challenges With User Acquisition

Even with the best efforts, user acquisition is rarely ever easy. Let’s look at the most common user acquisition challenges and how you can address them.

User acquisition cost

User acquisition costs, also known as customer acquisition costs, refers to the average costs of acquiring new customers.

To find your user acquisition costs, divide the marketing costs by the number of new users. The answer you get is the average amount you spend to acquire each new user.

If you rely heavily on paid marketing, user acquisition costs can grow quickly. That’s why a balance between organic and paid marketing is crucial for sustainable brand growth. You can also consider low-cost efforts to get new users.

Market saturation

It’s almost impossible to find a mobile app idea that isn’t saturated yet. And even if you find one, users will mostly find alternatives to your app.

The only solution to market saturation is: Show users why your app is the one to solve their problems. Here’s how:

Position yourself as the founder who cares about their problems.
Address user feedback clearly to build trust and credibility.

Founder-market fit is just as important as a strong product-market fit. Show your users that you care about their problems and experiences with authenticity. The key is to gain your users’ trust.

Churn

Suppose you’re getting hundreds of new users every month. But what’s the benefit if you’re losing most of them immediately?

Churn measures the number of users lost each month. A high churn rate means that users never return to use your app. Hence, it makes all your user acquisition efforts useless after all.

After acquiring users, your goal should be user engagement and retention. There are plenty of ways you can create more positive experiences and retain users, such as:

Reduce friction: Create an aligned UI and UX that’s very easy to use. Usability testing can help you find out navigation issues and fix them.
Send push notifications: Personalize your app’s push notifications related to user preferences. These could actually make people notice and use your app again.
Create rewards: Users love coming back to apps that “reward” them. You could use streaks, spontaneous rewards, or badges to encourage users to use your app more.

Audience fragmentation

With everyone using different devices and platforms, audience fragmentation is a real challenge. After all, how do you design something everyone can use?

Start by defining your target audience. If it’s a niche audience, they may possibly use one type of device or OS. This can help you understand the kind of app to build. For instance, a step-counting app is more suitable as a native app.

Scale your app with Natively

User acquisition could be a real challenge for early-stage startups. When you’re still researching about your audience, how do you figure out what they want? An MVP is your answer.

Natively’s AI mobile builder allows you to turn your ideas into functional apps within minutes. With mobile apps, you get the best user experience. In case it doesn’t come as the best choice for your users, they will let you know too.

But the first step is to have something for feedback. Get started with our AI app builder now and get your app ready to use by the next hour!