This guide will cover the top app marketing companies, what they do, how to choose them, and why they’re important for your app acquisition strategy.
With millions of apps available, it can be challenging to stand out and attract new users. App marketing helps developers promote their apps and reach their target audience by creating a comprehensive strategy to increase app visibility, downloads, and user engagement.
App marketing can include various tactics such as app store optimization (known as ASO), social media marketing, influencer marketing, mobile advertising, and email marketing.
By implementing these tactics, app developers can increase their app’s visibility, attract more users, and improve the app’s overall performance. App marketing is crucial to ensure that your app gets the required attention (and achieves success) in a highly competitive app market.
– Advertisement –
This is where app marketing companies come in. These companies have access to a range of marketing tools and save developers time and resources they would have otherwise spent on developing an in-house marketing team.
App marketing companies also provide valuable insights and data on user behavior, which helps developers improve their app performance and user experience.
That said, finding the best app marketing companies can be tough; we’ve listed the best of them for you below.
What is mobile app marketing?
Mobile app marketing means to make efforts so that your customers engage with your product and services on mobile. And it also means boosting your app’s presence in the app store with clever marketing techniques.
App marketing is all about getting your mobile application noticed, downloaded, and used by your target audience. It involves a mix of strategies designed to promote your app and ensure it stands out in a crowded marketplace. One of the key components is App Store Optimization (ASO), which is similar to SEO for websites.
Optimizing your app’s title, description, keywords, and visual elements like icons and screenshots will improve its visibility in app stores like Google Play and the Apple App Store. By making your app easy to find and appealing to potential users, you increase the chances of it being downloaded.
Once you’ve attracted users, the next step is to keep them engaged and encourage regular use of your app. This can be achieved through push notifications, in-app messaging, and loyalty programs that reward users for their continued engagement.
App marketing involves constantly analyzing and optimizing your strategies to ensure they are effective. So, using analytics tools to track user behavior, A/B testing different features and marketing messages, and gathering feedback all belong to app marketing.
The best app marketing companies
App marketing companies are specialized agencies that focus on promoting and marketing mobile apps.
These companies typically offer services such as app store optimization, mobile advertising, influencer marketing, public relations, and social media marketing to help app developers and publishers increase their app’s visibility, user acquisition, and overall success.
We’ve listed the best app marketing companies below.
1. Moburst
Moburst is a mobile marketing agency that specializes in promoting (and marketing) mobile apps. The company offers a range of services, including app store optimization, mobile advertising, influencer marketing, and social media marketing.
Moburst helps app developers and publishers increase their app’s visibility and boost their user acquisition.
Overview
Moburst was founded in 2013 by Gilad Bechar. Since then, it has served startups and brands such as Google, Samsung, Reddit, Uber, Dunkin, YouTube, Bumble, Robinhood, and Playtika.
Moburst has offices in New York City, San Francisco, London, and Tel Aviv.
Services
Moburst provides its customers with the following services:
- Optimizing your app’s presence on app stores to improve visibility and increase download rates. This includes keyword optimization, creative asset design, and localization to ensure cultural relevance
- Creative solutions, including the production of banners, video ads, and other promotional materials designed to engage users and drive conversions
- Focuses on purchasing ad space across various platforms to target the right audience effectively. Moburst uses data-driven strategies to optimize the cost per install (CPI) and maximize the return on investment (ROI)
2. Airship
Airship is an app engagement platform that helps businesses interact with their customers through mobile messaging. It allows you to send targeted and personalized messages, such as push notifications, in-app messages, and SMS, to your customers based on behavior (and preferences).
Businesses can also track campaign performance, measure customer engagement, and optimize their messaging strategy to improve the customer experience and drive revenue.
Overview
Airship was founded in 2009 by Blake Schreck, Adam Lowry, and Michael Richardson under the name “Urban Airship.” The company started as a mobile app development platform but later shifted its focus to mobile messaging and rebranded itself as “Airship” in 2019.
Today, Airship is a leading provider of mobile marketing solutions, serving thousands of customers worldwide.
Services
Airship provides its customers with the following services:
- Real-time insights into the performance of mobile messaging campaigns, allowing you to optimize your app marketing strategy and better engage
- Automation tools that enable you to create automated messaging workflows based on customer behavior
- Mobile messaging that help businesses send targeted and personalized messages to their customers via push notifications, in-app messaging, SMS, and email
3. Yodel Mobile
Yodel Mobile is a mobile and app marketing consultancy that helps businesses grow their mobile presence and improve their overall app marketing strategy.
They offer services such as app store optimization, mobile strategy, user acquisition, and mobile analytics to help businesses succeed in the competitive mobile market.
Overview
Yodel Mobile was founded in 2007. The company has since established itself as a leading global app marketing consultancy known for its comprehensive app growth services and innovative strategies.
Yodel Mobile has worked with a diverse range of clients, including high-profile brands such as Gymshark, Virgin Trains, B&Q, The Body Coach, Channel 4, NBCUniversal, The Economist, and Wowcher.
Services
Yodel Mobile provides its customers with the following services:
- A comprehensive assessment of your app, competitors, and market to identify new and future growth opportunities
- Enhanced discoverability through high-impact keyword usage and metadata adjustments
- Crafting and testing app assets such as screenshots, videos, and icons to boost user conversion
4. Creative Clicks
Creative Clicks is a digital marketing agency that specializes in creating engaging and effective online campaigns to help businesses grow their online presence and reach their target audience.
They offer services such as social media marketing, search engine optimization, content creation, and more.
Overview
Creative Clicks was founded in 2009 by Raymond Kokken and Ramon Bulk. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the company specializes in connecting brands with high-intent customers using data-driven and machine-learning tech.
Creative Clicks serves a large clientele, including major brands such as Amazon, Alibaba, TikTok, Apple, Twitter, and Yahoo.
Services
Creative Clicks provides its customers with the following services:
- Helps brands acquire quality users through various channels including social, search, programmatic, native, and in-app display ads
- Uses comprehensive ad data such as behavioral, geo-location, and device information to optimize campaigns for better performance. They provide transparency with results integrated with major mobile measurement partners
- Creative Studio that uses real-time data to create engaging, audience-first campaigns. They develop high-quality content including video and interactive media, with optimization through split testing
5. Favoured
Favoured is a multi-channel digital marketing agency that specializes in paid social media marketing. Its experts specialize in TikTok, Apple Search, and Instagram advertising. The agency additionally offers Google PPC and YouTube advertising.
Favoured is known for its results-driven approach and has received several accolades.
Overview
Favoured is a multi-channel digital marketing agency founded in 2017 that specializes in driving growth for innovative companies through a variety of marketing services.
Based in London and Leeds, the agency is known for its strategic approach to digital marketing, focusing on achieving measurable results for its clients. Favoured has worked with prominent brands, including Durex, Elvie, and Wombat Invest.
Services
Favoured provides its customers with the following services:
- Conversion strategy, email, push and in-app pop-up automations, MarTech implementation, CRO and ASO, and full growth hacking
- Paid social media marketing with expertise in TikTok, Apple Search and Instagram advertising
- Product photography, motion graphics, and video filming to create captivating content for your social and ads
6. ConsultMyApp
ConsultMyApp is a company that specializes in providing consulting services for mobile app development and optimization. It offers expertise in app store optimization, app marketing, and mobile app analytics to help businesses improve their apps’ visibility and performance across the app stores.
This includes data-driven communication strategies to retain and engage users post-installation.
Overview
ConsultMyApp was founded in 2016. The agency is known for its expertise in mobile app marketing and for providing a range of services designed to drive app growth, user acquisition, and engagement.
Mike Rhodes founded CMA after recognizing the need for specialized mobile marketing skills while working for several Silicon Valley startups.
Services
ConsultMyApp provides its customers with the following services:
- Visibility across the app stores, driving organic traffic, and optimizing conversion rates
- Manages cross-channel traffic campaigns to optimize spending, boost downloads, and reduce cost per acquisition
- Develops data-driven communication strategies to retain (and engage) users post-installation
7. SEM Nexus
SEM Nexus is a marketing agency focused on helping startup mobile apps achieve market success. The company offers a range of services, including app marketing, app store optimization (ASO), app development, influencer marketing, user testing, and VC preparation.
Their marketing process involves a combination of ASO, strategic advertising on Google and social media, as well as leveraging influencers to promote apps.
Overview
Founded by Michael Kordvani, SEM Nexus is headquartered in Great Neck, New York, and has established itself as a prominent player in the startup app marketing space.
The company emphasizes affordability (and agility) in its services, aiming to allocate more of the client’s budget towards growth.
Services
SEM Nexus provides its customers with the following services:
- Creating optimized app descriptions and imagery to improve app store visibility and conversion rates
- Leveraging social media influencers on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to promote apps
- Running targeted ads on Google, Apple Search, and social media platforms
8. App Guardians
App Guardians is an app marketing agency that specializes in protecting the growth of apps by offering data-driven investment insights and mobile marketing expertise. It serves early-stage apps aiming to invest in innovative app projects.
Strategies include retaining users and fostering loyalty through data-driven approaches and CRM partner tools.
Overview
App Guardians is a mobile app marketing agency founded in 2018.
The agency has worked with a diverse range of clients, including well-known brands such as Microsoft, Zynga, Twist, and Amwell. Their strategies are tailored to deliver measurable results, ensuring that clients achieve their goals.
Services
App Guardians provides its customers with the following services:
- Strategies for Apple Search Ads, Google Ads, and leveraging user-generated content (UGC) on platforms such as Meta, Instagram, and TikTok
- Development of creative assets such as screenshots, app preview videos, logos, static ads, video ads, and web banners
- Techniques to enhance organic traffic, visibility, and conversion rates in the App Store and Google Play Store
9. Phiture
Phiture is a mobile growth consultancy and marketing agency known for its industry-acclaimed Mobile Growth Stack; a strategic framework for supporting mobile app growth.
A key focus of the agency is enhancing overall user engagement and retention for clients as well as improving conversion rates. Consultants conduct a bespoke, 360-degree audit of a company’s existing paid user acquisition strategies.
Overview
Phiture is a mobile growth consultancy and agency that’s based in Berlin. Founded in 2016, it’s known for providing strategic growth advice.
The agency works with prominent clients such as Headspace, Adobe, and Spotify, and it was voted Germany’s top B2B company for 2022 by Clutch.co.
Services
Phiture provides its customers with the following services:
- Improving app visibility and conversion rates and running paid acquisition campaigns
- Enhancing user engagement and retention and maximizing subscription revenue
- Providing leading strategic growth advice that grows mobile businesses
10. PreApps
PreApps is a leading app marketing and consulting agency that specializes in helping app developers and businesses achieve significant growth (and visibility).
PreApps offers a range of services tailored to enhance app success in various stages, from launch to scaling. The company has been instrumental in the success of numerous high-profile apps, including those with millions of downloads such as Candy Crush and Netflix.
Overview
PreApps was founded in 2010 by Sean Casto. It’s a platform designed to help app developers promote and market their apps before they launch in the app stores.
PreApps has worked with various clients in the mobile app industry, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe, ESPN, Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, and NBC Universal.
Services
PreApps provides its customers with the following services:
- Helps clients build hype and generate interest for their apps before launch through various marketing strategies, including press releases, social media marketing, and influencer outreach
- Facilitates beta testing programs to gather feedback from real users before the official app release. This helps identify and address any issues or improvements needed to enhance the app’s functionality and user experience
- Assists clients in optimizing their app store listings to improve visibility and increase downloads. This involves optimizing keywords, writing compelling descriptions, and designing eye-catching visuals
11. Remerge
Remerge specializes in helping app developers and marketers re-engage users through personalized (and efficient) in-app advertising campaigns.
The platform makes use of in-house creative services to develop compelling ad content that resonates with target audiences.
Overview
Remerge is a Berlin-based mobile app retargeting platform founded in 2014 by Panteleimon Katsukis, Christian Liesegang PhD, Martin Karlsch, Benjamin Beivers, and Benedikt Böhm.
The company has worked with a variety of leading clients, including Delivery Hero, Playtika, Line Music, Foodpanda, Jollychic, and Joom.
Services
Remerge provides its customers with the following services:
- A diverse publisher network to place ads that bring users back to apps. It builds real-time audience segments based on in-app activities to deliver personalized ads, aiming to increase conversions
- Focuses on targeting audiences that are likely to convert and increase in-app revenue, optimizing the marketing budget accordingly
- Employs scientific methodologies such as incrementality measurement to validate campaign performance, helping distinguish between paid and organic marketing efforts
12. Performcb
Performcb is a leading affiliate marketing network (previously known as Clickbooth) that specialises in outcome-based marketing solutions. The company provides a range of services aimed at driving customer acquisition and optimizing marketing campaigns across multiple channels.
Their offerings include Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA), Cost-per-Install (CPI), Cost-per-Lead (CPL), Cost-per-Engagement (CPE), Cost-per-Sale (CPS), and Pay-per-Call (PPC) models.
Overview
Founded in 2002, Performcb has built a strong reputation in the performance marketing industry, being recognized as the number 1 CPA Network worldwide since 2015.
The company focuses on various verticals, including finance, entertainment, eCommerce, health and wellness.
Services
Performcb provides its customers with the following services:
- PerformSHIELD software for advanced fraud detection and protection that ensures brand safety and marketing compliance
- Specialized strategies for industries such as finance, entertainment, eCommerce, health and wellness, and more
- Real-time analytics for campaign performance and transparency, as well as the accessibility of marketing data
13. Adikteev
Adikteev is an ad company that specializes in providing app retargeting solutions to app developers. They use machine learning algorithms to optimize ad campaigns and deliver personalized (and engaging) ads to app users.
The company’s main focus is on improving user engagement and retention for its clients by delivering ads that drive higher conversions and revenue.
Overview
The company was founded in 2012 in Paris, France, by a team of three entrepreneurs: Xavier Mariani, Emilien Eychenne, and Frederic Leroy.
Adikteev focuses on providing app retargeting solutions to app developers and marketers, with the goal of delivering value to both app users and clients.
Services
Adikteev provides its customers with the following services:
- Dynamic retargeting solutions that are designed to deliver ads to app users based on their behavior
- Provides clients with detailed reporting and analytics on their ad campaigns, including metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions, and revenue
- Programmatic buying solutions that enable clients to buy ad inventory in real-time and at scale. They use machine learning algorithms to optimize ad campaigns and deliver personalized ads
Stages of app marketing
While the app marketing funnel may include similar stages to the traditional digital marketing funnel, it consists of these three prime stages.
This concept is therefore all about interacting with your users through all three of these stages in order to drive profitable, long term action. So, the question now lies in how exactly do you interact with them to successfully promote your app.
Let’s take a closer look at the three phases.
Awareness
The awareness stage occurs before marketers launch their apps, where it is all about creating a presence and building brand awareness. This strategy includes a clear brand purpose, communication and positioning – basically answering the who, when, why, where and how of your product and services.
The main goal in this stage is to interact with potential customers, by using methods, such as influencer marketing, and direct their attention to your upcoming brand.
Acquisition
In the acquisition stage, your app has already launched and you are implementing new strategies to continue to acquire users and generate installs.
Acquisition is an ongoing process that needs constant tweaking and extensions of previous strategies and methods of marketing.
So, the main focus here is to keep optimizing for the app store and implementing creative strategies to attract new users and continue to build a loyal customer base.
Retention
When you acquire target users, it doesn’t end just there – you want to keep them engaged and invested in your app. In the retention stage, also an ongoing process, you want to come up with creative methods to turn users into loyal customers.
In this stage, make sure you keep up ongoing communication with users, maintaining an interactive and trustworthy bond.
In this case, push notifications will become your best friend. Keeping users in the loop and sending them alerts and updates about promotions, special rewards or upgrades is a great way to keep up engagement.
User experience is also an important component of the retention stage. First impressions are crucial – and you only get one chance at it. So make sure users can smoothly browse through your app, and use your services at ease from the start.
Featured App Marketing Companies
Mastering these three stages belong to a successful app marketing strategy. If you are able to build a presence for your upcoming app, acquire new users effectively and keep a loyal customer base, you are doing it all right.
But a lot of research and analysis goes into this, so it is easier said than done. This is why app marketing agencies and companies are here to make your life easier by lifting the extra weight off your shoulders.
You still want to understand how the company you hire works their magic though. So, let’s dive into the inner workings of ‘how’ you market your mobile app.
The Expert Views – What app marketing agencies do?
“In order to maximize the monetization potential, Moburst offers product consulting to squeeze the lemon of each and every session. Our product consultants use a methodical approach, sharpened over time with +200 mobile apps. We separate your product into its components, analyze each element, make recommendations, prioritize, and then optimize each aspect from onboarding to paywall, UI to UX, messaging to user flow, and measure every tap.”
Gilad Bechar, Founder, Moburst
“At Favoured, we’re big believers in running full funnel app marketing campaigns, so we take full accountability of the performance starting at app install all the way through to conversion and retention. Some of the services our clients are loving right now include our mid-funnel services; email, push and in-app popups – I always describe mid funnel at converting the other 99% of users that don’t impulsively convert on their own.
We are also getting a lot of love from our video production and TikTok video production services, which have really helped our clients standout from the crowd when it comes to creative, enabling us to drive stronger performance in our acquisition campaigns to drive more sales.”
George Sharpe, Co-Founder, Favoured
What does an app marketer do?
Understanding how app marketers and agencies work is important to having an overview of the best strategies being used for your mobile app. Knowing the ins and outs of the different methods will inform your decision in choosing the best app marketing company out there.
And it always begins with market research. In 2021 alone, 143.6 billion apps were downloaded, with 55 billion of those downloads being games and 88 billion apps. So, you want to find out what types of users are downloading apps that have similar services to your business.
And don’t forget about the high competition in the app market currently. In 2022, 2.5 thousand new apps were submitted to the Apple App Store, which shows how important competitor analysis is when app marketing agencies come up with their own strategies.
App marketers and app marketing agencies are committed to fulfilling their users’ needs, and therefore create user personas to help create a solid app marketing strategy. The personas typically represent a kind of target audience, containing the characteristics of that particular group.
Other unique identifiers, such as demographics and mobile preferences are also dissected in order to create accurate personas to work out the typical user journey of this group. This allows app marketers to tailor their app marketing strategy to drive profitable action.
Doing a competitor analysis, market research and creating user personas will help you answer the following key questions in the early stages of the process, enabling you to effectively and successfully market your app:
Mobile acquisition
The first step for users to interact with your app directly is to get them to download and install your app. Mobile acquisition is therefore a must and app marketing agencies work hard to master the art of it.
In order to attract and acquire new users, you want to nail the messaging part, which belongs to a good app marketing strategy.
Here are some messaging formats that are commonly used by app marketing agencies to get people to use your app:
Social
Posting on your social media channels to relevant followers to gain more traction and build brand awareness.
App Store Optimization (ASO)
Optimizing your profile on the app store, including title, keywords, ratings and other ranking factors, to acquire new users and increase app installs.
Paid advertising
Creating social media ads and PPC campaigns, using Google Adwords, native and interstitial ad formats can push your app to the forefront, gaining a wider audience.
Influencer marketing
Getting influencers to advertise your brand will allow you to gain your audience’s trust and therefore a loyal following that will increase your credibility and traffic instantly.
Email marketing
With global the email marketing market reaching 7.5 billion U.S. dollars of value in 2020, this method of mobile acquisition can massively drive customers to your app when promoting your app content, services and any offer discounts via email.
When it comes to app marketing, mobile acquisition is a key component of app marketing agencies’ strategies. You need to implement a good balance of acquisition techniques to secure the long term success and revenue of your app.
But mobile acquisition belongs to a sea full of app marketing strategies and techniques that app marketing companies will focus on.
What are the best app marketing strategies?
A marketing plan that an app marketing agency team will devise for your app, will usually consist of the following concepts:
The app marketing best practices also demand an agency to carefully measure KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of such app marketing campaigns. And there is one main app promotion method that stands out from the rest – growth hacking.
Essentially, growth hacking is about finding ways for a particular mobile app to grow its number of users and revenue by integrating non-standard app marketing techniques, preferably on a low budget. Growth hacking focuses on driving scalable growth, in a short period of time, to produce ‘quick wins’.
But growth hacking and the techniques mentioned above belong to the greater process of your app marketing plan, and is integrated in a larger mobile engagement ‘loop’. Like traditional marketing, app marketing takes users through the marketing funnel that consists of the stages of awareness, acquisition and retention.
In essence, app marketing is all about finding ways to reach, attract and retain your customers as well as analyzing and monitoring their behavior and the performance of your app to improve the experience.
Users look for services that fulfill their ‘needs’ and ‘questions’. So, you want your app to be the number one place they go to to get the answers they are looking for. Integrating these strategies and methods, and partnering with top app marketing agencies will help you reach your goals at a higher rate to start making revenue.
How much does marketing an app cost?
Now, your next pressing question must be how much it actually costs to market an app.
Because the main challenges of marketing an mobile app are both to reach and retain your users, there is a swarm of competition for users’ attention in the app store. Therefore, it is worth investing in the best app marketing company to successfully market your app and make it stand out from the crowd.
But you certainly don’t want to overspend your budget, and instead want to get the most value out of your marketing strategy at a reasonable price. Mobile app marketing costs usually consist of components that cover the entire lifecycle of an app:
You will find within these stages that there are individual costs that will apply. Here is a brief estimation of the key data points that you can expect when working out your budget to market your app:
Key data points
For a more detailed overview of the costs you can expect, take a look at our App Marketing Costs guide for extensive data.
Which agency is best for digital app marketing?
So which agency is on the top of the list for digital app marketing?
In order to simplify the answer, let’s dive into the types of app marketing agencies that are out there.
There is a range of types of mobile app marketing companies that can help you with your marketing campaign:
- A specialist mobile agency can serve your app’s marketing needs via some particular marketing channel, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram ads, App Store Optimization, and PR.
- A general agency, with a mobile app marketing agency within it, with added mobile experience.
- A mobile advertising agency, focusing on mobile media buying: Media buyers negotiate and purchase audience-targeted time and advertising space to convey a marketing message.
- App marketing agencies that focus purely on App Store Optimization, and are capable of driving mobile app user acquisition via Apple’s App Store, Google Play or both.
- Agencies that focus on mobile campaign strategies, analytics of a mobile app user in-app behavior as well as traffic attribution.
Partner with the best mobile app marketing agencies and companies
Having now a picture of the mobile app marketing industry, we’ve gathered facts and created a guide that covers the best mobile marketing companies to consider.
Our list includes big international agencies, with broad creative marketing capabilities as well as boutique marketing companies, focussing solely on mobile apps. Each of the companies listed has something different and unique to offer.
