How can small app developers compete with big businesses?

This article is part of our Opinions section.

Each day, 1,900 apps launch on Google and Apple. They join approximately 5 million other apps already on the two major stores. In 2023, there were 257 billion app downloads, and consumer spending reached $171 billion. So far so good. But dig a little deeper and things look a little more complicated.

According to app developer Fyresite, 68% of apps have less than 1,000 downloads, and a further 18% have less than 1,000 active users. Indeed, Fyresite estimates that 99.5% of consumer apps fail.

It’s a brutal market in which it seems like small app developers have no chance to compete. Yet, the reality is that there are plenty of examples of apps that haven’t been developed or backed by big businesses breaking through and becoming huge success stories. So how do they do it?

The two key ingredients of success are the app itself and how it is marketed. For the former, an app needs, at a minimum, a compelling proposition, great UI, reliability and longevity. That naturally comes down to the initial concept and the ability and commitment of a developer to execute their vision.

I would argue that developers big and small have the same capacity in this regard. Where they diverge massively is in the latter – the marketing. No matter how great your app is, if you fail to market it correctly, no-one will download it. There is no “build it and they will come” in the app world.

On paper, it would seem that big developers – with their brand recognition and larger marketing budgets – hold all the cards. However, with a savvy strategy, underpinned by sound research and best practice, almost every developer can give their app a fighting chance.

Organic vs paid user acquisition

While paid advertising can be a powerful tool, there are other paths to success when the budget is tight. Focusing on organic growth strategies can give smaller teams a significant edge. Optimising your app listing (App Store Optimization (ASO) is crucial for discoverability. Keyword research, crafting compelling titles and descriptions, and leveraging high-quality screenshots and app previews can significantly improve your app’s ranking in search results. A/B testing different elements can further refine your approach for maximum impact.

Sometimes it’s easy to become stuck in your own world, building the best solution for your users. However, we often forget to talk to the most important people who will help shape your app: your users. Engage with them! Respond to reviews, answer questions on social media, and actively foster a community around your app. This not only improves user experience but also generates positive word-of-mouth marketing, a powerful tool for organic growth.

Whatever the size of your budget, you should still earmark some of it for paid user acquisition. With a good ASO foundation, paid user acquisition can lead to more organic app installs. Ads will bring new attention to your app store listing. The more installs your app generates, the higher your app will be ranked in the app stores. As a result, it increases visibility across search results and browse sections. Due to increased visibility, more and more users will land in your organic store listing and download your app.

A successful strategy is about understanding the correlation between ASO and paid user acquisition efforts, which leads us to the next point.

Take advantage of tools that don’t cost the Earth

There’s a wealth of free or affordable tools available to help smaller startups succeed – for both app marketing and general marketing tasks. Whether it’s analytics platforms, email marketing or social media management tools, these can help you get valuable insight into your target audience and automate many marketing tasks.

With supervision, generative AI can also be a good assistant for this. Repetitive tasks can drain your team’s energy. Tools for automating tasks like social media posting or responding to basic customer inquiries can free up time for more strategic efforts.

Many platforms also have a free tier or an affordable scaled-down version of their full offering, so it’s always worth looking around. App marketing platforms can help you scale your campaigns and achieve improved profitability, decreased Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), and reduced workload through automation.

Outside of tools, app marketers should also consider other ways to grow the reach of their apps. Partnering with other developers, for example, is key and can be mutually beneficial. Consider co-marketing campaigns, influencer outreach collaborations, or cross-promotion opportunities. This can help expand your reach and tap into new user bases without a significant financial investment.

Zero in on your focus… and test!

Finding your focus can go a long way. If you try to be everything to everyone, you’ll likely fail. That’s why smaller teams can excel by focusing on a specific niche market. This allows them to tailor their app and marketing efforts to the needs of a well-defined audience, increasing the chance of resonating with potential users.

Once you’ve identified your core audience and optimised your user acquisition (UA) strategy, don’t just sit back and hope to see immediate perfect results. Throughout the campaign, you should be analysing your marketing performance and asking the right questions. You’d probably like to know what impact your latest app store update had. Did the new texts and creatives bring you more users and conversions? Or was it your paid UA traffic that led to an increase or decrease?

Different factors can play a significant role in affecting your app performance. Experiencing a drop in app installs may look frightening at first. The good news though is that there usually is an explanation and a solution!

One crucial impact factor you need to consider is paid user acquisition efforts. When you notice a decrease in downloads, you should first check whether you had ads running during that specific time. Ads can bring a significant amount of traffic to your app, and once you stop or reduce them, this might have a substantial effect on your results.

Check the correlation between organic and paid conversions, and then analyse how your paid conversions impact your total growth and understand whether an increase in installs might be due to reduced Google App Campaigns or Apple Search Ads. Try to get a better picture of the situation by looking at the last 30 or 90-day timeframe and understanding how significant the impact was. If pausing your Google App Campaigns or Apple Search Ads greatly decreased your installs, you should consider re-activating the ads.

The app market is more competitive than ever and it can be daunting keeping your finger on the pulse of new and emerging trends in the industry. Build a strong ASO foundation, hone in on your target audience, optimise and keep refining your organic and paid user acquisition efforts, and you’ll be reaping the rewards sooner rather than later.