Influencer Marketing for Apps and Games: Essential Advantages, Lessons, and Performance Indicators

Therefore, it is emerging as one of the most successful methods for app and game developers to popularize their applications and games and create a stable audience of active users. This strategy uses influencers, either YouTubers, gamers, bloggers, or content creators, to market apps or games directly to people who respect their influence.

In our introductory article on influencer marketing, we previously discussed its definition and importance. Now, we’ll delve deeper into practical considerations, effective tips, and essential success metrics that can help mobile app developers maximize their influencer marketing efforts.

Influencer marketing leverages social proof, which is powerful in encouraging user engagement and driving installs. In any given way, from sharing glamorous and inspiring pictures and videos of people’s lives to sharing product recommendations that any user can relate to, it feels real and valuable, which will make the app or the game seem even more appealing. As expected at Mobihunter we have witnessed that a properly developed influencer marketing plan increases visibility, engagement, and download rates for our clients’ applications.

Influencer marketing should be managed correctly if it is to be successful. Here are the three things to remember before embarking on an influencer campaign:

1. Define Your Target Audience

Another thing that should be evident is your target market. If you can be as specific as possible, you will be able to select the right kind of influencers for that specific audience. A B2B product, for example, is more likely to resonate with thought leaders from LinkedIn while a mobile game company that targets teenagers and young adults would get better results with YouTube or TikTok personalities. For instance, if you have a new casual mobile game, it would make sense to work with YouTubers who focus on mobile game reviews because such influencers already have strategies, especially an active audience who is already interested in similar games.

2. Targeted Regions

Market targeting can have a profoundly positive impact when it is done based on regions. It means that depending on the market, there are other platform favorites and prioritized styles and kinds of posts. For instance, YouTube and Twitch are still current platforms in Western countries, while in some regions in Asia, it is better to look for some specific platforms like TikTok or Douyin in China. To ensure that your campaign is well placed, it is important to learn about the kind of content that performs well in each targeted region, cultural norms, and what kind of competition to expect from other brands online.

3. Identification of Influencers and Contacts/Interactions

First, find hashtags associated with your app’s theme and then look for content creators within those discussions. You could also use Google Alerts to get updates on any word related to your app or game. Furthermore, the campaign managers save time on the research since there are specific platforms for influencers or marketing agencies that have filtered through the lists and found influencers with the right target markets. Upon identification, establishing and sustaining a good relationship outlook with influencers guarantees that you are on the same page regarding the intended campaign and expectations respectively, hence a healthy working relationship.

Influencer marketing seeks to leverage the authenticity of influencers by adopting them into the promotional mix. This is the main reason why people use your app or download your game since influencers can endorse your product or service naturally. Here are the main benefits that make influencer marketing a highly effective channel for app and game promotion:

1. The credibility, characteristics, reach, and effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing in relation to new media technology.

Similar to the more conventional method of referral marketing, influencers possess a specific form of trust with their audiences. Their audience considers it as if this company is actually recommending a certain product. For instance, now there’s an influencer who starts gushing about a new mobile game; that is a digital endorsement for the right crowd where it brings curious, engaged followers who in turn are becoming new installs. Either way the motivation for highly-engaged users will be significant, given the right influencer – whether the user can identify with this influencer or not.

2. Social Proof

When a familiar influencer consumes a certain product and seems to derive some pleasure out of a particular game for instance – this builds credibility. This proof is very important, as young audiences become inclined to engage with products endorsed by their favorite personalities.

3. High-Quality Content Creation

Those who are engaged in the creation of content in any of the forms including, but not limited to, game reviews, tutorials, and gameplay videos can come up with content that would look appealing to the targeted audiences, and in the process, bring out the aspects of the app that would stand out to the targeted audiences. Such content can remain on social channels, hence creating more value for the app developer, or can be converted to ads.

4. Targeted Reach

Influencers have carefully built followings that reflect specific demographics and interests. Such targeting means brands can pinpoint specific groups of users most likely to use the app or a game, yielding higher efficiency of campaigns, and a better ROI.

5. User-Generated Content (UGC)

When influencers talk about a product, the audience’s typical response is to create their own user-generated content on the given topic. This kind of organic UGC not only increases the app's discoverability but also develops a domino effect whereby others start sharing their sessions with the game.

Sponsorships may be of many types, each tailored to meet specific promotional objectives. Some common types include:

• App Launch Promotions: Announcing an update or a new app as a tip.
• Sponsored Social Media Posts: Placing it in the feed of an influencer to encourage installations of the application.
• Game or App Reviews: Enabling influencers to explore deeply on the functionality of the application.
• Promo of Game Features: Informing that the development team has added some new elements, or emphasizing some sections within the app’s interface.
• UGC for Ads Campaigns: Through hashtag campaigns, and Challenges, it is possible to encourage user engagement.

The effectiveness of an influencer marketing campaign hinges on consistent tracking of its performance metrics. Establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) early on provides a clear framework to assess campaign impact and improve future strategies. Here are six essential metrics to measure:

1. Number of Downloads

One of the simplest metrics for campaign success is the number of downloads of the app in question. Tracking downloads before, during, and after the campaign allows for the measurement of awareness influenced by the content of an individual influencer.

2. Conversion Rate (CR)

There is no more fitting metric for this engagement than a measure revealing what proportion of viewers installed the app after watching the influencer. High conversion rates mean the target niche audience of the influencer will engage, likely to result in conversion.

3. Engagement Rate

Following likes, comments, and shares show how the followers of the influencer feel about the app since many will lead to a more dedicated audience base.

4. Return on Investment (ROI)

That is why it is crucial to know the ROI of using influencer campaigns. Through the percentage ratio of profit made from the installs against the campaign costs, the feasibility of influencer marketing is revealed.

5. Social Mentions Analysis

Monitoring tags give the observation of how the campaign affected brand awareness. This way, they reveal that the audience is more interested and aware of the app compared to earlier.

6. User Activity Post-Campaign

Last but not least, by monitoring the usage of the app post-installation – which includes the length of time the users spends within the application and the level of interactions they have with the features present in the consumption, it is possible to determine the extent to which valuable these new users are in the future.

At Mobihunter, we understand the importance of influencer marketing as a strategic growth lever for mobile apps and games. One successful example is our campaign with Twin Tiles and Airalo. By leveraging influencers with audiences well-aligned with the app's user profile, we significantly increased app installs and user engagement, underscoring the value of selecting the right influencer partnerships to reach campaign objectives.

Remarkably, influencer marketing is still one of the most powerful channels for mobile application and game development. Through appropriate selection of the influencers, clear identification of the KPIs, and regular analysis of the campaign outcome, developers of the apps can maximize their marketing outcomes in the long run. In terms of engagement, influencer marketing provides numerous rungs for effective action whether you are promoting a new game, its features, or the brand in general.