How do you know if your launch is "good" or you are way off? And where do you advertise?
by•
How do you know if your app launch is going well or if it is bad? I mean, obviously, if you have zero downloads, I would assume bad, but also, is it? I know there are a bajillion apps in the app store so how are people going to find yours?
I launched my app 7 days ago, and in true founder fashion, I am super impatient, looking every single day at how many downloads, how many paid downloads, etc. So far in 7 days, I have 10 downloads. So here I am thinking, is it a flop?
Where are you all advertising? Thank you for any advice in advance. Jennifer
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Hedy AI
One thing that really helps id talking to every early user. Even a handful of real conversations can tell you more than the download count along.
@kate_sleeman How do you know who the users are to reach out to them? Or are you finding people you know to test it out? I am really super green on how this side of things works. Thank you!
I would keep building while promoting every week. Launches rarely end after release day. Consistent conversations useful updates and customer feedback often create the momentum founders hope for.
Me watching daily numbers would probably feel furstrating too. Early launches are often about learning instead of scalling. Have you asked every downloader wht they installed and what almost stopped them from trying it.
Serand
Seven days feels way too early to call it a success or a failure. I'd pay more attention to whether people come back and use the app again than just the first download numbers.
Hey Jennifer! First off, 10 downloads in week one is definitely not a flop, it's just the very start of the process.
I don't know what your business model is, but I can share how I've been looking at this with my own app, since I'm in a similar boat right now trying to figure out marketing.
My app has a low, one-time price tag with no subscription. And looking at paid ads, the math just doesn't work at all: the cost to get a single user through ads is way higher than what the app actually costs.
Looking at my own unit economics, here's the picture I see: a cheap impulse-buy app kind of needs two things:
Some initial momentum for virality. The idea is that people see others using it, get an emotional reaction, and just buy it on the spot. But on small numbers, that viral engine takes a really long time to warm up. You kind of need a decent chunk of eyes on it first for that math to start moving.
Organic content as a volume game. Since paid traffic is out, I'm basically focusing on posting short videos and testing different angles to see what hits the algorithm.
It feels a lot like a patience game. For context, I had one video recently reach about 35k views, and that brought in 30 sales. Not millions of views by any means, but it gave me a hunch that it's just a matter of time and trying enough attempts until a video really lands 🙌