Creative App Marketing Tips For Holidays

Holiday seasons are when all the routines are interrupted and people act in a more random way. So, how will you optimize your apps during these periods? Creative optimization tips for holidays will let you answer this question.
Here is the list of holidays:

• Oct 31: Halloween
• Nov 11: Chinese Singles’ Day & Veterans Day
• Nov. 22: Thanksgiving
• Nov. 23: Black Friday
• Nov. 24: Small Business Saturday
• Nov. 26: Cyber Monday
• Nov. 27: Giving Tuesday
• Dec. 2: Start of Hanukkah
• Dec. 10: Green Monday
• Dec. 14: Free Shipping Day
• Dec. 24: Christmas Eve
• Dec. 25: Christmas Day
• Dec. 26: Start of Kwanza
• Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve
• Jan. 1: New Year’s Day

The basic difference in holidays is the fact that people don’t go to school or work on these days. Or they are usually days to buy presents for our beloved ones. For an app owner or app marketer, this means that the potential users and current users will have more free time to spend on apps and they will tend to buy new products or services.
Apple reports that the App Store visitors made $240 million in customer purchases on New Year’s Day 2017. The amount increased up to $300 million on New Year’s Day 2018. This is a record in the history of the App Store. Starting on Christmas Eve, Apple customers made purchases or downloaded apps, spending over $890 million in that week.
The opportunity is obvious, isn’t it? So, how will you be the winner of the holidays?

Be Informed Of Holidays

Around the world, every country has their unique holidays. Considering the US, Thanksgiving and Christmas are widely celebrated. New Year’s Eve on December 31st and New Year’s Day on January 1st are the free days almost all over the world. There is almost no country that does not celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14.  
Start with listing the holidays in the area where your target audience lives. So you can find what to focus on. You also need to evaluate your chances in these special days in terms of your own sectors.

Statistics Of Organic Installs During Holidays

How do organic installs change during the holiday? We advise you to search for the trends of the previous years to be able to act proactively. Maybe the number of in-app purchases or installs are increasing during the Valentine’s Day.
You can also realize a sudden change in the number of users with certain characteristics. For example, if you are a shopping app, you can see that people at the age between 25 – 30 tend to buy more presents comparing to users over 50. They are all important information to optimize your mobile app for holidays. Just focus on the data that is really related to your case.

How To Optimize Your Mobile App Creatively

Two steps above can be considered as preparation phase for creative optimization for holiday. Now, we will be focusing on the handy tips to optimize your mobile app for the special days.
When you are ready to optimize your mobile app in a creative manner, there are three points to manipulate: in-app areas, app store and ads. The common approach to these points is the emphasis on the theme from a fun and unexpected perspective.  
Well… What are the differences?

Thematic In-app Content

Your mobile app is supposed to be alive, which means to be adaptable to the date. If your mobile app is used for providing filters to arrange photos, you can offer a couple themes on the Valentine’s Day. You can add some nice light designs and snow effect on the New Year’s Day. They are simple but effective ideas.  
You can also add holiday in-app purchases that will help you promote your product page. If you have an in-app content related to the holiday, it will appear in the Search in App Store in a case when you add the app store settings properly.
However, this does not mean to change everything in your app. Just try to limit your holiday spirit dominate certain screens. If you can find a cool way to reflect this spirit on your pages nicely – like a color tone related to the holiday that fits with the character of your mobile app, go for it! But, always keep the main purpose of your app in your focus.

App Store Optimization For Holidays

Screenshots optimization is a perfect start for app store optimization for holidays. These visuals are what people see first before they install your mobile app – or skip your app. There is a common mistake on this point: focusing on the fun part while ignoring the informative part. Your screenshots need to be both fun and informative for the best optimization.
Also, we advise you to adapt the first two screenshots to the holiday rather than filling all your visuals with thematic decoration. The revised visuals will increase your installs if they highlight your holiday updates instead of turning into holiday postcards. Your mobile app should maintain its own character, and your thematic design should fit in this character. And, never forget to use holiday-related keywords with these screenshots.

Ad Creative Optimization

All kinds of holidays are just perfect times for ad creatives. Do you have an offer special for a holiday? Just announce it with an ad for ads are the most visible creative during holidays. Social media ads, video ads, newsletters… all these can be used as channels to spread your word about your unique offer.
Your offer for holiday will have a limited time and there will be many others offering something special for the day. So, your ad needs to give a sense of urgency.

Final Thoughts

Special days come with a great opportunity to have more installs and purchases – proved with the statistical data. We advise you not to underestimate this chance. In order to be the winner of the competition among the mobile apps waiting for being chosen on these days, optimize your mobile app creatively and wisely. If you happen to need any more advise or professional support, feel free to contact us.