Solved: Best Platforms to Market a Great App?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

It sounds like you're in a great but tricky spot. Having an app that users already love is more than half the battle, so congrats on that. But you're right, a brilliant product with no marketing is like winking in the dark – you know you're doing it, but nobody else does. You've hit on the exact point where most great apps either take off or fizzle out.

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and a bit of a roadmap based on my experience growing apps with paid ads. The good news is you don't need to be a social media whiz yourself. You just need to understand the strategy, so you can hire the right person or agency and know they're not just burning your cash. Let's get into it.

Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic

Right, first things first. Forget everything you think you know about target audiences. Most people who come to us start by saying something like, "Our target customer is a male, aged 25-40, interested in technology." That's completely and utterly useless. It tells you nothing of value and leads to generic ads that speak to no one and get ignored.

To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. Their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare. Your app doesn't just exist; it solves a problem. What is that problem, and who feels it most acutely? Your ICP isn't a person; it's a problem state.

Let's make this real. Imagine your app helps freelance graphic designers manage their projects and invoices. The demographic approach is "freelancers, 20-35". The nightmare approach is this: "It's 11 PM on a Sunday. Sarah, a freelance designer, is staring at a spreadsheet trying to figure out which clients have paid her, which invoices are overdue, and whether she can afford to pay her rent next month. She's terrified of chasing a big client for money and looking unprofessional, but she's even more terrified of her cash flow drying up. She spends more time on admin than on the creative work she loves, and she feels like a failure."

See the difference? We're not selling "project management software." We're selling Sarah a good night's sleep. We're selling her the confidence to chase that invoice and the freedom to get back to designing.

Once you've isolated that nightmare, you can find your Sarahs. Where do they hang out online?

• -> What podcasts do they listen to on their commute? (e.g., 'The Freelance Way', 'Being Freelance')
• -> What industry newsletters do they actually open and read? (e.g., 'Creative Boom', 'The Dieline')
• -> What software tools do they already pay for? (e.g., Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma)
• -> What Facebook groups are they members of? (e.g., 'The Freelance Designer's Community')
• -> Who do they follow on Instagram or Twitter for inspiration and advice? (e.g., Chris Do, Jessica Hische)

This intelligence isn't just data; it's the blueprint for your entire targeting strategy on platforms like Meta. Do this work first, or you have no business spending a single pound on ads. It's the difference between shouting into a crowded stadium and whispering a secret into the right person's ear. It takes time, but its the most valuable marketing work you will ever do.

I'd say you now need to choose your ad platform wisely

Your question about "which platform to go to" is the right one, but the answer isn't "TikTok is hot right now". The answer, again, comes from your customer and their state of mind. There are broadly two types of potential users out there:

1. The Seekers: People actively looking for a solution.

These people know they have the "nightmare" we just defined, and they are actively typing things into search engines to find a cure. For them, you need to be on platforms where people search with high intent.

• -> Google Ads: The classic. If people are searching for "freelance invoice app" or "how to manage design projects," you want your ad to be the first thing they see. It's direct, it's intent-driven, and it can be incredibly effective, though often more expensive per click.
• -> Apple Search Ads (ASA): This is a huge one for apps and often overlooked. People go to the App Store and search directly for solutions. Being the top sponsored result for a high-intent keyword can drive massive, high-quality installs. I remember one app growth campaign we worked on where Apple Search Ads were a core pillar of our strategy, contributing to over 45,000 signups because you're catching people at the exact moment of decision.

2. The Unawares: People who have the problem but aren't looking for a solution.

This is probably the larger group. Our designer Sarah isn't searching for an app. She's just stressed and scrolling through Instagram to distract herself. She doesn't know a solution like your app even exists. For this group, you need to interrupt their scroll with a message that makes them stop and say, "Blimey, that's me."

• -> Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram): This is where your ICP "nightmare" research pays off. You can't target "stressed freelance designer," but you *can* target people who follow 'Creative Boom', use Adobe software, and are members of freelance groups. Then you hit them with an ad that speaks directly to their pain: "Tired of chasing invoices? Get paid on time, every time." We've seen incredible results here for both consumer and B2B software. One campaign we worked on generated thousands of trials for as low as $7 each. For another client, a B2B software, we drove 4,622 registrations at just $2.38 a pop using this exact strategy on Meta. It works because it's relevant.
• -> LinkedIn Ads: If your app is for business professionals (B2B), LinkedIn is the place. The targeting is second to none for job titles, company sizes, and industries. It's more expensive, for sure, but the quality of the lead can be much higher. We ran a campaign for a B2B SaaS client where we were getting leads from decision makers for about $22 a lead, which for them was a steal. You wouldn't sell a casual photo-editing app here, but for a professional tool, its perfect.

You probably should delete the "Request a Demo" button (or your app's equivalent)

Now we get to the most common failure point in advertising, especially for software and apps: the offer. What are you actually asking the user to do when they click your ad? The "Request a Demo" button is perhaps the most arrogant Call to Action ever conceived. It presumes your prospect has nothing better to do than book a meeting to be sold to. It's high-friction, low-value, and instantly positions you as just another vendor.

For an app, the equivalent might be asking for payment upfront, or asking for a lot of details just to sign up. These are all barriers. Your offer's only job is to deliver a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution.

For app and SaaS founders, this is your unfair advantage. The gold standard is a frictionless free trial (no credit card details required) or a generous freemium plan. Let them use the actual app. Let them solve a small piece of their problem for free. Let them feel the transformation. For our freelance designer Sarah, that "aha!" moment could be when she creates and sends her first professional-looking invoice in 30 seconds, a task that used to take her 15 minutes of fiddling with a template.

When the product itself proves its value, the sale becomes a formality. You aren't generating "leads" for a sales team to chase; you are creating Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) who are already convinced. Your entire ad strategy should be geared towards getting as many ideal users as possible to experience that "aha!" moment as quickly and easily as possible. I've seen clients transform their results simply by switching from a "Buy Now" call-to-action to a "Start Your Free Trial" one. For one medical job matching SaaS client, this kind of strategic shift in their funnel and ads helped reduce their Cost Per User Acquisition from a painful £100 down to just £7. The offer is that powerful.

We'll need to look at conversion optimisation and not brand awareness

This might be the most important, and most counter-intuitive, piece of advice I can give you. When you set up a campaign on a platform like Meta, it asks you for your objective. You'll see tempting options like "Reach" or "Brand Awareness." It feels logical, right? "I need more people to be aware of my app!"

Here is the uncomfortable truth: selecting these objectives is like asking the algorithm to find you the worst possible audience. You are giving it a very specific command: "Find me the largest number of people inside my targeting for the lowest possible price."

The algorithm, being incredibly efficient, does exactly what you asked. It seeks out the users who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively least likely to ever pull out a credit card and pay for an app. Why? Because those users are not in demand by other advertisers. Their attention is cheap. You are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find people who are professional ad-ignorers.

The best form of brand awareness for a startup is a competitor's customer switching to your product and raving about it. That only happens through conversion. Awareness is a byproduct of having a great product that solves a real problem, not a prerequisite for making a sale.

That is why, from day one, your campaigns should always be optimised for a conversion event that matters. This could be 'App Installs', 'Trial Signups', or 'Registrations'. When you tell Meta "find me people likely to sign up for a trial," its powerful machine learning goes to work for you. It analyses the millions of data points it has on users who have signed up for trials before and finds more people who look and act just like them. You pay more per impression, but you are fishing in a pond full of actual fish, not a puddle in a car park.

You'll need to know your numbers, especially your LTV

So, you're targeting the right people on the right platform with the right offer and the right campaign objective. The next question is always, "What should I expect to pay?" and "How do I know if it's working?".

The cost per result (per install, per trial) can vary wildly. For signups or installs in developed countries (UK, US, Europe), you might see a cost anywhere from £1.60 to £15. In developing countries, it could be as low as £0.33, but the quality of the user might not be as high. We've had app campaigns achieve a cost per signup of under £2, but that's after significant optimisation. A starting point of £4-£8 is pretty normal. The key is not to panic if the initial numbers aren't amazing. It's a starting point to optimise from.

But the real question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Install go?" but "How high a Cost Per Install can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer lies in its counterpart: Lifetime Value (LTV).

If you don't know this number, you are flying blind. It's the total profit you expect to make from an average customer over the entire time they use your app. Here's how to calculate a basic version:

1. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): What do you make per user, per month? Let's say it's $25.
2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue after app store fees, server costs etc.? Let's say it's 70%.
3. Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of users do you lose each month? This is critical. Let's say it's 5%.

The calculation is: LTV = (ARPU * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

So, in our example: LTV = ($25 * 0.70) / 0.05 = $17.50 / 0.05 = $350.

In this example, each customer is worth $350 in gross margin to your business. A healthy business model aims for at least a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to around $116 to acquire a single paying customer.

Suddenly, that $7 cost per trial I mentioned earlier doesn't seem so bad, does it? If 1 in 10 trial users converts to a paying customer, your CAC is $70, which is well below your $116 limit. This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth and frees you from the tyranny of cheap, low-quality installs.

Use the calculator below to get a feel for your own numbers. It can be a real eye-opener.

I'd say this is your actionable plan to start with

That was a lot of information, I know. It's easy to feel overwhelmed. But you don't have to do it all at once. The key is to get the foundations right before you spend a penny. Hiring someone is a good idea, but going through this process yourself first will make you a much smarter client and ensure you hire the right person.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

As you can see, successful advertising isn't about having a massive social media following or creating viral videos. It's a systematic process of understanding your customer deeply and putting a valuable offer in front of them in the right place, at the right time. It's more science than art.

Hiring an expert or an agency can obviously speed this all up and help you avoid the common, expensive mistakes that most people make when they start out. A good partner will work with you on all of the above, from refining your ICP to building and optimising the campaigns, and provide clear reporting that focuses on the metrics that actually matter for growth.

I hope this detailed breakdown has been helpful and gives you a much clearer picture of how to get started. If you'd like to chat through your specific app and how these principles might apply, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a look at things together.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh