App launch plan: marketing before and after release

An app does not launch on the day it appears in the store. It launches when people find it, try it and come back. A launch plan makes sure that happens on purpose.

Before release

Know who it is for. One sentence: who the user is and what problem the app solves for them. Every ad and every store text follows from it.

Measurement. Before a single ad: events for sign-up, the core action and purchase, working on iOS and Android, with the ad source saved. See what to measure before your first campaign.

Store listings. Name, subtitle, screenshots that show the value in the first two images, a short video if possible. Store search is a channel of its own.

A landing page with store links and a way to leave an email for people who are not on their phone.

An early audience. A waiting list, an existing customer base, a community, partners. Launching to nobody is the most common mistake.

The server. Make sure the backend can handle a spike. Ads that work on a server that falls over waste money twice.

Launch day and week

• Tell the early audience first; their early reviews and usage help.
• Start paid campaigns with modest budgets, optimised for sign-ups or the core action, not for installs alone.
• Watch crash reports and the sign-up funnel hourly on the first day.
• Answer every review and support message quickly.

The first weeks

• Activation: what share of new users reach the core action? If it is low, fix onboarding before spending more on ads.
• Retention: how many come back after day 1, day 7, day 30?
• Cost per activated user, not cost per install.
• Creatives: test several angles and refresh them as results fall.
• Store optimisation: test screenshots and texts.

Channels to consider

• Paid social (Meta, TikTok) for consumer apps.
• Search ads (Google, Apple Search Ads) when people already search for the problem.
• Partnerships and communities in your niche.
• Content and SEO for a steady flow over time.
• Referral: existing users inviting others, if the app is social by nature.

The numbers that matter

Installs are vanity. Watch sign-ups, activation, retention and, if the app earns money, the cost to win a paying user compared with what they bring. The same logic as unit economics for any business.

We plan the launch together with the build; see Build & launch.