How to Prepare a Budget for App Marketing [With Template]

In this modern world, mobile phones have become integrated into everyone's daily lives, playing a huge role in all sorts of tasks and functions. According to studies, the average person spends around 3 hours and 15 minutes daily on their mobile devices.

The massive mobile real estate provides a vast land of opportunities for many businesses and brands that want to make waves. By 2024, global mobile ad spending is expected to reach the $495 billion mark as more businesses launch their initiatives. 

Mobile app marketing brings a plethora of benefits, including location-based targeting, an increase in brand awareness, and a wider audience reach.

As alluring as it is, many business owners, especially small businesses and startups, feel intimidated by the unknown in the mobile app marketing space. In this article, we’ll shed light on that uncertainty and help you get up to speed with everything you need to know when preparing a workable app marketing budget.

After you read this piece, browse through Clutch’s ranking for the best mobile app marketing agencies. Find and connect with the ideal partner who can make the most out of your budget.

What Goes into an App Marketing Budget?

Just like the whole mobile scene, app marketing is also ever-evolving because of the different trends along with consumer preferences. When preparing a budget, knowing all the major channels for an effective app marketing campaign is best.

Here are the most common and proven app marketing channels:

• Competitor and Market Research is essential to any kind of marketing strategy or initiative. In app marketing, thorough competitor analysis and market research will help you plan the best course of action to help your brand stand out from the rest. The data you’ve gathered will serve as your campaign's main foundation.
• App Store Optimization (ATO) is the meticulous process of enhancing the visibility and user appeal of your app in the two major app stores — Apple App Store and Google Play Store. It primarily focuses on improving an app’s performance and key performance indicators (KPIs) such as click-through rates (CTR).  ATO makes sure that your app continues to gain traction and remains relevant to consumers.
• Influencer Marketing has seen a huge rise in popularity in the past decade and is changing how many brands reach their customers. It’s a collaboration between well-known social media figures and businesses that want to promote their products or services. At a fundamental level, influencer marketing is a great way to improve an app or brand’s visibility.
• Mobile Pay-per-click (PPC) is quite different from the usual PPC in the sense that it focuses on optimizing the ads for mobile devices. Mobile PPC requires a different approach and strategy to get the most value. Contrary to what some may believe, brands can integrate mobile PPC into their overall app marketing campaigns, and they still don’t need to break the bank with it.
• Email Marketing refers to disseminating informative and promotional content through emails. In mobile app marketing, the content for your email marketing campaigns can range anywhere from limited-time offers and promos to newsletters.
• QR Code Marketing is brought on by the massive rise of QR code technology. Though it has been around even before the beginning of the century, the accessibility of mobile devices has led to its popularity. Marketers utilize QR codes to simply spread promotional content to target consumers and improve their customer experience.

Not every business will need each type of app marketing channel, and it will all depend on what their strategies are. For instance, some businesses might also need content marketing, SEO, or social media marketing to supplement their app marketing plan.

The success of your campaign will ultimately depend on your research and resourcefulness. As you prepare your app marketing budget allocation, make sure you do your groundwork on each channel to know what to expect.

How to Prepare a Budget for App Marketing

1. Define Your Goals
2. Assess Your Available App Marketing Spend
3. Evaluate Previous App Marketing Campaigns
4. Know What Tools To Use
5. Allocate Funds for Content Development
6. Consider Hiring a Service Provider

1. Define Your Needs and Goals

Data gathering is always the first step in everything related to business. Defining your business needs and goals will help you know your priorities when allocating resources and determining how much to spend.

What are your goals for your app marketing campaign? What are your brand’s current pain points related? What will your campaign look like? How big will your campaign be?

As a business owner, you must align your budget to your vision and goals. How much you spend on your app marketing will depend on your findings.

Additionally, a clearer understanding of your goals and needs will help you identify which app marketing channels to use.

2. Review Your Available App Marketing Spend

In our digital marketing budget template, we discussed how most digital marketing experts recommend spending 7% – 10% of their overall revenue on digital marketing expenses. For mobile app marketing, you can lower the figure down to 5% to 9% if you already have other forms of marketing and advertising initiatives in place.

Of course, every business has its own financial capabilities. Lager companies will have more room to spend on their app marketing, and smaller businesses typically run on limited resources.

Just remember that you don’t have to overspend to generate great results when it comes to app marketing.

You can be spending tons of cash, but if you don’t have the right team to execute your campaign, it’ll be all for nothing. Being resourceful, doing proper research, and having the right skills are essential to maximizing your app marketing spend.

3. Evaluate Previous App Marketing Campaigns

After you’ve reviewed your available app marketing spend, it’s time to look at the past. If you’ve already run an app marketing campaign in prior quarters or years, take a moment to assess and consider it for your next budget.

Call on your team to discuss how your previous campaign performed and evaluate past key metrics to adjust your budget accordingly.

Moreover, assessing your previous app marketing campaign will give you an idea of what channels or strategies didn’t work for your brand. You can learn a lot more about your business and make better decisions and projections when you carefully study your previous campaigns.

4. Know What Tools To Use

There are plenty of app marketing tools out there — some are free but have limited capabilities, while others require you to pay for better functionalities. With the data you’ve gathered throughout your planning process, identifying which tools to use for your campaign will help you allocate your budget accordingly.

Here are examples of the most popular app marketing tools:

• Google Analytics
• Optimizely
• HubSpot
• MailChimp
• AppsFlyer
• Apptentive

If you’re unsure of what tools to use for your app marketing activities, you can consult your marketing team to see what best works for them — after all, they will be the ones utilizing them. List all the tools you’ll need and calculate them to ensure you know how much to devote to your budget.

5. Allocate Funds for Content Development

Aside from tools, make sure you allocate and leave room for content development. Graphic design, copywriting, video production, and photoshoots are all part of this segment of your budget.

Your content should stay fresh, relevant, and engaging for it to be effective. Basically, your campaign will be as good as the content you share, so don’t cut corners regarding content creation.

With that being said, you shouldn’t also be overspending for your content. Finding the right balance will help you stay aligned with your goals and your financial capabilities.

Lastly, if you’re planning to run bespoke campaigns to celebrate promos, milestones, and occasions like holidays, you’ll need to remember that when budgeting. Seasonal or limited-time campaigns will help your app marketing efforts as they can generate a sense of urgency and exclusivity.

6. Consider Hiring a Service Provider

At the end of the day, the internet can’t give you a concrete answer as to how much you should spend on your app marketing. The best way to prepare a budget for your project is to discuss it with a professional app marketer personally.

Agency costs are typically overlooked by many businesses when making their budget. The only way to know how much to allot is to inquire directly. Ask how much their rates are, how they structure their fees, and what mode of payment they require.

The most common way businesses save money on agency fees is by working with freelancers or offshore service providers. Generally, agencies from Western Europe and North America charge more than those from Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe.

App Marketing Budget Template

Download Clutch’s free app marketing budget template for your budget.

Factors for App Marketing Costs

App marketing costs will definitely vary dramatically for each business, but what influences them? These are some of the main factors that impact costs.

• Industry or niche
• Company stage
• Amount and type of content
• App marketing channels
• Scale of campaign
• Location

By considering these factors, you can create a more accurate and practical budget for your app marketing needs. 

Be Resourceful and Budget Wisely for Your App Marketing Needs

Your target audience might be glued to their phones right now. Take matters into your own hands by investing in quality app marketing solutions and harnessing its benefits.

Don’t be intimidated by the costs. All you need to do is to know what to expect and strategically outline your needs to create a pragmatic budget.

Since you now know the factors and budgeting steps, get in touch with the top app marketing agencies on Clutch. Match with the ideal firm that meets your budget and requirements as you maximize the filters we’ve prepared.

About the Author

Elaine Margrethe Alcantara

Elaine Margrethe is a part of Clutch’s global team of writers. She is responsible for writing blogs, supporting blog processes, and content creation efforts.

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