How to promote your app, software or service
There are only five families of channels: app store optimisation, paid ads, content and SEO, communities, and creators. Paid is the fastest and the most expensive: cost per install in Europe sits around $3.40 on iOS and $1.85 on Android. Content and referrals cost mostly time and are the slowest. Creators are the channel that produces both reach and reusable creative, which matters when your product has to be demonstrated before it can be wanted.
Start with the only question that matters
Before picking a channel, settle this: is your product understood in three seconds, or does it have to be seen working? An accessory is understood from a photo. A project management tool, a language app or a course are only understood in use.
That answer eliminates half the advice you will read elsewhere. Tactics built for a product you only have to show do not transfer to a product you have to explain on screen.
Is your product shown, or told?
If a stranger understands your product from a screenshot, favour volume and paid ads. If they need to watch someone use it for twenty seconds, then your main channel is demonstration, which means creator video.
The five channel families, with real costs
1. App store optimisation
Store listing work (title, subtitle, screenshots) has the best long-term return, because every organic install it generates is a paid acquisition avoided. The quality benchmark: above 35% conversion from product page view to install on iOS, and above 25% on Play, your listing is doing its job.
Source: SEM Nexus: 2026 Mobile App CAC Benchmark Report, checked 30 September 2026
Among listing elements, screenshots and the video preview have the largest measured effect on conversion, around +30%.
Source: Searchlab: App Marketing & ASO Statistics 2026 (citing Sensor Tower, StoreMaven and SplitMetrics), checked 30 September 2026
2. Paid advertising
The fastest and most expensive channel. 2026 averages: around $2.24 per install on iOS and $1.12 on Android worldwide; in Europe, $3.40 and $1.85. An iOS install costs about twice an Android one, which Adjust attributes to Apple's tracking consent framework (ATT) and to higher user value. TikTok Ads is the cheapest channel at around $2.45 per install (iOS, North America), against $3.10 for Google app campaigns (UAC).
Source: Searchlab: App Marketing & ASO Statistics 2026 (citing Adjust and Liftoff 2026), checked 30 September 2026
On the B2B software side the comparison is different and harder: the median customer acquisition cost sits between $500 and $2,000 in 2026, from around $200 for low-priced self-serve products to more than $15,000 for enterprise deals. Paid search alone averaged $802 per customer, while organic and SEO channels bring pipeline without a direct media bill.
Source: SaaS Hero: SaaS CAC Benchmarks 2026, checked 30 September 2026
3. Content and SEO
Slow to start, then compounding. It is also the channel that makes you quotable by AI assistants, which is becoming an acquisition path in its own right now that buyers ask an agent for advice before they search.
4. Communities and launches
Product Hunt, Reddit, specialised communities. Free in money, expensive in time, and not repeatable: you cannot relaunch every month. Treat it as a spike, not a channel.
5. Content creators
Real people film your product in use and post on their own account. It leaves you two assets at the end: organic reach, and videos you can reuse as ads and on your product page. For an app, the formats, the demo account and the store links to provide are on our page about UGC for mobile apps. For a mobile game, the formats and the brief are on UGC for mobile games.
Source: AdDogs: how to advertise an app in 2026, checked 30 September 2026
How to split a budget, concretely
One observed split on a roughly $10,000 monthly app budget: $3,000 to $4,000 on Apple Search Ads across brand and category terms, $1,500 to $2,000 on listing maintenance and creative refresh, $2,000 to $3,000 on retention and lifecycle, the rest on one experimental channel.
Source: SEM Nexus: Mobile App Marketing Budget Benchmarks 2026, checked 30 September 2026
The line people miss in that split is creative refresh. Paid advertising decays when the creative fatigues, and producing fresh creative every month is the real bottleneck. That is exactly what a creator campaign produces, in volume and from varied angles.
| Monthly budget | Priority 1 | Priority 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Under €1,000 | Store listing and content | Communities |
| €1,000 to €5,000 | Creators to produce creative | Paid ads on one channel only |
| €5,000 to €20,000 | Multi-channel paid | Continuous creators feeding creative |
| Over €20,000 | Full measured mix | Referrals and lifecycle |
What a creator budget actually covers, line by line, is broken down in our guide to UGC pricing in 2026. If you run a small team with a small budget, start with UGC for small businesses. If you are launching before having an audience of your own, read UGC for startups.
The most common mistake: confusing reach with understanding
Many software companies buy reach when their problem is understanding. They get impressions, a decent click-through rate, and a disappointing install conversion. The channel was not at fault, the message did not show the product working.
The symptom is easy to read: if your cost per click is normal and your cost per install absurd, your creative is not explaining. No advertising budget fixes that.
- A reach problem: few impressions, few clicks. Answer: more media budget, more channels.
- An understanding problem: clicks but no installs. Answer: creative that demonstrates, so videos of the product in use.
- A trust problem: installs but no subscriptions. Answer: peer proof, so real testimonials.
Why creator video answers all three
A video filmed by a real person using your product covers all three symptoms at once: it travels on their account, it shows the product working, and it comes from a peer rather than your marketing team.
For a product that needs explaining, how the campaign is framed matters as much as how creators are paid. Two things keep the product on screen: a script written for the demonstration, and a review of each video before it counts. Paying per view with no brief pushes volume and damages demonstration quality; paying only a flat fee buys no distribution.
A campaign built for demonstration
Our team builds the campaign and writes the video scripts, following the codes of the formats that work in your sector. It pushes the campaign to hundreds of creators in our network, then reviews each video; creators publish on their own TikTok and Instagram accounts. Each challenge shows its pay conditions before a creator starts, and pay depends on the views of the published videos, beyond a cumulative view threshold. From €2,000 per campaign, no subscription, price and terms set out in the commercial proposal. Our focus is software, apps, services and training. See also our page on UGC for B2B software.
FAQ
How much does it cost to promote an app?
On paid ads, expect around $3.40 per install on iOS and $1.85 on Android in Europe in 2026. For B2B software, the median customer acquisition cost sits between $500 and $2,000, from around $200 for low-priced self-serve products to more than $15,000 for enterprise deals. Content, referrals and store optimisation cost mostly time, and take months to pay off.
What is the cheapest channel to promote an app?
Among paid channels, TikTok Ads had the lowest average cost per install in 2026, around $2.45 (iOS, North America), against $3.10 for Google app campaigns and $3.85 for Meta. Store optimisation, content and referrals cost mostly time rather than media budget, but they are the slowest channels. If you need results in weeks rather than quarters, you have to accept paying for distribution.
Should you start with paid ads or content?
Start with whatever is blocking. If nobody sees you, buy reach. If they see you without understanding, build creative that demonstrates the product before raising media budget. Bad creative makes every budget increase ineffective.
Do content creators work for software?
Yes, and it is often the best-suited channel, because software has to be seen working. The condition is a script built for demonstration and a review of each video, otherwise you get content optimised for views rather than for demonstration.
How long before you see results?
Paid gives numbers in days, creator video in weeks, content and store optimisation in months. Plan for all three horizons rather than expecting one channel to do everything.