How Influencers Boost Mobile App Downloads [The Avis Story]

The app industry can be confusing. On the bright side, thousands of new apps are submitted to the app stores each month.

But on the other side, people do not download that much of apps these days. In fact, most US smartphone owners download zero apps (!) in a typical month.

This behavior makes it difficult for app marketers to do their work. They struggle to convince people to give their amazing app a chance.

We Value Other People’s Opinions

There’s one thing that makes it much easier for a smartphone owner to give an app a try. This one thing is a word-of-mouth recommendation. Hearing about an app from someone else can raise the chances of installing it significantly.

According to a report by Tune, a mobile analytics platform, “70% of people have seen or heard of an app at least once prior to installing it. For almost a third, they’ve seen or heard about it more than three times.”

This is key to app marketing: while we are reluctant to go on a self-exploring journey for new apps, we will definitely hit the Install button after hearing about it from someone else.

We Trust Influencers

Friends, family, and the people we follow online have a tremendous impact on our mundane decisions.

As marketers, we wish to expand the Word-of-Mouth effect from one-to-one to one-to-many. That’s where social media influencers come to the rescue. Collaborating with influencers helps us reach our targeted audience and get a reliable exposure for the app.

Let’s take a look at a real case study of app promotion with influencers.

The Avis Now Success Story

During 2016 Avis has launched a new app to make it super easy for customers to rent a car. With the app customers can manage the whole car reservation process, like making orders and cancelling reservation 24/7, find reservation locations, and even receive roadside assistance for immediate help.

To spread the word about the app the company launched an influencer campaign, ran by Cycle Media and 360 PR. The influencers who participated in the campaign used the hashtag #AvisNow.

Not Your Typical Influencer

Who best fits an app promotion? If you think of tech bloggers, you’re narrowing the options, and for no good reason.

The best influencers are those with the same target audience the app aims to attract. Finding the relevant influencers is where you get creative.

Here’s what Avis did. They partnered with 9 influencers, who are travel photographers and travel experts, all top story-tellers. Check out the selected influencers:

The chosen influencers are the perfect choices. They show how the app can be integrated in the travel flow. With them talking about it, it’s not the app that we focus on, but the comfort of going outdoors with the help of the app.

The group of photographers and travelers posted various kinds of content during the campaign. Here’s what they shared with their audiences:

• Videos (Like these road trips to Moab and the Southwest)
• Stunning travel photos (here’s an example by Bryan Daugherty)
• Travel tips blog posts (e.g.: “10 Holiday Travel Tips and Hacks”, “Renting a Car Just Got Ridiculously Easy“) 
• Promotional Tweets and Facebook posts.

And here is the total posts and updates the influencers published during the campaign:

• 25 Instagram photos
• 3 blog posts
• 97.2K Engagements
• 933K Reach (People who actually saw the content)
• 5.3m impressions

Influencers Help People Install Your App

Partnering with influencers is one of the most effective ways to promote an app. When influencers post a video, a photo, or a blog post about the app, they help to familiarize people with it.

Remember, people are more likely to install an app once they already saw it somewhere else. Their social feed is a great place to make that introduction.

Find Influencers to Promote Your App. Meet Klear:

Save