How to promote an app and get your first users

For a business app, the first users do not come from the store. They come from people who are already your customers. The store and search come later, once people are already using and rating it. This guide is about the first hundred people.

Before promoting: a reason to install

"Download our app" is not a reason. People need to know what they get out of it, in one sentence:

• "Order through the app and pay no delivery fee on your first order";
• "Book your appointment without calling, at any hour";
• "Collect stamps and get your tenth coffee free";
• "See today's menu before you leave home".

Pick one and use the same one on every channel below. A discount on the first order placed through the app is the incentive that works best for retail, and the stores allow it. What is forbidden is something else: giving a freebie in exchange for a positive review.

One link for each case

Before spreading the app around, decide which link you will use:

• the app has a web version (PWA): its address opens on any phone, without installing anything, and the person can add it to the home screen later. It is the link with the least friction;
• the app is only in the stores: you have two links, one for the App Store and one for Google Play. On a poster, use a simple page with both buttons, or a link that detects the phone and sends people to the right store.

If you have both, promote the web link and invite people to install the store version from inside the app.

A QR code at the counter

It is the cheapest channel and the one that converts best for a physical business. It works because it reaches people who are already there, have already bought and have their phone in hand.

Where to put it: at the register, on the table, on delivery packaging, on the bag, on the salon mirror, at the clinic's front desk, on the window sticker.

How to do it:

1. generate the QR code with any free generator, from the link you chose;
2. put the reason sentence above the QR, in large letters: "Scan and get 10% off your first order in the app";
3. print it at least 3 × 3 cm, with a white margin around it;
4. test it with two different phones before printing a hundred.

And the most important part: the staff talk about the app. A QR on the wall yields a fraction of what the same QR yields with someone saying "if you download it now, you get the discount right away".

Instagram and the link in bio

The link in bio is the obvious place, and it works better when every post and every story gives a reason to tap. Three formats that usually get results:

• a story showing the app in use, recorded on the phone screen, with the link sticker;
• a pinned post explaining the reason to install;
• a highlight with "How to order through the app".

If the bio already has a link aggregator with several links, put the app first.

WhatsApp

For many local businesses, WhatsApp is where the real customers are. Use it in three ways:

Welcome message and quick replies. Anyone who asks for the menu on WhatsApp gets the app link along with it. No pushing, just making the path easier.

Broadcast lists. One message to the list, with the reason and the link. Remember that a list only reaches people who saved your number, so it reaches your closest customers, who are exactly the ones you want first.

Status. One status a week showing something from the app, like the promotion that only exists there.

The store listing and Google

Once the first users arrive, the store listing starts working for you. A name that says what the app does, well-made screenshots and the first ratings make a difference in search. The ASO guide covers this in detail.

Your Google Business Profile, the one that appears on Maps and in search, is another place few people use for this. You can add the app link as the website or the ordering link, and post an update announcing that the app is live. These are people searching for your business by name, at the moment they are about to buy.

Partnerships

A neighboring business that serves the same audience can promote your app, and you promote theirs. Some formats:

• a gym and a supplement store, with a cross discount through the app;
• a salon and a cosmetics store, with a coupon for one in the other's app;
• a pet shop and a veterinary clinic, referring to each other;
• an association or a residential building, promoting it to residents or members.

A referral program inside the app does the same with your own customers: each one has a code, and earns something when a friend places a first order.

Measuring installs

Without measuring, you do not know which channel worked and you repeat what did not. The minimum:

A different link per channel. The counter QR, the Instagram bio and the WhatsApp list with different links. On Google Play, links with UTM parameters appear as their own channel in the Play Console acquisition report. On the App Store, campaign links created in App Store Connect show visits, downloads and usage per campaign.

The app asks, or records. A "how did you hear about us?" field at sign-up, or the link itself storing the source, answers what the store dashboards do not answer for the web version.

Look at who comes back, not just who installs. A hundred installs from a poster with a giveaway and ten who come back are worth less than thirty installs from the counter with twenty who come back.

Where this fits on Fabapp

On Fabapp, when you publish the app, the Studio shows its address and ready-made text to share. That address is what goes in the QR code, the bio and on WhatsApp. You can change the front part of the address, or use your own domain, which makes the link easier to read on a poster. The published app already works as a PWA, and people can install it on the home screen from the browser, without a store.

To measure visits, the Integrations tab has Google Analytics, Meta Pixel and other analytics tools. And if you want the app on the App Store and Google Play too, the native version ships under your own developer account, with the listing and the statistics in your name.

The summary

• the first users are the customers you already have, not store search;
• have a reason to install, in one sentence, and use the same one everywhere;
• a QR code at the counter, with the staff talking about the app, is the cheapest channel;
• Instagram, WhatsApp, Google Business Profile and partnerships round out the first hundred;
• use one link per channel and measure who comes back, not just who installs.