Why go for an Alternative App Store?

Over the years, Google and Facebook dominated the mobile marketing industry with monopolized market shares until recently, in 2020, four of the biggest mobile OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo, signed a GDSA agreement to move beyond Apple and Google’s duopoly with the launch of their own app stores – also called as alternative app stores. 

Alternative app stores provide brands, advertisers, app developers, and mobile marketers with a unique and scalable alternative to the app stores of Apple (App Store) and Google (Play Store) for publishing, launching, marketing, and scaling their apps. Alternative app stores possess the capability to tap into local audiences that are above and beyond the reach of Google and Facebook. 

Mobile OEMs have provided great liberty for app developers and mobile marketers to showcase their apps on alternatives to the app stores – GetApps Store by Xiaomi, V-Store by Vivo, Oppo Store, and Huawei’s AppGallery, where app marketers get diverse choices to advertise their brand’s mobile app. The biggest advantage of an alternative to the app store is the incremental user engagement that apps can gain from having unique ad placements within mobile devices to interact with users on multiple touch points. Unique advertising placements help app marketers to scrutinize and understand which placements work the best for their brand’s app marketing strategy. 

Alternative app stores offer a mixture of features to attract users

Alternative app stores provide a plethora of features to gain trusted users who are brand loyal to the mobile OEM. App marketers can interact with users at various points within the mobile OEMs, such as the app store featuring and app store optimization. 

Moreover, a variety of display and pre-install ads can help mobile marketers and advertisers understand how unique advertising placements across the alternative app stores of Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo work the best for their mobile apps.  Alternative to the app stores offers display ads which are priced at Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per Mille (CPM).  

There are different types of display ads, such as Banner Ads, Splash Ads, Native Ads, and Intent-Based Advertising. Another opportunity comes with Preloaded or preinstalled apps, allowing marketers to have their mobile apps preinstalled on the mobile device before the user switches on the mobile device for the first time. 

App Store Optimization helps scale user reach within the alternative app store 

App Store Optimization (ASO) is a similar practice to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but in this case, apps compete to rank on top of the app store search when users search for a specific app in a particular app category.  The goal of ASO is to generate more app installs and drive growth. App Store Optimization also intrigues advertisers with app publishing in native languages. There are traditional tactics that advertisers can apply to elevate their app store presence and improve performance, like app name, title, description, URL optimization, and keyword research, to name a few. 

Some additional benefits are: 

• Brand exposure increases significantly. 
• App reviews and ratings show positive improvements.
• Audience engagement amplifies. 
• Marketing channel that enables massive app growth with cost efficiency.

Benefits of using alternative app stores 

• Achieve scalability goals: Mobile OEMs enable marketers to grow globally by reaching new audiences and accessing new markets. For example, the e-commerce app Joom leveraged OEMs to drive 60,000 new installs and increase ROAS by 150%. In addition, we are driving more than 100,000 monthly paid downloads via alternative app stores. This is in addition to getting listed in these app stores, which significantly impacts a company’s organic downloads.
• Reach acquisition targets: Mobile OEMs offer higher user acquisition while paying lower CPI (cost-per-install). 
• Enter a fraud-free ecosystem: Marketers can access a fully fraud-free user-acquisition ecosystem. This is because there are no additional layers between the budget holder and the OEM, and reach advertising placement is fully controlled by the OEM.
• Create trust with your audience: Users who are brand-loyal to the OEM will view ads as more trustworthy.

Furthermore, if you are an app developer looking to scale your app in local regions of a particular territory, alternative app stores can help you address users’ needs in particular demography and enable the app content in native languages. It also helps users to navigate through and understand your app features better. 

How can mobile apps tap into the alternative app stores and scale? 

AVOW partners with mobile OEMs across the world to help advertisers and app developers get the most out of their advertising spend. These partnerships with leading mobile OEMs can expand mobile marketers’ reach and unlock new revenue streams. We also help clients with a consultative approach, guiding them through the entire campaign cycle. This includes everything from how to get listed on each OEM app store, to distributing and tracking campaign performance. 

Clients can also benefit from AVOW Performance Optimizer (APO), which optimizes OEM on-device inventory in real-time. This in-house solution optimizes inventory toward your KPI goals and engagement levels. This consequently improves campaign performance and boosts ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). All OEM on-device inventory is verified by the leading mobile measurement companies in the industry (MMPs), offering a process that uses automation to our client’s advantage.

With exclusive access to these untapped markets, no fraud, and verification from mobile measurement providers (MMPs), working with an alternative app store is the key to broadening your user base.

Follow this link to learn more information about alternative app stores and how AVOW can help your app scale within these alternative app stores.