How to market an app with no money

What does marketing an app with no money really cost?

Organic app marketing costs time, and more of it than most founders plan for. Our planning number for one founder is 5 to 8 hours a week for at least 12 weeks: an afternoon on the store listing, a few short videos a week, and real replies in communities. It is our estimate, not a benchmark.

The hidden cost is focus. For an indie app with one or two builders, every hour on marketing is an hour off the product, so pick two channels and drop the rest.

What can you fix in your store listing for free this week?

Start with the page people see right before they install. Put the phrase people search for in your name or subtitle, use every keyword character, make the first screenshots show results instead of menus, and start one free test. On iOS, the hidden 100-character keyword field costs nothing to fill, so fill all of it.

Sources: Apple listing and tests; Google limits, screenshots and experiments.

1. 01

   Pick one search phrase

   Write what a stranger would type to find an app like yours, such as "split rent with roommates". Apple says search weighs text matches in your title, subtitle, keywords and category, plus downloads, ratings and reviews (Apple).

2. 02

   Fill the keyword field

   Don't repeat words from your name, subtitle or category, or their plurals; Apple counts those as duplicates. Apple also lists competing app names as an improper keyword, and says improper keywords are a common reason for rejection (Apple).

3. 03

   Rewrite the first three screenshots

   One result per screenshot, captioned in plain words. Example: "Know who owes what in 10 seconds" beats a settings menu.

4. 04

   Keep the title clean

   Google Play bans ranking or price claims like "#1" or "free for limited time only" in the title, icon or developer name, and bans emojis there (policy).

5. 05

   Start one test

   Change one thing at a time, as Google recommends, so you know what moved the number.

6. 06

   Ask Apple to feature you

   Nominate a launch or big update through Featuring Nominations in App Store Connect. Apple asks for at least two weeks' notice (Apple).

What should a founder post on TikTok and Reels, and how often?

Post short phone-filmed videos that show the problem your app solves, from your own account. Aim for 3 to 5 a week and keep going for 12 weeks before you judge; that cadence is our suggestion, not a platform rule. One idea per video, with the app on screen in the first few seconds.

• Problem, then fix: three seconds of the annoying old way, then your app doing it.
• Why I built this: you to camera, one sentence of backstory, one screen recording.
• One feature, start to finish: a screen recording with a voiceover.
• Reply to a comment: answer a viewer's question with a new video.
• A real number: downloads this week, or a bug you fixed.

Hooks and formats are covered in how to market an app on TikTok.

Where can you promote an app for free without getting banned?

Go where your users already ask for help, and read the rules before you post. Reddit, Product Hunt and Hacker News each let you share what you built, and each has rules against spam or vote-begging. A pattern that fits those rules: answer questions for a few weeks, then share once, with the story and a real number.

What should you do with $100 to $600?

App marketing on a budget starts with a message that already worked for free. If one video brought installs, put money behind that message, not behind something nobody reacted to. With a few hundred dollars, the realistic options are store search ads, a short TikTok ad test, or paying creators for views.

Markapping is a pay-per-view creator marketing platform for mobile apps: app owners fund a campaign and pay creators for every 1,000 views their videos get on TikTok and Instagram Reels. It is not live yet, and it is not free: the minimum is $500 plus a 10% platform fee, so $550. If $550 is most of your money, do the free work on this page first.

1. 01

   Example: a $500 first campaign

   Rate $1.50 per 1,000 views, so the budget covers up to about 333,000 counted views. Creators join by application. You review each video; anything not reviewed within 48 hours is approved automatically. Counting window: 14 days.

2. 02

   Example limits

   Max $75 per video, so at least 7 videos share the budget and one viral post can't take it all. Nothing is paid until a video passes 1,000 views.

3. 03

   What one creator earns here

   A video with 40,000 counted views earns $60. The creator keeps $57; Markapping keeps 5% of creator earnings ($3).

4. 04

   Leftovers

   Unspent budget comes back as a refund or credit once counting videos settle. The $50 fee is not refunded, unless your first campaign is rejected in review and never goes live.

An ad impression and a counted view are different units, so compare options by the cost per install you can measure. More numbers: how much it costs to market an app and pay-per-view influencer marketing. Fees are on pricing; the product is on Markapping for apps.

What should you never pay for?

Never pay for installs, ratings, reviews, followers or views that don't come from real people choosing your app. Both stores ban fake installs and ratings, the FTC bans fake reviews and fake follower counts, and fake numbers can't tell you what works. A thousand bot installs teach you nothing.

If you pay creators, pay for real, labeled posts on their own accounts. On Markapping, creators must post with the platform's paid partnership or branded content label on, every video gets a fake-view check, and suspicious videos are held until a person makes the final call.

What does a weekly no-budget routine look like?

Batch the work into one planning slot, one filming slot and short daily check-ins, so marketing fits around building. Below is our example week for one founder, about 5 hours. Keep it for 12 weeks before you swap channels; one quiet week tells you nothing.

How do you tell if free app marketing is working?

Count installs by channel, not likes. Give every place you share a link its own tracked link, compare store conversion before and after each listing change, and check whether new users come back. If a channel brings no tracked installs after 12 steady weeks, cut it and put that time into the one that does.

Apple's campaign data lags: a campaign shows at least 24 hours after launch, once at least five people have downloaded through it for the first time. Tokens take up to 30 characters (App Store Connect), so name them by channel and month, such as "reddit-oct26".

Questions