Rules of Mobile App Marketing Have Been Changing

Table of Contents

• The new era of organic marketing

  • Staying updated on TikTok & Instagram Trends

  • Warming up your TikTok & Instagram account

  • Posting bulk UGC videos

  • Popular platforms

    • Posted

    • SideShift

How much money do you think the most prominent app publishers spend on their mobile app marketing per day?

I know some publishers spend around $500,000 per day on all their mobile apps’ marketing.

They’re not focused on profit from day one. Usually, they play this game for the long term.

In some cases, they don’t expect to make their first dollar of profit until the second year

So, how can you compete with them?

You might say you’re not trying to compete, you just want 1% of the pie.

But you know they drive up costs, especially CPI, since ad networks work on a bidding system.

In the world of all these sharks, let me tell you some ways to shine.

The new era of organic marketing

It’s not exactly a new era, but this approach is becoming more popular every day

This is a short-form video.

You’ve probably heard about TikTok and Instagram UGC marketing a lot lately. (And if not, it’s time to start.)

But today I’ll give you some tips & tricks on how to do it properly. Let’s start with some basics.

Staying updated on TikTok & Instagram Trends

This space evolves daily, new trends, post formats, and hooks emerge constantly.

I’ll share some X (Twitter) accounts with you to keep yourself updated.

• @iamgdsa - he is the best

• @jacobrodri_

• @lachy_eddy

Warming up your TikTok & Instagram account

Don’t post on fresh accounts right away; warm them up first. Otherwise, you’ll risk getting shadowbanned.

For TikTok:

• Create a US iCloud & Gmail (use a service like textverified.com for SMS).

• Sign up with Gmail, skip the username, and set up 2FA.

• For 3–4 days: watch niche content, like, comment, and clean up your FYP using the “Not Interested” tool.

This tells the algorithm you’re human and helps your first videos reach real users.

The same principle applies for Instagram: consume, engage, then post.

Posting bulk UGC videos

On TikTok & Instagram, you don’t need to have thousands of followers to get millions of views. You need to post a lot and find the working post style for your account.

Once you find a format that works, you don’t even need to change the creative. You can post the same video with a different hook. Or vice versa.

Don’t be scared to post AI-generated videos. Most accounts get millions of views with only AI-generated videos. As I just mentioned, you need to find the working video style and hook.

Creating UGC videos that convert

Posting UGC videos and getting millions of views doesn’t mean that you will drive the viewers to downloads.

The key is intent + structure.

Start with a scroll-stopping hook, make the value clear in the first 3 seconds, and always include a subtle but clear call-to-action, like showing the app in use, solving a problem, or showcasing a relatable scenario.

People don’t download because you told them to; they download because they see themselves in the story.

Popular platforms

Following all these steps, producing dozens of videos daily is a serious operation. But you can hire the content creators or Gen-Z to do all these things for you.

I’ll give you 2 different platforms that are very popular.

Posted

Run contests for creators. They shoot videos for your product, the best ones win the prize. You get 20+ videos for $1,000 — and a real shot at going viral.

SideShift

Connects Gen Z creators with apps. They shoot native UGC that drives downloads. Some creators make $10k/month, some apps get millions of installs.

You’re not trying to outspend the big players. You’re trying to outsmart them.

UGC + smart distribution is your edge.

The game has changed. Now it’s your move.

Let me know if you want to see a breakdown of how we do this for our own apps 👇