When should you start mobile app marketing?

A practical timeline

• Before you build: check demand and competing apps in the stores. Know who the app is for and why they would switch.
• Pre-launch: write the store listing, plan keywords for app store optimisation, set up your MMP and in-app events, and build an audience through a landing page, social channels or store pre-registration where available.
• Launch: run small paid tests on one or two channels to learn your cost per install and early retention.
• After launch: scale spend only once retention and in-app conversion look healthy, then add channels and creative volume step by step.

Why timing matters

Start too late and you launch to silence, with no data and no audience. Start paid spend too early and you buy users who leave, which wastes budget and trains the ad platforms on the wrong signals.

In practice

Treat the first weeks of paid spend as a test with a fixed budget and clear success metrics, such as day-7 retention and cost per key in-app event. Scale what works and cut what does not.

See how we plan launches and scale-ups on our mobile app marketing agency page.