What is a mobile app marketing plan?

What a good plan includes

• Goals and unit economics: target cost per install or per paying user, payback window and lifetime value assumptions.
• Audience and positioning: who the app is for and the one message that makes them install.
• Channels: paid media such as Meta, Google App campaigns, TikTok, Snapchat and Apple Ads, plus app store optimisation, push, email and partnerships.
• Creative plan: how many new ad concepts you test each month and how you pick winners.
• Measurement: your MMP, SKAdNetwork for iOS, in-app events and one shared dashboard.
• Budget and timeline: test budgets per channel, rules for scaling and fixed review dates.

In practice

Start narrow. Prove one or two channels with fixed test budgets before adding more. Review the plan monthly against cohort data, not install counts, and move budget towards the channels that bring users who stay and pay. Update the plan when your product, pricing or markets change.

For the paid side of the plan, see how we run mobile app user acquisition.