Promoting an entry in a contest where voting happens inside an app

Is a contest that votes only inside an app worth promoting?

Yes, when your supporters live on their phones and will install one app for someone they care about. Think twice when they will not. An app-only vote asks for more than any web form, so the honest question is whether your audience will pay that price.

Use this decision rule before committing budget:

• Warm audience, mobile habits: go ahead. Family, clubs, customers and fans install an app for a person they know.
• Mixed audience: go ahead with a plan built on messages from people they trust, not on cold reach.
• Cold audience, mostly desktop users: reconsider. If most of your supporters browse on a computer, an app-only vote leaves them out. We will say so before you spend, and tell you if the plan is not worth the budget.

The rest of this guide assumes you decided to go on. For the wider choice of channels see contest marketing and the platform guides. If the app also asks for an account, the guides to registration and login and social network login add detail.

Where do supporters drop out between your post and their first vote?

At every stage after the tap. A post leads to a store, then an install, then an app that must open, sign in and find your entry. List the stages and give each one a line in your ask.

Why the ask must carry the steps

A supporter who knows the road ahead will walk it. A supporter surprised at the third screen will stop. Write the ask in the order the screens appear, and keep it short enough to read at a glance. The vote-request templates include a version for multi-step votes, and our creative and copy service adapts it to your voice.

How do deep links help supporters land on your entry?

A deep link is a web address that opens a specific screen in an app instead of its front page. When a contest app supports them, one tap can take a supporter from your post straight to your entry. Whether the app supports them is the organizer's choice, so ask.

Test three cases on a real phone:

• App already installed. Does the link open the entry, or only the app's front page? If only the front page, add a line telling the supporter how to find you by name, number or category.
• App not installed. Does the link lead to the correct store page? After the install, does the app remember where the supporter was going, or must they return to your post and tap again?
• Opened inside a social app's built-in browser. Does the link still hand over to the store or the app? If not, tell supporters to open it in their normal browser.

A fallback that stays short

Where deep links do not work, put a fallback after the link: the app name as it appears in the store, the publisher's name and the entry's name or number. One line is enough. The aim is a post that stays clean while still giving a supporter who gets lost a way to continue.

Re-test the links whenever the organizer announces an update, since a new version of the app can change what a link does.

How do you keep supporters from installing the wrong app?

Send the exact store link from the organizer, never just the app's name. Names are often shared between apps, and a supporter who searches by name may install something else.

Checklist for every link

• Take the store link from the organizer's own contest page, and open it on a phone to check the name and the publisher.
• Include both store links when the app exists for both phone systems, each with a short label.
• State the publisher's name in the post so supporters can match it.
• Tell supporters that the vote needs only the app. If the app asks for payment to vote, they should stop and tell the entrant or us.
• Never ask anyone to install an app from outside the official stores or to lower their phone's protection settings. CoinMarketing Pro does not recommend that, and we decline projects where it is required.

If the organizer cannot give you a store link, run the rules and risk check before spending anything. The reasoning behind that caution is on the page about projects we decline.

Which phones, regions and accounts can vote in an app contest?

Check three things before choosing audiences: which phone systems the app supports, whether it is listed in your supporters' regional stores, and what kind of account it asks for. An audience that cannot install the app is wasted reach.

• Phone systems. An app may exist for one system only. Then targeting that system's users matters, and on ad platforms that is a targeting choice you control.
• Regional store availability. An app can be listed in some countries' stores and missing from others. Open the store link with a phone set to the target region, or ask someone there to check.
• Older phones. Apps often require a recent system version, which excludes older devices. Ask the organizer for the minimum version, or test.
• Account type. Some apps want a sign-in, possibly with a social account. Then the plan has to include that step.

When coverage is narrow, we use it. A smaller audience that can vote is better than a larger one that cannot, and the daily report shows which countries click through to the store.

For young supporters, remember that app stores and platforms set their own age rules, and parental agreement matters most on contests with children. See kids, pets and school contests.

What can you measure when the vote happens inside someone else's app?

You can measure the click and the entry's own counter. You cannot measure the install or the vote from advertising analytics unless the organizer shares data.

So we build the report from what is visible:

• Clicks on tracked links from each post, message or ad, taken from the platforms' own analytics.
• The entry's public vote counter, noted at the same time every day.
• Anything the organizer shares, such as a daily vote total, logged with its date.

The gap between clicks and the counter is not a conversion figure, because votes can arrive from other sources. We label it as an estimate and use it to compare messages, not to promise outcomes. Our methodology describes how we read these signals together.

Pacing

Because the install makes the first vote slow, ask for one big first action, which is install and vote. Then use short reminders for later votes, if the app permits repeat voting. If the app limits votes per day, contests with daily vote limits covers the rhythm. Ads that send people to a store page or contest page are covered in paid promotion of contest entries.

What do you send us for an app-voting campaign?

Outside our hands in this protection type: the app store's review of an update, the organizer's release schedule and any change to the voting screen in the middle of the contest. We re-test the path after each announced update and tell you what changed.

What to send

• The contest link, the rules and the deadline with its time zone.
• The store links for each phone system, taken from the organizer.
• Your entry's name, number or category, and a direct link if one exists.
• Which phone systems and countries your supporters use.

What you get back

A tested path with notes on every stage where people drop out, a set of asks in your voice for you to approve, a targeting plan that respects store availability, and a written quote. Begin with the free contest analysis. If you can, run the install yourself on a spare phone first and tell us how long each stage felt.

How it works

1. Confirm the app and store linksWe take the links from the organizer, check the publisher's name and confirm which phone systems are supported.
2. Test the install and vote pathWe walk the whole road on a phone, from a social post to the confirmation, and note each stage of friction.
3. Write the asks and fallback linesWe draft messages that name each step and carry a short fallback in case the deep link fails, for your approval.
4. Target systems and regionsWe aim the campaign only at people whose phones and stores can use the app.
5. Launch, track and compareWe track link clicks daily and read them against the entry counter you can see.